Is Seattle worth it? (Vancouver: rental car, rental, hotel)

[seattlerain]

Originally Posted by BellevueGuy

I think Seattle is worth it when compared to other US cities: more beautiful, less sprawl, not crazily expensive, very diverse.

Looking a bit north I think cities of Vancouver and Toronto are much better than any US cities. =)

(This claim is backed up by every global study so please don't slaughter me.)

Please include links to these studies.

[ElektroDragon]

Bellevue guy, have you actually been to Vancouver? There are TEN TIMES more homeless in the streets than Seattle. That kind of kills it for me in terms of being "much better". That and their parking garages are so bad I once spent a full hour looking for my car and thought it had been stolen. My wife and I split up to look for it, and we lost each other for a while too. This was at that cavernous mall in Vancouver.

[BellevueGuy]

Here comes the slaughtering.... where any mentioning of Seattle's inferiority to any other places in the world will be dealt with swiftly & emphatically. =) You guys should lighten up a bit.

What's the point of giving you the links, there will be 5 follow-up posts disputing the validity and methodology of those studies without offering any better alternatives. Just like the Great Lightrail & Viaduct debate. =) But since you asked...

Quality of Living Survey by Mercer Human Resources Consulting
1 ZURICH Switzerland
2 GENEVA Switzerland
3 VANCOUVER Canada
4 VIENNA Austria
5 AUCKLAND New Zealand
6 DUSSELDORF Germany
7 FRANKFURT Germany
8 MUNICH Germany
9 BERN Switzerland
10 SYDNEY Australia
15 TORONTO Canada
29 SAN FRANCISCO, CA
36 BOSTON, MA
49 SEATTLE, WA

World's Most Liveable Cities by The Economoist Intelligence Unit
1 Vancouver Canada
2 Vienna Austria
3 Melbourne Australia
4 Toronto Canada
5 Perth Australia
Calgary Canada
7 Helsinki Finland
8 Geneva Switzerland
Sydney Australia
Zürich Switzerland

[ElektroDragon]

Ok this is just laughable.... I've visited Vancouver, and according to the list above.. I should be in a jaw dropped stupor by how much better everything was than in Seattle. Well, I wasn't. My most vivid memory are the mobs of homeless... that, and a cool design for the public library. My other vivid memory is getting lost in a giant cookie cutter mall with a poorly designed underground parking in which I got lost looking for my car for almost an hour. Never had that happen in the States because things are actually labeled well. And does this "quality of living" study factor in the atrocious Canadian health care? Clearly not. I will admit the food was pretty good, though. The hotels, however, were pretty bad.

And before you think I'm just a know-nothing who's seldom left WA, I am from the Northeast and have spent two weeks in Sydney and plenty of time in Toronto and Boston as well. Sydney, I will admit, might be superior to Seattle. Toronto is a fine city, but I didn't see its advantages over Seattle. As for Boston being better than Seattle, where do I start? Boston is a pit of doom.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by ElektroDragon

Ok this is just laughable.... I've visited Vancouver, and according to the list above.. I should be in a jaw dropped stupor by how much better everything was than in Seattle. Well, I wasn't. My most vivid memory are the mobs of homeless... that, and cool design for the public library. My other vivid memory is getting lost in a giant cookie cutter mall with a poorly designed underground parking in which I got lost looking for my car for almost an hour. Never had that happen in the states because things are actually labeled well. And does this "quality of living" study factor in the atrocious Canadian health care? Clearly not.

Plus their burgers are made with some kind grain additive - blech. We've been to Vancouver a couple times and both times we were wondering what the big deal was. Admittingly, Stanley Park was beautiful but beyond that I didn't understand the appeal.

PS. I really liked Boston, although I never lived there. I would have preferred it to Seattle I think. Why do you consider it a pit of doom.

[ElektroDragon]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

PS. I really liked Boston, although I never lived there. I would have preferred it to Seattle I think. Why do you consider it a pit of doom.

Why? Well, the traffic is worse than Seattle. The city is all flat and not very scenic. The roads twist and turn every which way... Its CRAZY expensive to the point where Seattle looks cheap, and supposedly it has the longest waiting period to see a doctor of any US city. Did I mention it gets very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter? The best thing that ever came out of Boston is Bioshock (the video game).

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by ElektroDragon

Why? Well, the traffic is worse than Seattle. The city is all flat and not very scenic. The roads twist and turn every which way... Its CRAZY expensive to the point where Seattle looks cheap, and supposedly it has the longest waiting period to see a doctor of any US city. Did I mention it gets very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter? The best thing that ever came out of Boston is Bioshock (the video game).

I guess I never drove there because of the T (we drove into Quincy, parked and hopped on the red line) I thought it was pretty scenic - all of the water and the spectacular architecture. I know it's expensive (as is NYC) but I don't know that I would call it a pit of doom. By the time we left Seattle I was fed up beyond what can be described here, but I still wouldn't label it a pit of doom. I think that might be an apt description for Detroit, maybe.

[BellevueGuy]

Originally Posted by ElektroDragon

My other vivid memory is getting lost in a giant cookie cutter mall with a poorly designed underground parking in which I got lost looking for my car for almost an hour. Never had that happen in the States because things are actually labeled well. And does this "quality of living" study factor in the atrocious Canadian health care? Clearly not. I will admit the food was pretty good, though. The hotels, however, were pretty bad.

I respect you if you would like to judge a city's quality of living based on "an undergraound parking garage" of the hotel or mall you visited for a day. But I think the majority of people would want to look at something broader.

I don't want to get into a discussion about "atrocious Canadian health care". Surely their universal health care system is far from perfect. But given the President that 85% of Seattle residents voted for is trying to copy it, maybe it's not that the system is actually atrocious, instead it's someone's narrow-minded interpretation of it.

[seattlerain]

Originally Posted by ElektroDragon

Ok this is just laughable.... I've visited Vancouver, and according to the list above.. I should be in a jaw dropped stupor by how much better everything was than in Seattle. Well, I wasn't. My most vivid memory are the mobs of homeless... that, and a cool design for the public library. My other vivid memory is getting lost in a giant cookie cutter mall with a poorly designed underground parking in which I got lost looking for my car for almost an hour. Never had that happen in the States because things are actually labeled well. And does this "quality of living" study factor in the atrocious Canadian health care? Clearly not. I will admit the food was pretty good, though. The hotels, however, were pretty bad.

And before you think I'm just a know-nothing who's seldom left WA, I am from the Northeast and have spent two weeks in Sydney and plenty of time in Toronto and Boston as well. Sydney, I will admit, might be superior to Seattle. Toronto is a fine city, but I didn't see its advantages over Seattle. As for Boston being better than Seattle, where do I start? Boston is a pit of doom.

There is a very common myth that health care in Canada is atrocious...however I suppose this is not the place to discuss that issue...

[seattlerain]

Originally Posted by BellevueGuy

Here comes the slaughtering.... where any mentioning of Seattle's inferiority to any other places in the world will be dealt with swiftly & emphatically. =) You guys should lighten up a bit.

What's the point of giving you the links, there will be 5 follow-up posts disputing the validity and methodology of those studies without offering any better alternatives. Just like the Great Lightrail & Viaduct debate. =) But since you asked...

Quality of Living Survey by Mercer Human Resources Consulting
1 ZURICH Switzerland
2 GENEVA Switzerland
3 VANCOUVER Canada
4 VIENNA Austria
5 AUCKLAND New Zealand
6 DUSSELDORF Germany
7 FRANKFURT Germany
8 MUNICH Germany
9 BERN Switzerland
10 SYDNEY Australia
15 TORONTO Canada
29 SAN FRANCISCO, CA
36 BOSTON, MA
49 SEATTLE, WA

World's Most Liveable Cities by The Economoist Intelligence Unit
1 Vancouver Canada
2 Vienna Austria
3 Melbourne Australia
4 Toronto Canada
5 Perth Australia
Calgary Canada
7 Helsinki Finland
8 Geneva Switzerland
Sydney Australia
Zürich Switzerland

Actually, you could provide links until you wear out your keyboard and I would still say that something like this is so subjective, and so personal that you have proven nothing.