I Hate Seattle

Over the course of my life I have lived in five states and at least eight cities. I’ve experienced life in everything from large, “world class” cities, to tiny, rural towns, and, in a strange way, I’ve not experienced anywhere as provincial as the greater Seattle area. I don’t mean “provincial” in the rural/anti-urban sense, but in the sense of being small-minded and having not experienced life outside of a particular area. In fact, sometimes it borders on outright xenophobia.

For example, the hating on Californians. Really? Honestly, throughout the past three decades, more people from Washington moved TO California than visa versa, and there was no hatred there. Not to mention the fact that it was actually MicroSoft and an improvement in Boeings business that helped the economy and allowed people to move here. Also, the “you’re not from here, so you won’t understand” attitude. Honestly, I’ve lived in large cities (Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles) and even very tiny towns where I never had to face this all the time. It’s like a defense mechanism, but it fails in that it only pisses people off more.

Even when Seattlites (and people from the PNW) travel, I have noticed intolerance for other people’s customs. Several friends (from Washington) who visited me when I lived in the East Coast complained constantly about the pedestrian traffic, the noise, etc. They refused to ride public transportation and thought that “only poor people lived in apartments.” (Try explaining that one in Manhattan.) In short, everything that was not familiar (or different from Washington) was wrong. Lobster rolls, walking to work, the hot dog buns at Fenway, the subway, the architecture (with it’s lack of detached, single-family homes), all of it was labeled “wrong.”

The same is true for the constantly poking fun at the Midwest and making rather unpleasant assumptions about the South, the Southwest, and even California. It’s almost as if Western Washington is their entire world and they think everything else is crap.

Has anyone else encountered this? It makes it hard to fit in sometimes and can be really annoying.

Yeah, the weather sucks here, but I can live with that. It's the people that get to me.
1. It never fails... every time I go for a run on Capitol Hill, I get bumped off the sidewalk by a pair of oblivious twits. Sweetheart, I'm sure that the new $100 boots that you got at REI for your 5-year-old ARE adorable, but I think you can pause that conversation for five seconds, eh? They'll see me coming, but it simply doesn't occur to them that if the sidewalk is only wide enough for two, we all can't pass together.
2. For a bunch of outdoorsy types, they sure are lazy. My building has very old, very slow elevators, but there are an awful lot of young, able-bodied residents who will waste everyone else's time so that they can avoid climbing one freakin' flight of stairs. And don't EVEN get me started about standing still, two abreast, on the DOWN escalator.
3. As somebody else mentioned here... diversity and tolerance, my ass. Note to all you radical non-conformists: have you noticed that you all look and sound exactly alike?
4. This one just makes me laugh. Have you noticed how Seattle-ites will stand at an empty intersection for as long as it takes until the signal tells them that it's safe to cross the street? Live a little, people!

I'm stuck here for three more years, when my youngest child will go off to college. Then I will be free to flee from this place forever!
I'm counting the days.

I now live in Lake Tahoe and thank god for that. I lived in Seattle for five years. I'm a junior at UW and still need to finish my degree but I'm not sure I can go back to that rain-filled, depressing, passive-aggresive, non-spontaneous city. Seattle is like an ex-boyfriend and I'm bitter about our relationship. I have many friends that, all of whom I love, but guess what? Do we ever, EVER, hang out? No. Because everyone in Seattle has their job, their school, their gym, their little isolated life that we have to navigate daily via bus, car, bike or walking and doing so takes FUCKING forever, so we never hang out. I go to work, school, yoga and then home. Once I'm home I listen to NPR and cook healthy food bought at the farmers market and sit in my clean meditative house and feel smug about what a green, intelligent life I'm leading and then feel depressed cause I want to see friends, but it's piss pouring outside and to drive, or walk, or bus would all suck and my friend lives on top of Fremont hill and I live at the bottom of Wallingford hill. So I sit, smug and depressed and dream of living somewhere sunny where people are bright and interested and available to hang out.

The first question you ask someone you meet in Seattle is "what's your name?" Second question, "Where do you live?" Because if you live in Beacon Hill and I live in Wallingford, let's not even bother talking to each other anymore cause we'll just be bummed that we like each other and know we'll never hang out.

FUCK SEATTLE. I'm not even there anymore, but just like a relationship, once you've moved on you start to realize all the things that drove you crazy, that you let pass you by, because you were blinded by love.

I was very happy to stumble across this website today. I moved to the North Seattle area in March of 2010. My lease is up on my apartment in about one month, so I am a critical decision point. To renew or not to renew, that is the question. I've lived a majority of my life in the SF Bay Area and Sacramento, CA. Two years prior to moving to Seattle, I lived in rural Nevada, on a ranch East of Reno. I must say that after one month of living in any other location, I had made more friends that I have made after living here for nearly one year. Is it just me or do people avoid making eye-contact as much as possible? I amuse myself by trying to engage people in conversation while shopping at the local QFC, even though it's obvious they do not want to talk to me or anyone else. The weather is dreadful. I'm not sure if I can survive another Fall and Winter. One thing I did not take into consideration, when I decided to relocate here, was that the geographical location. Being further North than I am used to, results in shorter periods of daylight in the cold months. I feel like I am always moving through a dark, damp, bone chilling fog. Well, I probably feel that way because I am. The only relationships I've formed are very superficial ones with co-workers and neighbors. The other day I was not feeling well and a terrible thought occured, "If something happens to me and I need help, besides 911, I have no one here to call. NO ONE". I have never found myself in that position before in my entire life. I am a fun loving lady, with an outgoing personality who always had dozens of friends within shouting distance in any other city. Why not here? Is it because I live in an apartment, drive a gas guzzling car, and do not carry around a $500.00 purse? I can't quite put my finger on why this area, notwithstanding the weather, and I do not mesh. But at least now I know that I am not the only one. I never thought I could feel lonely when I am surrounded by millions of people everyday. But I do.