Top 5 Pros & Cons of Seattle (Bellevue, Kent: crime, new house, weddings)

[CUDavidBanner]

I thought it would be informative if those familiar with Seattle, would list their top 5 positives and 5 negatives about the Seattle Metro area. Thanks in advance.

[chris]

Pros:

Safe
Good night life (plenty of things to do & good food)
Reasonable distance to outdoor activities
Quality health care (arguably the best in the NW)
Generally kind, well mannered people.


Cons:

Traffic
Overcast weather
Property Crime
High taxes (sales tax near 9% and high property taxes)
Politics/govt disorganization

[Seattletony]

Pros

1. Natural Setting (green, water, hills etc..)
2. Highly educated innovative and cutting edge (People)
3. Culture
4. Climate doesn't get to hot or to cold
5. People laid back mild mannered and generally nice

Cons

1. Cost of living
2. Traffic
3. Public school system
4. Lack of new family homes in most areas
5. Increase in overall crime

[scirocco22]

Pros: 1) extemely ecletic and diverse demographics; especially its extraordinary ethnic diversity 2) exceptional views of mountains; Olympic range and it's peaks, Cascade range and it's peaks, Mt. Rainier, etc. and bodies of water and water views "everywhere" 3) Short distances to a myriad of outdoor activities 4) Cultural actives abound. 5) General concern about environmental issues.

Cons: What everybody else said! *lol* But IMO, 1) Traffic resulting from very poor planning for infrastructure; i.e. lack of rail system until just recently and even that's poorly planned and not scheduled to be in place for several more years. Also poor freeway planning and expansion plans (i.e. scrapping of the R.H. Thompson expressway decades ago, etc.) 2) Yep, the gray, cloudy days that lead to many having S.A.D. 3) ditto on increasing crime 4) ditto on the increasing degradation of the public schools 5) ditto on the disorganization of some local governmental agencies, etc.

--'rocco

[Phoenix vs. Austin]

I think the gist of the pros and cons have been said. I wanted to outline a couple of other issues in greater detail.

1) Housing. The Seattle metro area does not have any new homes. The idea of having a "new home" with the front/back yard and a garage in a central Seattle region is non-existent, unless you're very wealthy. I don't know what your financial situation is, but the average home in Seattle is approaching the high 300K for a house that is aged at best. Generally what I see in Seattle is small cluster of town homes, which are sardined together in the area of a 2-3 home lot. The movement in Seattle is more vertical and condensed housing development. The idea of living in a new house that is still affordable is a long commute from the central Seattle metro area.

2) Traffic. Seattle traffic is just hosed. Public transit is miserable. I know because I used to ride it 4 hours a day to and from work. The problem with Seattle traffic has to do with the layout of the city. Not all major businesses are located in one central business district. People don't just commute to downtown for work. Rather large employers are scattered in Seattle, Renton, Kent, Bellevue, Kirkland, and Redmond...among other places. Because of this, there is no central hub for trains or sub ways to transport commuters from point A to point B. It's too scattered. Seattle doesn't have any light rail yet (Just breaking ground for a light rail from downtown to the airport). It'll probably be another 15 years before any reasonable light rail system will be effective enough to relieve the traffic congestion. In the mean time, the population continues to grow and home prices gradually increase. My advice...choose your work/living location wisely.

[Seattletony]

CUDavidBanner, you have opened up pandora's box for all Seattle haters so I'm going to revise my list of pros & cons just listing the cons with a modest proposal at the end of my list:

1. It rains everyday as a matter of fact I think I see Noah building his ark right now.
2. We don't get 300 plus days of sun and super hot summers. It sucks that we can't use air conditioning 5-6 months out of the year.
3. To damn green. Too many flowers and trees. Seattle should be flat and brown.
4. People are way to liberal and free thinking.
5. It rains everyday. Having sun and no change in seasons is all that matters for a truly happy life.

Now for my modest proposal, I think everyone living in Seattle or any other place outside of the southwest where they don't get 300 plus days of sun should be abandoned we should all head to the southwest California, Nevada Arizona, New Mexico, Texas. These places are perfect with zero problems no why because they get 300 plus days of sun.

[scirocco22]

*lol* ...see! now there ya got it, Tony!!


--'rocco

[Seattletony]

Hey I'm already on the back of the bandwagon !!!!

[joleen]

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Originally Posted by Seattletony

CUDavidBanner, you have opened up pandora's box for all Seattle haters so I'm going to revise my list of pros & cons just listing the cons with a modest proposal at the end of my list:

1. It rains everyday as a matter of fact I think I see Noah building his ark right now.
2. We don't get 300 plus days of sun and super hot summers. It sucks that we can't use air conditioning 5-6 months out of the year.
3. To damn green. Too many flowers and trees. Seattle should be flat and brown.
4. People are way to liberal and free thinking.
5. It rains everyday. Having sun and no change in seasons is all that matters for a truly happy life.

Now for my modest proposal, I think everyone living in Seattle or any other place outside of the southwest where they don't get 300 plus days of sun should be abandoned we should all head to the southwest California, Nevada Arizona, New Mexico, Texas. These places are perfect with zero problems no why because they get 300 plus days of sun.

[martina26]

Pros:

1. Open-minded, accepting liberal attitude (most of the time)
2. Privileges and amenities of a major city (shopping, healthcare etc)
3. Close to recreation (mountains, lakes/rivers, desert, ocean)
4. No hurricanes or tornados
5. No snakes (however, rattle snakes are abundent in Eastern Wash)

Cons:

1. Depressing soul-sucking weather that keeps you inside and ruins weddings, bbq's and other outdoor activity
2. Lack of 4 distinct seasons...its wet all year, then dry for about a month or two in late summer. Lack of snowy winters. Constant rain.
3. Traffic traffic traffic
4. A lot of jobs in healthcare and tech, but not really in any other fields
5. An abundance of self-absorbed materialistic people in certain suburbs