Cleveland to Seattle

[Uhuh]

Seattle is awesome, if I were you, don't pass up the chance to make the move. You will regret it one day.

[jodi92790]

And We're considering a move from Cincinnati to Seattle!!! I can't stand it here, absolutely nothing to do!!!!!

[Nell Plotts]

Your big problem will be selling your current house. I have a friend who moved from Clev to Portland but can't sell the house.

Put your house on the market first and see how it goes.

[EmptyNest13]

Plenty to do in Cleveland, just looking for a change. Hoping to downsize a lot in our life.
Trust me Nell Plotts, we wouldn't go anywere w/out selling our house first.
This is about a two year project for us so we'll see if the housing market bounces back and if either one of us out-of-staters can get a job there.

[usernametaken]

I moved from Cleveland to Seattle at the end of August in 2010 after having lived in Cleveland for 11 years. If you get a chance, drive from Cleveland to Seattle when the weather is decent instead of flying over. The drive was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life and I stopped over in Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Missoula, Gillette, Madison etc... I was driving by myself with all my belongings in my car, and have never felt freer in my life even though I was often at mercy of other drivers and my car not breaking down! You will see little traffic for most of the drive.

Seattle is much nicer than Cleveland in most ways that I can think off, and I say this even though I did enjoy my 11 years in Cleveland and really miss the friends I made there, my dirt-cheap house and certain aspects of midwestern life.

In comparison to Seattle, Cleveland has much worse winters, a much worse economy, much worse crime (especially on the east side), significantly inferior scenery, fewer "cooler in a modern sense" cities near it, fewer unique neighborhoods, and far fewer things to do in general. And, perhaps most surprisingly to board members from Seattle, Cleveland politicians have an average ethics and intelligence score that is substantially lower than their Seattle counterparts' score!!

In favor of Cleveland, I prefer its sunnier less rainy weather in Spring and Fall in spite of sudden unexpected snowfalls, I prefer Cleveland traffic much more, I like the fact that you can easily get free parking and larger parking spots all over Cleveland, I prefer the much cheaper housing in Cleveland, and I like some of the ghetto areas of Cleveland (and Akron) because they remind me of a bygone industrial era where education and technology and constant screen time were not as important as today. I would probably not say the same if I had to live in some of those ghettos (e.g., East Cleveland). Living in Euclid (not far from East Cleveland) next to the lake was really great, although I only did that for about 5 months. It is probably insanely expensive to get a house near any kind of water in Seattle. Because of Cleveland's much greater space per capita and cheap land, it seems like there are far more free tennis courts and public golf courses in case you are interested in those. I used to play tennis a lot in Cleveland some years ago, always for free at readily available courts.

No matter your age, make the move asap and forget about getting the best price for your house and waiting two years or whatever! Yesterday, I went to a discussion on genetics and two-thirds of the attendees were 50 and over I would guess, and several were recent Seattleites. Then I was invited by a homeless guy and his Argentinian immigrant friend at a mall I frequent to come to a freeroll poker tournament in a bar in Redmond, and four of the 24 participants at the tournament were over 50.

I play chess now and again in a large area in a "social mall" that according to one retired Christian Iraqi immigrant "looks like the United Nations" and has all ages of people playing and socializing there. If you are not into diversity, you will readily find plenty or areas in Washington where you will find only caucasians too. If you want a largely white tea party kind of church, you will also get that in liberal Seattle (Mars Hill). If you want no part of religion, you will obviously find plenty of people like yourself in the PNW region. If you want more diversity than just the black and white of Cleveland, you will get that too if you live in Bellevue and several other such areas.

And I haven't even been to Vancouver, Canada, western Seattle, or any of the islands near Seattle. I joined a hiking group, and it seems like a large number of members are around 50 years or older. Will go on my first hike in March though.

I wish I could have made the move in my 20s, but I guess the good thing is that now I have more passion to explore my new home and I also never ever get bored with life after living through so many Cleveland winters with no family around!

To the OP, you should find jobs easily in Seattle. I work part-time teaching 3 classes (one hour a week for each class) at elementary schools, and I had no teaching experience prior to coming to Seattle. I teach a somewhat exclusive subject, so I can't compare it with your kind of teaching. Although Seattle seems like heaven for nerdy 20/30 somethings, I feel like there are more non-tech things to do in comparison to Cleveland even for middle aged people like yourself.

[EmptyNest13]

Thanks usernametaken!

Your advice is great.
We're looking forward to a great adventure and Seattle sounds like a great place to land.
Cleveland is a great city but after 20 years we think it will be time to check out a few new things!