Can't connect with this area (Seattle, Tacoma: appointed, to live, moving)

[Susan Sanders]

There are many creative and talented individuals here and the energy and mix can become overwhelming. I've found it helpful to focus on a few personal interests at one time and pursue people and places involved with those. Seattle has always been a bit rough around the edges since it's inception (it's a very young city, with a history of booms and busts). I've also lived in Olympia and Bellingham and they possess a lot of the fun elements with less of the grittiness. Have you visited those towns?

[RotseCherut]

Originally Posted by ctr88

Where are all these lovely Shangri-La socially inclusive wonderful cities that are better than Seattle? Why not move to one? This is a big country and life is short, if your not actively seeking jobs in other areas so you can move you should be. Why not get some resumes out? Take some road trips? Life is too short to whine incessantly month after month about the area you live in. Why be miserable and hate where you live? The great thing about this country is you can just pick up and move. I used to whine incessantly about how much I disliked San Diego, so I took action and moved up to Seattle. It worked, I love it here and no longer whine!

I love the beauty of the state of Washington and think Seattle has a lot of perks.. Don't get me wrong.. THere is no place that is Shangri-La. I find Seattle a tough place to break-in, but I am sure everyone can find a niche.

Seattle is great, but the people and traffic congestion are some serious flaws.. The weather is crabby, but I am known to go out and hike in the mud and rain, so it doesn't bother me. I would say, Seattle is flawed, but the good can outweigh the bad depending on what is most important to you. If you want a lot of land, a giant home and range for the horses and farm animals, as well as friendly, cheery, outgoing people, Seattle is hell. If you want great coffee and prefer a view of the Cascades to neighbors who wave and say hello every morning, as well as live in a businesses-minded, urban metropolis in a small 2 bed apartment or condo which you pay $2000/mo for, then Seattle could be heavenly.

[tickyul]

Well, I grew up in Seattle and know exactly what the OP is speaking of.

I remember year after year......feeling a sense of relief when the "gloom" started lifting and I could actually feel the warm sun on my face. Maybe that is why Seattle seems to have the most beautiful summers.....such dismal weather most other times!!!!!

[Bimmerfanboy]

Originally Posted by ctr88

Interesting I feel the opposite and can't take the Eastside for long as it feels so sterile and generic over there. I think some weirdness is great (some places even have bumper stickers like "Keep Austin weird"). There are so very few "weird" and unique places left in the U.S. these days . But there is ENDLESS generic suburban sprawl everywhere. You have so many choices if you want generic suburbia. Just throw a dart at the U.S. map. Dallas? Orlando? SoCal? Pretty much anywhere in the Sunbelt. Salt Lake? Phoenix? Charlotte? There are endless non-weird places to choose from and growing more every day.

Nice to hear your take and you're mostly correct regarding the "generic suburbia" comment. My personality is a bit on the conservative side so Seattle proper just doesn't "feel" like it suits me. Plus, having spent a lot of years in the metro Detroit area, I've always had a perception of cities being filled with crime, bad smells, congestion, and weird people. Seattle is no Detroit when it comes to crime but it is plenty smelly, congested, and weird.

[RustinginSeattle]

I have lived here my entire life and the weather really started to get to me after I had kids. I also have a craving, for the first time in my life, for suburbs. I want me kids to have other kids on the street to play with, to be able to go out and ride bikes, to be able to swim in an outdoor pool in the summer. At this stage of my life, this doesn't feel like the right city for me. I also wouldn't move to the burbs here, because traffic will ruin your life around here. It has also gotten so crowded and fast paced. I was born in the 60's , so I knew a very different Seattle than many of you. I feel like it's time for me to move out of the way and let some younger person (with more money and ambition than I have) come buy my house and let me move on. Now, if only my husband felt the same way as me...

[mateo45]

@ Rusting…. as a "refugee" from the Seattle area and the PNW, I hear 'ya! Not only commuted from Vashon Island for many years (not that is a 'cliquey' place!), but then moved over to West Seattle, which traditionally used to be home to a lot of blue collar folks who worked at "Boeings" down in nearby Renton. Although these days it seems more like home to 20-somethings and aging "X-ers" just looking for a sense of 'neighborhood' and more affordable digs in a pricey real estate market. And might have been before your time, but it says a lot about the local attitudes that West Seattle was also home to crotchety old Emmett Watson and the "Lesser Seattle" movement, whose motto was "Keep the Bastards Out"!

But places like West Seattle are simply the "worst cases" and the whole area is notorious for its quirky brand of "passive aggression" and the infamous "Seattle Freeze". Though on the other hand, there's still a lot to offer culturally, the local job market is pretty decent, and you're absolutely right, there are those (few) spectacular days, where the sky is blue, the 'mountain is out' (Mt. Rainier), and gorgeous Puget Sound & Lake WA are flanked by the snowy Cascades on one side, and the Olympics on the other… incredible!

Except regardless whether you live in W. Seattle, Capital Hill or even on the "East Side" ('Swellview', Kirkland, Lake Sammamish, etc.), the day-to-day reality is still another matter entirely, or as a friend of mine describes it, "living in Seattle is like being married to a very beautiful woman… who always has a headache!" Good luck in your relocation!

[ukiyo-e]

Originally Posted by west seattle gal

Guess I'm sad that such a gorgeous area doesn't work for me, for whatever reason why. I can write an objective list of all its wonderful attributes, and yet there doesn't seem to be a love match. I think it's the whole PNW. Guess I just need to make room for the next transplant seeking housing and a job!

Some places you just don't fit with. For me it was the Washington, D.C. area where I grew up. I never liked it there, though I had a good job and friends. I can see all kinds of good things about the area (though every time I go back to visit relatives, those things become fewer and fewer as the area gets too expensive and crowded). It just isn't "me." I moved to the west coast 28 years ago and all three places I've lived out here, though they are of very different sizes in different types of areas scenery- and weather-wise, work better for me. If you haven't felt connected after 10 years, it just may not be a good fit for you. Time to go hit some of the other forums and find "your" place!

[RustinginSeattle]

"living in Seattle is like being married to a very beautiful woman… who always has a headache!"

LOL!!! So True.

[Mary22]

Such a good thread. As I sit month after month in Southern CA, wondering if my husband will get a job in WA, I have pondered many of the comments mentioned. Will the move be good for the kids? Will we find an area that "fits" us? Will we adjust to the weather?....even though I despise the sun and feel it too hot here in CA, I can't ignore the valid points made in this thread.

We have applied from Seattle, to Bellevue, to Port Angeles, and now there is opening in Port Hadlock.
I feel for the OP as it is so difficult to know if a move will be the right one, but it sounds like you have given that area a long trial that hasn't worked it out. Wish you luck in finding a place that is a better fit!

[benleis]

Originally Posted by Seatown1

Nice to hear your take and you're mostly correct regarding the "generic suburbia" comment. My personality is a bit on the conservative side so Seattle proper just doesn't "feel" like it suits me. Plus, having spent a lot of years in the metro Detroit area, I've always had a perception of cities being filled with crime, bad smells, congestion, and weird people. Seattle is no Detroit when it comes to crime but it is plenty smelly, congested, and weird.

I'd re-examine some of your assumptions. Seattle the city proper smells just about the same as Bellevue. There's no particular problem with the air in town even downtown is kept very clean. Now Tacoma at one point had a serious issue with paper mill exhaust. Traffic congestion also doesn't really vary that much from the east-side (mostly due to the sad lack of alternate arteries on the East Side). And if you think about highways I'm stumped which is worse I-5 or I 405. Also honestly Seattle is full of fairly ordinary people and families. A middle class area is going to feel the same on one side of the lake or the other. Most folks are too busy working, going to school etc. to be extremely weird. Yes there are more quirky neighborhoods and oddballs but they are the exception rather than the rule. Whether you find most people are cut from the same cloth philosophically and politically, I'll leave up to your own judgment. I compartmentalize and don't find the local politics play much of a role in my day to day interactions.

Ben