Top 5 Pros & Cons of Seattle (Everett, Redmond: good schools, taxes, living in)
Seattle areaSeattle and King County Suburbs
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Pros:
1. Dick's Burgers. For what Seattle lacks in In-N-Out it makes up with Dick's.
2. There's a good selection of sports to see. (Mariners, Seahawks, Sounders). If you're into hockey you can go see the Thunderbirds of the WHL out in Kent or the Everett Silvertips.
3. A wealth of great places to eat, shop, go see bands, etc...
4. It's really diverse, a really wide array of people and lifestyles.
5. Jesse Jones on King 5 News. That man makes living here worth while.
Cons:
1. It's ridiculously expensive to buy a house or condo depending on where you go.
2. Gang violence, druggies, murder, rape, etc... This is mainly found in areas like the Rainier Valley and South Park.
3. Driving around and finding a place to park downtown. If you're on a time crunch, set out EARLY.
4. The weather is horrendous unless you actually like being cold and soaking wet 85% of the time.
5. A combination of dangerous bums, a crappy mayor, constant street work, bad school systems depending on where you go, and many other things I could think of.
I'm particularly curious about this con. Any specifics as to why this is? Cost of a family home? Crime? Singles/DINK's as the dominant culture?
As Ira500 said, the good schools are in expensive areas. There seem to be mostly "bad schools" in the livable areas. But that's not really the heart of it.
The real problem is that Seattle seems to attract an unusually high amount of junkey street urchins. They migrate between the seasons, relying on dwindling city services and NGOs for housing, food and needle exchanges. The problem metastasizes when Seattle kids who obviously come from better means emulate the behavior of their homeless peers.
And while there are street urchins in every city, Seattle presents a few unique problems for parents:
- Seattle has less non-criminal streetlife than other major cities its size. It's pretty rare here to see folks chilling on their stoops or in their building gardens talking and meeting and hanging out. If they hang out, it'll be in a bar, which teenagers have a hard time getting in to.
- Instead, people prefer to go hike or wakeboard or hunt Orcas with knives in the rugged waters of Puget Sound. So this means that most of the social streetlife consists of "problem people." And for a bored, stranded teenager who can't fight Orcas yet, or drive, or drink, these will be the peers he/she sees every day.
- Also, drugs here seem to be easily available. It's just kind of accepted here. I'm not making a value statement about substance users, but the odds are that a teenager will not responsibly use chemical substances. This goes for both narcotics and alcohol. You'll have that much of a harder time fending them off it.
- There's a lack of diversity in Seattle. The city is pretty white. If your child is mixed-race or non-white and you want to expose him/her to a diverse group of people, you'll have a trickier time of it in Seattle. There's lots of ethnics in the suburban enclaves. But that's, again, in the suburbs.
You are completely exaggerating the homeless/criminal element IMO. Name another 3-5 million metro that has more street life than Seattle. Denver? Minneapolis? Atlanta? No.
The homeless make up less than 1% of the downtown street life at any given moment. I find your comments totally off the mark. Anyone who spends time downtown for any length of time would do a double take after reading your post.
Do we have a homeless/drug problem? Yes, and it needs to be addressed. Do we have a sizeable amount of listless street kids? Yes. But nowhere near to the extent that you are making it out to be. The vast majority of people downtown are either business people, tourists, or locals hanging out and shopping.
I currently live in Santa Monica, CA. Given the year-round moderate temperatures, very hospitable weather, and non-draconian police, Santa Monica truly is "home of the homeless".
If Seattle's biggest issue is transients, I have some perspective to deal with that. As for the drugs, I grew up in Ohio, and living in LA (even the Santa Monica bit of LA) is a new perspective on how bad things can be. Seattle will represent a marked improvement on my willingness to encourage my kids to "go outside and play".
- Also, drugs here seem to be easily available. It's just kind of accepted here. I'm not making a value statement about substance users, but the odds are that a teenager will not responsibly use chemical substances. This goes for both narcotics and alcohol. You'll have that much of a harder time fending them off it.
Go ahead, stop mealymouthing....substance abusers, bah humbug..... I'll make a value judgement--watch this Seattle:
Your downtown is full of crackheads and junkies! There.
Aggressive street people with ugly drug habits who think the public owes them something. Uh, NO.
When you decided to make meth your best friend you made the wrong choice pal, and I'm not rewarding you for making bad choices. So get out of my face and take your freaking rottweiller with you, junkie.
And yeah, Seattle as the dead end of US I-90 west and next to an international border and the crossroads of two major US highways, is a dumping ground for end-of-the-roaders who ran out of highway and ended up cracked out in a Seattle alley recycle bin.
How's that for a "value statement" from someone who's willing to tell the emperor that his tie dye is crap?
Street urchins, yes. They are a huge problem that one one is ever going to attempt to fix without getting hit with backlash from John Fox, The Stranger and Nick Licata-types that keep the homeless teen-poseurs pouring into the city.
Go ahead, stop mealymouthing....substance abusers, bah humbug..... I'll make a value judgement--watch this Seattle
LOL! Azoria's got me on the mealymouthing. I'm beating around the bush because I want to answer the OP's question, not digress into a conversation about Seattle's drug and alcohol scene. Homelessness is ancillary to the topic.
I think my statement is true. Seattle has little non-homeless street life. Social activity takes place mostly in bars. Therefore, most people hanging out on the stoop after 7 or 8PM tend to be undesirables. I feel Seattle has a higher proportion of adolescent undesirables than many other cities. For a bored teenager with no car, no fake ID and too much time, these urchin-peers represent yet another thing you need to think about before Junior leaves the house today.
Many people consider me a hater. And to a degree they're right. But I like to think that I'm a rational hater, that my hatey-ness is based on Socratical observations.
Am I totally alone in the perception that Seattle has a high proportion of youth homeless to homeless in general?
LOL! Azoria's got me on the mealymouthing. I'm beating around the bush because I want to answer the OP's question, not digress into a conversation about Seattle's drug and alcohol scene. Homelessness is ancillary to the topic.
I think my statement is true. Seattle has little non-homeless street life. Social activity takes place mostly in bars. Therefore, most people hanging out on the stoop after 7 or 8PM tend to be undesirables. I feel Seattle has a higher proportion of adolescent undesirables than many other cities. For a bored teenager with no car, no fake ID and too much time, these urchin-peers represent yet another thing you need to think about before Junior leaves the house today.
Many people consider me a hater. And to a degree they're right. But I like to think that I'm a rational hater, that my hatey-ness is based on Socratical observations.
Am I totally alone in the perception that Seattle has a high proportion of youth homeless to homeless in general?
No, I agree. So does Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco though, not to mention Santa Cruz and Berkley. It's easy to live on the streets of these cities because for the most part the climate is condusive and there are many people who STILL give hand outs to the homeless youth. One of the downsides to living in a more liberal urban environment. Not that I would prefer it the other way though.
Every city has homeless problems but to be frank Seattle is one of the worse ones, given how economically strong the city is.
The problem is that homeless people are everywhere... around Westlake, around Belltown, around Capitol Hill, around downtown Waterfront.
It would be much nicer if we can be like Vancouver where all the junkies are congregated in one area (feel free to hang out with them if you like) and 95% of the downtown is clean.
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