Confused in Seattle (Vancouver: moving, homeless, activities)

Inkpoe:

I know Seattle isnt for everyone. No place is perfect. Since when did I say that?

Your post makes it sound like youre only complaining and not noticing all the positive things Seattle offers, and its pathetic. You lived here, and for a long time. Show a little bit more pride and knowledge for the place you live in instead of complaining about it or you should just move somewhere else. Im entitled to my opinions and I was right with what I said in my post right before your post...

What do you mean Im in honeymoon stage right now? Someone cant show pride and enjoyment for the place they live in? And Im perfectly realistic with what Seattle offers.

[Masika]

Originally Posted by movingwiththewind

If you guys live here and are totally happy with the place and cannot imagine to live somewhere else, I'm only jealous of you.

I know this thread started a long time ago and I'm only part way through. The way you started the topic off was a little tiny offensive, but I like to read, read and then read some more before adding my opinion.It's all to easy to "read" more into a post then a person might have intended. Without the facial expressions it is sometimes hard to tell.

I love a lot of cites, I loved visiting NY, I'm originally from the Bay Area, born and bred Berkeley I love SF. If I could move my Seattle Storm and get my partner to agree I'd move to Boston because I love the history, all the brick houses, and I'd love all the snow it gets. It ties next my favorite with Seattle. Now I love about 20 miles south, but only because my partner got transferred down her to Federal Way, I think it's strip mall suburbia, not my first choice, but no choice in the matter. Now that my partner has been laid off (property manager) she has been interviewing for a few job around Tukwila, fine by me. I want to be near the Sounder/Lightrail so I can jump on it and go up to Seattle anytime. It has some great parks around the area. It has a lot more to offer then here in Federal Way, some nice people but it lacks the diversity I am used to.

So moving I can understand where you are coming from as well as understand those that defend Seattle and it's surrounding towns. It is beautiful here, I love looking at Mt Rainer everyday, I love that I can drive up to my favorite camping spot in less then 2 hrs. I enjoy coming up to the city for it's many festivals, especially this weekends Northwest Folk Life. Every spring they have a convention called the Flower and Garden show. As I am a landscaping maintenance this is one of my favorite places to go. I just walk around and see all the beautiful displays. As for where and when we move I want a little more urban in a single family house. We don't have kids, don't want them, never did, but I have a great step-son and hopefully we'll get a grandchild one day; Hey I didn't say I didn't like children I've been a nanny in the past and loved the children I took care of, but I value my freedom, didn't have much of a childhood so now I am. My partner is along for the ride .

I've been here for over 13 years now, but like you've we moved around quite a bit, so when my partner gets a job and we move I hope we find our last place to live. A fenced back yard for out 3 cats with a covered patio so I can have an outdoor fireplace to hang out year round. A landlord that will appreciate a no drinking, non smoking couple who wants a long term rental. People that can take care of many problems ourselves due to our jobs. Somone who obviously care about the homes they rent out. I hope you found what you are looking for, and are happy. Also I love Vancouver, BC, that is another place I would live. I have many friends there. Not to mention we could legally get married

I think I've rambled on long enough.

[specificnorthwest]

Originally Posted by eskercurve

Seattle's downtown was, for a long time, moving the way that a lot of other American cities were going. Living in NYC, I can see how you wouldn't have seen it. You know, outside of NYC, from 1950 - 1990, families were moving out of downtown areas and city limits. The motivation was mixed - bigger homes, fewer minorities, more opportunity, etc. They abandoned the highrise lifestyle for larger homes, cars, etc. It was the American dream for a looong time. Seattle kinda sorta avoided that in a few neighborhoods (Ballard, Wallingford, Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, Magnolia), but a lot of other neighborhoods were stagnating. Downtown was an area filled with druggies, salty fishermen, and blue collar type of places where people worked, then went home to places in either the aforementioned neighborhoods, or to the suburbs which were bedroom communities until Microsoft came around.

Since the 1990s, more and more families and younger, up and coming couples have been moving back into the cities across America.

I saw the movie Blues Brothers, which to a Chicago native is sorta a throwback type of thing, just like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Anyway, it shocked me how dirty, abandoned, and desolate looking downtown looked in the early 80s. Nowadays, it's much more bustling, and many many people have moved back downtown. It's really come around.

Seattle suffered a similar decline but is starting to move back up.

Vancouver is a unique situation because their government made a conscious effort to make the downtown areas more family friendly and more accommodating to people wanting to live in a high density area by taxing companies out the wazoo and forcing a lot of them out. They've been doing this for about 20 years now, and interestingly, so has Seattle. Seattle went the private route with families and "the market" determining what should be done. Vancouver took the government subsidy and taxation route to make the inner city infrastructure better for people to live in. It's obvious who was more successful, but in my opinion, it is not the norm, and probably won't for a while. Give it maybe another 20 more years, and Seattle likely will be similar through market forces, and in my opinion, probably a lot more affordable than trying to live in Vancouver's downtown area.

Not trying to prove a point here or anything ... just giving a little different perspective, for what it's worth.

Anyway, a lot of bums move here because of the Tent Cities and the free accommodations and social services, combined with a mild climate. Many go down south to California for the winter.

In reality the number of homeless in Seattle has gone down ... even during the recession. Its weird ... but there is still a lot around downtown and some of the other city neighborhoods.

interesting take. . . i think the frustration, perhaps, for me is that Seattle seems slow/late to the game..and while i appreciate the direction things are heading, at times it seems painfully slow. I also agree with the 20 year time frame you suggested..but that's a long time from now

(btw NYC experienced plenty of White Flight itself, it wasn't immune to the phenomenon)

[specificnorthwest]

NUB, you need to chill out. reading your posts, you come across as some sort of city booster who has nothing but glorious things to say about Seattle, and gets way too easily offended if someone raises valid concerns or criticisms.

Honeymoon indeed.

[Baldy]

Originally Posted by karenk32

....During the rest of our visit, we noticed homeless folks on nearly every street corner and also commented on the strange lack of children. It is an odd place. I liked it more and more each day of our trip, but it was not the laid-back, socially aware city that I had hoped to find.

We don't call them homeless; we call them bums.

Homeless are people who have lost their shelter for some catastrophic reason. There are many organizations to help the true homeless get shelter and back on their feet.

Seattle is not L.A. (or NYC), though many of the bums are from California. Seattle is a diverse city, though, and tense most of the time. The "laid back" rep has always been a mystery to me, but I think it comes from Seattle being the last major city in the north west part of the US...I don't know.

Seattle ain't paradise, it's just another American city...yuck.

[Ira500]

Natural Urban Balence said:
I know Seattle isnt for everyone. No place is perfect.

I'm glad you said that. I'm also glad that you like it here. But I haven't heard you mutter one negative thing about Seattle. Mostly you seem startled when anybody doesn't agree with you that Seattle is heaven on earth.
So, c'mon. Make me happy. If Seattle's not perfect, name one little thing that isn't perfect about it. That would give you credibility, that you weren't a plant from the Chamber of Commerce.

[bvanevery]

Originally Posted by movingwiththewind

And what is exactly "hard Socialism"?

In Holland, young adults are paid to go to college, and get free rail passes so they can get there. That's hard Socialism. Their taxes are correspondingly high. I wouldn't have a problem living in such a system, as I can definitely see some advantages. I am saying, to say Seattle is not a progressive city, given its American context, is sheer lunacy.

It's not all black or white, you know.

Compared to what Americans expect a government to do, it almost is.

I only dream Seattle would have something even remotely similar to downtown Vancouver. Full of families, kids, playgrounds and all other amenities. People can walk everywhere day and night. And free public access to the waterfront as a bonus.

Move to Vancouver if it's so great. As you noted, Vancouver's got a perfectly violent part of its downtown as well. Much more violent than any part of downtown Seattle, from what I've heard.

You know, some poster comes on here and says they got their sheltered suburbanite sensibilities violated. They had to share a public park with a lot of people who don't bathe themselves. Oh my gosh, there goes the neighborhood. They saw 2 of 'em get in a fight. Gosh, think that might happen sometime? Wasn't like other people were assaulted. Nobody's children were assaulted. Sometimes, watching drunks fight is funny, it can be so darned pathetic and slow motion. Think the cops didn't do their job? They probably did do their job. Cops probably showed up. Detox wagon probably showed up. This is a city. And the progressive residents of that city, such as I was for 11 years, don't have a problem with sitting on the grass in the same park as the dirty homeless people. Shame on you. By all means, protect your children, keep your eye peeled for trouble, use your common sense. But shame on you, to talk about being progressive and being unwilling to sit next to the people you claim are supposed to be helped.

I wouldn't want all parks in Seattle to be this way. But, they aren't. Plenty of other parks you can walk or drive to, that don't have any homeless people at all. You hang out downtown, where the vast majority of the homeless people are congregating so they can get access to the social services, well what do you expect? There's a major food bank within 2 blocks of that park, and they hide under the HWY99 Viaduct at night. Where do you want them to be homeless?

FYI there's tons of homeless hiding in the vegetation in Ballard, because it's easy to stay out of sight there. I guess that's the kind of homeless arrangement you'd prefer.

[bvanevery]

Originally Posted by Baldy

We don't call them homeless; we call them bums.

I'm not PC. I call them whatever they happen to be. I've called various people homeless, bums, winos, junkies, beggars, off their meds, biploar, certifiably insane. I've registered these people to vote, and I've had one of them tell me he was God. Some huge percentage of them have a mental illness. I can't remember if it's 25% do, or 25% don't. That's your American health care system at work. Taking care of mental illness is too expensive, so these deranged people end up on the street. Think about it as you judge them.

That said, feel free to keep your wits about you and carry your favorite form of personal protection. Beit guns, pepper spray, sticks, or fists. 99.9% of the time, no problem. 0.1% of the time, some Alaskan native had too much to drink and gets angry at you. The vast majority of the homeless are polite as punch, because they know that if they are perceived as a public nuisance, their begging income goes away. I was panhandled for a solid 11 years, within 2 blocks of my front door. It made me unwilling to give cash, sometimes willing to give food, and aware of what these people really are and aren't.

Also FYI, tons of 'em are felons. So many, that I have to wonder how felons are being created in such large numbers by our penal system.

[W & C]

What's the big deal with the homeless ? Every downtown of a major city has them, even the family-friendly Indianapolis downtown. Vancouver had plenty last time I was there as well.

I wish downtown Bellevue had more homeless, then it'd seem less artificial.

[CarlB328]

The "laid back" rep has always been a mystery to me

Most people in the northwest don't dress or act formally often, if at all, and prefer to spend our free time reading on the couch, camping, or other peaceful, mellow activities.

Seattle has become much more fast paced in the last 20 years due to population growth, a more corporate economy, people migrating from other places, etc.

The Washington I grew up in has been destroyed in many areas.