Does The Depressing Weather Make People "Artsy" In Seattle? (Tacoma: ranked, deal)

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Sounds a lot like San Diego. That too is one reason why I like Seattle and the Seattle forum here.

Believe me, if you write anything negative about Seattle on this thread, you will be provided the same suggestion of "if you don't like it move." I'd say it's the same on ANY forum on City Data. There are always going to be some folks that no matter how accurate or fair the criticism, get their undies in the bunch, and rather than considering what's being written, take anything negative as a personal affront and respond with a "Move, we don't like your kind here".

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

Believe me, if you write anything negative about Seattle on this thread, you will be provided the same suggestion of "if you don't like it move." I'd say it's the same on ANY forum on City Data. There are always going to be some folks that no matter how accurate or fair the criticism, get their undies in the bunch, and rather than considering what's being written, take anything negative as a personal affront and respond with a "Move, we don't like your kind here".

That's true. But because I spend time in three different city forums; San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle, I can tell that at least on these forums, San Diegans prove to be the most sensitive and easily offended. This is true in real life as well. San Diegans complain so much they even started a thread complaining about people complaining lol

WHY does everyone seem to have a conflict with everyone else's advice!

You don't see this kind of lunacy over here. At least I haven't. Seattle is the only one of these three places I've not yet lived, only visited. I only go into the SD forums because I happen to live here at the moment. I stay out of forums if I have nothing positive to add except the SD one lol.

[Vells]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

That's true. But because I spend time in three different city forums; San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle, I can tell that at least on these forums, San Diegans prove to be the most sensitive and easily offended. This is true in real life as well. San Diegans complain so much they even started a thread complaining about people complaining lol

WHY does everyone seem to have a conflict with everyone else's advice!

You don't see this kind of lunacy over here. At least I haven't. Seattle is the only one of these three places I've not yet lived, only visited. I only go into the SD forums because I happen to live here at the moment. I stay out of forums if I have nothing positive to add except the SD one lol.

To keep the on topic, people who live in Western Washington hear about the weather often enough, so, naturally a thread like this might elicit a few humorous responses from the people who live here (yes, we KNOW it rains and has a low lying cloud cover for much of the winter -- does that make an otherwise "non-artsy" person "artsy"? Probably not.). I think as far as defensiveness, the Seattle forum managed to collectivize most discourse along those lines into that single thread about "The Seattle Freeze." I know that there are plenty of people (both natives and transplants) who would bristle over hearing someone complain about this region. I think that reaction is true in any area that has a high influx of people moving in from elsewhere, though. Regions that don't probably don't have as much sensitivity toward what other people think about the city, etc.

[cmist]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

That's true. But because I spend time in three different city forums; San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle, I can tell that at least on these forums, San Diegans prove to be the most sensitive and easily offended. This is true in real life as well. San Diegans complain so much they even started a thread complaining about people complaining lol

WHY does everyone seem to have a conflict with everyone else's advice!

You don't see this kind of lunacy over here. At least I haven't. Seattle is the only one of these three places I've not yet lived, only visited. I only go into the SD forums because I happen to live here at the moment. I stay out of forums if I have nothing positive to add except the SD one lol.

It would be interesting to somehow meter the sensitivity of the Phoenix forums vs San Diego. I'm pretty sure it would be neck in neck!

I get people like to defend their city. For instance I would know better than to come into the Seattle forum and say something like, "This place sucks, its always raining and everyone is suicidal". Thats not based on any fact just some miserably bored person trying to get a reaction.

However if I say to someone considering Phoenix... You might think sunshine sounds great, but consider the activities the city has to offer because if you dont like golfing or hiking in the desert, you wont have much to do with the sunshine... I will start a war and likely will result in receiving infractions, so the people questioning about the city are only going to hear the story as told by Stepford Wives...

Its off topic I realize, but it can be used to illustrate why my creativity is smothered in a place where its abnormal to prefer less sunshine.

[movingwiththewind]

It's childish and naive to assume people in Seattle are much different from people in NYC, Phoenix, San Diego or anywhere else. They may like different things (weather, food, professions and so on) but all of them complain, Seattleites included. It's all the same, doesn't matter where you live.

[gussieishere]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Yes I did consider it and that was my point in a way. For so many years people blamed Seattle's weather for it's suicide rate and they were adamant about it. Then Las Vegas, a place where the weather is the opposite passes Seattle. That's at least proves to me that weather isn't the factor.

Gentoo, you've disproven your hypothesis without merit. In a nutshell, Seattle's weather plays a leading role in the pervasive depression, use of meds and and suicides; in Vegas, the prevailing factors are more economic and specific to the Vegas culture in nature.

[W & C]

Originally Posted by gussieishere

Gentoo, you've disproven your hypothesis without merit. In a nutshell, Seattle's weather plays a leading role in the pervasive depression, use of meds and and suicides; in Vegas, the prevailing factors are more economic and specific to the Vegas culture in nature.

We're on the 8th page of this thread now and I've still yet to see a single source cited that shows Seattle being significantly above national average in suicides and depression categories.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by W & C

We're on the 8th page of this thread now and I've still yet to see a single source cited that shows Seattle being significantly above national average in suicides and depression categories.

I don't even see what being artsy has to do with being suicidal. Van Gogh is an outlier and he lived in the relatively sunny Mediterranean coast of France, so I doubt weather anything to do with it.

[Ira500]

Here's an article rating cities based on rates of depression. Seattle is tied for being the 29th most depressed. But the article also states that Jersey City, NJ is the third least depressed city in the US. What do they have to feel so happy about, simply that they're not in Newark?
Feeling Blue? Magazine Grades Cities On Depression (Texas Cities Found To Be Happiest)

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by Ira500

Here's an article rating cities based on rates of depression. Seattle is tied for being the 29th most depressed. But the article also states that Jersey City, NJ is the third least depressed city in the US. What do they have to feel so happy about, simply that they're not in Newark?
Feeling Blue? Magazine Grades Cities On Depression (Texas Cities Found To Be Happiest)

Seattle is something like 79 on that list, Tacoma may have been in the 20s. As much as I like the idea that Texas cities are the happiest, I am not sure I trust that list. I used to live in Providence, one of the most depressing places in this country and even it ranked higher than Seattle. I would like to know more about its methodology.