Why doesn't Seattle impress me? (Vancouver, Kirkland: home, movies, new construction)

[adanescobar]

I hate Seattle weather. Outside of that, this is the best place in the world.

Clean.crime free. Racially open ( people date whom they like here) friendly.

Paradise is Seattle in the summer. But those months of waiting are just killers.

Lets remove , half of November, December, January, February. You got a full time resident.

[DP79]

Seattle has no soul, no true culture to call its own. The majority of people that live there move there for work and pack up after 5 years for greener (sunnier) pastures. No one has any real vested interest in the place, hence the reason there hasn't been any significant development there over the past 10 years - barring poorly designed condos and mixed-use developments - despite having gone through one of its biggest periods of growth. Any additions to the urban landscape have largely fallen short of notability (see Chihuly Glass Museum and South Lake Union Park). Most of the area's long-term residents with any real wealth and influence have settled in places like Bellevue and Kirkland, which are totally blossoming in comparison to Seattle and are quickly overtaking it in cultural offerings and urban design. The long-term Seattle residents abhor change and are only interested in preserving what they have already staked out. The place has a very territorial feel and mentality to it, perhaps why, as an outsider, you just don't get that feeling of belonging or wanting to belong.

[ctr88]

Anyone who says they live in Portland and are disappointed by Seattle is legally blind. Driving though Portland on highway 5 it has the look of a blighted rust belt mill town with those old dingy bridges, kind of like Buffalo or Cleveland. When you get off the highway Portland certainly has some very cool & happening neighborhoods. But coming up the 5 Seattle is a much grander cool looking City. If you stay away from Pioneer Square and Yessler area where all the homeless are, I think downtown area of Seattle is really cool. Westlake is a great area bustling with people, Belltown, South Lake Union, etc... I think Seattle has a better downtown then most U.S. cities other then maybe SF, Chicago, Manhattan, maybe Boston. It certainty blows away other western & sunbelt cities in terms of walkable downtowns like LA, San Diego, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Orlando, Charlotte, St Louis, KC.

My question to the OP would be what downtowns in the U.S. do you like better then Seattle? It certainly is not as cool as the cities in Europe in terms of downtowns, but almost no U.S. cities are.

[Garfunkle524]

Originally Posted by belmont22

Why doesn't Seattle impress me?

Because you are Sean Connery assembling a veritable league of extraordinary gentlemen?


I'm waiting to be impressed. - YouTube

[jm31828]

The weather is all relative, too. To someone from California or Arizona, sure the winters must seem miserable. But for those of us who moved here from many other parts of the country, such as the Midwest or the Northeast, the winters here are not bad, they are an improvement over where we came from. We don't deal with much snow, no dead brown dirty looking landscape as we have back there for half of the year, and the weather is cool but mild- definitely not bitterly cold. As much as many hate to admit it, our winter weather is better than about 2/3rds of the US!

And Seattle is in no way dirty or grimy looking. A few random locations may look that way, but overall it is a beautifully clean looking city- I am not sure I have been to another major city that is as nice and clean looking as Seattle (and I have been all over this country). Portland is definitely not a good comparison, as it is much more grimy and run down looking.

[skidamarink]

Originally Posted by belmont22

In theory, I should love Seattle. It's by the sea, it's green, it isn't very hot in the summer, it's very left wing, and it has a decent skyline. Yet for some reason the city just doesn't impress me at all. The downtown is kind of empty and run down looking when you're actually in it, even though it appears grand from a distance. The rain and clouds seem depressing there, yet they don't bother me in Vancouver or Portland. I find there's just something grim about the place that I really don't like.

What is it about Seattle that is failing to make me love it?

Too high of expectations. That happens anytime you go to a city expecting something extravagant or relying on what you see in the movies. Seattle's near paradise in the summer, but it almost takes a 180 from that every other month.

And yes, Seattle has a bizarre phenomenon in which the downtown area is one of the most empty, sleepy downtowns you'll ever see of any major city in the US. After 5PM, downtown employees go home and everything shuts down. Even Portland's downtown is more bustling and active at all times of the day. Most people go to Capitol Hill for any kinda social life.


I said it several times on here and I'll say (type) it again: Seattle caters to the older, empty nester crowd. The younger you are, the less interesting this city is.

[movingwiththewind]

Originally Posted by belmont22

In theory, I should love Seattle. It's by the sea, it's green, it isn't very hot in the summer, it's very left wing, and it has a decent skyline. Yet for some reason the city just doesn't impress me at all. The downtown is kind of empty and run down looking when you're actually in it, even though it appears grand from a distance. The rain and clouds seem depressing there, yet they don't bother me in Vancouver or Portland. I find there's just something grim about the place that I really don't like.

What is it about Seattle that is failing to make me love it?

It's EXACTLY how I feel about Seattle.

Love Vancouver, though. A totally different vibe.

[Guineas]

Originally Posted by eskercurve

Call me crazy but I felt similar in Tokyo. To me, growing up in a big, dirty city I guess I just wasn't impressed by the big, dirty city of Tokyo. Sure there's lots of stuff to do, but the city itself wasn't all that impressive.

That's because Tokyo is actually extremely boring full of salarymen who commute for hours on trains and work 10-12 hrs a day in their cubicles. It's only fun as a tourist and even then it's more of novelty ("hey look a Pachinko parlor full of middle-aged men in frumpy grey suits!") kind of way. And it's not even that big once you're in it. It's like having a hundred Indianapolises next to each other sprawled out. Sure that's a lot of people, but you're still in one Indianapolis at any given time.


Tokyo Pachinko parlors, where salarymen spend their hard-earned cubicle money after work.

This is the real Tokyo.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by ctr88

Anyone who says they live in Portland and are disappointed by Seattle is legally blind.

Well to be fair the OP tells everyone on the Portland forum how disapointed they are with Portland as well. Incessantly. Though when they first moved, the wouldn't stop talking about how awesome it was and how excited they were, but high expectations often lead to disapointment.

I think they might just need to move somewhere else to get a taste of somewhere outside the Pacific Northwest. I can understand the feeling--I've been in the region for well over a decade, I could use a break from the area even though I love it, it's just gotten familiar and a little staid to me.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by skidamarink

I said it several times on here and I'll say (type) it again: Seattle caters to the older, empty nester crowd. The younger you are, the less interesting this city is.

That's kind of how I ended feeling about much of Vancouver, BC--though I'm getting older myself now...