Follow up poll -- what deters you from Seattle or why would you leave? (renter, mortgage)

[seattlenextyear]

Originally Posted by JDTD

You must be assuming that people can afford to live close to those areas(now) and enjoy all those activities. For most people, those require a $30.00 commute, $10.00 parking and the Seattle traffic fight for your life (plus whatever entry fee there is, food, etc.). Most people can't just run down the road and be at the zoo, aquarium, museum, etc. Many kids don't have these options. My kids would be happy as can be if they could just go out and jump on their trampoline or ride their bikes. The point is that they can't most of the time. It's just no fun jumping in a rain-suit...just no fun.

Aren't there buses in Seattle?

[mlv311]

Originally Posted by seattlenextyear

Aren't there buses in Seattle?

There are but if you live in a suburb you still have to take a commuter bus and most likely take a second local bus from downtown to get to other locations. Commuter buses during non-rush hour don't run that frequently anyway. If you have older children, not a biggie. If you have a toddler, it can be an inconvenience to have to wait for 2 more buses to get around.

[desertsky]

I have been here 12 years and the weather is terrible. Summers are great but there have been 2 years in the time I have been here where we didn't get a summer. 40 Degrees and rain or overcast, you can expect it 60% of the time.

Also I am a musician that plays top40 in the suburbs and the police, liquor board and smoking ban have killed live music here. Sure you can still go downtown and hear bands, but more and more venues in the surrounding areas are closing or not having live music anymore.

The Infrastructure here is lame, they have nothing planned to fix it. It was built for the 50's and 60's all the streets are like one and two lanes with no turn lanes. When I lived in California everyone would complain that the roads were being worked on constantly, but at least they were being worked on, now some parts of southern CA have 7 Lanes on I-5, not here, some parts of 405 are still 2 lanes here.

[2PAK]

Sorry, I 405 has only one lane really. The HOV lane doesnt count and the lane next to the HOV lane doesnt count because of all the 18 wheelers, delivery trucks, construction and cement trucks, etc etc wanting to stay in the far left lane where they dont belong so they can pass some other truck but mostly they just stay camped out in that lane and back up traffic. For the life of me, I cant figure out why Washington State hasnt understood that they need to get the trucks out of the far left lane.

So, 405 really only has one effective lane.

[JDTD]

Originally Posted by toughguy

Heh I am looking forward to it. Maybe in an ode to the southern-style weather I'll break out my banjo, straw hat and pickup truck.

Yeah because that's how everyone in the south is. Now maybe we should talk about how tolerant and understanding we all up here...again.

[JDTD]

Originally Posted by seattlenextyear

Aren't there buses in Seattle?

No...not a one. It's crazy. I-have-never-seen-a-bus-here. Okay...look at the price or real estate in Seattle. If you live IN Seattle and can take the bus everywhere in a reasonable amount of time, then great. You might want to look at the posts where people say that Seattle is great if you don't have kids (there are a few). You can rent a small apartment, walk places, ride the bus, etc., etc., etc. and just be dandy. Once you have kids, you might like to buy a house with a yard. You don't have to, but some people like those kind of things. In the last several years, we have us what we call a little rise in real estate prices though (okay..a big rise). A lot of people who can't afford to buy a house within a reasonable busing distance to the aforementioned places have to drive into Seattle from places we like to refer to here as being affordable. Now...When you move here next year, you too can take public transit to all the wonderful places listed in a short period of time if you can afford to live in an area close enough that offers that service. Why not take the bus from wherever you live you ask me? Borrow two kids (with their parents permission of course) from a relative or friend (say 3 and 5). Take them out for a day on the town. Have a grand old time. Then, when they are good and cranky, ride around on the bus for a while. Tell me how your experiment goes. Ice cream and stories about why the guy in front of you keeps talking to the invisible man will only get you so far. Welcome to my world seattlenextyear...welcome to my world. All I'm sayin' is that it would be nice to have nice weather more often so you can just go outside and just play in your yard.

[JDTD]

Originally Posted by cobolt

Oh I gotta rep you for this! I feel the same way! Bring on the orb already!!

Thanks Cobolt! I appreciate that. I'm up to 24 now. Everyone at 25 hear that? That's me...on your heels.

[jwb123]

Just bumped you up to 26 for your post above ... brilliant!! There is A LOT to be said for just playing in the yard, or riding bikes with the neighborhood kids up the street... SIMPLE FUN ...

[seattlenextyear]

Originally Posted by JDTD

No...not a one. It's crazy. I-have-never-seen-a-bus-here. Okay...look at the price or real estate in Seattle. If you live IN Seattle and can take the bus everywhere in a reasonable amount of time, then great. You might want to look at the posts where people say that Seattle is great if you don't have kids (there are a few). You can rent a small apartment, walk places, ride the bus, etc., etc., etc. and just be dandy. Once you have kids, you might like to buy a house with a yard. You don't have to, but some people like those kind of things. In the last several years, we have us what we call a little rise in real estate prices though (okay..a big rise). A lot of people who can't afford to buy a house within a reasonable busing distance to the aforementioned places have to drive into Seattle from places we like to refer to here as being affordable. Now...When you move here next year, you too can take public transit to all the wonderful places listed in a short period of time if you can afford to live in an area close enough that offers that service. Why not take the bus from wherever you live you ask me? Borrow two kids (with their parents permission of course) from a relative or friend (say 3 and 5). Take them out for a day on the town. Have a grand old time. Then, when they are good and cranky, ride around on the bus for a while. Tell me how your experiment goes. Ice cream and stories about why the guy in front of you keeps talking to the invisible man will only get you so far. Welcome to my world seattlenextyear...welcome to my world. All I'm sayin' is that it would be nice to have nice weather more often so you can just go outside and just play in your yard.

All I'm saying is that it's sad that you guys spend all this moola to live near a city that you're not enjoying. If you're never going into Seattle, you might as well just live in Omaha. They have more sunshine, a really great zoo, and lots of yards.

[toughguy]

Originally Posted by JDTD

Yeah because that's how everyone in the south is. Now maybe we should talk about how tolerant and understanding we all up here...again.

So it's ok to stereotype folks up here (break out the birkenstocks and wool socks!) but not Billy Bob and his 4 legged girlfriend? It was a freakin joke.