Washington vs Seattle vs Los Angeles (living, better, rates, largest)
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Never been to DC so I can’t say, but LA and Seattle are two of my least favorite cities. Too expensive, too much homelessness, too much trash, too many graffiti tags, too much grunge. I’ll take a stab at it though:
Downtown- Seattle
COL/QOL- LA
Cultural Amenities- LA
GDP- Why is this an option? You could easily just look this up.
Economy- Seattle
Population- what does this mean? Which city has more people? Why does that matter? Look it up
Vibrancy- LA
Nightlife- LA
Shopping- LA
Education- Seattle
Scenery- LA
Crime- again, just look it up. Numbers don’t lie
Architecture- Seattle
Sports- LA
Food- LA
Interested to see others chime in about DC but using this criteria, LA wins pretty easily. I’d much rather live in Seattle though.
Downtown: Seattle for immediately downtown
COL/QOL: DC for being one of the fittest cities in the country plus having high paying jobs with a cheaper housing market than LA and I believe about the same as Seattle?
Cultural Amenities: DC for all the museums
GDP: Larger or per capita or what? LA is largest.
Economy: Seattle/DC
Population: Larger better what? I don't get this.
Vibrancy: DC
Nightlife: DC
Shopping: LA
Education: LA
Scenery: LA because I like the beaches, but Seattle makes a good case for #1 also
Crime: Seattle
Architecture: DC since I like rowhomes and urban landscapes
Sports: LA
Food: LA
I prefer DC though. I prefer it for being East Coast and more urban.
Downtown: Seattle
COL/QOL: Theyre all the same imo as far as COL
Cultural Amenities: LA
GDP: LA
Economy : LA
Population: LA
Vibrancy: LA
Nightlife: LA
Shopping: LA
Education: LA
Scenery: LA
Crime: LA
Architecture: LA
Sports: LA
Food: 3-way tie
Downtown: Seattle/DC/LA
COL/QOL: Tie
Cultural Amenities: LA/DC/Seattle
GDP: LA/DC/Seattle
Economy: LA/DC/Seattle
Population: LA/DC/Seattle
Vibrancy: DC/LA/Seattle
Nightlife: LA/DC/Seattle
Shopping: LA/Seattle/DC
Education: LA/DC/Seattle
Scenery: LA,Seattle tie,then DC
Crime: Seattle then LA/DC
Architecture: Seattle/DC then LA
Sports: LA/Seattle/DC
Food: LA then DC/Seattle
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,128 posts, read 7,552,695 times
Reputation: 5785
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrinkSomeWater
Downtown
COL/QOL
Cultural Amenities
GDP
Economy
Population
Vibrancy
Nightlife
Shopping
Education
Scenery
Crime
Architecture
Sports
Food
Downtown: DC easily, simply more variety of things to do there, and the most vibrant
COL/QOL: Tough one, LA maybe
Cultural Amenities- DC
GDP- LA, followed by DC
Economy- Tie Seattle/DC
Population- Idk what this means... LA is largest
Vibrancy- DC/LA
Nightlife DC/LA
Shopping- LA
Education- LA
Scenery LA-
Crime- Seattle
Architecture- DC for classic, Seattle for modern
Sports- LA
Food- LA
I haven't been to DC so I cannot fairly rank it. Here's my take on LA/SEA.
Downtown: Seattle > LA
COL/QOL: Seattle > LA
Cultural Amenities: LA > Seattle. This one is tough for me. After living in Seattle for seven years now, I miss how much there was to do in Southern California. Besides having a better bar culture (meaning walkable districts to go drinking), there is no where near as many amenities as LA. Lots of nature if that's your thing, though.
GDP: This isn't really something for us to rank as it's stats driven, not subject to opinion.
Economy: (Pre COVID-19) LA has the bigger and more diverse economy. Seattle has better job market on a per capita level (i.e. very easy to get a high paying job and virtually zero effort to get some form of employment if you're not looking for just high paying jobs.
Population: Don't know what this is getting at. LA has the higher population. If you're talking about which place has the more pleasant or desirable population, I'd say LA. Seattle has a ton of aloof & cold people.
Vibrancy: Seattle > LA in terms of towers & midrise buildings going up, or in terms of available high paying jobs. LA in terms of fun activities and festivals and cultural attracting going on.
Nightlife: LA for the club scene. Seattle's Capitol Hill or even Ballard have a very nice urban hipster club and nightlife scene you can't really find in LA. So both have their niches, but LA overall. Also, I hear the nightlife scene for a single guy trying to meet women is atrocious in Seattle.
Shopping: LA > Seattle easily
Education: LA > Seattle. Seattle has higher per capita educated residents. But in terms of numbers, it's LA. In terms of better colleges, LA definitely. University of Washington is great but not on the level of UCLA/USC, plus then you include the Greater Southern Californian region and SoCal easily dominates in the number of colleges.
Scenery: LA for beaches, Seattle for nature, wilderness, more tied to the water, rainforests, snowcapped gorgeous mountains.
Crime: LA has lower overall city-wide crime stats I believe than Seattle, but certain spots of LA have much higher crime rates than you'd find anywhere in Seattle. Seattle's main issue is property crime due to drug epidemic, but violent crime is low. I.e. it's a city most feel very safe taking public transit.
Architecture: Seattle's got more glossy glass towers and better street-level pedestrian environment. Outside of the general downtown area, it's LA > Seattle definitely. Seattle outside of downtown feels very sparse and woodland.
Sports: Honestly, both are good. Seattle's neat because good public transit encourages a strong sporting / bar culture.
Food: I know Seattle is known as a foodie city, but moving from SoCal was tough because of the sheer number of amazing hole-in-the-wall food establishments in LA. So IMO LA by a landslide here.
Downtown: Seattle
COL/QOL: Seattle
Cultural Amenities: LA
GDP: LA
Economy: DC
Population: LA
Vibrancy: LA
Nightlife: LA
Shopping: LA
Education: Seattle
Scenery: LA
Crime: Seattle
Architecture: DC
Sports: LA
Food: LA
Downtown: DC easily, simply more variety of things to do there, and the most vibrant
COL/QOL: Tough one, LA maybe
Cultural Amenities- DC
GDP- LA, followed by DC
Economy- Tie Seattle/DC
Population- Idk what this means... LA is largest
Vibrancy- DC/LA
Nightlife DC/LA
Shopping- LA
Education- LA
Scenery LA-
Crime- Seattle
Architecture- DC for classic, Seattle for modern
Sports- LA
Food- LA
Surprisingly, I agree with everything.
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