People living in Seattle: answer me a few questions please?

[noahmijo]

Now this is extremely simpleton of me but I am just curious.

Okay I currently live in Tucson, Az which as many know I have strong feelings against. Sometimes I love this place most of the time I hate it due to the weather and the people. Primarily the people are redneck religious repukes. Oh yea you all hear stories about how Tucson was the only area in Arizona that leans Democratic, but keep in mind we have a Republican mayor, a Republican city council, ect you get the idea.

Quite frankly most of the Democrats out here would be considered moderate republicans in solid blue states. They're just not insane religious freaks and they don't agree with the Iraq war and that's about all that seperates most of them from the repukes out here.

Sure DU Democrats exist out here but they are not anywhere near the majority.

Anyways sorry I just wanted to give some background so lemme get to the point. I do plan on moving to Seattle or the Seattle area someday primarily to escape this ridiculous weather. I love rain and seeing a green landscape. I visited Seattle for 2 weeks last Spring and I fell in love with it. I also noticed an amazing difference;

Nobody out there had a Confederate Flag on their vehicle (In Tucson I see one at least once a week)

It doesn't seem like you have the religious yahoo population that you do out here.

Just overall it seems like a few kinks aside it's strongly at least a left of center leaning town.

My girlfriend who wants to be a teacher would be treated with less dignity than a felon here if she taught in a Tucson school especially given that our state is only second to Mississippi when it comes to funding for education.

I doubt in Washington she'd be given that kind of shitty treatment.

So right now I'm loving Tucson during the monsoon season as far as being outside goes, but given the fact that every damn day I have to just say out loud "have I mentioned how much I hate these people..." ;)

Oh I myself plan on being a Network Engineer or Network Admin when I move up there. I'd imagine the economy up there is healthy for those in that field if not it will surely get better within a couple of years...it can't be worse than the zero economy for tech people here in Tucson.

[Shell Beau]

1. There is nothing wrong with religious people as long as they

aren't fanatics. I live in MS BTW, so I can't help you with your question. Just wanted to say that.

[noahmijo]

4. religious yahoo = fanatic (From noahmijo dictionary page 456)

:)

[Shell Beau]

6. Oh! Sorry!

:D

[flamingyouth]

2. I'm a Seattle native and I think it's a nice place to live.

The economy has been slow over the past years and housing costs are high, but it seems like the job market might be picking up a bit. It's definitely a liberal-leaning city.

[LisaM]

3. The economy has been struggling some

and houses cost an absolute FORTUNE. There are some religious nuts around the outlying areas (the rest of the state is not as liberal as Seattle) and there is a big mega-church on the eastside, but, unless you work at Microsoft, you don't have to go over there. I did hear that Microsoft is looking for computer science engineers. Teachers don't have it that great here, though I don't think it's as bad as some places. We actually passed an initiative to guarantee teacher salaries, but unfortunately it butted up against other tax-stripping initiatives and our chicken governor (Gary Locke) wouldn't stand up for the teachers.

You will not see Confederate flags here and you will meet many liberals. It's not that easy to make friends right out of the box - it takes a long time, and generally you have to seek out friends by being in activities (book clubs, softball teams, etc.) Don't expect, for instance, neighbors or co-workers to strike up friendships, though they will be friendly to you.

I think you will like it better than being in Tucson, though.

[noahmijo]

7. I actually planned on taking residence in a nearby town

like Silverdale, however I wanted to work in Seattle. I love boats and taking the ferry everyday would be a joy to me, plus it gets around the high housing costs. At least last time we cruised around Silverdale and surrounding areas houses weren't cheap but were within "real world" cost. In fact last time I looked on average housing costs especially what you get were cheaper in Silverdale than in Tucson (which is soon to be the next San Diego)

Just the fact that ANY initiative was passed in favor of teachers is a tremondous step forward as to how Arizona treats its teachers.

Hell just the fact that teacher's unions exist up there is a big step forward.

Thanks for your thoughts, I totally know what you mean by making friends outta the box; I used to live in NYC as a little kid, and of course I still visit there alot to visit relatives and old friends and I know just what you mean by that club mentality you have to acquire before fitting in.

[miss_kitty]

5. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

It's like 68 right now even cooler-wait I'll check the weather channel. I was wrong. IT'S 59!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhh.

You WILL see A confederate flag or two in Lynnwood and north but not many.

I KNOW there are SOME that say we are UNFRIENDLY, but that is simply untrue. I think it is the transplants who are the unfriendly ones. And generally a lot of natives don't like to hear transplants bitch about here-the weather the traffic. It is what it is.

But please come on up! We always have room for another couple of dems! If you live in Seattle, you can be proud to be represented by Dr Jim McDermott in the House.

[LisaM]

8. It's supposed to get up to 72 today!

but back up to the 80s by the weekend.

The friendly/unfriendly debate will always rage. People are generally friendly to me, but making close friends took a long time. My boyfriend's father is from here and enjoys privacy and being behind closed doors. His mother is from the south and enjoyed having a big house always open to friends. I am one who wants people to drop by, call, etc., whenever they feel like it, but it's rare that people here will do so. And I certainly don't feel that I can ever go to someone's house without planning it first. Again, I don't think people are unfriendly per se, but if you expect to quickly acquire a large circle of friends, you may be disappointed.

[miss_kitty]

10. come over to my hood

I'll be friendly, LisaM!

:hi:

[LisaM]

11. Yes, I would like to get together sometime

We need to have an event one of these days. I live near Northgate. Where are you?

[miss_kitty]

14. I'll pm you

I have a groovy pic I got off the Internets, but I don't want to go global or burn this guys bandwidth in a huge way

[LisaM]

17. Got it, answered it!

I don't like the float plane noise much - because it makes everything shake. I think the number of float planes has vastly increased, though, don't you?

[miss_kitty]

18. No. They are controlled by the FAA

the thing that brought up the ban movement was the float plane businesses were appying to increase the number of flights. I do think some days they are noisier than on others.

[noahmijo]

9. you're killing me.....

2 weeks ago it was on average about 109 and now it's averaging to about 95......

Well when I was up there my impression was the people range from "city" kind of people who aren't rude just in a hurry you know gotta get to my destination types understandable and then other people were just really cool and friendly and easy to talk to. You have assholes no matter where you live that's a given my goal is to minimize the exposure to jerky people.

I know what you mean by transplants. In our case though it's probably for the better as most of the transplants are from Cali and NY but it's annoying how they are primarily the force behind rising housing costs not to mention alot of them move out here because they're sick of "liberal policies" in those states.

You would hear me praising the weather; I WANT lots of rain lots of green and temperatures as cold as you can get em. Just so long as it's not the kind of weather I saw as a kid in Niagara Falls where there is so much snow your roof can cave in then I'm fine with cold :) From what I understand Washington is temperate (read: NORMAL) it gets cold in the winter and it gets lots of rain but you tend to have four seasons.

In Tucson our four seasons are Cool, Warm, Hot, HELL.

[miss_kitty]

12. Rarely any snow here anymore

And the true objections I have about transplants is they often work to make 'here' be like 'there'.

I live by a lake that has a lot of float plane action. Boeing was founded down the street from me. Float planes have been flying off this lake for nearly 100 years. A few years back a load of effing transplants who bought up some houseboats actually TRIED to get the float planes banned, because they "made too much noise" Wah Wah boo hoo.

And I saw a LTTE where an asshat from New York advocated people be forced to move their cars from one side of the street to the other every 24 hours "just like we do in New York" :grr:

[noahmijo]

16. No one thing I totally believe in

You move somewhere because you like the way it is over there not to make it like the place you're moving from.

I tell other New Yorkers down here that hey if you don't like it move back to NYC if you think it's so much better there why'd you leave?

In completely the opposite direction I say make any minor changes to progress with the times but outright doing away with anything that clearly defines the culture like houseboats that's bullshit that's like moving to a place near an airport and then complaining about the noise.

It was there first buddy if you don't like it you've living in the wrong place that's what I'd say to the transplants who don't like houseboats.

[dback]

13. I grew up in Seattle--people are cool, in all sense of the word

Definitely friendly, but in a casual way. You're not going to see a lot of "instant buddies," unless you're in a community, club or profession that encourages it. I think some of the slight reserve might go back to the city's Scandinavian roots, compared to the warmth and hospitality of the French/Spanish/Irish that helped make up the South. But the Northwest is definitely warmer in personality than chunks of the Northeast.

Note on the humor: it skews very dark, and a little twisted. (Gary Larson & Matt Groening are both Northwesters.) Also Gus Van Sant and Chuck Pahaulik (sp?)--the guy who wrote "Fight Club." Oh, and filmmaker Todd Haynes.

Politically, it's moderate all the way down I-5 from North of Seattle, very liberal in Seattle, liberal/moderate down through Tacoma and Olympia, then starts to get more conservative as you get more rural. (Also as you get further and further East.) However, I can't ever recall having seen a Confederate symbol anywhere except on TV during "Dukes of Hazzard." In Southern Washington, however, there are a couple right-wing jobs with billboards; maybe they're heroes in their communities, but they're dismissed by the population-at-large.

[Ariana Celeste]

15. That's the area I come from. :)

I never actually lived in Seattle, but I've lived in Renton, Kent, Auburn, Covington, Tacoma, and Fall City (Next to Snoqualmie).

So, pretty much always near the Puget Sound. Washington is such a beautiful state. Well, Western WA. I never liked Eastern, WA, it's like a different country. Winthrop is nice for vacation, though. Anyways off track- Washington has everything I could ask for. Great mass transit in the Puget Sound area. Great libraries. The educational system in King County and parts of Pierce county is very nice. Teachers don't get paid a ton of money, but my cousin is a 4th grade teacher in King County and she loves her job. The only complaints she has really is the standardized testing and Bushies NCLB crap. The economy is definitely better than some other states, though it isn't as great as it used to be.

As for environment... it's great, such a variety. Ocean, forest, rain forest, the cascade mountains. Rivers everywhere. Valleys and foothills. When my SO saw WA for the first time, he fell in love, too.

The rural areas, as someone else said, can get pretty conservative. But for the most part WA is blue. Unless you go to Eastern WA, but as I said, it's like a whole different country over there.

You'll love it there, there is SO much to do all over the state.

[Zomby Woof]

19. Seattle sucks

The tech economy, which defined Seattle in the 90's, burst its bubble 4 years ago, and is still in rotten shape. It is EXPENSIVE to live there, especially with no job. The job market is still wretched. In fact, Seattle ranks 2nd to SF as the most expensive west coast city to live in.

Teachers are paid crappy in WA, whose budget problems are worse than Arizona's (lived in Seattle for 15 years before living in AZ for 2). Most teacher friends of mine bailed for CA for better pay and treatment.

It's dark and gray and wet in the winter. There is no racial diversity. It's the essence of smug, white, limousine latte liberalism - and the MOST passive-aggressive people in the entire US (I have lived on both coasts). The state government is a joke, getting hijacked by this clown Tim Eyman.

Get a little away from Seattle, and it's redder than AZ. The state's GOP party was the one who nominated Pat Robertson for prez in '88. They keep nominating religious kooks for governor too.

WA is washed up. Far better to have lived there in the late 80's/early 90's than now.

Tucson sucks for you as bad as Flagstaff did for me. But Seattle is a step sideways, not up.