COMMENT BY
COMMENT ABOUT PLACE
Seattle, WA
COMMENT
I loved it but I'm leaving
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.