After 6 years I am ready to leave Seattle. (apartment, home)

[415_s2k]

oakland is a large town and has good areas and bad areas. it's mostly middle class, pretty diverse, there are some awful areas but theyre easy to avoid. it's like saying seattle isnt safe and is overrun with marauding gangs because of ranier beach or parts of south seattle.

To Gentoo:

Oh. I like Woodland Park Zoo but I don’t like Phinny Ridge that much. When you visit Seattle again, do you want me to send you a list of some touristy and non-touristy things you can do here?
Wow, sounds like you didn’t have a good traveling companion. Why wasn’t the traveling companion cooperative?

How long did you visit Seattle and when did you visit during the year?

How is it POSSIBLE for a town as awesome as Berkeley to be only 10 miles/10 minutes away by car from the dump of Richmond!?

That sucks to hear Berkeley has a high crime rate and I didn’t know that. But then again it is so close by to Richmond=(
Good luck on trying to enjoy the rest of your stay in San Diego! I actually like things about San Diego and think it can be great.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by NaturalUrbanBalence

To Gentoo:

Oh. I like Woodland Park Zoo but I don’t like Phinny Ridge that much. When you visit Seattle again, do you want me to send you a list of some touristy and non-touristy things you can do here?
Wow, sounds like you didn’t have a good traveling companion. Why wasn’t the traveling companion cooperative?

How long did you visit Seattle and when did you visit during the year?

How is it POSSIBLE for a town as awesome as Berkeley to be only 10 miles/10 minutes away by car from the dump of Richmond!?

That sucks to hear Berkeley has a high crime rate and I didn’t know that. But then again it is so close by to Richmond=(
Good luck on trying to enjoy the rest of your stay in San Diego! I actually like things about San Diego and think it can be great.

I answered this in a PM. Didn't know you posted it.

[stingray427]

Originally Posted by CityGirl72

Take me with you

Where would you like to go?

[toughguy]

Originally Posted by 415_s2k

oakland is a large town and has good areas and bad areas. it's mostly middle class, pretty diverse, there are some awful areas but theyre easy to avoid. it's like saying seattle isnt safe and is overrun with marauding gangs because of ranier beach or parts of south seattle.

The ghetto areas of Oakland are far more destitute and blighted than anything you will ever find even in the worst areas of Tacoma. Sure Oakland is not uniformly bad, but the bad spots are scary bad. You are portraying Oakland as having this small, inconsequential crime problem, which is far from the truth. Nothing in the Puget Sound area compares to the east bay whatsoever. I don't have the most current numbers for Seattle (through June there were 7 homicides), but Oakland has had 52 homicides through July - you do the math. I have family in Hayward and have been to Oakland many times, and it's not a mischaracterization to say that they have serious crime issues.

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by toughguy

The ghetto areas of Oakland are far more destitute and blighted than anything you will ever find even in the worst areas of Tacoma. Sure Oakland is not uniformly bad, but the bad spots are scary bad. You are portraying Oakland as having this small, inconsequential crime problem, which is far from the truth. Nothing in the Puget Sound area compares to the east bay whatsoever. I don't have the most current numbers for Seattle (through June there were 7 homicides), but Oakland has had 52 homicides through July - you do the math. I have family in Hayward and have been to Oakland many times, and it's not a mischaracterization to say that they have serious crime issues.

No, I'm not saying that crime isn't a problem, I'm saying that I lived there for a year (on 14th Ave across from Alameda Co. Medical Center) and never got bugged or hassled because I kept my butt out of West Oakland and parts of East Oakland unless I had two or three other dudes with me.

You're right: nothing in the Puget Sound compares to Oakland in terms of violent crime, unless someone shoots or mugs you in either city, then it doesn't really matter who's worse than whom. The chances of you getting mugged if you're walking down Mead in West Oakland at 1am are way higher than if you walk down Northgate at 1am; conversely, the chances of you getting mugged on Harrison by Lake Merritt at 1am are way lower than if you're walking under the Alaskan Way Viaduct at 1am. Like I said: it's a large city, it's not like the whole place is a cesspool.

I appreciate that you've got family who lives in the East Bay and have been here many times - I go three or four times a week because I have friends there, which I imagine gives me somewhat more insight into the place.

I'd never paint the place as a rosy, hand-holy place where everyone gets along and loves eachother because that's not true, but it's not like the city is run by gangs and the citizenry live in terror every moment of their miserable lives.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by 415_s2k

No, I'm not saying that crime isn't a problem, I'm saying that I lived there for a year (on 14th Ave across from Alameda Co. Medical Center) and never got bugged or hassled because I kept my butt out of West Oakland and parts of East Oakland unless I had two or three other dudes with me.

You're right: nothing in the Puget Sound compares to Oakland in terms of violent crime, unless someone shoots or mugs you in either city, then it doesn't really matter who's worse than whom. The chances of you getting mugged if you're walking down Mead in West Oakland at 1am are way higher than if you walk down Northgate at 1am; conversely, the chances of you getting mugged on Harrison by Lake Merritt at 1am are way lower than if you're walking under the Alaskan Way Viaduct at 1am. Like I said: it's a large city, it's not like the whole place is a cesspool.

I appreciate that you've got family who lives in the East Bay and have been here many times - I go three or four times a week because I have friends there, which I imagine gives me somewhat more insight into the place.

I'd never paint the place as a rosy, hand-holy place where everyone gets along and loves eachother because that's not true, but it's not like the city is run by gangs and the citizenry live in terror every moment of their miserable lives.

I would rep ya but I can't right now

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

I would rep ya but I can't right now

Likewise! What's this spread it around nonsense?

[iskray917]

I've come to think that everyone complaining about the people and feeling lonely in Seattle are the same people who have trouble making new friends or being outgoing in a new environment and feel the need to wine about their issues online.

But I've yet to figure out why other city's forums don't have the same problem then, so maybe not.

ahh whatever.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by iskray917

I've come to think that everyone complaining about the people and feeling lonely in Seattle are the same people who have trouble making new friends or being outgoing in a new environment and feel the need to wine about their issues online.

But I've yet to figure out why other city's forums don't have the same problem then, so maybe not.

ahh whatever.

Actually, this same complaint has surfaced in the San Francisco (and to some degree San Diego) forum from time to time. It seems to be an epidemic in the Seattle forum though but the gripes are the same; introverted, cold and non-friendly. I've noticed that a lot of these complainers are not west coast natives and are not aware of the culture our cities share which is different than what many may be used to. While my time in Seattle was short, I found it no different really than what I'm used to down here. Seattle is a wonderful place as we all know but it requires patients for some.