Is Auburn just a lower class of people? (serious question) (Seattle: neighborhoods, to buy)

[joyinthejourney]

I moved to Auburn about a year ago from CA. I live in a pretty decent area in Auburn but I just can't get over how low class people are here. Example from today: at the pool it was me and my kids along with a party of about 6 adults and their 8 small kids. The fathers were just throwing around f-bombs like it was no big deal and making jokes about anal sex. I was so ticked off but these kinds of things just seem to happen on a regular basis here. So seriously, is it just Auburn in particular or is the whole state of WA like this?? I'm moving to Bellevue soon and crossing my fingers that there will be a higher class of people there.

[BellevueNative]

Auburn is blue collar and middle class for the most part. It is very different from Bellevue, the Eastside and trendy neighborhoods in Seattle.

[su6oxone]

Things get pretty provincial around here once you get into the metro areas surrounding Seattle and Bellevue.

[revelated]

Originally Posted by joyinthejourney

I moved to Auburn about a year ago from CA. I live in a pretty decent area in Auburn but I just can't get over how low class people are here. Example from today: at the pool it was me and my kids along with a party of about 6 adults and their 8 small kids. The fathers were just throwing around f-bombs like it was no big deal and making jokes about anal sex. I was so ticked off but these kinds of things just seem to happen on a regular basis here. So seriously, is it just Auburn in particular or is the whole state of WA like this?? I'm moving to Bellevue soon and crossing my fingers that there will be a higher class of people there.

Nope, you're in the "white trash" part of Auburn. Consider Lake Tapps if you want upper crust.

Bellevue will be slightly better but less sociable.

[joyinthejourney]

And by provincial you mean...?

[GraceKrispy]

And by provincial you mean...?

I'm guessing this definition:

Provincial
(definition 2). of or concerning the regions outside the capital city of a country, especially when regarded as unsophisticated or narrow-minded.

[Blondebaerde]

Originally Posted by gkrispy

I'm guessing this definition:

Provincial
(definition 2). of or concerning the regions outside the capital city of a country, especially when regarded as unsophisticated or narrow-minded.

This whole part of the country...Seattle metro..."can" be amusingly provincial, IMO, but depends where you are and who you ask.

I went to school in Michigan, and grad school in Ithaca NY. A lot of classwork in NYC and overseas, in econ, finance, and international business. (Yeah, bully for me.) At least I was exposed to a great cross-section of how people from disparate backgrounds think and behave in a modern work of high finance, entertainment, etc. And I made many networking contacts. And really had no choice but to integrate diverse viewpoints into my world view, for the success of all.

But turn up in various corners of the U.S., you'll get some peculiar pockets of ideas and cultural norms that are sometimes less-than-savory. Mostly I'd call it, "resistance based on fear." I've seen it in Bangor Maine and Seattle WA, also in Key West FL. Haven't spent any time in San Diego and San Ysidro, though SoCal is one big megapolis from the border up to the San Gabriels anyway so that hardly counts.

One might equate provincialism with ignorance; that's the usual pejorative applied to places that are:

1. Geographically isolated. Seattle: check.
2. Culturally isolated. Seattle: sort of, though the strong Asian influence and big influx of people from other countries and cultures due to high tech "sort of" mitigates that.

So what we have here is a peculiar, bi-modal distribution of people:

1. One group are locals who are smart and motivated, international economic migrants (both low and high-skill), and national migrants who arrived because this is where the work is. I'd like to think this group is not provincial: broad minded, many experiences, the whole is stronger than sum of the parts in terms of ideas, cultural exchanges, etc. I've met few in this groups who are truly narrow-minded, unwilling/unable to at least understand other points of view, and unable to assimilate with changing cultural norms (ability to adapt).

2. The other group, however, are more traditionally small (-town, -minded). In the not-so-pleasant sense of the phrase. The parts of WA State that are truly rural, overly obsessed with the local (average to mediocre) colleges and universities, not terribly willing to accept other views due to (perhaps) lack of exposure to other cultures and ideas. Across multiple generations, in may cases, the antithesis of a virtuous cycle.

To me Case #2, above, is the pejorative sense of "provincialism": a culture that resists outside ideas in a socially-unpleasant or generally ignorant manner.

Provincials might point out life was OK, and simpler, back in the days 30 years ago when Seattle really was mostly an airplane company and forestry town up in the pine forest. Forgetting, however, the downside: the town rose and fell on a those same very few major industries. Now add to that a growing influx of immigrants, and the provincialism comes out.

Eastside and various parts of Seattle are not as provincial, being more Case #1. My $.02.

[GatsbyGatz]

Even in Kirkland or Redmond, the people seem incredibly provincial by my standards. Once you leave Seattle and Bellevue, it feels very unsophisticated and rural.

[wutitiz]

I live in Bellevue and spend a fair amount of time in Auburn due to my job, The two areas are like night and day, I don't get out and about a lot in Auburn, since I'm mostly just working (away from the public) and then going home), so take my impressions w/ a grain of salt.

I was warned not to even drive down a particular street a couple blocks away (near C street in Auburn) due to crime. A 13 year old girl was murdered by a sex predator 2 years ago in Pacific, not far away (adjacent to Auburn). One time I went into a Bartell drug store to buy some instant coffee in Auburn, where I often stop on my way home. The brand I wanted wasn't on the shelf , and the clerk confided that they had to keep it in the back because it was used to cut heroin, and thus was a major shoplift target.

There is almost none of that in Bellevue. In over 10 years of living here, and spending a lot of time out and about, the worst 'crime' I've ever encountered was one day walking down the street, I saw a guy lying in a parking lot. I went over and asked him if he needed an ambulance. He replied 'no' so I went on my way, Even the teenagers are well-behaved and polite here.

[wutitiz]

Originally Posted by GatsbyGatz

Even in Kirkland or Redmond, the people seem incredibly provincial by my standards. Once you leave Seattle and Bellevue, it feels very unsophisticated and rural.

I lived in Seattle for about 10 years (Wallingford and Roosevelt). The meth heads that I often crossed paths with (I go to work very early in the AM) did not seem all that sophisticated.