What don't you like about Seattle? (high school, college, income)

[tada]

Originally Posted by toughguy

Tada, you sound like some bitter divorced person that only focuses on the negatives of their former spouse. Welcome to the world of working people. Newsflash....People don't always get back to you, especially regarding presumably low paying part time jobs..."We'll get back to you" is code for "Thanks but no thanks". I highly doubt it is unique to our city. Why would you still waiting for their call 2 years later? Wouldn't you figure within a week or two that it's time to explore other opportunities?

Of course I haven't been holding my breath.

From what I have read, it's unique to this area though.

EDIT: A-ha! Found it. Wow! I googled "Seattle Sucks" and I am not alone! :: Seattle Shmeng :: The Mystery of Why Seattle Sucks

[seattlenextyear]

Originally Posted by tada

Of course I haven't been holding my breath.

From what I have read, it's unique to this area though.

EDIT: A-ha! Found it. Wow! I googled "Seattle Sucks" and I am not alone! :: Seattle Shmeng :: The Mystery of Why Seattle Sucks

Um, is that a porn site?

[Haakon]

Originally Posted by seattlenextyear

Um, is that a porn site?

Not exactly, but it seems to have some links to porn sites. You might not want to visit it from work. You're not really missing anything by not visiting.

What not to like about Seattle? To many liberals trying to force their views on the entire state. Of course for someone coming from Los Angeles that might not be viewed as a negative.

[MaikeerinWA]

No, but I just wasted five seconds of my life clicking on the link and will never get them back.

Originally Posted by seattlenextyear

Um, is that a porn site?

[tada]

I'll just quote the relevant posts, so you don't have to go to the site. I just don't pay attention to ads, so I didn't notice what they were advertising.

Top post:

I actually put in an application at a place- never got a call back. EIGHT MONTHS LATER the guy called me to ask if I was still looking for a job!

1st reply:

I've had similar passive aggressive treatment from potential employers before as well. I mean, why can't they at least call you back and let you know that they either decided not to hire right now, or that your skills don't match, etc.? I think I know - they just don't want the applicant to challenge them when giving the bad news, and so they don't really bother to communicate or exercise decent social skills.

Reply to 1st reply:

I am not at all defending Seattle, but I have experienced all that crap in Chicago. Maybe the people I am interviewing are ex-Seattle residents.

2nd reply:

Try 2 years! I kid you not.

[VeronikaW]

I don't mind the weather so much, I'd rather be cold than hot.

The traffic to me isn't bad coming from CA, but the people here drive like ass.

The cost of living isn't that much cheaper than CA (we moved here thinking it would be), though maybe when the housing crisis hits, it will be better.

I don't like the attitude of the people here, who like to talk about how much smarter they are than everybody else, yet only 35% of high school students here graduate from college, and they only need 2 years of math to graduate from high school. I've also read that their schools are years behind schools in CA. So, I'm guessing it's the transplants that bring up the IQ of the state, not the locals.

I don't like not having A/C (although obviously we haven't needed it yet this summer), but I don't care, if I need it 1 day a year, I want it. You only need your heater a couple days a year in CA, but every house still has one. And if I can't have an A/C at least give me a heater with a thermostat. These stupid baseboard heaters that basically have 2 settings (Too Hot or Too Cold) are pissing me off.

There are some things I like though (medical care seems better here than CA, no state income tax, enchanted forests everywhere, to name a few).

V. =)

[eponabri]

I'm also a native, which is why I now live in Sequim. We lived in Lynnwood, the infamous convergence zone, for 23 years. After getting dumped on by rain all the time, we moved to the rainshadow banana belt.. much better, only 16 inches of rain a year compared to 46.

Traffic is horrendous in Seattle, but it's getting bad everywhere... even up here.

Housing is a nightmare, but again, it's also getting bad everywhere. We had our house on the market hoping to move to Spokane. After 10 months we bagged it, and decided we would just stay put.

Perhaps a better thread might be all of the good things Seattle has.

Originally Posted by Deep_Vee

As a native, here's my take:

1. Weather - you said you don't want to hear it...but for me, it gets harder and harder every year to deal with it. This month we had rain and cold for 2 weeks, then we had amazing sunny and 65-70 for 2.5 days, and today it's dark, dreary, about 50 degrees, and raining again. It's depressing!

2. Traffic/Infrastructure. Our traffic is aweful. I don't care how it compares to other cities based on studies...the fact is, between the hours of 7AM and 7PM on any freeway in this city you have to plan for a major slowdown. You may get lucky and get a drive that isn't backed up, but you still have to plan for it. Recently my wife and I had to come downtown during the day for Dr. Appointments twice a week. I would leave my office 2 hours before the appointment to drive home to pick her up...most of the time it took only about 25 minutes (it's 16 miles door to door) to get home, but a couple of times, I hit a jam going north and it took twice that long. Then, on the way back downtown, several appointments we arrived 30 minutes early...but quite a few we also barely made it on time. My point is, you HAVE to plan on the worst case to get anywhere around here during the day. Our commutes are aweful too. But from what I've seen, probably not much worse than most other "car-oriented" cities...but aweful still. Don't let the Sound Transit Marketing department fool you into believing we have this wonderful transit system. Sure, we have an extensive bus system, and light and heavy rail have just started coming online...but NONE of them will save you TIME. Why don't I just move closer in...see point #3

3. Cost of Living. It is EXPENSIVE to live here, period. The biggest issue is the cost of housing, most of us HAVE to move away from the city in order to purchase a home - and then spend huge amounts of time in our traffic trying to get anywhere. Food, Gas, and other infrastructure items also seem to be quite a bit more expensive than the rest of the country. Just do your research thoroughly...

[Freebird2007]

what I don't like.....


seems like there are more gangs here than in South Central LA

[toughguy]

Originally Posted by VeronikaW

I don't mind the weather so much, I'd rather be cold than hot.

The traffic to me isn't bad coming from CA, but the people here drive like ass.

The cost of living isn't that much cheaper than CA (we moved here thinking it would be), though maybe when the housing crisis hits, it will be better.

I don't like the attitude of the people here, who like to talk about how much smarter they are than everybody else, yet only 35% of high school students here graduate from college, and they only need 2 years of math to graduate from high school. I've also read that their schools are years behind schools in CA. So, I'm guessing it's the transplants that bring up the IQ of the state, not the locals.

I don't like not having A/C (although obviously we haven't needed it yet this summer), but I don't care, if I need it 1 day a year, I want it. You only need your heater a couple days a year in CA, but every house still has one. And if I can't have an A/C at least give me a heater with a thermostat. These stupid baseboard heaters that basically have 2 settings (Too Hot or Too Cold) are pissing me off.

There are some things I like though (medical care seems better here than CA, no state income tax, enchanted forests everywhere, to name a few).

V. =)

Washington has some bad schools and some good schools, just like California. Please don't try to say schools in Cali are light years ahead of WA schools, because that is just not the case. Would you like to provide some stats to back that up? That's that famous California smug that everyone else teases Californians about.

[CityGirl72]

OHHH I know that Calif has some crappy ass schools! I KNOW they do - that's one part that worried me, and one of the reasons I did move to Seattle. Thinking the schools would be better - but Seattle Public Schools aren't better (I bet the Eastside schools rock)

I'm going back to Sac, but will be going to the Eastside equivalent areas...not the bad areas!