Seattle Vs. San Diego (people) (fit in, transplants, apartments)

[Nick682]

I have made my thoughts very clear in previous posts that I prefer Washington to San Diego and I have lived in both cities. I am going back to Seattle and leaving Cali for good after being back for 7 years but I am curious what others have to say about the two cities.

I am mainly interested in people who have lived in both cities and know allot about the differences in people, philosophies, interests, behavior, sociability, culture? Also maybe some differences regarding businesses and employment would be good. The home service business is big in SD, and I currently own a pool business here.

Thanks...

[The A-Team]

Interesting, because I am thinking about moving to San Diego from Seattle(I have been living here in Seattle for about 2 and a half years, i'm originally from Fayetteville Arkansas.) I love Seattle, but the long months of darkness and drizzle are getting hard to handle, as i'm from a pretty sunny place originally. Also, the drive to see family back in Arkansas from here is really long and through many mountains(BEAUTIFUL mountains, the scenery here in the Northwest is absolutely breathtaking, thinking about not seeing it everyday is the main thing making me question whether or not to leave!) which have snow a lot of the time lol, making the drive hard. I will be interested to see what others have to say!

[kcda]

If you are a sunny person and love the warm, dry climate, you will prefer it here. The grey skies and constant rain or drizzle can really get to you. I've also found the people up in Seattle uptight and unfriendly (except for our relatives and their friends). When we went looking to buy up there our relatives told us not to say we were from California. There are so many haters up there.

I really don't think of San Diego as "hot" at all. Most of the country is hotter (not to mention more humid) than San Diego in the summer. It's a lot milder here. Only the past two summers have been noticeably warmer. We never used to use our a/c and now we do only a couple weeks out of the summer.

[VeronikaW]

We moved from San Diego to the Seattle suburbs in June of 2006. We cannot wait to get out of Seattle (even the lure of Amazon stock isn't strong enough for us to stay). The people suck here, the weather sucks here, and the cost of living is only marginally better (and not enough to make up for the people or the weather).

I find the air quality much worse in Seattle than SD. The muck that hangs over the city on sunny days sort of ruins the sunny days, but I guess that's to be expected of a port city.

I actually don't hate the weather up here in Seattle. We had like 8 sunny days in a row, and it was gorgeous. The scenery up here is beautiful, I feel like I'm in an enchanted forest most of the time.

Our car insurance went up, gas is more than San Diego ($3.39 earlier this week), and food is more expensive, and the produce is not as nice.

Where we live, apartments are a bit cheaper than San Diego, but the houses are just as much (across the street a 2 bedroom condo is $400K, and around the corner the houses are $700K+).

People drive like crap here. I never feared for my life on CA freeways, but it's scary to drive up here, even though I'd say commuting traffic is better up here, and so is public transit.

We can't wait to get out of the Seattle area. The only friendly people we've met are other transplants.

V. =)

[LookingtoLeave]

Originally Posted by VeronikaW

We can't wait to get out of the Seattle area. The only friendly people we've met are other transplants.

V. =)

Do the transplants also tend to turn introverted and cold after being there for awhile? I'm asking b/c on the Seattle forum they make it sound like much of the Seattle population is transplants and if the transplants are the friendlier breed, you'd think Seattle in general would have a friendlier population. Just curious.

[SanAntoQT]

Originally Posted by VeronikaW

Our car insurance went up, gas is more than San Diego ($3.39 earlier this week), and food is more expensive, and the produce is not as nice.

V. =)

Gas here is ranging from $3.43-$3.78. If you know anywhere in San Diego that is less, please fill me in!

[VeronikaW]

Originally Posted by SanAntoQT

Gas here is ranging from $3.43-$3.78. If you know anywhere in San Diego that is less, please fill me in!

It's actually $3.45 (for 87 octane, at the ARCO) as of yesterday. I bet it's more here today.

V. =)

[kcda]

Originally Posted by LookingtoLeave

Do the transplants also tend to turn introverted and cold after being there for awhile? I'm asking b/c on the Seattle forum they make it sound like much of the Seattle population is transplants and if the transplants are the friendlier breed, you'd think Seattle in general would have a friendlier population. Just curious.

That is interesting...never considered that one. Here in San Diego you see your neighbors just about everyday, walking their dogs, in their yards, washing cars, exercising... but my friend in the NE doesn't see her neighbors all winter long. They just hibernate. That could very well be one of the reasons they seem more introverted in Seattle. Are there really that many transplants up there? Seems like most people we meet up there are from the PNW where that isn't the case here, maybe 1 out of every 10 it seems are really born and raised here.

[LookingtoLeave]

I live in S. TX so I really don't know for sure the ratio of transplants to natives, but I do read up on the Seattle forum a bit too since SD and Seattle are my 2 city relocation choices. In the Seattle forum they go into a whole thread about the attitudes of the people there called the "Seattle Freeze". There's even a You Tube "mini-documentary" about it so my thoughts are it must have some validity, but again I don't know. Veronika here can I'm sure attest to it though.

There are some theories about it ranging from the weather to the tech types being "nerdy" to people being just too busy to socialize. You may be right though about the natives b/c another theory is that people there already have their close circle of friends that have been developed probably ages ago and they don't like to let newbies in. I've just also read that there are a lot of CA transplants there due to housing prices and they're very bitter about that since the Californians have driven up Seattle housing prices. If this is the case, SD may be more my cup of tea.

[LookingtoLeave]

Originally Posted by NorthernCalifornia

Coming from Texas you would fit in much better in SD than Seattle.

I think so too but I just need to keep my options opened since I don't have a job lined up quite yet. The only plus about Seattle from what I see now is that it's cheaper but many say other costs are higher there that even it out...like insurance, groceries, etc.