Why not Seattle?
 

I’m considering a move to Seattle. Well, probably someplace on the north side. My fiancée has family in Everett and Marysville… As you can imagine, she’s good to go with the whole idea, while I on the other hand have lived in the mid west my entire life.

What are the up sides for me? Can anyone really say it’s a good idea? Talk me in to it if you can…

Just a horrible idea... It rains 366 days of the year (the extra day is just for good measure). There are terrible roads. Not a single Porsche in the whole state. The people suck. There is dirty air. High income tax rate. Salty roads (like the midwest). 50 feet of snow per year...

If you believe anything I just said, then my attempt at humor has just failed. :)

Thanks Scooter, that’s the picture I already have. And just the encouragement I need. :)

I know the people I have met there have been awesome. And I do remember seeing mountains once... But then I've only been there in December (Last two Christmas') so I'm sure there is some sun sometime.

GEODUCKS LIVE THERE!

Is that a good thing? I can't quite tell...


Go, Geoducks, go!
Through the mud and the sand let's go!
Siphon high, squirt it out, swivel all about.
Let it all hang out!

Go, Geoducks, go!
Stretch your necks when the tide is low!
Siphon high, squirt it out, swivel all about.
Let it all hang out!

geoducks are wonderful as is the entire sound and ocean. growing up being the "global warming poster child" here in phx. i would give my left nut to move to seattle! despite the upcoming catyclismac volcanic eruption that will flow into pudget sound right down pike street!

RAIN! its a day here that we cherish in the dez!

GREEN? WTF is that in the DEZ! everything is either burnt, going to be burnt, or burnt brown from the sun!

I've visited Seattle a few times, and its one of the most beautiful places around. There are many great things about it, one only one bad thing. Of course, the rain. I know more than one person who moved there and then came back after a couple of winters because the rain drove them toward depression. But they were all from the Bay Area. If you can handle MN winters, you can probably handle the rain. I've been to MN too, and loved the forests and lakes, but Washington has far more to offer.

Doesn't Seattle have a huge population of homeless teenage heroin users?

I was born in Minnesota, and now live outside Seattle.

The plusses:

-We don't get the weather extremes. Pretty stable temps year round compared to the mid-west.

-Beautiful scenery. Whenever my MN relatives come out, they can't stop oogling all the natural beauty.

-No mosquitoes. The relatives are also baffled that we dont have screens on every window, and we can actually hang out outside on summer evenings.

-Lots of outdoor actvities: Hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, kyaking, snowskiing and waterskiing, yada yada......

-No state income tax.

-Very active region of the Porsche club.


The minuses:

-I get tired of grey skies. Even when it's not raining, it's often a solid, grey overcast.

-I kind of miss seeing thunderstorms blow through now and then. And when we get snow, it's a treat. Usually wet, sloppy snow, and it melts quickly. One inch of snow will bring everything to a halt. Very amusing to watch.

-If you're right in Seattle, traffic is much worse than the twin cities.

-State sales tax high enough to offset having no income tax.

Minnesota to Seattle may be the biggest no-brainer of all time.

Rochester, MN?

The wife and I were living in Boston, and we had a choice on our next move. Chicago, Rochester, or Seattle. It was really not much of a contest. Seattle is an awesome city.

There are a lot of transplants from the midwest here (I'm from Michigan originally). Progressive, big city feel, without too much whiney liberalism. There can be a bit to much civic 'do goodersim' with some of the folks, but common sense typically prevails.

Access to outdoor activities is just amazing here. On a clear day (4 per year) Seattle is surrounded by mountains on 3 sides. Mount Rainer towers over the entire region. It is really a beautiful place.

Weather? Winters are very mild compared to the midwest, but it rains. Heres the thing, yeah, it rains, but its not typically that kind of downpour you get in the midwest. It will rain, then clear out a bit, you get some sun, then 10 minutes later it rains some more. Thunders storms pretty much don't exist here. We get snow that sticks about every 2 years. This year we had pretty nice snow falls. Frankly, snow is the one thing I miss. Summers are AMAZING here. Clear, dry and in the 70's for months. Just awesome.

Housing costs are substantial, but stable.

Tons of Porsches (mostly grumpy, well armed air cooled fanatics :) )

HD, what do you do that your location choices were Chicago, Rochester, or Seattle? Medical? We only have two things in Rochester, IBM and MAYO.

And thanks Moses, one of the reasons I like MN is that most of the 'no-brainers' move away... :D

. . to Seattle. http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/sad2.gif

It really doesn't rain that much in Seattle. We only wsay that to keep the Californians from moving up here :D

But seriously. Traffic is becoming, or already is, a nightmare. Seattle made a terrible mistake where I-5 passed through downtown, by boxing themselves in and not allowing for widening.
Roads are terrible, huge potholes go unfilled.
I'm already seeing $3+/gal gas around here.
It can take 2 hours to go 10 miles. Easy.

And we apparently can't decide on how to rebuild the viaduct.

Aside from these minor issues, Seattle is great, and I'd rather live nowhere else.

Seriously: sadly, Seattle proper, has been grossly mismanaged. The utopians think that Cars are a bad thing. Roads are seen as enabling cars. So roads must be throttled back with either physical barriers, lane-count reduction, restrictions on street usage, or just let them naturally turn to craters.

They (utopians) also think that when the voters have a super majority, against a more taxation, that it's just a voter suggetion.

(edit )oh, but Seattle does have REALLY expensive stadiums . ..which the proletariats are encoraged to take the bus to.

Joel, this is the most beautiful place on Earth. I'll bet that if you went to the PNW Forum here and searched for threads chronicling the various excursions our local groups have taken, you will find some pictures that will take your breath away. Island911 takes particularly stunning pics, as do others. We've got a mountain range cut by glacial activity, and one created by plate upheaval and volcanic action. They are different, and both stunning. We've got more lakes than you can shake a stick at and more green vegetation even in the dead of winter than most places ever get. You've GOT to see this place in the spring. Any drive along any road or freeway looks like it is cut through a National Park. Many are, since we have at least FOUR of them within easy reach. If you like hiking, this is Mecca. We have salt water and beaches. We have the Sound. We have Hood Canal, which is a freshwater canal that gets saltwater infusion due to tidal action. Best oysters on the planet. Seafood everywhere.

I've lived here more than sixteen years now and I still rejoice and breath deeply as I notice the morning fog with its 'marine' scent and the dense air. It should be little wonder why we are so passionate about our coffee and our beer. It is a robust environment.

Weather is mild. A reasonably hearty person could just about wear short all year, with a sweatshirt in the Winter. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but our temperatures are almost always between about 40 and about 80, all year. It will be in the fifties today, I think.

It is perhaps a slightly more hearty indivisual that adores this area. It is a place for outdoorsy people. It is also a highly educated area. A good proportion of people here have Masters degrees. We read a lot. Something to do while we're drinking our legendary coffee.

I wasn't intending to slam Minnesota, but I lived near Seattle for 4 years and I still miss the place. It is a magnificent place. Great food, nice people. If your an outdoorsman, the opportunities are endless.

It rains a lot, but rarely rains hard. I never owned an umbrella while I lived there and I never let the weather interfere with my plans. From LaConner to the Olympic peninsula the coastal pacific northwest is a very special place. Seattle is one of the finest cities I know. I used to love to take the ferry to Victoria for the day or spend an afternoon drinking beer and eating oysters at the Pike Place market. Great memories.

Medical. Wife is a doctor.

This is pure, unadulterated bull****. The Utopians would very much like to address the transportation problem here but the anti-gubmit forces have been pretty effective. Tim Eyman, conservative hero, has convinced voters that they should expect more and better roads while they nix every funding proposal. Both sides of the aisle are fully aware and freely admit we are a good twenty years behind in transportation infrastructure, but many of them (particularly the ones with an (R) after their name) are afraid to support those projects because of this perception that spending is unnecessary.



This is true. Since the voters can be relied upon to reject any and all spending requests, gubmit leaders have to decide whether to do nothing (in which case, nothing happens) or something (which would of course be in direct opposition to the voters' decisions). Local voters rejected a new sports stadium, but political leaders built it anyway. And now it's happening again. I can't say whether the stadium projects are a good idea or a bad one (there are arguments favoring both sides of this debate), but voters don't seem to be very supportive.

Fellas, the transportation problem here needs to be solved. Desperately. It will be very painful, now that we are way behind. Traffic congestion due to construction. And the expense. Both will be very painful. But it must happen. Unless of course, you let Tim Eyman do your thinking for you. In which case the solutions can come without expense or inconvenience. Yeah, right.......

Traffic sucks here.

Does Seattle have a subway or other rail system? I've been there once, in 1994, and I remember a pretty gnarly rush hour getting into the city on a weekday afternoon. The freeway was locked-down for quite a distance. It was grey and drizzly the whole time, which gets old in a hurry. You could tell that the place would be breathtaking if the sun came out, however; very green and hilly, beautiful neighborhoods, etc...

One complaint I had, which I have in all smaller cities, is the lack of awesome+cheap food everywhere that you take for granted in a big city. I don't want to get into a pissing contest w/ the (considerably large) PNW contingent here, but it's not the same as L.A./NYC/Chicago in this regard and it's something that we in the big cities take for granted on a daily basis. Coming from Rochester, MN., this will not be a factor. You will think that you are in the most cosmopolitan, advanced city on earth in comparison. What are you doing there? My sister did her residency at Mayo back in the mid-'90s, she commuted every day, (90 miles one way), rather than get an apartment there. She had 2 little ones at home in Mpls.

My one and only trip to Seattle was for a weekend, and the afternoon I got there was the day that Kurt Cobain killed himself, so the whole weekend had a bit of a down vibe over that. The hipster parts of town really do have a dreary, junkie feel to them. It's undeniable. Seattle is where the term "skid row" originated, and you can see why. Like most cities, it is really two cities. You can never completely isolate yourself from the "other city", though. My other complaint, and it might not be a factor for everyone, was the overwhelming whiteness of the place. I thought that I was from Caucasia, (Minnesota), but you haven't seen pasty skin until you go to Seattle. I'd love to have the Patagonia franchise up there, holy christ. Nothing wrong with being white, (I'm practically an Albino), but there is definitely a point where you just say, "this is unnatural". :D

All in all, depends on your past experiences, tolerance for drizzle, and need for big-city diversity. (With all of the good and bad that it entails). The people are fantastic, and you can forget about skin cancer up there. You will look like a new-born baby at 60 if you move there young enough. Super-easy place to cop if you become a junky. That pretty much covers it. :cool:

IMHO, if you stay out of Seattle proper, you cannot go wrong. As mentioned by others, Seattle has a significant difficulty accepting itself as a major metropolitan city and their inability to manage traffic and transportation is the most visible manifestation of it.

But there are lots of places near to Seattle itself to live that are very nice places.

Sometimes the rain can get old, but do a couple of summer and falls here and you will understand why we are here.

Nope. Been working on it for years though. I have no idea when it will ever go live or if it will have any positive impact considering the limitations I last heard on the routes.

OK, I will toss in my 2 cents.....there is another side of soggy Wa state that is almost like a desert.

Just drive over that mountain range they call the cascades and wham............no more rain, hardly to speak of.

Bottom line, this state is hard to beat, it has it all, you name it, we got it.

Yes, Seattle is the armpit of the state but isn't every big city????

Myself and my wife both were born and raised in Wisconsin, I spent 2 yrs in Superior going to college along time ago and lived thru minus 80 degree weather, only place were you can spit and it will freeze before it hits the ground.

Thank you but no thank you, you can have the great midwest, a great place to grow up and speaking of precipitation levels, Seattle gets less rain per yr than the midwest.

In January, the skiers are skiing there brains out and I can go to Anacortes and sail my boat in some awesome winds......that my friend is a diverse state.

OK, so a little history about me... I was born and raised in Minnesota. Got a job at IBM right out of high school. Have worked with them or a business partner ever since (19 years). I'd be looking for work in the IT field, specifically working with AS/400, iSeries, i5's. Thats my work background and what I know and pretty much enjoy doing.

I'd guess we'd be looking at things north of Seattle, but I really need to see what the job market looks like. And if we could really afford to live there. I know I'll miss the 2500sqft house on 2.7acres for 250k housing market. *edit* Thats 20 minutes from my office... *edit*

Ever thought of Portland? I grew up there and love the city. The traffic can get bad but is nothing like Seattle's. Plus Portland has its stuff in one sock with an excellent public transportation system. Many parks, rivers, the Pacific Ocean, etc.

My wife's family is still in Portland so we go there often. The only bad part of the trip is I have to go through Seattle. I abhor that section of I-5. Nothing can stir the violence inside like Seattle traffic.

But I'm not used to it. My commute to work has two stop signs and one light. 16 miles of twisties along the western side of Fidalgo Island. Takes me 20 minutes. I'm severly spoiled - perfect Porsche country. Plus I average 3-4 Bald Eagle sightings a day. It's beautiful country the PNW.

The reason for Seattle would be to get close to her family.

4-5 hour trip. That's close enough for in-laws:D

Parts of the Northwest sell underarm deodorant with anti-fungal agents added to the formula. Been up there briefly. On a clear day, the scenery can be breathtaking.

The only bad thing about Seattle is that someday Rainer will blow.

you came on the perfect weekend for a Californian:rolleyes:

my first time in So. Cal. they had a smog alert for a week. but i still lived there for 3years. glad i came back to the pacific northWET :)

no cheap food? man you really didn't get a good tour of the city. some of the best prices for fresh local seafood. also many local joints that have gotten lots of press nation wide.

http://www.bethscafe.com/index.html
where else can you find a 12egg omelet :eek:

just a FYI "SKID ROW" has nothing to do with bums/homeless.
it is "SKID ROAD" it refers to when they were still logging in the city back in the 19th century and were sending (SKIDDING) the logs down the hill to Elliott Bay to ship out to other city's like SanFrancisco, that had already used up their wood by then. it used to be one of the dirtier parts of town. but is getting quite a clean up now.

like all cities we have our good parts and bad parts...

when you get here hook up with the "northenders" and drive down to the XXX Drive-In for our monthy get-together and drive.

From the Seattle area:

Mountains for skiing or hiking: 45-60 minutes East to the Cascades or a ferry ride and 60 minutes to the Olympics to the West. http://www.summitatsnoqualmie.com/

Mountains for climbing: Rainier, Baker, Adams and St Helens and lesser..all within about 2 hours. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/070496/peaks_top.html

Fishing: Salt water 5 to 10 minutes, fresh water 5 to 10 minutes, ocean about 2 hours or so. Rivers and lakes are all over the place. Washington is the boating capitol of the world.

Rainforest: Ferry ride West and 60-90 minutes.

Desert: 90 minutes to the East. Colder during the winter, hotter during the summer.

Pro and college teams: minutes away.

Canada: 2 hours to the North.

Portland: 3 hours to the South.

Pacific Raceways: 45 minutes...http://www.pacificraceways.com/

My Dad called Washington God's County. He grew up in North Dakota and once here always said, "North Dakota, a great place to be FROM."

Um....... Superman- More lakes than you can shake a stick at? The guy's from Minnesota! You know- The "Land of 10,000 Lakes".

Almost every property in MN is lakefront property.

lol, I happen to live in the ONLY county in Minnesota without a natural lake. We have several that are a result of the river being damed, but thats it.

Good point, Dan.

Also, if you are an angler, we have ocean-going trout (Steelhead) and landlocked salmon (Bluebacks).

If you're wanting to be in the Everett area, I might suggest Bellingham. It is beloved. There is a college there, and the atmosphere is a nice, slow mixture of sleepy small town, active arts community, academia and pseudo-urbanity. And.....its a little ways away from Everett. Personally, I think there is a "sweet spot" in terms of how close to in-laws you should live. Different for everybody but about 300 miles has worked well for me for decades. One hour might be better for you. Next door is just a bad idea, no matter how much you love them.

We live in the Laurelhurst section of Seattle, and we think its lovely thanks SmileWavy

Sup, I hear ya on keeping some distance. I think the 'ideal' will be something that just close enough to use them as a sitter for the night out on the town.

I live on across the sound from Seattle for six years, and I would move back in a heartbeat. I would have to get divorced first (the wife's family lives in New England). I miss several things. Dirtbikes on the logging/fire roads in the Olympics, The Turkish deli at Pike Place Market, and Fat Smitty's at Discovery Bay.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1174143219.jpg

[QUOTE] I'd guess we'd be looking at things north of Seattle, but I really need to see what the job market looks like. And if we could really afford to live there. I know I'll miss the 2500sqft house on 2.7acres for 250k housing market.


Holy muskellunge, batman..

The further you get away from seattle, the cheaper housing gets. We still have a strong housing market here in the Puget Sound area, so be aware. Lake Stevens is an affordable area. It is less than 10 minutes from Everett.

Oh, Everett traffic is just as bad as Seattle right now. They are widening the freeway, so it should get better soon.