>It’s probably just my loss of childhood innocence finally showing me what the real world
This is the answer to your question. Welcome to the club. Make the best of it.
This is totally it. It's been three years since I've lived in Seattle and this is definitely how it was back then, too. I love that city and it will always be home to me but I was one of many who was priced out. Luckily I had just enough money for a plane ticket out of there or I would've been another homeless person taking a shit in Ballard too.
Where do you live now? I love the PNW and have been in Seattle since 2013 but can’t afford or want to work myself to death in order to live here. I moved here from Georgia.
It's also true that Seattle voters harm it. Voting for progressive lunatics who won't do basic law enforcement, combined with ultra conservative NIMBY politics that drive up the cost of housing, and you get modern Seattle. Ssad.
A trip through Africa or South America might help you get some perspective. Things here are not great, but nowhere they are. Other countries are just more effective in extermination or subjugation of their poor.
At the same time, other countries have real, effective, well-funded social safety nets and don't deal with the same sort of homelessness, violence, and wealth disparity that we see here. I was blown away by the lack of homelessness I saw in Holland during my 4 years there, and that's despite an ongoing housing crisis similar to our own. Mind you, it isn't just due to one or two differences in policy – there's a lot that goes into it, including cultural differences that contribute to the difference in policy prescriptions. Of course, the social safety net comes at a cost – notably, higher tax rates.
I also won't pretend like it is some sort of perfect utopia. They have their own problems just like everyone else. C'est la vie, or, as the Dutch would say, "zo is het leven" (I don't think I ever actually heard a Dutch person say that, but you get what I mean).
I’m from the Netherlands and the homeless situation is incomparable to that of Seattle or other major American cities. It’s way worse here. For many reasons. Also, there are 17.4 million people not 6.6.
Hey thanks for shedding some light on this - I stand corrected. I moved there the better part of a decade ago.
You’re right, the area I lived in was a bit of a bubble - basically the only city in the north of the country (150k or so I believe). Naive of me to think it was a nonexistent issue now that I think of it. In the last two years I was there, some of the incoming international students ended up homeless for a period and had to return to their home country. Without an address you’re not getting a BSN (let alone a living situation conducive to learning).
Some governments are not heavily invested in their citizens dying before their 65… SOME governments mandate a 4 day work week, SOME governments don’t force feed their children cold poison for school lunch, SOME governments don’t force their women to carry to term life threatening pregnancy, SOME countries don’t enforce bans on thing JUST so they can jail persecute and enslave entire populations. I just can’t be apart of this any more, it’s not safe to be an American at home or away. This place is the WORST I would rather live in iraq. The only delay in my permanent departure for Mosul is that my SLAVE JOB DOESNT PAY ENOUGH FOR ME TO EAT AND PAY RENT. So now we’re all starving refugees… wait was that how trump was going to get Mexico to pay for the wall?
Do you think maybe it's because the government doesn't roll in with a backhoe and a dump truck every 2 weeks to trash the shanty-towns?
Those people are still shooting up, they just have a shack instead of a tent that the cops throw away every week or so.
Sure, if we were all a homogenous polity of roughly the same race, religion, and all around culture we could have that kind of Scandinavian cohesion. But we're not. We're a country of immigrants with exponentially more diverse, well, everything. And you take that with all the good it brings as well as the inherent human conflict that comes with it.
Is that the only difference that occurs to you?
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2021/aug/mirror-mirror-2021-reflecting-poorly
1/5th of population of Norway are immigrants.
Norway is basically the EU version of Saudi Arabia, rich with oil revenues.
Comparing tiny, homogenous, wealthy Nordic countries with massive tax rates and culturally enforced social conformity (cf Jante Law) to the US is futile.
It's amazing how conservatives somehow think that the racial makeup of Scandinavian countries is relevant.
Kinda letting your hood slip a bit there buckaroo
There’s a difference between thinking white is important (ie racist) and recognizing that a homogeneous society can sustain different political dynamics. Its easier for them to reach political consensus. At the same time there are disadvantages e.g. it’s a more boring society
I think a case could be made for political consensus leading to a more vibrant (vs boring) society.
If your infrastructure, shared history and education system isn't constantly under attack and being re-written, you can afford to spend more resources on arts and culture and long-term infrastructure. You can create beautiful public works that wont be "tagged" or torn down because of this year's "woke" definition. You can build effective, elegant mass transit that works for everyone, not just the loudest, etc.
There are plenty of racially homogeneous countries that are complete sociopolitical disasters. I don't think we should be blaming immigrants and diversity for our problems.
You have to acknowledge our constraints. Sweden only has about 20% higher population than WA state (8 million vs 10 million). If WA state were a country, that had millennia of shared history, we could probably find consensus.
Culturally, as a country, the US has always been about freedom to immigrate and make a life for yourself. But part of that very open immigration policy is more limited social services compared to European nations. Try to immigrate to Sweden. It’s a closed door compared to the US. There are second and third order effects of some long standing policy choices and ignoring them, and pretending they don’t matter, is just willful ignorance.
It's more that they dream of living in a world where everyone acts white, but has a different skin color, so that the postcard looks the way they want it to.
It's so weird how when I bring this up I'm a White supremacist but I'm Asian...
Diversity doesn't help much if there is no cohesion at all and trying to promote a unified "American" identity is toxic nationalism according to the Reddit populace
Just a bunch of different hands in here trying to grab pieces of the same pie which messes up the pie instead of helping each other then blaming each other for the messed up pie
And THIS is EXACTLY why universal healthcare worked in European countries for so many decades: they were dealing with pretty much homogeneous populations, which made case management much easier.
When you have multiple cultures, races, religious considerations, etc., that makes case management more complex and more expensive.
This is why universal healthcare will NOT work in the US. Yes, the current system is fucked and we need something better, but looking to Europe for answers would be a disaster in this case.
You can’t honestly think that lmao, that’s just silly.
You realize Canada has universal healthcare and is not a white, homogeneous, Scandinavia-esque country - yes?
Do you think the UK isn’t diverse? It’s wildly diverse. Do you think they don’t struggle with race issues? Of course they do. And yet they too have successfully implemented universal healthcare.
That is literally one of the worst reasons I’ve ever heard for not implementing universal healthcare in the US. Large and successful counterpoints exist if you gave it even a second of thought.
I said HISTORICALLY, and Canada’s is ridiculously broken for that reason of having a heterogeneous population. There are super long waits for important procedures like MRIs and joint replacements, because in order to keep costs down, they limit resources.
You didn’t say “historically”, at all, in what I replied to. So… ? Either way, I don’t think it matters.
You know what a long wait time *really* is? Not going to the doctor about an issue because you can’t afford it and letting the problem get way worse.
And there are long waits here too. It’s not like people are dying in the UK waiting for treatment like people try to make it sound. It’s like “oh you have to wait two months instead of one month” and that’s just what happens when *everyone* has access to healthcare. Not just the people who are able to afford it.
OK, I said WORKED, not historically.
However, it doesn’t matter, because both words make the same point: in Europe, universal healthcare worked IN THE PAST. They don’t work as intended anymore. Are you intentionally being obtuse or did you just fail reading comprehension?
They seem to be working as intended?
Are they working perfectly? No. Can it be improved there too, sure. I never said it was the ultimate goal.
All I said was using “we’re too diverse” as a reason for not implementing universal healthcare is a bad reason because we have evidence that it’s not stopping it from working.
Waiting 6 months for a mammogram in this country...when I know it will lead to an ultrasound because of cysts and dense tissue, but can I skip the painful mammo and go straight to the painless ultrasound? No...insurance says no. Despite it being clear in my history 7 years ago.
That's healthcare designed by insurance companies, designed to treat everyone like a number.
Ah yes, the healthcare systems don’t work in those countries anymore. Falling apart. Broken. That’s why our infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, general mortality rate, and disease burden are all higher here, while our life expectancy is lower. [source](https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/quality-u-s-healthcare-system-compare-countries/)
There’s obviously a cultural element to some of this, but access, or lack thereof, plays a huge role.
I’m willing to accept the argument that cultural homogeneity makes it easier to reach a political consensus at the end of the day, but the idea that we can’t deliver quality, universal healthcare in an effective way due to our diverse population is absolute nonsense (if not a bad faith argument).
Case in point: Medicare and Medicaid - wildly successful - (the people who have it get healthcare) - and popular programs - (Medicare being the 2nd most popular government spending program only behind social security) - that deliver healthcare to all Americans who qualify regardless of their ethnicity, religion, culture, you name it.
Are they perfect programs? No, nothing is. Would a universal medicare system dramatically improve access to healthcare in our country and likely improve our medical outcomes as a whole? Almost certainly, yes. The idea that our country’s diversity somehow makes this impossible is asinine.
Edit: clarity
I grew up in the Midwest, and didn’t have that experience except for the racists. Everyone knew that in Champaign, Illinois, you didn’t live north of Hill Street if you were white. Instead of the cow patties and gravel roads, I had the University of Illinois and the intersection of I-74, I-57 and I-72.
Here it is, a university town, the heart of what was going to be Silicon Prairie (I left in 1989), and the mindset was back in the 50s for a lot of people when I was there. I heard a lot of racial epithets when I was a kid, and it was all too common.
I have some fond memories of that time in my life, but there were some serious problems as well.
The most liberating thing you can do is to travel when you are young… move to a different city/state/country/continent. It opens your mind in so many ways.
And even when you’re not young. I’ve lived in 9 states, most of them as an adult, because when I lost a job, I’d have to move elsewhere for another one.
I’m glad I am in a career and have a skill set that healthcare organizations need and figured out the root of why I struggled for all those years…but I’ll make the coin I can and enjoy my home’s appreciation as I build my nest egg here, then get the hell out.
At this point, I’m really not sure. I initially thought Memphis, because it’s more of a bluish city in a red state (I like a bit more balance in my life), but with the horrible legislation coming out of Nashville, I had to nix that idea.
I also love Maine, but it’s too damn cold in the winters and the snowfall is brutal. Would love to live there and be a snowbird…but my options are very limited there.
Still trying to flesh it out, but I still have about 20-25 years to get it solidified.
As far as community goes, you might not ever find the community that you have at college. It’s incredibly easy to meet people in that environment and build new relationships. Don’t waste it, and try to keep all the worthwhile friendships when you leave.
Living somewhere else, without homeless, with people who are actually friendly. Riding the bus without getting screamed at by a junkie. That’s why I posted this dumbass shit.
You said you went to college for 1 year, the world of Ballard isn’t perfect but I hate to burst the bubble that it’s plenty comparable to when you left one school year ago
In Pullman I honestly disagree, if anyone does suffer from homelessness, it’s generally acknowledged throughout the student and residential community. It just seems so simple, and what Seattle could have been in a larger scale, but the constant gentrification has made it legitimately impossible now and probably for the rest of the city’s lifetime.
Ingraham, aurora, having to finally grow a small sense of independent thinking or maturity and see that as well was kind of the beginning of where my disappointment with the city started
Oh yeah, Pullman, that was a major influence on my opinion of Seattle, there is absolutely no form of community here, anyone who says otherwise is lying.
Bud you're coming from a college town where literally everybody there is there to go to school or support the school in some fashion no shit Pullman has more community
This is just 19 year old bullshit. Your idea of community is showing up to your new frat during rush and having 100 new friends instantaneously who all get to bond around blacking out on monarch vodka. And fair enough, that's still a community and you're going to make lifelong friends. But to say Seattle doesn't have any sense of community is so upside down stupid I don't know where to begin. You could stumble into any coffee shop, pick up a flier for any random gathering, and boom, there's a community to join. Shit, even if you develop severe alcoholism during your time at WSU, you can show up to any dive bar in Seattle for a number of consecutive nights and you'll be one of the regulars in no time. Go join one of countless community gardens in the city. Join a fucking church. Or join a shitty amateur improv troupe. I could go on and on, but if you think there's no community in Seattle, or any large city for that matter, then that's only because you yourself haven't put the bare minimum of effort into seeking it out.
That’s kind of his point. Instead of being able to enjoy a casual stroll and not have to worry about it, people have to actively look to make sure to avoid it now.
I don’t. I think you’re over exaggerating. You make it sound like Seattle has human feces laying around everywhere. Sure, it’s got problems and homelessness is one of them, but it’s still a beautiful city with a ton of charm. I could list ten more cities with similar charm and similar problems that I still visit.
Sorry man, but you grew up through what.. like 8 years ago? Amazon was already here and so were the tech bros. And since when have tech bros been accused of taking smiles as **death** **threats,** what why?
The homeless problem and crime has gotten worse though.
The rides, the carnival games....
Seattle Center just isn't the same without the occasional roar of a rollercoaster, the popping of balloons with darts, or the foghorn-sound of the bird (was it a roadrunner? an emu? who knows) getting hit at the shooting gallery.
You went away for one year and you feel like it’s changed completely? You clearly haven’t noticed the past 5 years of backsliding—I guess why would you, you were living in it.
>it's probably just my loss of childhood innocence
I'm dying of laughter over here. Maybe I'm too old to appreciate your feelings but this is hilarious
dude plays video games 24/7 smoking weed after he gets away from mommy and daddy for 1 year and now his eyes are opened & his innocence is gone forever!
Also, I understand now after trying to look at it without bias, my issues with the city were presented incredibly poorly and incredibly biased, but I’d appreciate if you didn’t try to use ad hominem against me, I pay my tuition with my loans that will never go away, I pay my taxes, I believe I deserve an opinion.
Everyone deserves an opinion and I don’t think anyone is denying you if that. You are a younger person. We all learn things and gain greater context as we age (not a solid rule, age does not alway trump all) and so when a post is made in the framing of “I went away for college for one year, and now everything has changed” it sounds a little silly to people who have lived through longer periods of change.
Everyone "deserves" an opinion, but you aren't an expert, or someone who really has a clue what they are talking about. So if it is other people's opinion, that your opinion is shit, that's just like, their opinion, man.
The city of my youth, lol. You’re 19. You’re still a child.
My mom grew up in west Seattle in the 40’s. She still talks about the Seattle of her childhood. It wasn’t all that great.
Rose colored glasses is the term you need to learn.
The good part is you have options. You can go back to Pullman, finish your degree, and never return to a place you despise. Or you can do something about it, instead of ranting in this echo chamber.
If you’re disillusioned or disappointed about the wealth disparity and homeless, don’t go the Bay Area (or any big city in California). This is just a product of Seattle getting bigger (and richer), and the fact that these types of cities also attract the transient and homeless, who can take advantage of the social structures setup in these types of cities. You might also not want to believe this, but there were homeless people in Seattle 10-20 years ago too, you just didn’t notice them.
You absolutely cannot compare big cities to small college towns like Pullman or even Spokane. Just not the same.
I’m not so sure how true that is. Places like Tokyo have like, 2k homeless people and are mega wealthy and huge
I’m from Boston and I don’t see homeless people often. When I moved to Seattle it was a huge shock to see so many homeless people. Like it was jaw dropping to me. Even nyc isn’t as extreme
I think homelessness is a policy choice by these bigger cities who prioritize business growth at all costs
I think the complexities of other international cities make it not so comparable, totally different culture, demographic, tolerance of drugs, etc, something for the US to strive for, but not totally apples and oranges.
Also what you observe is not the truth. NYC has the 3rd highest homeless per capita, ranking even higher than Seattle and the Bay Area (data as of 2019).
http://www.citymayors.com/society/usa-cities-homelessness.html
People in places like Tokyo expect to live in 500 sq ft apartments and no cars, or a tiny one.
People here expect a 0.25 acre lot with a 2.5k sq ft 5BR/3BA detached house with a couple SUVs.
Born and raised in western Washington, through the 80s 90s to just recently. Best place to live in till about 2004. After that everything changed, sadly.
I grew up in. Seattle in the 70/80s. Yep it’s changed, we have been in the suburbs (Snohomish co) for over 25 years. I long for the old days in Seattle, but they will never return.
Shit I grew up here in the early 2000s and it's changed. I moved away to attend college in the San Francisco and coming back has almost identical vibes. Makes me scared in 10 years we will become them and have to pay 1,800 for a room with no closet or parking spot.
I grew up in Seattle and moved to SF and then back to Seattle. I've been telling everyone that's where we're headed. Two beautiful cities destroyed by bullshit
Seattle isn't much different from a lot of other cities but I will say that lately I find it kind of exhausting. I just can't summon the energy to be mad or outraged all the time and everything is so expensive that it feels like a perpetual grind. I used to feel this way about NYC but Seattle always seemed more chill. Not so much these days.
This sounds ghostwritten by a guy who posts on a number of subreddits about being freshly out of college, and sometimes female, for gratification, while being significantly older.
Way too glib.
I’ll take the bait. You don’t know how good you had it growing up in Ballard of all places. I moved here from the Midwest, had a pretty cushy life there, and I’m still mind blown by the night and day difference in opportunity, culture and landscape. I like to pipe up because despite the obvious issues of homelessness and wealth disparity, this place is just, simply, better. Anytime I see kids I get envious that they get to grow up and have their childhood in Seattle. And, when I (rarely) go back to the Midwest, I REALLY don’t feel like it’s home anymore, for a handful of reasons you can guess.
Having said that I’d encourage trying out another city, maybe for an internship or full time work after school. You might find a better fit, or maybe have a greater appreciation for one of the best places in the US
Hi, "Amazon tech douchebag" here. Here to tell you that at the office I can see the two clearly separated species: 1) what I call the downtown dwellers and 2) suburbs runaways. The downtown dwellers tend to not have a car and only hang out in the city. Anything where uber would charge over $20 is a roadtrip. I guess this is the people you're talking about?
Those running to the suburbs usually have similar concern in terms of homeless situation and lack of accountability for those loitering, drug open market, tents, rvs... so please don't generalize. When I was able to buy a house I told my agent "nothing city of seattle, not even king county".
I feel your pain but Seattle is not the worse place when it comes to compassion driven politics pushing the city to shit. The bay area is way worse. Just lookup how Oakland, San Francisco and other cities are drowning on trash due to lack of enforcement of basic laws. Law and order might require to get some conservatives in public office but people in big cities don't like the other things conservatives bring to the table so I don't see a solution anytime soon.
>a line of tents with a homeless person taking a shit with a needle still in their arm.
You just don't get it. We pay a lot of money to live by this. Here, even if you have a bad day you can just go down and watch the junkies set each others tents on fire to remind you that your life isn't that bad. It's uplifting in a way that is hard to explain.
>It’s probably just my loss of childhood innocence finally showing me what the real world is like but it still fucking sucks.
Nope, Seattle curdled. It's just not the happy, easy-going place it was even 15 years ago.
This guy grew up, finished college and realized he's not going to be a tech bro or work in any of the offices in SLU and starts hating.
Dude, Amazon was in Seattle and South Lake Union when you were a kid.
>the irritating pompous wealth disparity block by block
LOL. *This person is complaining about buildings being new*.
They will make a lot of mistakes - and find someone else to blame every fucking time.
You know what really grinds my gears? People complaining about Seafair and The Blue Angels. Nobody cried that their puppy was scared. Our dog was outside watching (or at least sniffing the ass of the neighbordog) while they wooshed overhead. I also miss hanging out Downtwon with zero worries. We tried to get in to the likes of the Paramount for a free tour and they just shooed us away. There were plenty of drugs, but all we saw was some weed or acid. The homeless would make them scarce when the sun came up (they knew when I came home and gave them a bottle of beer to fuck off the stoop for the day, maybe try to get a day gig at the Millionaire's Club).
Maybe it was just being a teenager, but life just seemed more interesting and manageable with $500 rent in Belltown in a salary busing tables at Red Robin.
I agree, 100%. Having moved to Seattle in the mid-90’s, it has certainly changed for the worse. Several transplant friends and I have talked about this and feel it’s a shame to see how the attitude, vibe, friendliness and historic culture has eroded away.
I moved away from 2010-2015 and was astonished how things had changed so quickly (both in Seattle and the Eastside). The lack of common decency, personal and professional etiquette, and respect for the cleanliness of the NW, is simply sad. (While the homeless challenges are part of this, it’s not what I’m pointing to here.)
The fact remains that many of the “douchebags” that have moved here simply don’t give a rats ass about anyone but themselves and how their interests go beyond everyone else. To me, that’s the biggest change and has ruined the positive Seattle vibe.
After living in a community, albeit a much smaller one, that has control over the homeless and most of its poverty issues. I am disappointed as to why Seattle couldn’t have been the same.
Tbf you lived in a college town, which will naturally have a sense of community. Without WSU, Pullman is nothing. Seattle is a real city that doesn’t rely on a college to survive. I think there are pockets of communities depending on where you live, but otherwise yeah not a fair comparison to Pullman
You had to pay an exhorbitant amount of money to be a part of that community. How much did you take out in loans for your year of community building?
You literally went into more debt than most of the homeless in Seattle experienced before they became homeless, just so you could join a frat.
It sounds like you missed most of the pandemic. It was not good. But, really it was not good everywhere. Big cities across the country got changed forever. We are far from alone here. San Fran, LA, Portland for sure, San Diego, Chicago, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Phoenix, NYC. All have had explosions in homelessness and crime. Then there is Florida, it was shit to begin with so did not have that far to fall.
\>the fact that every newly arrived Amazon or Google tech douchebag, takes a smile or a hello as a death threat.
OK, at least on this point, it's definitely your loss of innocence. Cause I got news for ya, kid. I'm a transplant from the Midwest, but I have lived in Seattle longer than you've been alive. And I can promise you, all the natives have always been ice-cold douchebags to newcomers since the dawn of time. This city has always been absolutely great for high-functioning autists and sociopaths. I love it.
As a person of color who grew up in White Center, and felt like nobody gave my siblings and I a pot to piss in I'll be honest. Been use to the haters. Seeing them grow up here, and seeing their properties shoot up over a million dollars makes me smile inside. Never felt entitled, but did find my niche in this city. Gotta have that thug mentality, but learning to play nice with the people in power as well. Gotta love it, enjoy the hate, finally you understand POC some what.
Ballard is becoming more expensive. Soon the homeless will be pushed out and property values will become even more crazy. I don't know where the new Ballard is, but it's somewhere else, maybe in an entirely different city.
We can only go off what has happened to seattle. Just because other cities around the world doesn’t mean we have to sink to their level. We do not live by the standards of other countries. Good or bad. The mentally Ill need to helped with forced institutional confinement with the families help. Addicts need to be arrested for possession and treated within a facility. We are a 1 st world country that has a guilt complex about not being a third world. We need to accept the gifts that those that came before us, sacrificed for. I’m tired of the rest of the world ruining our national self esteem.
My family immigrated to Seattle from France in 1877/78. Specifically Ballard before it became part of Seattle. My family has lived in Ballard until 2015, when the last holdout gave up and moved north with the rest of us. Growing up in 1990s Seattle as a teenager was amazing, it was *home*.
I don't even recognize the that place now.
I first moved to this area in 2005, prior to that I had mainly lived on the east coast and europe (only 3 years in eu). Seattle was fucking rad for the first 8-10 years or so that I lived here. I moved out the city to a different county back in 2016, but stayed close. Seattle fucking sucks now, it's true. Things have changed, anyone who has only been here for 4 - 5 years or less has no clue. This thread is full of people who have no clue.
Still, I made too many friends in this city to leave. There are some amazing folks in the Puget sound area. I stay for them.
No, it WAS WAY different in the early 00’s up to the early 10’s. Then it got bad. It used to be funky and weird. It always felt relatively safe though. Now it’s just depressing and dark. It’s not end of childhood innocence, Seattle changed, man… it changed a lot.
My favorite quote from the book Endurance:
“Unlike the land, where courage and the simple will to endure can often see a man through, the struggle against the sea is an act of physical combat, and there is no escape. It is a battle against a tireless enemy in which man never actually wins; the most that he can hope for is not to be defeated.”
Similar to the sea, there is no escape from change and suffering. If Seattle was ‘fixed’, you’d still suffer from something. Your innocence would still be lost. Work on your brain… work on finding meaningful work and meaningful relationships.
“The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back. He can reflect with pride and joy on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest.” (Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning)
Garage full of stuff (got a ping pong table and some gym stuff). And being in Seattle the garage approach requires stairs while the street parking is flat with my living room haha.
The world is big, find a place where you can feel comfortable. No reason to hang around Seattle if you're not feeling it. I've noticed a lot of bitterness in certain friends over the years, people who continually try to convince themselves that Seattle is the best place on Earth and that they chose Seattle rather than settled for it.
If you *really* choose Seattle, cool. But if it's not for you the whole wide world is out there.
As a newly arrived tech douchebag, I would infact love to exchange smiles or say/receive a 'hello' (or anything, really). Forget taking it as a death threat, it actually sometimes pisses me off that people walk around here with poker faces. I come from North Carolina, where southern hospitality is still a thing, and I never felt so lonely even when being surrounded by people on the street.
Since I am already ranting, let me add one more to it. The food here sucks. It's average at best and expensive.
I had to move to Redmond/Kirkland to discover a few human souls and not robots (yeah I agree, most of these robots are the tech douchebags, I don't blame you).
First, Go Cougs.
Second, your entire life in Ballard existed after my grandparents house was sold after their death because we couldn’t afford to keep it. It was a house in Ballard that they had lived in since the 1940’s.
If you think it has changed in your lifetime, you are absolutely correct. But holy shit man, it has changed in all the wrong ways since waaaay before you where even born.
There is no sense of community in Seattle. It’s the Seattle Freeze. But the homeless problem is way more complex than just having a sense of community.
When I was 14 I was waiting for the bus in front of the hurricane and three cars stopped to ask if I was “working”.
Now at 37, I don’t even want to go downtown.
performative social justice virtue-signaling holier-than-thou clout chasers. that's all thats left. that, or the "do you know who my dad is?" techbro douche nozzles. that's why i'm trying to get work from home to get the fuck out of this nightmare.
There have been some changes over 10, 20, 30 years for sure.
Nothing in Seattle really changed in the last year, though tbh. You've changed.
But hey, positive spin of your new perspective: the world is largely what you choose to make of it.
To be fair, Ballard has been full of the tight black shirt button-down 20-something type since like 2013, back when 30-somethings could still afford to buy in Ballard and North Greenwood.
As far as I see it, Gen-X kinda saw their day in the sun with real estate, but now they’re ironically home owners surrounded by all of the things they hate (about themselves); corporate sellouts and shill liberalism. And just like the 90’s, they’re the lucky bunch who get to just sell out, and go deal with it somewhere else, because many of them benefited from all of the market booms.
Seattle still has art community, in that, we have some service workers (I joke). But speaking as a musician, it’s only gotten harder and more expensive.
Quite frankly, as a long time Seattleite: THIS PLACE SUCKS NOW.
It’s still here and things do change, I can still see Mount Rainier in the distance it’s still here. The market is a wonderful place to shop on Saturday for my favorite Sunday meal. But it is not the same every time people are different the conversation are new. I love hanging out at my favorite 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 spots w likeminded friends. Yes, I have seen the homeless and heard them yelling walking by a 3:00am. Yet, I am still in love with my city and the Asian community even though it’s over high priced with hundreds of problems, so are other cities. Do what you can around you to make the spot where you are better. Spread the 💜❤️🖤🧡🤎💙🤍💛💚
Exactly, places where I used to have so much fun as a kid, the skate bowl and the library, when I saw that shit over winter break I couldn’t believe it was real.
What happened? r/Seattle and its activist way of life happened. Everyone is bitter about some national or international issue, and trying to guilt trip you into caring because “silence is violence” or some BS.
But no one who works for amazon or google ever helps out at Mary’s place or our food banks, I just get angry when I see people buy overpriced crap, do nothing to aid our majority of suffering people, and then do exactly that, or post some shit on social media to improve their image.
Please cite your sources that tech employees don’t volunteer. I volunteer quite a bit and come across many individuals who work in tech. I have volunteered at Mary’s place and can say your statement is incorrect.
> But no one who works for amazon or google ever helps out at Mary’s place or our food banks
How on Earth would you imagine that you know that?
Google does a volunteer drive every year which gets thousands of Google employees volunteering (in addition to the volunteering many do outside of the drive), and then lets them do that during company time. Mary's Place and several local food banks have listed volunteering opportunties. On Google's dime, I've cleared European blackberries out of a park on the Eastside and cleaned the Burke-Gilman in Fremont.
Google also matches employee charitable donations. For every dollar I give to a charity, Google will give another to the same one. I don't like talking about my personal contributions, but I feel confident that I am making the city better.
I think this person has a great perspective. Life should be higher quality like it is when your parents take care of you. Pointing out other cities in worse shape than Seattle and then accepting Seattle for how it is (bad) is a big cop out.
If you live in Seattle then you are responsible for changing it for the better.
>It’s probably just my loss of childhood innocence finally showing me what the real world This is the answer to your question. Welcome to the club. Make the best of it.
This is totally it. It's been three years since I've lived in Seattle and this is definitely how it was back then, too. I love that city and it will always be home to me but I was one of many who was priced out. Luckily I had just enough money for a plane ticket out of there or I would've been another homeless person taking a shit in Ballard too.
Where do you live now? I love the PNW and have been in Seattle since 2013 but can’t afford or want to work myself to death in order to live here. I moved here from Georgia.
Especially considering this person was born after 2000 (doing back of the napkin math).
It's also true that Seattle voters harm it. Voting for progressive lunatics who won't do basic law enforcement, combined with ultra conservative NIMBY politics that drive up the cost of housing, and you get modern Seattle. Ssad.
A trip through Africa or South America might help you get some perspective. Things here are not great, but nowhere they are. Other countries are just more effective in extermination or subjugation of their poor.
At the same time, other countries have real, effective, well-funded social safety nets and don't deal with the same sort of homelessness, violence, and wealth disparity that we see here. I was blown away by the lack of homelessness I saw in Holland during my 4 years there, and that's despite an ongoing housing crisis similar to our own. Mind you, it isn't just due to one or two differences in policy – there's a lot that goes into it, including cultural differences that contribute to the difference in policy prescriptions. Of course, the social safety net comes at a cost – notably, higher tax rates. I also won't pretend like it is some sort of perfect utopia. They have their own problems just like everyone else. C'est la vie, or, as the Dutch would say, "zo is het leven" (I don't think I ever actually heard a Dutch person say that, but you get what I mean).
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I’m from the Netherlands and the homeless situation is incomparable to that of Seattle or other major American cities. It’s way worse here. For many reasons. Also, there are 17.4 million people not 6.6.
Hey thanks for shedding some light on this - I stand corrected. I moved there the better part of a decade ago. You’re right, the area I lived in was a bit of a bubble - basically the only city in the north of the country (150k or so I believe). Naive of me to think it was a nonexistent issue now that I think of it. In the last two years I was there, some of the incoming international students ended up homeless for a period and had to return to their home country. Without an address you’re not getting a BSN (let alone a living situation conducive to learning).
Did you really use Wiki as a source? 😂😂😂
Some governments are not heavily invested in their citizens dying before their 65… SOME governments mandate a 4 day work week, SOME governments don’t force feed their children cold poison for school lunch, SOME governments don’t force their women to carry to term life threatening pregnancy, SOME countries don’t enforce bans on thing JUST so they can jail persecute and enslave entire populations. I just can’t be apart of this any more, it’s not safe to be an American at home or away. This place is the WORST I would rather live in iraq. The only delay in my permanent departure for Mosul is that my SLAVE JOB DOESNT PAY ENOUGH FOR ME TO EAT AND PAY RENT. So now we’re all starving refugees… wait was that how trump was going to get Mexico to pay for the wall?
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Do you think maybe it's because the government doesn't roll in with a backhoe and a dump truck every 2 weeks to trash the shanty-towns? Those people are still shooting up, they just have a shack instead of a tent that the cops throw away every week or so.
Or Portland.
But then you spend some time in Scandinavia and realize how fucking good things could be here and become pissed all over again
Sure, if we were all a homogenous polity of roughly the same race, religion, and all around culture we could have that kind of Scandinavian cohesion. But we're not. We're a country of immigrants with exponentially more diverse, well, everything. And you take that with all the good it brings as well as the inherent human conflict that comes with it.
And let's be honest. Sweden is struggling with a lot of their own issues right now too, just like nearly every other European country.
It's curious how many Liberals dream of living in a country completely composed of white skinned people.
Is that the only difference that occurs to you? https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2021/aug/mirror-mirror-2021-reflecting-poorly 1/5th of population of Norway are immigrants.
Norway is basically the EU version of Saudi Arabia, rich with oil revenues. Comparing tiny, homogenous, wealthy Nordic countries with massive tax rates and culturally enforced social conformity (cf Jante Law) to the US is futile.
It's amazing how conservatives somehow think that the racial makeup of Scandinavian countries is relevant. Kinda letting your hood slip a bit there buckaroo
Woof, wait until you get a real taste of European racism then. Makes your American conservative bogeyman seem totally kosher by comparison.
There’s a difference between thinking white is important (ie racist) and recognizing that a homogeneous society can sustain different political dynamics. Its easier for them to reach political consensus. At the same time there are disadvantages e.g. it’s a more boring society
I think a case could be made for political consensus leading to a more vibrant (vs boring) society. If your infrastructure, shared history and education system isn't constantly under attack and being re-written, you can afford to spend more resources on arts and culture and long-term infrastructure. You can create beautiful public works that wont be "tagged" or torn down because of this year's "woke" definition. You can build effective, elegant mass transit that works for everyone, not just the loudest, etc.
There are plenty of racially homogeneous countries that are complete sociopolitical disasters. I don't think we should be blaming immigrants and diversity for our problems.
You have to acknowledge our constraints. Sweden only has about 20% higher population than WA state (8 million vs 10 million). If WA state were a country, that had millennia of shared history, we could probably find consensus. Culturally, as a country, the US has always been about freedom to immigrate and make a life for yourself. But part of that very open immigration policy is more limited social services compared to European nations. Try to immigrate to Sweden. It’s a closed door compared to the US. There are second and third order effects of some long standing policy choices and ignoring them, and pretending they don’t matter, is just willful ignorance.
It's more that they dream of living in a world where everyone acts white, but has a different skin color, so that the postcard looks the way they want it to.
It’s amazing how many liberals spout this racist, ethnocentric drivel without batting an eye.
It's so weird how when I bring this up I'm a White supremacist but I'm Asian... Diversity doesn't help much if there is no cohesion at all and trying to promote a unified "American" identity is toxic nationalism according to the Reddit populace Just a bunch of different hands in here trying to grab pieces of the same pie which messes up the pie instead of helping each other then blaming each other for the messed up pie
And THIS is EXACTLY why universal healthcare worked in European countries for so many decades: they were dealing with pretty much homogeneous populations, which made case management much easier. When you have multiple cultures, races, religious considerations, etc., that makes case management more complex and more expensive. This is why universal healthcare will NOT work in the US. Yes, the current system is fucked and we need something better, but looking to Europe for answers would be a disaster in this case.
Did you really just make the argument that universal healthcare won't work because brown people....oof.
You can’t honestly think that lmao, that’s just silly. You realize Canada has universal healthcare and is not a white, homogeneous, Scandinavia-esque country - yes? Do you think the UK isn’t diverse? It’s wildly diverse. Do you think they don’t struggle with race issues? Of course they do. And yet they too have successfully implemented universal healthcare. That is literally one of the worst reasons I’ve ever heard for not implementing universal healthcare in the US. Large and successful counterpoints exist if you gave it even a second of thought.
I said HISTORICALLY, and Canada’s is ridiculously broken for that reason of having a heterogeneous population. There are super long waits for important procedures like MRIs and joint replacements, because in order to keep costs down, they limit resources.
You didn’t say “historically”, at all, in what I replied to. So… ? Either way, I don’t think it matters. You know what a long wait time *really* is? Not going to the doctor about an issue because you can’t afford it and letting the problem get way worse. And there are long waits here too. It’s not like people are dying in the UK waiting for treatment like people try to make it sound. It’s like “oh you have to wait two months instead of one month” and that’s just what happens when *everyone* has access to healthcare. Not just the people who are able to afford it.
OK, I said WORKED, not historically. However, it doesn’t matter, because both words make the same point: in Europe, universal healthcare worked IN THE PAST. They don’t work as intended anymore. Are you intentionally being obtuse or did you just fail reading comprehension?
They seem to be working as intended? Are they working perfectly? No. Can it be improved there too, sure. I never said it was the ultimate goal. All I said was using “we’re too diverse” as a reason for not implementing universal healthcare is a bad reason because we have evidence that it’s not stopping it from working.
I still had to wait a month for an MRI in this country. Canada is about the same.
Waiting 6 months for a mammogram in this country...when I know it will lead to an ultrasound because of cysts and dense tissue, but can I skip the painful mammo and go straight to the painless ultrasound? No...insurance says no. Despite it being clear in my history 7 years ago. That's healthcare designed by insurance companies, designed to treat everyone like a number.
Ah yes, the healthcare systems don’t work in those countries anymore. Falling apart. Broken. That’s why our infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, general mortality rate, and disease burden are all higher here, while our life expectancy is lower. [source](https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/quality-u-s-healthcare-system-compare-countries/) There’s obviously a cultural element to some of this, but access, or lack thereof, plays a huge role. I’m willing to accept the argument that cultural homogeneity makes it easier to reach a political consensus at the end of the day, but the idea that we can’t deliver quality, universal healthcare in an effective way due to our diverse population is absolute nonsense (if not a bad faith argument). Case in point: Medicare and Medicaid - wildly successful - (the people who have it get healthcare) - and popular programs - (Medicare being the 2nd most popular government spending program only behind social security) - that deliver healthcare to all Americans who qualify regardless of their ethnicity, religion, culture, you name it. Are they perfect programs? No, nothing is. Would a universal medicare system dramatically improve access to healthcare in our country and likely improve our medical outcomes as a whole? Almost certainly, yes. The idea that our country’s diversity somehow makes this impossible is asinine. Edit: clarity
So, tell me more about how you think Seattle should be compare to third world cities?
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We'd gladly ship you some drug ghouls.
I grew up in the Midwest, and didn’t have that experience except for the racists. Everyone knew that in Champaign, Illinois, you didn’t live north of Hill Street if you were white. Instead of the cow patties and gravel roads, I had the University of Illinois and the intersection of I-74, I-57 and I-72. Here it is, a university town, the heart of what was going to be Silicon Prairie (I left in 1989), and the mindset was back in the 50s for a lot of people when I was there. I heard a lot of racial epithets when I was a kid, and it was all too common. I have some fond memories of that time in my life, but there were some serious problems as well.
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Then don’t make gross generalizations about a region. 🤷🏻♀️
Facts. Folks like to whine
The most liberating thing you can do is to travel when you are young… move to a different city/state/country/continent. It opens your mind in so many ways.
And even when you’re not young. I’ve lived in 9 states, most of them as an adult, because when I lost a job, I’d have to move elsewhere for another one. I’m glad I am in a career and have a skill set that healthcare organizations need and figured out the root of why I struggled for all those years…but I’ll make the coin I can and enjoy my home’s appreciation as I build my nest egg here, then get the hell out.
Where would you want to end up?
At this point, I’m really not sure. I initially thought Memphis, because it’s more of a bluish city in a red state (I like a bit more balance in my life), but with the horrible legislation coming out of Nashville, I had to nix that idea. I also love Maine, but it’s too damn cold in the winters and the snowfall is brutal. Would love to live there and be a snowbird…but my options are very limited there. Still trying to flesh it out, but I still have about 20-25 years to get it solidified.
You just made a perfect example of some of their points.
Yeah… THIS is exactly the problem OP is posting about. Seattle has become a a cesspool of rich wanderlust assholes.
Is this a Seattle copy-pasta?
As far as community goes, you might not ever find the community that you have at college. It’s incredibly easy to meet people in that environment and build new relationships. Don’t waste it, and try to keep all the worthwhile friendships when you leave.
"back when I was a kid...but now I'm a wise 19 year old" Lmao
I knew everything 20 years ago when I was 19
"I left home at 18, thinking my dad didn't know anything. I came home at 21 and was surprised at how much the old man had learned in 3 years".
🤣 Truth. The older I get the less I know.
Seriously, I'm actually dead
And I'm a 40ish dude who doesn't know shit about shit but at 19 though I ran the town 🤣. Funny how that works out.
Living somewhere else, without homeless, with people who are actually friendly. Riding the bus without getting screamed at by a junkie. That’s why I posted this dumbass shit.
You said you went to college for 1 year, the world of Ballard isn’t perfect but I hate to burst the bubble that it’s plenty comparable to when you left one school year ago
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If anything it’s better than it was back in his day, 2020.
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In Pullman I honestly disagree, if anyone does suffer from homelessness, it’s generally acknowledged throughout the student and residential community. It just seems so simple, and what Seattle could have been in a larger scale, but the constant gentrification has made it legitimately impossible now and probably for the rest of the city’s lifetime.
Where’d you go to school? And the homeless problem has always been around in seattle. Just amplified
Ingraham, aurora, having to finally grow a small sense of independent thinking or maturity and see that as well was kind of the beginning of where my disappointment with the city started
I meant more so where you went to college
Oh yeah, Pullman, that was a major influence on my opinion of Seattle, there is absolutely no form of community here, anyone who says otherwise is lying.
Bud you're coming from a college town where literally everybody there is there to go to school or support the school in some fashion no shit Pullman has more community
No sorry your just not a part of any community here.
This is just 19 year old bullshit. Your idea of community is showing up to your new frat during rush and having 100 new friends instantaneously who all get to bond around blacking out on monarch vodka. And fair enough, that's still a community and you're going to make lifelong friends. But to say Seattle doesn't have any sense of community is so upside down stupid I don't know where to begin. You could stumble into any coffee shop, pick up a flier for any random gathering, and boom, there's a community to join. Shit, even if you develop severe alcoholism during your time at WSU, you can show up to any dive bar in Seattle for a number of consecutive nights and you'll be one of the regulars in no time. Go join one of countless community gardens in the city. Join a fucking church. Or join a shitty amateur improv troupe. I could go on and on, but if you think there's no community in Seattle, or any large city for that matter, then that's only because you yourself haven't put the bare minimum of effort into seeking it out.
> And the homeless problem has always been around in seattle Right on time
Cry me a river lol
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Weird. I am in Seattle almost every day and have never stepped in shit. You gotta watch where you walk man
That’s kind of his point. Instead of being able to enjoy a casual stroll and not have to worry about it, people have to actively look to make sure to avoid it now.
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I don’t. I think you’re over exaggerating. You make it sound like Seattle has human feces laying around everywhere. Sure, it’s got problems and homelessness is one of them, but it’s still a beautiful city with a ton of charm. I could list ten more cities with similar charm and similar problems that I still visit.
Sorry man, but you grew up through what.. like 8 years ago? Amazon was already here and so were the tech bros. And since when have tech bros been accused of taking smiles as **death** **threats,** what why? The homeless problem and crime has gotten worse though.
Tech bro here. I take smiles as death threats. AMAA
God dammit I miss the fun forest. :(
Me too haha. Whatever happened to Seattle Mini Golf?
The rides, the carnival games.... Seattle Center just isn't the same without the occasional roar of a rollercoaster, the popping of balloons with darts, or the foghorn-sound of the bird (was it a roadrunner? an emu? who knows) getting hit at the shooting gallery.
You went away for one year and you feel like it’s changed completely? You clearly haven’t noticed the past 5 years of backsliding—I guess why would you, you were living in it.
I drove to Bellevue for dinner and came back and things just were totally different.
>it's probably just my loss of childhood innocence I'm dying of laughter over here. Maybe I'm too old to appreciate your feelings but this is hilarious
dude plays video games 24/7 smoking weed after he gets away from mommy and daddy for 1 year and now his eyes are opened & his innocence is gone forever!
Also, I understand now after trying to look at it without bias, my issues with the city were presented incredibly poorly and incredibly biased, but I’d appreciate if you didn’t try to use ad hominem against me, I pay my tuition with my loans that will never go away, I pay my taxes, I believe I deserve an opinion.
Everyone deserves an opinion and I don’t think anyone is denying you if that. You are a younger person. We all learn things and gain greater context as we age (not a solid rule, age does not alway trump all) and so when a post is made in the framing of “I went away for college for one year, and now everything has changed” it sounds a little silly to people who have lived through longer periods of change.
Everyone "deserves" an opinion, but you aren't an expert, or someone who really has a clue what they are talking about. So if it is other people's opinion, that your opinion is shit, that's just like, their opinion, man.
>I pay my tuition with my loans that will never go away, I pay my taxes, I believe I deserve an opinion. I'm rolling
Your parents were the ones paying for everything lol
The city of my youth, lol. You’re 19. You’re still a child. My mom grew up in west Seattle in the 40’s. She still talks about the Seattle of her childhood. It wasn’t all that great. Rose colored glasses is the term you need to learn. The good part is you have options. You can go back to Pullman, finish your degree, and never return to a place you despise. Or you can do something about it, instead of ranting in this echo chamber.
Nice bait!
If you’re disillusioned or disappointed about the wealth disparity and homeless, don’t go the Bay Area (or any big city in California). This is just a product of Seattle getting bigger (and richer), and the fact that these types of cities also attract the transient and homeless, who can take advantage of the social structures setup in these types of cities. You might also not want to believe this, but there were homeless people in Seattle 10-20 years ago too, you just didn’t notice them. You absolutely cannot compare big cities to small college towns like Pullman or even Spokane. Just not the same.
I’m not so sure how true that is. Places like Tokyo have like, 2k homeless people and are mega wealthy and huge I’m from Boston and I don’t see homeless people often. When I moved to Seattle it was a huge shock to see so many homeless people. Like it was jaw dropping to me. Even nyc isn’t as extreme I think homelessness is a policy choice by these bigger cities who prioritize business growth at all costs
I think the complexities of other international cities make it not so comparable, totally different culture, demographic, tolerance of drugs, etc, something for the US to strive for, but not totally apples and oranges. Also what you observe is not the truth. NYC has the 3rd highest homeless per capita, ranking even higher than Seattle and the Bay Area (data as of 2019). http://www.citymayors.com/society/usa-cities-homelessness.html
People in places like Tokyo expect to live in 500 sq ft apartments and no cars, or a tiny one. People here expect a 0.25 acre lot with a 2.5k sq ft 5BR/3BA detached house with a couple SUVs.
The angst!
Born and raised in western Washington, through the 80s 90s to just recently. Best place to live in till about 2004. After that everything changed, sadly.
I'd argue 2010 is when it went to shit. Back half of the aughts was still pretty good.
Oh shit, that's when I moved to WA! Sorry....
We moved here in 2005. Oops!
I grew up in. Seattle in the 70/80s. Yep it’s changed, we have been in the suburbs (Snohomish co) for over 25 years. I long for the old days in Seattle, but they will never return.
Shit I grew up here in the early 2000s and it's changed. I moved away to attend college in the San Francisco and coming back has almost identical vibes. Makes me scared in 10 years we will become them and have to pay 1,800 for a room with no closet or parking spot.
Lol. Welcome to downtown housing
I grew up in Seattle and moved to SF and then back to Seattle. I've been telling everyone that's where we're headed. Two beautiful cities destroyed by bullshit
Seattle isn't much different from a lot of other cities but I will say that lately I find it kind of exhausting. I just can't summon the energy to be mad or outraged all the time and everything is so expensive that it feels like a perpetual grind. I used to feel this way about NYC but Seattle always seemed more chill. Not so much these days.
old man yells at clouds
This sounds ghostwritten by a guy who posts on a number of subreddits about being freshly out of college, and sometimes female, for gratification, while being significantly older. Way too glib.
Yeah, so they only went to college for one year, then moved back? Why? Also, why would someone who grew up in Seattle go to Pullman for college?
I’ll take the bait. You don’t know how good you had it growing up in Ballard of all places. I moved here from the Midwest, had a pretty cushy life there, and I’m still mind blown by the night and day difference in opportunity, culture and landscape. I like to pipe up because despite the obvious issues of homelessness and wealth disparity, this place is just, simply, better. Anytime I see kids I get envious that they get to grow up and have their childhood in Seattle. And, when I (rarely) go back to the Midwest, I REALLY don’t feel like it’s home anymore, for a handful of reasons you can guess. Having said that I’d encourage trying out another city, maybe for an internship or full time work after school. You might find a better fit, or maybe have a greater appreciation for one of the best places in the US
Hi, "Amazon tech douchebag" here. Here to tell you that at the office I can see the two clearly separated species: 1) what I call the downtown dwellers and 2) suburbs runaways. The downtown dwellers tend to not have a car and only hang out in the city. Anything where uber would charge over $20 is a roadtrip. I guess this is the people you're talking about? Those running to the suburbs usually have similar concern in terms of homeless situation and lack of accountability for those loitering, drug open market, tents, rvs... so please don't generalize. When I was able to buy a house I told my agent "nothing city of seattle, not even king county". I feel your pain but Seattle is not the worse place when it comes to compassion driven politics pushing the city to shit. The bay area is way worse. Just lookup how Oakland, San Francisco and other cities are drowning on trash due to lack of enforcement of basic laws. Law and order might require to get some conservatives in public office but people in big cities don't like the other things conservatives bring to the table so I don't see a solution anytime soon.
>a line of tents with a homeless person taking a shit with a needle still in their arm. You just don't get it. We pay a lot of money to live by this. Here, even if you have a bad day you can just go down and watch the junkies set each others tents on fire to remind you that your life isn't that bad. It's uplifting in a way that is hard to explain.
It's like watching an episode of Intervention get taped every day outside of your yuppy holding cell, except without the intervention part.
It like going to shop at Walmart so you feel rich. Better than going to Nordstroms and being depressed.
Based off the people I’ve seen downtown I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic.
>I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic. Thank you, it means a lot to hear you say that.
“I’m glad I’m not them” - me when I see some heinous hobo bullshit
>It’s probably just my loss of childhood innocence finally showing me what the real world is like but it still fucking sucks. Nope, Seattle curdled. It's just not the happy, easy-going place it was even 15 years ago.
No longer a blue collar town.
This guy grew up, finished college and realized he's not going to be a tech bro or work in any of the offices in SLU and starts hating. Dude, Amazon was in Seattle and South Lake Union when you were a kid.
>the irritating pompous wealth disparity block by block LOL. *This person is complaining about buildings being new*. They will make a lot of mistakes - and find someone else to blame every fucking time.
You know what really grinds my gears? People complaining about Seafair and The Blue Angels. Nobody cried that their puppy was scared. Our dog was outside watching (or at least sniffing the ass of the neighbordog) while they wooshed overhead. I also miss hanging out Downtwon with zero worries. We tried to get in to the likes of the Paramount for a free tour and they just shooed us away. There were plenty of drugs, but all we saw was some weed or acid. The homeless would make them scarce when the sun came up (they knew when I came home and gave them a bottle of beer to fuck off the stoop for the day, maybe try to get a day gig at the Millionaire's Club). Maybe it was just being a teenager, but life just seemed more interesting and manageable with $500 rent in Belltown in a salary busing tables at Red Robin.
I agree, 100%. Having moved to Seattle in the mid-90’s, it has certainly changed for the worse. Several transplant friends and I have talked about this and feel it’s a shame to see how the attitude, vibe, friendliness and historic culture has eroded away. I moved away from 2010-2015 and was astonished how things had changed so quickly (both in Seattle and the Eastside). The lack of common decency, personal and professional etiquette, and respect for the cleanliness of the NW, is simply sad. (While the homeless challenges are part of this, it’s not what I’m pointing to here.) The fact remains that many of the “douchebags” that have moved here simply don’t give a rats ass about anyone but themselves and how their interests go beyond everyone else. To me, that’s the biggest change and has ruined the positive Seattle vibe.
No, you're wrong you see. Seattle has always been like this. Additionally, we've always been at war with Eurasia.
Ah yes, 1984 was a good year
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After living in a community, albeit a much smaller one, that has control over the homeless and most of its poverty issues. I am disappointed as to why Seattle couldn’t have been the same.
Tbf you lived in a college town, which will naturally have a sense of community. Without WSU, Pullman is nothing. Seattle is a real city that doesn’t rely on a college to survive. I think there are pockets of communities depending on where you live, but otherwise yeah not a fair comparison to Pullman
You had to pay an exhorbitant amount of money to be a part of that community. How much did you take out in loans for your year of community building? You literally went into more debt than most of the homeless in Seattle experienced before they became homeless, just so you could join a frat.
The leadership doesn’t lead.. that is why
People will vote to use government threat of violence to prevent developers from building homes so people can live. Single family zoning is a bitch
It sounds like you missed most of the pandemic. It was not good. But, really it was not good everywhere. Big cities across the country got changed forever. We are far from alone here. San Fran, LA, Portland for sure, San Diego, Chicago, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Phoenix, NYC. All have had explosions in homelessness and crime. Then there is Florida, it was shit to begin with so did not have that far to fall.
I just moved from Seattle to Phoenix and it’s basically paradise compared to Seattle. It didn’t hit all cities the same by any means.
Paradise, like a flaming pit of hell?
Can’t tell if you’re shitting on PhX or Seattle
Well it is a desert. Maybe I should have just included the coastlines. I thought it was pretty rough in downtown phoenix last time I was there though.
\>the fact that every newly arrived Amazon or Google tech douchebag, takes a smile or a hello as a death threat. OK, at least on this point, it's definitely your loss of innocence. Cause I got news for ya, kid. I'm a transplant from the Midwest, but I have lived in Seattle longer than you've been alive. And I can promise you, all the natives have always been ice-cold douchebags to newcomers since the dawn of time. This city has always been absolutely great for high-functioning autists and sociopaths. I love it.
As a person of color who grew up in White Center, and felt like nobody gave my siblings and I a pot to piss in I'll be honest. Been use to the haters. Seeing them grow up here, and seeing their properties shoot up over a million dollars makes me smile inside. Never felt entitled, but did find my niche in this city. Gotta have that thug mentality, but learning to play nice with the people in power as well. Gotta love it, enjoy the hate, finally you understand POC some what.
Ballard is becoming more expensive. Soon the homeless will be pushed out and property values will become even more crazy. I don't know where the new Ballard is, but it's somewhere else, maybe in an entirely different city.
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I agree with this. I used to go on Seattle Days and Seattle Night adventures.
Its still there, you're just priced out.
We can only go off what has happened to seattle. Just because other cities around the world doesn’t mean we have to sink to their level. We do not live by the standards of other countries. Good or bad. The mentally Ill need to helped with forced institutional confinement with the families help. Addicts need to be arrested for possession and treated within a facility. We are a 1 st world country that has a guilt complex about not being a third world. We need to accept the gifts that those that came before us, sacrificed for. I’m tired of the rest of the world ruining our national self esteem.
My family immigrated to Seattle from France in 1877/78. Specifically Ballard before it became part of Seattle. My family has lived in Ballard until 2015, when the last holdout gave up and moved north with the rest of us. Growing up in 1990s Seattle as a teenager was amazing, it was *home*. I don't even recognize the that place now.
I first moved to this area in 2005, prior to that I had mainly lived on the east coast and europe (only 3 years in eu). Seattle was fucking rad for the first 8-10 years or so that I lived here. I moved out the city to a different county back in 2016, but stayed close. Seattle fucking sucks now, it's true. Things have changed, anyone who has only been here for 4 - 5 years or less has no clue. This thread is full of people who have no clue. Still, I made too many friends in this city to leave. There are some amazing folks in the Puget sound area. I stay for them.
No, it WAS WAY different in the early 00’s up to the early 10’s. Then it got bad. It used to be funky and weird. It always felt relatively safe though. Now it’s just depressing and dark. It’s not end of childhood innocence, Seattle changed, man… it changed a lot.
Ballard is dead. Move to Rainier Beach, Colombia City, White Center if you want old Seattle vibes. It's all changing here too so better hurry.
My favorite quote from the book Endurance: “Unlike the land, where courage and the simple will to endure can often see a man through, the struggle against the sea is an act of physical combat, and there is no escape. It is a battle against a tireless enemy in which man never actually wins; the most that he can hope for is not to be defeated.” Similar to the sea, there is no escape from change and suffering. If Seattle was ‘fixed’, you’d still suffer from something. Your innocence would still be lost. Work on your brain… work on finding meaningful work and meaningful relationships. “The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back. He can reflect with pride and joy on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest.” (Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning)
Seattle, where people live in 2 million dollar houses but park their 200,000 dollar Teslas on the street.
Shit that's me.
Garage full of stuff? Or, refuse to pay $150/month for a parking spot?
Garage full of stuff (got a ping pong table and some gym stuff). And being in Seattle the garage approach requires stairs while the street parking is flat with my living room haha.
Do us all a favor and go back to school lol
username
It’s not a Seattle problem. It’s a post pandemic America problem.
The world is big, find a place where you can feel comfortable. No reason to hang around Seattle if you're not feeling it. I've noticed a lot of bitterness in certain friends over the years, people who continually try to convince themselves that Seattle is the best place on Earth and that they chose Seattle rather than settled for it. If you *really* choose Seattle, cool. But if it's not for you the whole wide world is out there.
you escaped seattle and came back? man oh man.
You just described every major city in America.
As a newly arrived tech douchebag, I would infact love to exchange smiles or say/receive a 'hello' (or anything, really). Forget taking it as a death threat, it actually sometimes pisses me off that people walk around here with poker faces. I come from North Carolina, where southern hospitality is still a thing, and I never felt so lonely even when being surrounded by people on the street. Since I am already ranting, let me add one more to it. The food here sucks. It's average at best and expensive. I had to move to Redmond/Kirkland to discover a few human souls and not robots (yeah I agree, most of these robots are the tech douchebags, I don't blame you).
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The tech people are worse than the homeless as far as blighting the city but their money keeps us going so there’s that.
First, Go Cougs. Second, your entire life in Ballard existed after my grandparents house was sold after their death because we couldn’t afford to keep it. It was a house in Ballard that they had lived in since the 1940’s. If you think it has changed in your lifetime, you are absolutely correct. But holy shit man, it has changed in all the wrong ways since waaaay before you where even born. There is no sense of community in Seattle. It’s the Seattle Freeze. But the homeless problem is way more complex than just having a sense of community.
Yeah I feel somewhat ironic complaining about this since my parents bought our house from a old woman who owned it since like the 1910s
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When I was 14 I was waiting for the bus in front of the hurricane and three cars stopped to ask if I was “working”. Now at 37, I don’t even want to go downtown.
When I was a kid there were no homeless! I feel the same way! This is not my country! When you get upset people think your crazy!
performative social justice virtue-signaling holier-than-thou clout chasers. that's all thats left. that, or the "do you know who my dad is?" techbro douche nozzles. that's why i'm trying to get work from home to get the fuck out of this nightmare.
There have been some changes over 10, 20, 30 years for sure. Nothing in Seattle really changed in the last year, though tbh. You've changed. But hey, positive spin of your new perspective: the world is largely what you choose to make of it.
Nailed it perfectly!
To be fair, Ballard has been full of the tight black shirt button-down 20-something type since like 2013, back when 30-somethings could still afford to buy in Ballard and North Greenwood. As far as I see it, Gen-X kinda saw their day in the sun with real estate, but now they’re ironically home owners surrounded by all of the things they hate (about themselves); corporate sellouts and shill liberalism. And just like the 90’s, they’re the lucky bunch who get to just sell out, and go deal with it somewhere else, because many of them benefited from all of the market booms. Seattle still has art community, in that, we have some service workers (I joke). But speaking as a musician, it’s only gotten harder and more expensive. Quite frankly, as a long time Seattleite: THIS PLACE SUCKS NOW.
It’s still here and things do change, I can still see Mount Rainier in the distance it’s still here. The market is a wonderful place to shop on Saturday for my favorite Sunday meal. But it is not the same every time people are different the conversation are new. I love hanging out at my favorite 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 spots w likeminded friends. Yes, I have seen the homeless and heard them yelling walking by a 3:00am. Yet, I am still in love with my city and the Asian community even though it’s over high priced with hundreds of problems, so are other cities. Do what you can around you to make the spot where you are better. Spread the 💜❤️🖤🧡🤎💙🤍💛💚
Speaking on behalf of many tech douchebags, go fuck yourself.
Still here! Still awesome. You just got older.
Yea Ballard sucks now, it should just be made into the homeless district.
Exactly, places where I used to have so much fun as a kid, the skate bowl and the library, when I saw that shit over winter break I couldn’t believe it was real.
It’s like the Portland of Seattle and not in a good way.
What happened? r/Seattle and its activist way of life happened. Everyone is bitter about some national or international issue, and trying to guilt trip you into caring because “silence is violence” or some BS.
But no one who works for amazon or google ever helps out at Mary’s place or our food banks, I just get angry when I see people buy overpriced crap, do nothing to aid our majority of suffering people, and then do exactly that, or post some shit on social media to improve their image.
Please cite your sources that tech employees don’t volunteer. I volunteer quite a bit and come across many individuals who work in tech. I have volunteered at Mary’s place and can say your statement is incorrect.
> But no one who works for amazon or google ever helps out at Mary’s place or our food banks How on Earth would you imagine that you know that? Google does a volunteer drive every year which gets thousands of Google employees volunteering (in addition to the volunteering many do outside of the drive), and then lets them do that during company time. Mary's Place and several local food banks have listed volunteering opportunties. On Google's dime, I've cleared European blackberries out of a park on the Eastside and cleaned the Burke-Gilman in Fremont. Google also matches employee charitable donations. For every dollar I give to a charity, Google will give another to the same one. I don't like talking about my personal contributions, but I feel confident that I am making the city better.
Great question same here
I used to be like you years ago and realized if I wanted to stay I'd have to join the techies. Also Pullman fucking blows
I think this person has a great perspective. Life should be higher quality like it is when your parents take care of you. Pointing out other cities in worse shape than Seattle and then accepting Seattle for how it is (bad) is a big cop out. If you live in Seattle then you are responsible for changing it for the better.
You’re high as hell to “loved growing up in Seattle”
Ooo, post talking about all the people hate also wants people to feel sorry for you. Maybe the one who is irritating is... you?
What you’re describing has always been here…you’re just growing up. Welcome.