Cons of Seattle (Olympia, Pacific, Republic: rent, crimes, to buy)

[CityOnDown5250]

I love Seattle! The arts, the scenery, the feel of having a major city in the Pacific Northwest, I love it all. But my high on Seattle got cut recently when someone told me that it's a depressing city, that it rains a lot, and that the city has its fair share of problems. Obviously there are pros and cons to every city, but I wanted to hear in your opinion the negative aspects of Seattle, because quite frankly, I know all the positive ones. I am not looking to be a negative nancy, but rather I would like to know honestly what people feel are the cons of Seattle, not just the cons of living in Seattle like parking, rent, etc, but about the city as a whole. Thanks

[M3 Mitch]

In no particular order, property/rent is expensive, the weather in winter is mild but dreary, can be depressing to some, the cops don't seem to do anything about property crimes, but get away with kicking and hitting girls with their fists, its a car-hostile town on several levels, when it snows, which is rare, the hilly terrain and clueless drivers make it into a bumper-car fest.

That said, as larger urban areas go, Seattle is one of the better ones IMHO.

[Ira500]

Seattle cons:
Seattle's housing is expensive, particularly to buy.
There's not a lot of sunshine, except reliable, regular, almost constant sun in July and August.
For folks from the south, there's not a lot of good BBQ.
For folks from the Northeast, there's not a lot of good pastrami sandwiches, bagels, or pizza.
Some people find Seattleites unfriendly, or reserved.
If you're talking the city itself, you'll be surrounded by liberals, left wingers, Democrats. Some Republicans happily co-exist, but they're a definite minority.
Traffic sucks.

[noexcuseforignorance]

The cons are:

No sunshine
Short summers
Seattle police are horribly violent and seem to only target law abiding citizens

[Inkpoe]

1.) Politics/Things take forever to be done
2.) (Some) People can be rather... serious/humorless
3.) Seattle vs. The Eastside, Seattle vs Olympia, Seattle vs the rest of WA

Other cons are already mentioned in the posts before me.

[Hemlock140]

Seattle itself is OK for a place to work, but I wouldn't live there. Beautiful City being ruined by the politicians, especially the school district. In the course of my work I have become aware of the number of homeless, which is tolerated, in fact the police in eastside cities have very few because they
drop them off in Seattle. Another negative is the traffic, lots of growth in the last 25 years with no attention to new roads or mass transit for them.


The eastside, on the other side is one of the best places to live, despite the clouds and rain. You really need that rain if you want to see green all year, and the short summer makes the rest of the year worth it, rarely over 85 and cools off at night.

[eskercurve]

I believe unbelievably bad infrastructure, do-nothing attitude at best, otherwise do-wrong policies of local government (at least in Seattle, Eastside is very pro-active and centrist), dreary winters, and high rent and cost to own have been mentioned. I haven't found the people put offish, but maybe that's just me, I've made plenty of friends.

There's just one other thing ...

No good Chicago style pizzas. Man alive. They do not know how to make a pie in that style here. At all. What's so hard to understand with the tomatoes being ON TOP and the toppings IN THE MIDDLE and on top, and you need a good pie crust (preferably cornmeal)? A former Chicagoan like myself grows nostalgic for such things, even if the consequences are sometimes World War III in your stomach. *grumble grumble*

Other than that I really have nothing. I like this area. It will be sad when Seattle is a former husk of a city filled with empty storefronts and granola eating, flannel wearing, biking-in-the-40s-and-the-rain, ultra-leftists. This will likely happen in about 15-20 years. Enjoy it while you still can. I only hope and pray Seattleites get out of their bubble and look at reality and vote Mc-Stolen-Schwinn out of office.

And that actually is my last thing I do not like about this area ... Seattle's mayor. I love Seattle, I really do, which is why I hate seeing an idiot like him destroy the city's future just for an extreme viewpoint.

[Xanathos]

The biggest Con is that the area has never built a "Seattle Wall" to keep all the extreme leftist hippies from Portland from finding their way up here. They've gone ahead and ruined that city down there to the point that it's unsurvivable for many, so what do they do? They hop in their eco-vehicles and come 3 hours North, and are now starting to ruin this one, as well. In other words, the politics in the area are completely out of whack. It's the old "I want everything under the sun handed to me, every entitlement possible, but I want someone else to pay for it" mentality. The thing that tends to keep this city a bit more in check than other completely bankrupt areas that share that belief (Portland, California) is that these people who want that philosophy are somewhat hamstrung in that the area can't just wantonly create a tax out of thin air or cave into the extremists who scream "tax the rich, because I'm not!". It's sort of a natural buffer.

Other cons...this is the only city I've lived in where I can see someone flash a gang sign and feel perfectly safe, but see a cop walking down the street and instantly be concerned I'm going to be shot or otherwise assaulted.

Getting from A to B can be a real challenge, especially with the area adopting a toll on one of the only ways to get across Lake Washington.

The bicyclists in the area are a constant test of one's patience. Not as bad as Portland, but bad.

Oh, and apparently there's a vat of spiked Kool-Aid somewhere that people are drinking from, because a number of local web boards I frequent are littered with locals who make us all look stupid by insisting that Amanda Knox is innocent. But it's a minor detail.

[Seacove]

I sort of knew a "Cons of Seattle" would turn political. The "centrists" (Republicans) will call the liberals flannel shirt wearing, granola eating, entitlement grabbing losers, even if we make as much or more, pay our taxes, etc. And liberals will still think Republicans all sound like grouchy old men yelling "get off my lawn".

I think Seattle will always be beautiful, had the same politics twenty years ago that it has now and twenty years from now. Some people just get more conservative as they get older and start calling everyone hippies

But I did find one thing I agree on which I never thought was humanly possible, ever. I believe Amanda Knox is guilty and that's a pretty controversial opinion in Seattle.

[seattlefanatic]

Xanathos put it lightly when he said bicyclists are a test of one's patience. You truly have to experience it to get how bad it is. They ride right in the middle of the road and will not move. They blow right past stop signs and sometimes even red lights. Then they go to the courts to get more protection and rights. I'm not a racist or a homophobe, and I try not to be prejudiced in any way, but the bicyclists is the group that I judge mercilessly.