Seattle PI discusses the "Freeze" (movies, college)

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

You sound like you're talking mainly about the city of SF, not so much about the Bay Area as a whole. I find Berkeley, Oakland, Marin, Benicia and Lafayette/Walnut Creek to be pretty friendly. People say hello just passing in the street. I've found that to be true to some extent in SF, as well.

People say hello just passing in the street? When? Where? Growing up in and around the Bay Area, I never saw anyone prone to do that except for people I was neighbors with and knew personally... My primary memory of being a kid and teen in the Bay was that people in general were usually pretty smug and cocky about things, especially living in the Bay itself, and they're friendly if you don't challenge them, though all the same there's a degree of "big leaguing"...

Different strokes for different folks and it's a huge area with all kinds of people and demographics--though I just remember moving to Oregon later on and being surprised at how friendly people were up there.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Deezus

People say hello just passing in the street? When? Where? Growing up in and around the Bay Area, I never saw anyone prone to do that except for people I was neighbors with and knew personally... My primary memory of being a kid and teen in the Bay was that people in general were usually pretty smug and cocky about things, especially living in the Bay itself, and they're friendly if you don't challenge them, though all the same there's a degree of "big leaguing"...

Different strokes for different folks and it's a huge area with all kinds of people and demographics--though I just remember moving to Oregon later on and being surprised at how friendly people were up there.

Funny. I moved to the PacNW, and noticed the Freeze. I haven't experienced "smug and cocky" in the Bay Area. Strangers as often as not are neighborly, even fun! (Imagine that! )

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Funny. I moved to the PacNW, and noticed the Freeze. I haven't experienced "smug and cocky" in the Bay Area. Strangers as often as not are neighborly, even fun! (Imagine that! )

I found that as close friends you could count on people better in the Bay than the NW, but strangers were often just a-holes... There's always a real kind of aggressive jerkiness or argumentative quality in the Bay--even LA and San Diego come off as friendlier and more polite in my experience. As well, people will never shut the hell up about how great the Bay or whatever Northern California coast town they're from is either(this goes for pretty much a lot of my immediate family as well)...

[Transmition]

Originally Posted by Andy Patrizio

I've heard a complaint on here that Seattle women don't make themselves look attractive. A friend and I made this same observation about SF. It was like they went out of their way to look drab and plain.

Maybe they aren't superficial.

And it's all about your perception of attractiveness. I like a girl with long hair and glasses, jeans and t-shirts; but makeover shows and movies seem to think that women should have styled hair, contact lenses, skirts, high heels, and caked in make-up. Not my thing but maybe it's yours.

[PrincessoftheCape]

The freeze is real. People trying to dispute that need to open their eyes a little. Frankly, it's my own belief that the freeze is a result of the high numbers of overt, spiteful atheists in the area. If you believe yourself and others lack a soul, what's the point of connecting with kindred spirits?

[Ruth4Truth]

The overt, spiteful atheist thing is new. Those didn't exist when I lived in Seattle, but the Freeze was going strong.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Deezus

I found that as close friends you could count on people better in the Bay than the NW, but strangers were often just a-holes... There's always a real kind of aggressive jerkiness or argumentative quality in the Bay--even LA and San Diego come off as friendlier and more polite in my experience. .

You don't sound very laid back and down-to-earth. Maybe you just don't fit in, or you projected some uptightness that tended to attract the same....?

[PrincessoftheCape]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

The overt, spiteful atheist thing is new. Those didn't exist when I lived in Seattle, but the Freeze was going strong.

I stand corrected.

It could also simply be a cultural thing that developed over time. It's hard to say quite how patterns like this emerge. A good comparison (with a bit more obvious root) is New England's 'gruffness,' which I have seen attributed to the aloof nature of the Puritans.

It's possible that the freeze is simply a result of a region that, until the 1960s, was rather small and isolated, only to be suddenly flooded by outsiders from all walks of life. The locals -- quite naturally -- would react with skepticism of the newcomers, and vice versa. Pretty soon, as more and more people arrive, it becomes a phenomenon.

[Andy Patrizio]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

You sound like you're talking mainly about the city of SF, not so much about the Bay Area as a whole. I find Berkeley, Oakland, Marin, Benicia and Lafayette/Walnut Creek to be pretty friendly. People say hello just passing in the street. I've found that to be true to some extent in SF, as well.

And what does Bay Area women's attractiveness have to do with anything? (off-topic) Some of them are the friendliest people.

I lived in the mid-peninsula, traveled to the city a ton and spent a lot of time in the South Bay because I liked it and found people there more tolerable.

Not sure why I threw the attractiveness non-sequiter in there. I think I read someone else saying Seattle women make themselves look drab or something. Shouldn't have gone off topic there.

Anyway, to some degree you're right. People get better the further they get from the city. People in the city have the most incredible superiority complex.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

You don't sound very laid back and down-to-earth. Maybe you just don't fit in, or you projected some uptightness that tended to attract the same....?

You really don't know a thing about me aside from a couple posts on CityData, so I don't know how you can know if I'm laid-back or down-to-earth based on an internet forum. I liked moving out of the area in fact because I was so laidback and mellow and polite in general as a young man and found people far more relaxed in the Northwest(I'm far more cynical and direct these days though in my thirties). I had plenty of friends and family down in California(and still do have most of my family down there), but I'm talking a lot about random people on the streets... People willing to get into a fight or threaten violence over a parking spot or because they don't like they way you're driving or you accidentally stepped on their toe or how you look. Saw way more random violence and aggression in the Bay Area(or other parts of Northern California) than I ever saw in Oregon or Washington. Some sort of rude encounters on public transit as well(though that can almost be expected). Also just this sense of entitlement especially from older rich baby boomer types. Just a lot more attitude in certain areas.

The materialism of the area is the other thing that's annoying, it's very centered around money, especially among certain groups in Silicon Valley, and even worse than the uppity equivilants on the eastside of King County and in Seattle itself. Certain types go on and on about what top college they went to or how much money they made and so on. There's plenty of good people there though at the same time. I could move back tommorow and have a good time as it's a beautiful area, but at the same time I accept places for what they are...

I don't expect all that much from people in San Francisco or Oakland and just don't expect much from people in Portland or Seattle either--there's nothing that special about the people in either place, just a different degree of temperment. They're all liveable, though I don't know if I'd want to raise my kids in the Bay Area unless I was rich. The Bay Area is only really for the rich these days unless you bought a home years ago.