A Bright Star just a bit tinged with age - 3/17/2023

I have lived here since 1975, I moved here from California but was born and raised in Michigan. I would have to say that I never regretted leaving Michigan and their brutal winters and overly conservative culture. I loved California when I moved to it in 1971, I was young and California had an energy to it unlike Michigan and I lived near Santa Cruz where the weather was great, the beaches incredible and the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains breathtaking. It was for me like living in paradise. My work brought me to Seattle in late 1975 which at the time was still recovering from the Boeing bust. Housing was very affordable although culturally it was lacking and there weren't very many good cafes and restaurants. Rush hour traffic was non existent and skiing was only a 30 minute drive and with vistas framed by water and mountains in every direction. People were provincial, a bit weary of newcomers at first but if you made the effort to get to know them and they judged you as okay you made fast friends. It is still very much that way. So here I am some 47 years later and many things have changed for the good and for the bad. On the negative side, Seattle is no longer affordable. We have some of the nations highest housing costs, food and gas prices. Because our political leaders dithered away about 25 years of potential progress on rapid transit (light rail) we have horrendous traffic. We are trying to play catch up and traffic has somewhat subsided post Covid with more people working from home. On the plus side we have a strong employment base and if you are a high paid tech worker the cost of living here is not a significant factor. On the plus side we have an abundance of cultural activities and entertainment. There are neighborhood cafes and restaurants in every neighborhood. The educational system is well above average. To the all important frequently asked question "What about the rain". All i can tell you having been raised in Michigan it is about the same. The difference is in Seattle we do not typically have cold winters with about two snow days a year. And unlike back east as our temperatures rise our humidity tends to fall. You won't break a sweat here just walking out the front door in July or August. My recommendation to anyone thinking of relocating here is spend a couple of weeks here in December to get a real taste of a Seattle winter. If you come here just in the summer you will think that you have died ad gone to heaven. Also don't expect to come here and find any bargain housing, a just get by wage here is $30/hour and anyone who says differently is lying.

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Bittersweet - 6/12/2022

I’ve lived in Seattle for just under 7 years and while it can be a stunningly beautiful place, I am very excited to leave. I’ll start with some of the positive aspects. I’d say the biggest positive is that it is full of plants, big trees, etc. They don’t call it the Evergreen State for no reason. Many people in Seattle’s neighborhoods have beautiful gardens. Despite having many plants, Seattle is one of the best places to live if you have seasonal allergies. You’ll see very few huge grass lawns like so much of America has. So many places have clear cut for new subdivisions, but not Seattle. There are also a lot of high-paying jobs here, but consider whether the COL and other disadvantages will be worth the extra income. Next big positive is the summer climate. Summer here is usually very pleasant and rarely ever uncomfortably hot and almost never humid. Temps usually in the mid 70s and sunny during summer. Another major positive is the availability of great food. There are tons of health food stores and all kinds of restaurants that are very good (especially if you like Asian food). Those are the things that I will miss the most. I would say one of the biggest negative aspects of living here is that it is usually grey and rainy for 8-9 months of the year and the days are very short during winter with the sun coming up around 8-8:30am and being almost dark just after 4pm. It doesn’t start to really feel warm until after July 4th. If your moods are impacted by weather at all, I wouldn’t recommend moving here. Next big negative is the traffic and road situation. Traffic here is awful and making matters worse is that most of the drivers are very timid, slow, and often unaware of the rules of the road and their own surroundings. If you like sports cars or enjoy driving at all, you do not want to move here. The roads are in consistently poor condition throughout the city. While they are building more light rail etc., it is still not a great place to be car-free unless you live right in downtown, which tends to have lots of camping drug addicts in it. The traffic/roads are bad enough that there have been plenty of times that I have just stayed home because I didn’t want to deal with the stress of driving in traffic. Another negative that I have seen is that politics are fairly extreme in one direction and a large portion of the population seems to want to keep the culture wars alive as long as possible. As a result of the political climate, Seattle has far fewer police than it did several years ago, so take that as you may. I haven’t seen city police enforcing traffic laws in years. Occasionally I will see state patrol however. Another thing to consider is that people are a little different in the PNW than other places. I rarely have strangers make small talk with me or say “hello” etc. This could be positive depending on your inclinations lol. I do think people tend to be more rude here than places in the south and midwest. Last few things I can think of to consider before moving here: forest fire smoke and cost of living. Since I’ve been here, half or more of the summers have had pretty bad air quality for at least a week or more due to forest fires in surrounding areas. I have had ash fall on my car because there was so much smoke in the air. Get a place with AC so you can filter the air well if you do move here. Finally, cost of living here is very high. You can live in a 5,000 sq ft house elsewhere for less than you can buy any house for here. If you aren’t making $100k+, there are other places you could have much higher standard of living. Good luck!

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great place to live, but very expensive - 5/28/2022

if you can afford it, Seattle is a very nice place to live and raise a family! however, it is extremely expensive and in the winter, it's rather gloomy. i love gloomy weather, but most of you might not. Seattle is easily one of the best cities in America in my opinion. i'm from Denver, Colorado and i've lived in Seattle for 10 years before, i would love to go back! this city is wonderful with plenty of great food, good culture, amazing schools, outstanding water quality, good air quality, very low crime compared to 90% of cities in America, and is overall an amazing place. i will admit, it's expensive and rather overpopulated, but what city doesn't have those problems?

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Good to visit but not to live - 4/8/2022

I've lived here for 15 years. Seattle downtown, including Cap Hill is not nice place to live, dangerous crazy people running wild, noisy, and expensive. Seattle is built on a steep hill so riding a bicycle is very difficult. And with the weather is usually cold and wet. South Seattle is located along a river, which is great living space, but instead is a polluted industrial wasteland. The North Seattle area has nice areas but are very expensive, over $1 million. Same with the Eastside Bellevue and Issaquah. This is where most of the the middle and upper class family neighborhoods are located. The whole area has beautiful weather for about 3 or 4 months in the Summer. The rest of the year is gloomy, cold, and wet. There are only two highways running North and South and they are always congested with traffic. Property taxes, sales, and gas taxes are high, but there is no personal income tax. The minimum wage is the highest in the country so expect higher prices. Good place to visit but look for nicer, lower cost places to live.

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Wonderful city, if you like being depressed - 3/21/2022

Lived here 24 years, was in Southern Oregon before that. I've missed small town Oregon starting the exact day we moved to Seattle. There is a difficult to measure miasma in this place, hard to name it but you can feel it weighing on you. Call it depressing, oppressive, abysmal, dark, hopeless, suffocating, I don't know but it's palpable. Maybe it's all the forest clear cuts in every direction, especially when you drive through the peninsula to the coast, maybe its that all the beautiful, sort-of-wild places within a 50 mile radius are choked with crowds and gleaming, expensive SUV's jockeying aggressively for parking at the trailhead, maybe its that all the land in every direction is either privately owned and off limits, or some kind of park or state forest that's absolutely jammed with people on the weekends, maybe it's the traffic, maybe it's the "Seattle Freeze." Then also could be the depressing weather, maybe it's the frenetic pace of things, the sighing of slumped, desperate people in survival mode because the cost of living keeps rising as housing costs climb steadily up, up, and away from the reach of 90% of home buyers.

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Don’t do it, this state is a complete MISTAKE - 1/4/2022

I have lived here my whole life, born and raised. To be honest with you.. I HATE IT! This is a transition state, we don’t have many natives here. Everyone is from every where but HERE and is looking to save money and leave, And with good reason. The people that ARE from here are VERY passive aggressive and “nice nasty”. Smile and say one thing but stab you in the back and do something completely different. Don’t get me wrong the state it’s self is absolutely breathtaking, but unless your a corporate employee or own a very successful business owner you’ll get very few chances to enjoy the beautiful things we offer because you’ll be to busy trying to survive and live. It’s WAY to expensive here!!! If you enjoy rude people, passive behavior in the office, snakes called “friends “ 80% rain and clouds, a poor pool of dateable humans, EVERYONE knowing EACH OTHER and I mean EVERYONE. gossip, Facebook pages full of exposing your “bf” or “gf” pointless and deviating shootings .. racial discrimination and the highest rate of depression you’ll ever know.. then welcome to Washington.. welcome home. There’s no point in moving here.. it’s a complete DEAD-END. I’m just being honest.. it’s a horror movie.

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Great and beautiful place to live, but expensive. - 9/5/2021

I was born there. I spent 57 years there before moving to the other side of the country. There is no income tax. It is surrounded by nature, including mountains and water, beautiful place to live. It's a safe place to live. It has great food choices, great job opportunities. Microsoft, Amazon, and Nintendo of America are headquartered there. There is only a few downsides to this place. It includes poor traffic, homeless and poverty rates are going up, and it's getting more expensive.

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DONT MOVE HERE SAVE YOURSELF - 9/3/2021

I’ve lived in it for 5 years and throughout it all the people are antisocial and hostile to people different than them.

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Expensive is an understatement - 8/20/2021

Hahaha! I can't believe Best Places lists the cost of living as it does. I consulted this site before moving there 18 months ago from Vancouver, WA. 7% more expensive on food? I think not! Try 20-30%. Gas is easily $0.80 cents more a gallon, and misc is 50-100% more expensive. The cost of even a standard haircut at Great Clips will run you $30+. Don't even get me started on how grumpy and ill-mannered people are here... probably because you have to make $60k a year to even scrape by. The weather and the proximity to the mountains and salt water were the only perks, in my opinion. It's been a miserable run and I cannot wait to leave. The break ins, crime, drugs, and violent homeless are enough to make anyone want to leave.

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Seattle - Crime is killing the city - 7/29/2021

I’ve lived in Seattle for 6 years. When I moved to the city it was lively, fun, and relatively safe for a big city. Seattle is surrounded by mountains and water. The city itself is gorgeous, but now it is too dangerous to walk down the street after 5pm. Gun violence is way up and so is rent. Homicides are already past yearly average in 6 months. It breaks my heart to see a beautiful city turn into a dark place. There are no consequences for breaking the law. Criminals are out in 24 hours after murdering pets, rape, violence etc. For 5 months people have been throwing concrete on cars that are coming into the city from the interstate. Homelessness and mental illness is a huge issue that continues to grow. Somehow the city continues to get more expensive though. I know many professionals who are starting to search elsewhere for work especially if this upcoming election winners continue to value lawlessness. I hope Seattle can turn around. It slipped quickly the past few years.

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My move from Seattle to SoCal. - 7/6/2021

I lived in western Washington for the first 45 years of my life. Moving to Las Vegas May 2000 looking for gainful employment. Of which I found some for 6 Months, then the bottom fell outta that. I had to move again after 4 more months looking for work, which I had done for six Months searching before I got the 6 mo position. I was out of money, couldn't afford rent on the little UI I was getting from Nevada all alone, was fighting again with the ex. Life was going to hell in a handbaskit on an expeditious route, I had friends in SoCal, they told me to come on over. So, I packed up all my stuff and rode my Harley to Upland and then to Riverside.

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Seeking a Happy Life? Stay Away - 7/1/2021

Seattle is home to what's known as the "Seattle Freeze" - it's difficult to meet people and make new friends because the majority of people are introverted, closed off, and rude. Not to mention we have the highest rate for depsression and suicide in the country. Terrible place for dating if you're between 18-30, besides it being hard to meet people, everyone's already been traumatized and has walls up so good luck. Cost of living is extremely high and it's difficult to get by if you don't have a high paying job in tech. Homeless problem is astronomical and it seems like nobody really wants to help them or do anything about it. Leaving politics out of this, you'll hate it here no matter which way you lean.

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The Emerald City's downward slide - 5/28/2021

I moved to Seattle in 1986 from Chicago, and have lived in Seattle or its suburbs for 35 years. The Pacific Northwest is the most beautiful area in the country, and Seattle has had a booming economy with lots of high paying and family wage jobs. Some of the most brilliant people in the world live here. My family has prospered here, and I would be remiss if I failed to recognize the benefits we have received and the high quality of life we have lived. However, Seattle itself is in the midst of a horrific downward cycle which won't change until the voters of Seattle decide to elect politicians who care about safety, beauty, thriving businesses, and quality of life. Seattle had a homeless problem in 1986, but it has been allowed, actually encouraged, to flourish and spread throughout neighborhoods with incredibly poor and wasteful stewardship by city leaders. Several cities have found ways to assist the homeless population, providing them with services and means to better their lives, while protecting the neighborhoods from detrimental impacts. Seattle, on the other hand, just seems to throw good money after bad into the problem without accomplishing any improvements. Meanwhile, Seattle has allowed its roads and infrastructure to fall apart and the city to become increasingly filthy and squalid. I think it is an embarrassment to have tourists see what Seattle is becoming. Current Seattle leaders have no respect for the police, choosing to demonize and defund them in a the progressives' knee-jerk response to the George Floyd tragedy. Predictably, the police feel unsupported by City Hall and back off from rigorous enforcement of the laws. The crime rate has gone up and Seattle becomes less safe while infrastructure continues to crumble and filth and deterioration accumulates and spreads. The only thing the current leadership seems to know how to do is throw money at the problems without a viable plan. So they enact onerous business taxes to increase revenues on the back of a business community that already feels over-taxed and under-served. Again predictably businesses are moving out, and fed up residents are following them. Seattle is currently locked in a downward cycle that can only be reversed by bringing enlightened leadership into city government. Enlightened leadership means leaders who will use approaches to homelessness that have worked for other cities, who will prioritize and adequately fund the police while enacting needed reforms, who prioritize creating a clean and beautiful city, and who will remember that the business community is their ally, not just their piggy bank. It is a shame that a city with such spectacular resources is being allowed to deteriorate into a third world slum, and the elected leadership has other priorities and doesn't seem to care. The hopeful thing is that Seattle's future is in the voters' hands. We get what we elect.

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Yuck! - 5/5/2021

I've spent significant time in Washington over several decades. It was bad in the 70s aerospace bust, but that didn't spur the kind of decay that has ingrained itself in the city. What was a beautiful, vibrant downtown is now filthy. That's a polite description. The famous Pike's Place Market is just a tourist sham and not worth the time. Space Needle - same. Chihuly Garden is still worth a visit. Only do it during the day, and a nice one at that. The surroundings are full of nasty bums. What used to be a friendly place is much more sullen. It's like wasting your time in New York, not a city of the West. Don't bother visiting or working in this sump.

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I loved it but I'm leaving - 3/1/2021

I moved to Seattle in 1990. It was just changing from a mid-sized town to a more cosmopolitan city. Pros: Fast paced. Good for young professionals who want to have a high paying career. Close to Canada. Getting to Hawaii or California is easy. Natural beauty, with snow capped mountains overlooking wide blue water. It is green, with plant life everywhere. Orcas and Sea Lions. Great food. Great coffee. Rich artistic community. Liberal. Diverse. Accepting. Well-educated populace. Adequate (but overrated) healthcare. Many options to do what you like to do, many groups to join. Cons: Traffic - if you want to take a hike just outside the city, you will be in traffic for about 3 hours total. Incredibly expensive housing and entertainment. No warm nights, you will always need a jacket. Even days rarely get hot. The waters are gorgeous, but too cold to swim in (exception is Lake Washington, which is tolerable but still chilly). People can be superficially friendly, but hard to get to know...partly because it's so hard to get around. Seeing friends is a time commitment if they aren't in your neighborhood. Lot's of homelessness, and they camp everywhere, indicating we are not doing a good job of caring for our most vulnerable. The UW has some very archaic hospital policies, and is in the middle ages as far as health care goes.

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BestPlaces got this recommendation totally WRONG! - 2/24/2021

You have not been to Seattle in the past few years if you are recommending it as top place in the country to retire (unless everywhere else just sucks) A city council that wants to defund the police says it all, crime, filth, homeless drug addicts everywhere and cost of living through the roof. This is not the Seattle I did love for 30 years.

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Seattle is no longer a beautiful city - 2/24/2021

I’ve lived in Seattle most of my life. It is no longer the city it was in the 1980s and 1990s. It started to go downhill around 2010, but in the fast few years has become a horrible place to live. It is no longer safe to visit our downtown core or tourist areas. In the 1990s, when a flood of people moved to Seattle, I heard them call it ‘Mayberry with Skyscrapers’. It was referring to the fact that Seattle was a friendly place where people talked openly to one another. Now in 2021 it is a place of crime. The liberals have ruined a beautiful city. The homeless need help, but most of them don’t want help. The ones who truly want off the streets find ways to get off the streets. For many of them, it is a lifestyle. Giving the homeless free reign with camping anywhere and everywhere, looting and stealing, and drugs is not a solution. It has though created unsafe streets, parks, freeways, and a downtown. Allowing riots for months, freeway blockage, and random violence is also not a solution nor is it right for the government to encourage such violence. Friendly Seattle, where we used to feel safe in taking young children anywhere and everywhere is now a haven for crime. We are leaving as fast as we can leave.

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Disappointed in Seattle - 2/21/2021

My family moved to Seattle in 1978; my parents were both from this area. I have spent a total of 43 years living in Seattle. It used to be a wonderful city to reside in! I would have given Seattle 4 stars in the 1990s. At this point I would give it zero or 1/2 star if it was an option. My husband and I moved back to Seattle in 2011 with our children. We purchased a home, and we have been shocked by the decline that has taken place over the last 10 years. The liberal city council is determined to ruin Seattle, and they are succeeding in their goal. Seattle, fondly called Mayberry with Skyscrapers in the 1990s, is now a city with big city problems that are completely out of control. Crime has skyrocketed, the homeless tents are allowed to be in the parks and even on downtown Seattle sidewalks, safety is gone, looting is normal, and our house is going up for sale this spring. I would not recommend Seattle as a decent place to live. I do hope it recovers someday, but it would take a complete reversal and a choice to care again about the city and all people.

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Seattle has fallen - 2/6/2021

The publisher’s review of Seattle is completely incorrect as this place has turned into a hell hole. The comments and data he listed are in past tense, as a born and bred core of Seattle kid that was very intergrated into the city both socially and business I can tell you that this is a city on a downward trajectory and there is no stopping it until it does a complete crash. Thus many of us sadly (as we truly love this place) are leaving for locations that remind of what was Seattle which does not represent it today. I can tell that I love Seattle and that does not come close to my deep feelings for growing up here and my connection to the town’s growth, I am proud of that. However the change is due to the migration of people from CA, IL and NY that came here then changed it to suit their same lifestyle/politics they left. Emmett Watson had the right idea years back “Lesser Seattle”, people laughed at him for it, however what he said came true. Having a political party in place for 40 years with no challenger will act as if they own it, well that’s what happened. Good luck to anyone moving here, you’ll need it.

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A place for the wealthy - 1/25/2021

I was born in Seattle, WA in 1963, our family moved to three more states in my youth. My parents moved back to Seattle in the late '80s, my brother moved to Montana, and my sister and I moved back to Seattle in 1991. It was pretty crowded in 1991 but was still a beautiful place to live, Seattle was the hip place, Bellevue was dull on a weekend. In roughly the last 5 years it has progressively become a place I would not recommend to come and visit. The last 2 years have been the worst I have ever witnessed, and to top it off the cost of living has skyrocketed. The police want to help but have their hands tied, due to the City Council that is still for some odd reason still calling the shots. I will not go near downtown anymore, it is dangerous not to mention depressing as hell. All along the city freeways, in the city, the outskirts, you will see RVs & tents, people walking around out of their minds on drugs, the will attack and have killed at random as someone was just walking down the sidewalk, the other day a person was planting flowers downtown and a guy came up and kick her in the face (she ended up in the hospital with the front of her face crushed) and has been seen doing this to others as well. This is just one example, the police are leaving in droves as they have been told to not arrest people doing drugs (they can shoot right in front of a police officer), they can not arrest a homeless person for busting the windowfront of a business and then proceeded to loot and the list goes on. The City Council has been calling the shots for years and if they don't get the boot soon, the recovery of this city is going to take decades. Covid did not help but it was not the cause of the demise of Seattle. If you are wealthy and want to bring about a change it is a beautiful place to live but make sure you have a home security system and stay away from certain areas, there are many these days.

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