If we're to be honest with ourselves, 95% of Seattle neighborhoods are total trash (Vancouver: low crime, houses)

[KonaldDuth]

Originally Posted by Neerwhal

I think you are confusing tacky McMansions, stucco and uniformity with “nice”. Cities aren’t nice because people live in shiny boxes.

They are nice because of what happens between people.

If you want shiny boxes, move to Dubai. Very many shiny boxes. Also a fantastic slave trade but look at all that glittery glass amirite?

Now we know who buys those ugly honking cubes on the main streets in Bellevue, though beautiful ramblers and cottages can be found nestled in trees and between parks for less money per square foot, though they are highly sought after by locals who wouldn’t dream of living on a Main Street with all that traffic and noise. It is apparently people like OP who think that “nice” means a big shiny box.

And inside those boxes live people who love shiny boxes. But inside cozy wooden mid century homes live people who value subtlety, quiet, discretion, and public space more than cheap metrics like square footage.

You are right that if you measure by how many shiny boxes there are, Seattle comes out way behind. But then... who cares? At least it keeps out the undiscerning.

No, I quite like the unique, timeless architectures of old Seattle houses. The problem is that the houses have gone to ruin because they're either owned by

* Chinese investors overseas, and vacant
* An aged Seattle hippie who doesn't believe in having a nice-looking house
* A drug rehabilitation company who use it as a halfway house
* A local who owns multiple houses and rents it to UW students

[homesinseattle]

Duth. Go sit in a hip, styling coffee house in literally any of the neighborhoods I mentioned. Walk a couple blocks in any direction and you'll find lovely homes and landscape. For the record, I have found in my work that Chinese investors don't much like vintage homes.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

Duth. Go sit in a hip, styling coffee house in literally any of the neighborhoods I mentioned. Walk a couple blocks in any direction and you'll find lovely homes and landscape. For the record, I have found in my work that Chinese investors don't much like vintage homes.

This. Hot tip: the streets bordering both sides of Ravenna Park are full of gorgeous old homes. I used to spend part of my weekend regularly strolling those areas. There's a shaded walking path on the U District rim of one of those neighborhoods. Looks like an old railroad grade, or something. And on the north side, at the east end, there are bridges over the park, going to another nice neighborhood.

Seattle is full of pockets like that. Capital Hill near Volunteer Park is another one. The section of Capital Hill that got cut off by the freeway, the northmost part on the hill near the bridge to the U District, is like an outdoor gallery of fine traditional architecture.

How long have you lived in Seattle? You sound like a newcomer.

[Flightoficarus87]

95% of Seattle neighborhoods are "trash"?

Sure, it might not be perfect here (we could definitely take better care of our roads), but I'd say Seattle has some of the least trashy inner-city neighborhoods of almost any major US city. Ever been through not-so-nice parts of cities like Philadelphia?

Maybe Bellevue would be more of the OP's cup of tea.

[Neerwhal]

Based on the street OP posted, I would specify Medina. We do have fewer people and a better tax base than Seattle, but if ramblers and street parking bug you then you are going to have to cross off a good 30-50% of Bellevue, Kirkland, and Redmond as well. Our home is valued near the median of Bellevue so I don’t think we are that poor...

People have gardens, not manicured lawns, in this area.

We have vacant homes owned by investors and rented to students in Bellevue as well. True, the Texans seem to be willing to be house poor for the sake of a development, and we have far more of those here (but no ballet, no Seattle Center, etc...). I still think if you want green lawns and garage parking it is the wrong place for you. Bellevue is just Maseratis on the street (not even making that up) and fancier trees dumping leaves all over the street.

[SebastianCalhoun]

Weird post.

95% a "complete dump"? C'mon.

I guess my question would be, what major urban area(s) (comparable to Seattle or larger) do you find more attractive? Where did you live before this?

Some areas can look and feel different depending on the weather - certainly that saturating, Seattle grey isn't always flattering. But to my eyes Seattle has several residential areas that I'd consider charming, stately, or beautiful. Some you mentioned in your initial post, some were notably omitted. Have you ever been to Queen Anne? The houses, apartments and views make for an idyllic vibe for much of that area.

But if your criteria dictate that a crack in the sidewalk turns the place into a veritable Baghdad then yes, Seattle probably feels oppressively violent and run down. I guess you're just calibrated differently than 99% of us.

[RotseCherut]

As much as I may despise many things about Seattle, outside of some parts of South Seattle, SODO, some seedy spots in downtown and the main drag on Aurora, most of Seattle has very nice neighborhoods. Greenwood, Ravenna, Wedgewood, Phinney Ridge, Green Lake, Ballard, Wallingford, Fremont, Queen Anne, Magnolia, etc etc etc are all, for the most part, very charming, rustic and beautiful neighborhoods with many older homes, beautiful gardens and a nice supply of local flora. As well, there are many nice parks and I find many Seattle neighborhoods to be quiet and away from the craziness of the main drags. Sadly, the worst problem is these neighborhoods are being destroyed by foreign investors and unscrupulous real estate sharks who are building ugly sterile science fiction like mass produced condos and apartment complexes all over the city. In addition, they are ripping out all the gardens, removing trees and replacing them with ugly a** concrete and ugly cloned/artificially propagated plants from nurseries. ONce upon a time in the Northwest, people decorated their gardens with beautiful flowering plants, bushes and their yards had naturally grown alders, cedars, firs. Today we have the same type of ugly, sterile, fake, skinny and skimpy plants you will find at every mini mall in Southern California.

Seattle has gorgeous neighborhoods and beautiful old rustic houses with views that are unmatched anywhere in the USA. It is sad to see that they are not striving to turn Seattle into the next dumpy Hong Kong or Manhattan so everyone can have "cheaper" rent. Yeah right.. Seattle will become cheap now like Hong Kong and Manhattan.

Some people enjoy the scent of a urine and crap soaked concrete city with no character or soul.


Now, Portland, I will say is a city that use to have and still has a lot of dumpy neighborhoods. At least back in the 90s when I lived there. Many of the neighborhoods started improving in the early 2000s and I am sure some of those once dumpy areas may even be upscale now. I haven't lived there in 7 years. I love Portland and its grit back in the day, but pretty much anything East of 50th Ave and anywhere in North or Northeast Portland (excluding Laurelhurts or Irvington) were ugly, crime-ridden, garbage, prostitute and drug infested crapholes. Even being in Africa for half a year, I would say the Felony Flats neighborhood (82nd/Flavel) I lived in was actually dirtier and filthier in many ways than even Kampala , Uganda or Accra, Ghana. In Uganda, they would move garbage piles to certain alleyways or areas which would be utterly gross. However, back in the day, in East Portland you just had garbage everywhere, including used syringes and abandoned buildings, etc. The neighborhoods just had a very gritty and dark energy to it.

[dav51lin]

pretty accurate

[umropantelija]

I get visitors from Europe all the time and they think this place is appalling. But you ask a typical Seattleite and they think this place:

1) has best libraries (junkies shooting up)
2) has award winning transit (no subway and public transport overloaded with mentally ill and drug addicted)
3) is walkable (can't walk downtown at nignt)
4) has best infrastructure (but no public restrooms except in parks)
5) Have greatest health care (which is 10X as expensive as anywhere else in developed world)

Etc...the list is long.

All the while cities like Tokyo, Singapore, Dubai and such are considered too clean and conservative. :-D

Big thing is many people here have never traveled anywhere and thus have a limited scope of expectations.

[DutchessCottonPuff]

Originally Posted by umropantelija

I get visitors from Europe all the time and they think this place is appalling. But you ask a typical Seattleite and they think this place:

1) has best libraries (junkies shooting up)
2) has award winning transit (no subway and public transport overloaded with mentally ill and drug addicted)
3) is walkable (can't walk downtown at nignt)
4) has best infrastructure (but no public restrooms except in parks)
5) Have greatest health care (which is 10X as expensive as anywhere else in developed world)

Etc...the list is long.

All the while cities like Tokyo, Singapore, Dubai and such are considered too clean and conservative. :-D

Big thing is many people here have never traveled anywhere and thus have a limited scope of expectations.

Strange you would mention that , because my husband is from The Netherlands. We get visitors from Europe also and the last ones , Oct 2016 , disliked it here so bad they left after 2 days. I was shocked , I like it here and we have been to 7 different countries together so we have put in some miles . They left and went back to California with another person they were staying with . They SAID they did not like it here ( this was Seattle proper AND King Co . ) I still talk to them all the time and they ask when we are moving !!