What is Seattle like?

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: Deeko

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven

Originally posted by: Deeko

7. The sports fans are pansies. I went to a Mariners/A's gam, got drunk and started yelling about the Phillies and no one even gave me a 2nd glance.

They just hold their liquor better.

Dude....that's not desireable at a sporting event. It's your right...nay, your DUTY to get drunk and make an ass out of yourself! My only regret is that I didn't pregame so I didn't get truly belligerent. Oh well...there's always next time!

Drink a second Zima next time, you'll scare the Hell out of them.

 

[jacob0401]

Originally posted by: zach0624

Originally posted by: Ricemarine
There's only one amusement park not even in Seattle (Wild Waves in Federal Way)... You get bored of Seattle Center if there are no events going on such as the Bite of Seattle, Chinese New Year, etc. Then there is the Puyallap Fair and Evergreen State Fair, which the Puyallap Fair is more about farmlife, while the Evergreen State Fair is a small fair. Most people tend to go to the mountains at least an hour away from Seattle. Not sure what else is there... heh.

rush hours and traffic jams are a pain btw. I got stuck in I-405 for 2 hours going from Bellevue to HWY 522.

I have to agree with the traffic here. I405 and SR2 are horrible and SR2 is very dangerous to drive on. However Seattle is a great place to live, the waterfront is nice, and pike place market is awesome and there is a ton of stuff to do around there.

SR2? kinda out there for a guy living in redmond...i'll agree with I405, and the two bridges though...

Seattle is nice, but you stated you don't like outdoor activities. Highly suggest you get into it...otherwise you'll not be able to take full advantage of the area. Bellevue downtown (15 minutes from Redmond) has great shopping, movie, bars, restaurants full of young professionals and other semi-suburban-ites if that is what you are interested in.

These are considered "eastside" suburbs of Seattle and are generally great. I've lived in the eastside for 16 years, although last 4 spent in u-district (University of Washington) where like any area around colleges in major cities aren't the best.

Seattle city proper is alright, violent crime isn't high. Some crappy areas like any major city, other areas that are more gentrified. Some pretty eclectic areas as well that I bet you can find in SF too...

Oh and jaywalking happens all the time by students in U-district...

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

Originally posted by: sandorski
Seattles ok. For a Vancouver wannabe, but since that's another Country, Seattle will just have to do for you.

Canada is ok, for an America wannabe.

No Wannabe of America here. We have different Values and Dreams.

Kinda-sorta, not really. I have travelled EXTENSIVELY, and I am convinced that Canada and the US are almost the same country. Not insulting you or anything, that's just the way it is.

Dont they have pretty different foreign policies? Seems like Canada takes pride in being similar to America but still NOT America... if that makes any sense. Especially now that the US dollar is tanking and we're in the Iraq quagmire.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

Originally posted by: sandorski
Seattles ok. For a Vancouver wannabe, but since that's another Country, Seattle will just have to do for you.

Canada is ok, for an America wannabe.

No Wannabe of America here. We have different Values and Dreams.

Kinda-sorta, not really. I have travelled EXTENSIVELY, and I am convinced that Canada and the US are almost the same country. Not insulting you or anything, that's just the way it is.

Dont they have pretty different foreign policies? Seems like Canada takes pride in being similar to America but still NOT America... if that makes any sense. Especially now that the US dollar is tanking and we're in the Iraq quagmire.

It's more complicated than that, but essentially correct. Canada has always been Part New World and part Old World(Europe), never one or the other. Canadians also have a very different attitude towards Government than Americans do, being much more open to Public solutions and more suspicious of Private solutions, almost the exact opposite of American attitudes.

What we share is a common History up until the American Revolution, Language, and love for Freedom. When subjects such as War come up, Canadians are reluctant to get involved, especially those in Quebec, but when we do we often carry more than our weight.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

Originally posted by: sandorski
Seattles ok. For a Vancouver wannabe, but since that's another Country, Seattle will just have to do for you.

Canada is ok, for an America wannabe.

No Wannabe of America here. We have different Values and Dreams.

Kinda-sorta, not really. I have travelled EXTENSIVELY, and I am convinced that Canada and the US are almost the same country. Not insulting you or anything, that's just the way it is.

dual citizen here but live in us now.
difference?not as much as they'd like to think. canadas foreign policy? being almost irrelevant makes their position irrelevant

 

[skyking]

OP, do what you can to live close to work. Seattle is nice to visit on the weekends, but I would not want that eastbound commute. It is bad going to worse, with talk of tolls on a new 520 bridge.
If the work location is convenient to the bus lines, I'd look for something that would allow the use of mass transit.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: skyking
OP, do what you can to live close to work. Seattle is nice to visit on the weekends, but I would not want that eastbound commute. It is bad going to worse, with talk of tolls on a new 520 bridge.
If the work location is convenient to the bus lines, I'd look for something that would allow the use of mass transit.

I agree. Commuting by car in the Seattle area is horrible.

 

[ThePresence]

Deeko, you got out of Philly. Any city should seem like a breath of fresh, crime-free air.

 

[Phokus]

I visited seattle once, i thought it was quite nice.

 

[lupi]

It's not hell, but you can see it from there.

 

[AreaCode7O7]

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
Redmond area....hmmmmm. Microsoft?

Or Nintendo or T-Mobile or Google or...

 

[AreaCode7O7]

1. Traffic sucks. Seattle and the surrounding areas have outgrown their infrastructure and the politiians spend a lot of time bickering over what to do about it.
2. LIVE NEAR WORK. You will spent the rest of your life commuting if you don't. If you have questions about specific areas in which to live, post them. There are people here who would be happy to answer them.
3. People are very friendly but they only want to actually MAKE friends in certain environments. If you join a hiking club, you will make friends. You will most likely not make friends at work, just acquaintances.
4. It doesn't actually rain that much, it's just overcast the entire winter. Whenever it rains hard, the Seattle people freak out. (NorCal here, and I think it's rather funny.)
5. Summers are great, excellent weather, lots of outdoors stuff to do, lots of events going on.
6. Arts and music community are really good up here. NWSource.com is a good place to look up events.
7. Definitely a left-wing, PC, PETA type county while the surrounding state is more right-wing, farmland, 2nd amendment type area
8. If you're conservatively religious you may have trouble finding a church/synagogue/mosque/etc. See point 7.
9. Good but competitive area for kids. Good schools are often full, camps max out quickly, lots of parents are pouring money and effort into college-prepping their youngsters.
10. Great outdoor activities like hiking, biking, camping, boating, kayaking, fishing, disc golf, rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding, etc.
11. Good work opportunities; MS isn't the only company up here and it keeps the market rather competitive.
12. Insane housing prices to start with, but the market hasn't dropped as far as it could have compared to other areas.
13. ? What else do you want to know about?

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: AreaCode707
1. Traffic sucks. Seattle and the surrounding areas have outgrown their infrastructure and the politiians spend a lot of time bickering over what to do about it.
2. LIVE NEAR WORK. You will spent the rest of your life commuting if you don't. If you have questions about specific areas in which to live, post them. There are people here who would be happy to answer them.
3. People are very friendly but they only want to actually MAKE friends in certain environments. If you join a hiking club, you will make friends. You will most likely not make friends at work, just acquaintances.
4. It doesn't actually rain that much, it's just overcast the entire winter. Whenever it rains hard, the Seattle people freak out. (NorCal here, and I think it's rather funny.)
5. Summers are great, excellent weather, lots of outdoors stuff to do, lots of events going on.
6. Arts and music community are really good up here. NWSource.com is a good place to look up events.
7. Definitely a left-wing, PC, PETA type county while the surrounding state is more right-wing, farmland, 2nd amendment type area
8. If you're conservatively religious you may have trouble finding a church/synagogue/mosque/etc. See point 7.
9. Good but competitive area for kids. Good schools are often full, camps max out quickly, lots of parents are pouring money and effort into college-prepping their youngsters.
10. Great outdoor activities like hiking, biking, camping, boating, kayaking, fishing, disc golf, rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding, etc.
11. Good work opportunities; MS isn't the only company up here and it keeps the market rather competitive.
12. Insane housing prices to start with, but the market hasn't dropped as far as it could have compared to other areas.
13. ? What else do you want to know about?

:thumbsup:

10. you forgot surfing.

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: AreaCode707
1. Traffic sucks. Seattle and the surrounding areas have outgrown their infrastructure and the politiians spend a lot of time bickering over what to do about it.
2. LIVE NEAR WORK. You will spent the rest of your life commuting if you don't. If you have questions about specific areas in which to live, post them. There are people here who would be happy to answer them.
3. People are very friendly but they only want to actually MAKE friends in certain environments. If you join a hiking club, you will make friends. You will most likely not make friends at work, just acquaintances.
4. It doesn't actually rain that much, it's just overcast the entire winter. Whenever it rains hard, the Seattle people freak out. (NorCal here, and I think it's rather funny.)
5. Summers are great, excellent weather, lots of outdoors stuff to do, lots of events going on.
6. Arts and music community are really good up here. NWSource.com is a good place to look up events.
7. Definitely a left-wing, PC, PETA type county while the surrounding state is more right-wing, farmland, 2nd amendment type area
8. If you're conservatively religious you may have trouble finding a church/synagogue/mosque/etc. See point 7.
9. Good but competitive area for kids. Good schools are often full, camps max out quickly, lots of parents are pouring money and effort into college-prepping their youngsters.
10. Great outdoor activities like hiking, biking, camping, boating, kayaking, fishing, disc golf, rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding, etc.
11. Good work opportunities; MS isn't the only company up here and it keeps the market rather competitive.
12. Insane housing prices to start with, but the market hasn't dropped as far as it could have compared to other areas.
13. ? What else do you want to know about?

Don't know about #10. I recall about every year the discussion of whether or not the rain will last long enough to break the continous days of rain record.

 

[AreaCode7O7]

Originally posted by: lupi

Originally posted by: AreaCode707
1. Traffic sucks. Seattle and the surrounding areas have outgrown their infrastructure and the politiians spend a lot of time bickering over what to do about it.
2. LIVE NEAR WORK. You will spent the rest of your life commuting if you don't. If you have questions about specific areas in which to live, post them. There are people here who would be happy to answer them.
3. People are very friendly but they only want to actually MAKE friends in certain environments. If you join a hiking club, you will make friends. You will most likely not make friends at work, just acquaintances.
4. It doesn't actually rain that much, it's just overcast the entire winter. Whenever it rains hard, the Seattle people freak out. (NorCal here, and I think it's rather funny.)
5. Summers are great, excellent weather, lots of outdoors stuff to do, lots of events going on.
6. Arts and music community are really good up here. NWSource.com is a good place to look up events.
7. Definitely a left-wing, PC, PETA type county while the surrounding state is more right-wing, farmland, 2nd amendment type area
8. If you're conservatively religious you may have trouble finding a church/synagogue/mosque/etc. See point 7.
9. Good but competitive area for kids. Good schools are often full, camps max out quickly, lots of parents are pouring money and effort into college-prepping their youngsters.
10. Great outdoor activities like hiking, biking, camping, boating, kayaking, fishing, disc golf, rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding, etc.
11. Good work opportunities; MS isn't the only company up here and it keeps the market rather competitive.
12. Insane housing prices to start with, but the market hasn't dropped as far as it could have compared to other areas.
13. ? What else do you want to know about?

Don't know about #10. I recall about every year the discussion of whether or not the rain will last long enough to break the continous days of rain record.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Seattle-Washington.html
Precipitation Chart: http://pics2.city-data.com/w3/prc23292.png
Sunshine Chart: http://pics2.city-data.com/w6/sun23292.png
Avg Temp Chart: http://pics2.city-data.com/w1/lha23292.png

According to that, the precipitation in Seattle is less than the national average from April to September. That doesn't account for the cloud cover though.

 

[AreaCode7O7]

Originally posted by: buck

Originally posted by: AreaCode707
1. Traffic sucks. Seattle and the surrounding areas have outgrown their infrastructure and the politiians spend a lot of time bickering over what to do about it.
2. LIVE NEAR WORK. You will spent the rest of your life commuting if you don't. If you have questions about specific areas in which to live, post them. There are people here who would be happy to answer them.
3. People are very friendly but they only want to actually MAKE friends in certain environments. If you join a hiking club, you will make friends. You will most likely not make friends at work, just acquaintances.
4. It doesn't actually rain that much, it's just overcast the entire winter. Whenever it rains hard, the Seattle people freak out. (NorCal here, and I think it's rather funny.)
5. Summers are great, excellent weather, lots of outdoors stuff to do, lots of events going on.
6. Arts and music community are really good up here. NWSource.com is a good place to look up events.
7. Definitely a left-wing, PC, PETA type county while the surrounding state is more right-wing, farmland, 2nd amendment type area
8. If you're conservatively religious you may have trouble finding a church/synagogue/mosque/etc. See point 7.
9. Good but competitive area for kids. Good schools are often full, camps max out quickly, lots of parents are pouring money and effort into college-prepping their youngsters.
10. Great outdoor activities like hiking, biking, camping, boating, kayaking, fishing, disc golf, rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding, etc.
11. Good work opportunities; MS isn't the only company up here and it keeps the market rather competitive.
12. Insane housing prices to start with, but the market hasn't dropped as far as it could have compared to other areas.
13. ? What else do you want to know about?

:thumbsup:

10. you forgot surfing.

Oh, and clamming. Mmmmm, razor clams.

 

[mykol1010]

When I was up there for a year and a half, we had 2 freak snow storms hit the area. Let most of the roads iced up for weeks. People were abandoning their cars and even public transit buses were being left on the side of the road. Since apparently snow storms come around once every several years they don't have the equipment to handle the roads in a timely manner. Was a pretty comedic site to be honest, but being from socal with my summer tires sure sucked arse. It was funny to see everyone rush home as soon as a snowflake showed up outside our work windows though.

We also had a crazy windstorm with 90+ mph winds in some areas. I was left without power for 4 days and some of my coworkers didn't have power for up to two weeks. Was pretty surreal to drive down highway 99 at night and see one side of the street completely dark and the other side completely lit.

Weather wise it sure was exciting compared to the boring old clear skies sunny days of SoCal!

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: mykol1010
When I was up there for a year and a half, we had 2 freak snow storms hit the area. Let most of the roads iced up for weeks. People were abandoning their cars and even public transit buses were being left on the side of the road. Since apparently snow storms come around once every several years they don't have the equipment to handle the roads in a timely manner. Was a pretty comedic site to be honest, but being from socal with my summer tires sure sucked arse. It was funny to see everyone rush home as soon as a snowflake showed up outside our work windows though.

We also had a crazy windstorm with 90+ mph winds in some areas. I was left without power for 4 days and some of my coworkers didn't have power for up to two weeks. Was pretty surreal to drive down highway 99 at night and see one side of the street completely dark and the other side completely lit.

Weather wise it sure was exciting compared to the boring old clear skies sunny days of SoCal!

Everyone bolted early when the snow started coming for good reason. The forecasters predicted a lot of wet snow and told everyone that for the next 2-3 days it would be well below freezing. Meaning the wet snow would turn to a sheet of ice pretty quick, which it did. Since Seattle doesnt have squat for snow removal or ice melting, it was common sense to get home. That storm was awesome, well almost as awesome as the windstorm. The SO and I were up almost the whole night, the wind was incredibly loud.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: mykol1010
When I was up there for a year and a half, we had 2 freak snow storms hit the area. Let most of the roads iced up for weeks. People were abandoning their cars and even public transit buses were being left on the side of the road. Since apparently snow storms come around once every several years they don't have the equipment to handle the roads in a timely manner. Was a pretty comedic site to be honest, but being from socal with my summer tires sure sucked arse. It was funny to see everyone rush home as soon as a snowflake showed up outside our work windows though.

We also had a crazy windstorm with 90+ mph winds in some areas. I was left without power for 4 days and some of my coworkers didn't have power for up to two weeks. Was pretty surreal to drive down highway 99 at night and see one side of the street completely dark and the other side completely lit.

Weather wise it sure was exciting compared to the boring old clear skies sunny days of SoCal!

My sister and brother-in-law lived there for years. During that windstorm, the psycho neighbor went out cut down their fence with a chainsaw. My brother-in-law was very ill at the time and couldn't do anything about it, and the police couldn't spare anyone to come out there, for obvious reasons.

 

[rubenswm]

Spent six months there as an intern with Microsoft. Couple observations

- As a couple others have pointed out, summer weather in SEA is almost perfect. The rain can suck, but it doesn't snow much (if at all)
- If you are into skiing/snowboarding, you'll love the access to legit skiing, whistler, etc
- Traffic really is a horrible problem
- If you're looking at buying property, depending on your income, you could realistically buy into a phenomenal view of the water..or access to water..both rare opptys in many other cities
- there is no income tax, plus from an investment standpoint, you are buying into one of the strongest housing markets in the country (one of the few which is actually projected to continue growing, and has remained strong through the bubble)

I now live in Manhattan, so my perspective is probably a little different, but there isn't anywhere else in the country I'd rather live than maybe SF / Bay Area (for work). Overall, a great city if you enjoy nature

 

[GrassR00t]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
With the amount of people in the Seattle area we should have an AT meetup.

I'm down with that.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: GrassR00t

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
With the amount of people in the Seattle area we should have an AT meetup.

I'm down with that.

ditto

 

[Deeko]

I don't want to hang out with you dorks. Especially not Buck.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: Deeko
I don't want to hang out with you dorks. Especially not Buck.

buck is an asshole....

 

[geckojohn]

Lots of rain... but just drink lots of Starbucks and you should be fine. Good luck with the new job

/thread