Portland or Seattle? (Wenatchee: hotel, homes, living)
Seattle areaSeattle and King County Suburbs
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Seattle and Portland are twins only in geography. In truth, they are entirely different cities. Portland is content as a medium-sized city, somewhat anti-business, more organic, and happy to be exactly what it is, a smaller city that offers some big city amenities.
Seattle is still in a bodybuilding phase. It wants to be bigger, it wants more industry, and traffic problems are considered minor inconveniences. Light rail is starting to grow, but there is little urgency about it. Highway construction brings great debate.
Portland is fine where it is. Seattle is not content until it continues to grow. Those are the major differences. Your Seattle-Vancouver comparison brings much more reality to the debate.
Portland is exactly what it appears to be. Seattle, on the other hand, is exactly what Dan Savage says it to be: it's Boise that thinks it's Paris. You do not get value for your money here. There's a superficial appearance of concern for the environment, culture, and sophistication, but there's no real depth behind it. Culturewise, Portland is equally full of smalltown climbers trying to get above their raising, but you're not paying through the nose to live with them. Portland is also much better governed and has reasonable transit. Do not think you can live in Seattle without a car. I moved here thinking it was possible (I can't drive) and I am totally isolated and stuck.
Columnists make their living coming up with clever witticisms describing how much the city in which they live sucks.
I disagree with the "superficial concern" comment...while there are certainly people who fit that description, but they are well outnumbered by people who truly care for and are involved in those aspects of their communities.
Seattle and Portland are twins only in geography. In truth, they are entirely different cities. Portland is content as a medium-sized city, somewhat anti-business, more organic, and happy to be exactly what it is, a smaller city that offers some big city amenities.
Seattle is still in a bodybuilding phase. It wants to be bigger, it wants more industry, and traffic problems are considered minor inconveniences. Light rail is starting to grow, but there is little urgency about it. Highway construction brings great debate.
Portland is fine where it is. Seattle is not content until it continues to grow. Those are the major differences. Your Seattle-Vancouver comparison brings much more reality to the debate.
I'm confused as to why there are so many posts here that claim Seattle is not developed or as industrious as it purports to be. And yes, I just used the word purport . . . I thought it sounded intelligent.
Seriously though, I've never had that impression on any visit to the city. The financial district in Seattle compares pretty favorably to San Francisco IMO. I've actually had the opposite impression of what you described in most of my visits.
Both will fit your needs. Being a MI native, I can tell you that Seattle and its northern neighbors (beyond Everett) will be more like home to your present local (Traverse City, right?) than Portland.
Either way, the other is not that far away, especially if you don't mind flying, so you will have plenty of options to check both out.
Seattle and Portland are twins only in geography. In truth, they are entirely different cities. Portland is content as a medium-sized city, somewhat anti-business, more organic, and happy to be exactly what it is, a smaller city that offers some big city amenities.
Seattle is still in a bodybuilding phase. It wants to be bigger, it wants more industry, and traffic problems are considered minor inconveniences. Light rail is starting to grow, but there is little urgency about it. Highway construction brings great debate.
Portland is fine where it is. Seattle is not content until it continues to grow. Those are the major differences. Your Seattle-Vancouver comparison brings much more reality to the debate.
I really liked your post before this one comparing Seattle and Portland and the noticeable differences mentality between them, but that post just comes off as a bit too negative towards Seattle. I think its just the type of examples you used that made it come across like that. Especially coming from a native Seattillite such as you. Maybe you are not trying to come across like that and if thats the case, I can see how you feel like that.
Portland does have great things about it but there are a lot of things Seattle beats Portland in that was mentioned in some posts before.
There seems to be quite a lot more people in general that views Seattle more favorably than Portland too.
BUT there is this mixed state of mind/attitude, discontentment, and restlessness that exists about Seattle's urbanity and Seattle's scale in terms of size while it is almost non-existent with Portland. Basically, Seattle can feel big/medium/small in terms of size at the same time with certain people wanting Seattle to be perceived as big while for Portland it feels medium /small in terms of size with people not caring if Portland is perceived as a big city or not.
I really liked your post before this one comparing Seattle and Portland and the noticeable differences mentality between them, but that post just comes off as a bit too negative towards Seattle. I think its just the type of examples you used that made it come across like that. Especially coming from a native Seattillite such as you. Maybe you are not trying to come across like that and if thats the case, I can see how you feel like that.
Portland does have great things about it but there are a lot of things Seattle beats Portland in that was mentioned in some posts before.
There seems to be quite a lot more people in general that views Seattle more favorably than Portland too.
BUT there is this mixed state of mind/attitude, discontentment, and restlessness that exists about Seattle's urbanity and Seattle's scale in terms of size while it is almost non-existent with Portland. Basically, Seattle can feel big/medium/small in terms of size at the same time with certain people wanting Seattle to be perceived as big while for Portland it feels medium /small in terms of size with people not caring if Portland is perceived as a big city or not.
Well, I'm not sure if you are comparing posts that I may have made on this thread. I will try to sum it up. Portland is a medium-sized city that wants to stay that way. Seattle is a bigger city that wants to continue that growth. There are major differences indeed...and the big conflict in Seattle seems to be how to reach their goals. Some want Seattle to be more urban with more public transportation, some are ok with the "LA-style" spread. This creates interesting, yet, bogged-down debate in Seattle. The debate slows everything down, and that is quite frustrating.
To pw72: I agree with that last post of yours! Thats exactly what I was trying to say, but in different wording.
"
BUT there is this mixed state of mind/attitude, discontentment, and restlessness that exists about Seattle's urbanity and Seattle's scale in terms of size while it is almost non-existent with Portland. Basically, Seattle can feel big/medium/small in terms of size at the same time with certain people wanting Seattle to be perceived as big while for Portland it feels medium /small in terms of size with people not caring if Portland is perceived as a big city or not."
But the way you said it was better.
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Maybe you are not trying to come across like that and if thats the case, I can see how you feel like that. 
