Seattle energy and "bustle" (houses, neighborhood, live)

[pw72]

I think the point here is this is a relative subject. Seattle compared to NY, Miami, or Chicago is comparing apples and oranges. Seattle compared to Boise, Salt Lake, San Diego is also apples and oranges. For a city of its size, Seattle is vibrant. And it is constantly evolving. Also remember, Seattle is a very young city compared to most.

With all that having been said, there may be some contributors that prevent Seattle from being more vibrant and bustling. Others have hit on the climate, the traffic, etc. (Although I've always felt heavy traffic can add to the "bustle" of any city, Seattleites need to learn how to honk their horns, it is an art you know). Add in the scandinavian reserve, a rather non-ethnic population, and these elements tend to come together to create a somewhat subdued vibe.

[irishimm]

I sometimes feel like Portland, despite being smaller and even more provincial, has a more vibrant feel on the streets, especially downtown.

In hindsight, the comparison to San Francisco is unfair. It is one of the most vibrant cities in the country and much more dense and urban than virtually every other city in the country (also part of a huge metro area). A better comparison would be cities like Denver, Portland, Minneapolis etc...and I think Seattle's vibrancy falls somewhere in the mid-range among these cities. Not as good as it should be considering the impressive skyline and its recent history of cultural movements.

[jenlion]

Veronika, you put words to a feeling I wasn't able to describe!! Very cool.

Last Thursday we had a "date night" and were in Seattle. Started with the art walk stuff in/around Pioneer Square (extremely underwhelmed). Walked to Anthony's for dinner (had to see what the fuss was about... view awesome... dinner pretty good). Walked back uphill and through Belltown and back to pioneer square.

Things were heating up as we went past some of the clubs. Some people were out smoking and talking in front of one of them (forget the name, they have a rotating golden pig over the bar) and the bouncer came out and told them that the people in the apartments next door had called down to complain. They weren't even being loud really. They had just dared spill out on the sidewalk for a smoke.

Then we walked past a few dozen of the "chill bars" from another thread.

Rooftop at some mexican place had been recomended for margaritas (something Lou's) so we got there just before 10. They were CLOSING. We had enough time for one and that was that. Aside from some kids getting all huggy and grabby, nothing going on, though inside they were just spinning up some lights and loud music, so who knows what that would have turned into in a few hours, long past my bedtime. At that point it was EMPTY.

Definitely not the nightlife feeling you get walking around NY, SF, even Edmondton, Alberta. It's all so.... mature. :-P

[irishimm]

On a tangent here...really? Edmonton, Alberta? never been there and always pictured it to be pretty desolate. interesting to know its actually got some things going!

Originally Posted by jenlion

Veronika, you put words to a feeling I wasn't able to describe!! Very cool.

Last Thursday we had a "date night" and were in Seattle. Started with the art walk stuff in/around Pioneer Square (extremely underwhelmed). Walked to Anthony's for dinner (had to see what the fuss was about... view awesome... dinner pretty good). Walked back uphill and through Belltown and back to pioneer square.

Things were heating up as we went past some of the clubs. Some people were out smoking and talking in front of one of them (forget the name, they have a rotating golden pig over the bar) and the bouncer came out and told them that the people in the apartments next door had called down to complain. They weren't even being loud really. They had just dared spill out on the sidewalk for a smoke.

Then we walked past a few dozen of the "chill bars" from another thread.

Rooftop at some mexican place had been recomended for margaritas (something Lou's) so we got there just before 10. They were CLOSING. We had enough time for one and that was that. Aside from some kids getting all huggy and grabby, nothing going on, though inside they were just spinning up some lights and loud music, so who knows what that would have turned into in a few hours, long past my bedtime. At that point it was EMPTY.

Definitely not the nightlife feeling you get walking around NY, SF, even Edmondton, Alberta. It's all so.... mature. :-P

[jenlion]

Oh man. I used to do a lot of work up there. Always stayed at a cool hotel in Old Strathcona. Fewer people out Dec 15 than in mid-June (when it's light from about 4am to about midnight! Ouch!), but geeze, people were interesting. Restaurants spill onto sidewalk patios; stairs lead down from the sidewalk to tattoo places and odd clubs; mix of shops and restaurants and bars and music places; people stand around in groups on the streets smoking all kinds of stuff, but they don't bother you. One weird dude dressed like a wizard stepped from the shadows and blocked my way with his staff (yeah, he had a staff) and said, "NONE SHALL PASS". I'd just had about four drinks down the road and was returning to my hotel; he got a kick out of my jump in the air, we laughed, and he stepped back into the shadow. THEN I was there when the Oilers beat San Jose in a final playoff match to get to the Stanley Cup matches. Holy CRAP that was insane. People lined the streets going up and down the sidewalks, hands in the air to high-five everyone they walked by. For half a mile. Cheering and yelling and all kinds of irrational exuberance. I finally nabbed a seat at a patio table and watched the crowd go by. Predictably, as dark finally came, more and more shirts were lifted, but it stayed pretty calm until quite late (probably because the mounties came and lined the streets. They blocked off auto traffic and mostly left people alone unless they started a fight, which didn't happen till late). When people climbed onto the top of a bookstore are started working my way through the crowd back to my hotel... took me a few minutes... and in that time space the bottles being tossed around changed from plastic to glass... got kinda hairy. Hotel was all locked down, had to franticly dig out my key so they'd let me in, then they issued me my earplugs so I could sleep that night.

I miss traveling for work sometimes, Edmonton is awesome. I had to truncate because it would go WAY off topic to talk about the Fringe festival or the other festivals or the farmer's market, etc. But believe me, people let it hang way looser upt here than they do here. At least, they do in Old Strathcona. And the people I was doing work with were all remarkably cool.

[irishimm]

Thanks for the response! It does sound cool...

Originally Posted by jenlion

Oh man. I used to do a lot of work up there. Always stayed at a cool hotel in Old Strathcona. Fewer people out Dec 15 than in mid-June (when it's light from about 4am to about midnight! Ouch!), but geeze, people were interesting. Restaurants spill onto sidewalk patios; stairs lead down from the sidewalk to tattoo places and odd clubs; mix of shops and restaurants and bars and music places; people stand around in groups on the streets smoking all kinds of stuff, but they don't bother you. One weird dude dressed like a wizard stepped from the shadows and blocked my way with his staff (yeah, he had a staff) and said, "NONE SHALL PASS". I'd just had about four drinks down the road and was returning to my hotel; he got a kick out of my jump in the air, we laughed, and he stepped back into the shadow. THEN I was there when the Oilers beat San Jose in a final playoff match to get to the Stanley Cup matches. Holy CRAP that was insane. People lined the streets going up and down the sidewalks, hands in the air to high-five everyone they walked by. For half a mile. Cheering and yelling and all kinds of irrational exuberance. I finally nabbed a seat at a patio table and watched the crowd go by. Predictably, as dark finally came, more and more shirts were lifted, but it stayed pretty calm until quite late (probably because the mounties came and lined the streets. They blocked off auto traffic and mostly left people alone unless they started a fight, which didn't happen till late). When people climbed onto the top of a bookstore are started working my way through the crowd back to my hotel... took me a few minutes... and in that time space the bottles being tossed around changed from plastic to glass... got kinda hairy. Hotel was all locked down, had to franticly dig out my key so they'd let me in, then they issued me my earplugs so I could sleep that night.

I miss traveling for work sometimes, Edmonton is awesome. I had to truncate because it would go WAY off topic to talk about the Fringe festival or the other festivals or the farmer's market, etc. But believe me, people let it hang way looser upt here than they do here. At least, they do in Old Strathcona. And the people I was doing work with were all remarkably cool.

[seattlerain]

Originally Posted by jenlion

Definitely not the nightlife feeling you get walking around NY, SF, even Edmondton, Alberta. It's all so.... mature. :-P

Perhaps Seattle attracts a more "mature" crowd...I really have no idea.

All of the hangouts people have mentioned in this and other threads about nightlife in Seattle attract a crowd about thirty years younger than me...so I'm not in any position to comment about nightlife in Seattle!

[W & C]

It's all relative. F.e. I can definitely tell you that Seattle's energy and bustle are about a million times greater than those of Indianapolis, which on paper is actually bigger than Seattle.

[Backstrom]

We have nothing to complain about when considering cities like Phoenix, Denver, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, (and even Los Angeles) so on and so forth. I'm afraid I disagree with the idea that Portland has denser pedestrian traffic than Seattle. I've been through multiple times (particularly Pioneer Sq. PDX and surrounding blocks) and I find that the majority of street-browsers are either panhandlers, hippies, or teens with nothing better to do.

From the subjective citizenry standpoint, I've studied how Seattle's foot traffic has changed and progressed over time. With that being said, I will note that the elimination of thousand of WaMu jobs has decimated vibrancy levels in the West Edge. We do have a prominent East-West tourist corridor between Pike Place and Retail Core, but the streets along CBD (3rd b/t Cherry and Union) do carry the lackluster feeling that you may have noticed-- that's a legitimate concern. Still, while far from perfect, we handily beat many cities our size and larger.

[Backstrom]

Oh, and to add another thing.

Seattle made a big blooping mistake several years ago by essentially destroying street food culture. We had a bustling vendor environment just a decade or two ago, but that was severely curtailed when the city vamped up restrictions and depleted ease of obtaining permits-- really stupid codes were enacted where vendors couldn't operate within 'X' feet of a certain location, had to fit carts that had to meet a lengthy criteria, etc etc. This, of course, scared away street vendors and they haven't been back since. The city has begun to roll back the restrictions and we've seen the emergence of some new vendors-- namely Marination Mobile and Maximus Minimus, but we have a long ways to go before we even match street food culture of comparable cities, particularly Vancouver.