This is what it's like to live in the Seattle-Bellevue metro area (Shoreline: safe, homeless)

[LookinForMayberry]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

Eh. This whole thing smells like a boomer complaint post.

The nicest people I've seen here in my neighborhood (Capitol Hill) are the folks who don't have homes, don't have money, don't have anything. The snootiest and by FAR rudest people I've encountered in the metro area are the wealthy folks around the Lake Bellevue area.

And yet you insult the people that would like civility to return to society?

[jabogitlu]

Lady, I don’t think civility means you fell down and expect people to listen to you yell about it for weeks. People probably thought you looked like a walking lawsuit.

[LookinForMayberry]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

Lady, I don’t think civility means you fell down and expect people to listen to you yell about it for weeks. People probably thought you looked like a walking lawsuit.

LOL. Oh my brash youth, be cautious of what you sow; those are seeds you will reap. Be well.

[MechAndy]

I’m sorry to hear about your fall and leastprime’s wife.
I hope you all fare well.

I tend to keep to myself when I’m in The City because of the homeless and the nuts.
This here is not the case though.

Yeah us boomers are awful I admit.
We are the ones that will help someone change a tire or at least park our car so they can do it in safety.
As a guy that likes old motorcycles there was once an unwritten rule to offer help to others on the road.
You just don’t see people acting like that much anymore.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by usernametaken

If you ever drive in the East Coast, Texas, LA, Chicago etc. you will think that Seattle is the most peaceful and cordial populous place in the US.

If you look at homicides per capita, you will think that Seattle is the Japan or Scandinavia of the US.

That's funny. Sad, but funny. But yes, people on this forum and other W Coast forums have said for years (though not recently), that Seattle's crime is nothing compared to NYC and elsewhere on the E Coast. Relocation inquiries ask where the "ghetto" areas are, to avoid, and people say "hunh"? It really goes to show how relative everything is. You should read the Bellingham forum; you'd think the city was Sodom and Gomorrah. Probably some E Coast transplants would say, "you people don't know what real crime is!"

Still, homelessness is a serious issue that should be addressed. For the sake of the people stuck in that purgatory, if nothing else. It's not a civilization that allows such a state of affairs to continue.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

Lady, I don’t think civility means you fell down and expect people to listen to you yell about it for weeks. People probably thought you looked like a walking lawsuit.

[usernametaken]

Lets not get carried away. 9 out 10 times, people will help someone who has fallen down unless they look homeless/drug addicted/crazy. Irrespective of city and large-scale stereotyping.

OP, the "several" people who walked by the QFC and did not help....did they look like local homeless or shoplifters? We have rampant shopping cart and shopping basket theft at our grocery stores in Bellevue, and I suspect Seattle/San Francisco/Portland is much worse. If I was stealing a shopping basket from QFC, I would not wait to help someone on the way out.

[leastprime]

^thankyou.
Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday.
Just amazing how a smile and saying "good morning" makes everyone better.
YMMV

[usernametaken]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

That's funny. Sad, but funny. But yes, people on this forum and other W Coast forums have said for years (though not recently), that Seattle's crime is nothing compared to NYC and elsewhere on the E Coast.

Actually, NYC is doing "great" compared to their past (2250 homicides in 1990) and also on a per capita basis (NYC population is 8.5 million).

Great relative to other large American cities of course, and definitely not relative to most of the developed world.

[jertheber]

The OP's post is a single experience, and certainly cannot serve as a reflection of the huge geographical region in question. Telling others about one's very personal complaint as a way of "warning" them about the unsavory nature of the local people, seems a bit disingenuous to say the least. I suspect some personal bias lies at the bottom of the Op's views on NW life in general, and Bothell in particular.

This isn't really about Bothell though, it's becoming all too common to witness the radical departure from the old civil ways, rude crude behavior has become the new norm with regard to our personal interactions. I've seen it in small towns and big cities, I've seen it in my own circle of friends and family, it permeates most of social media, TV and movies, so why are we still viewing this as a local phenomenon?

I understand that this forum is a collection of personal views, but the notion that our experiences are somehow going to be replicated time and again isn't really helping others who are inquiring about the area as a possible destination to move to. As a side note, knowing that we've become a less civil society doesn't mean that we are all a bunch of self serving Troglodytes, and further, taking on one person's experience as proof of anything more than a one time snapshot in time, seems foolish. A better question may be, who here would have come to the OP's aid? I cannot imagine walking away from someone who was on the ground and possibly injured, something tells me there is possibly more to the story..