An outsider's perspective of Seattle
OK, I said I was going to write about Seattle eventually. Now that I've been here from Boston nearly two months, I think I have a handle on things.
People back East have certain preconceptions of the Northwest. Images of rain, coffee, and Nirvana come to mind. Most of them are rooted in various degrees of truth. But here is the warts-and-all view of the Emerald City:
It doesn't rain here as much as you think
Look at the stats: Boston has an average annual rainfall of about 42 inches; Seattle 36. Most of the heavy rain comes in the winter; most of the spring and fall is cloudy or drizzly; and summers here are absolute paradise.
All in all, the weather here is a trade-off I'm willing to make. I snapped last January when we got hit with that two-foot blizzard in Boston and I had to spend five hours digging my car out of a spot on a city street. I swore I never wanted to shovel again. It snows in Seattle maybe once or twice a winter; the temperature rarely dips below 40. Summer is generally sun and no humidity. So I can deal with the clouds. Except now, when it is mid-June, under 60 degrees, and everyone is getting impatient for summer to begin for real.
They still wear grunge clothing here. But ...
The locals wore their flannels long before Madison Ave. discovered Nirvana and
Soundgarden, kept wearing them during the peak, and still wore them when America's kids found something else to groove to. The music scene here still thrives, and there's a very funny weekly called The Stranger (linked on the left) that is a throwback to when the alternative press was actually an alternative and not its own seperate establishment. It is also weird hearing people refer to musicians like Krist Novoselic and Eddie Vedder as simply locals, as if they never made it big outside here.
There are indeed a lot of Starbucks here. But ...
There are a half-dozen other chains and a mom-and-pop type place on every corner. And I'm not going to pretend no one here drinks Starbucks, but everyone has their favorite local haunt (mine being Uptown Espresso in West Seattle). But yes, coffee culture really is as big out here as its made out to be. And it has to be, when it is mid-afternoon and you haven't seen the sun in 17 days. And no, there are no Dunkin Donuts out here. Once you get used to the coffee out here you'd never want it again anyway.
There's an odd mix of red- and blue-state sensibilities here
Sure, there's Microsoft and the high-tech industry. There's also a massive military presence to the South and North of the city; there's the logging industry; and just about all of Eastern Washington is farmland. But vastly different people get along reasonably well here. Probably because in large part ideologies can blend in a different way out here than in other parts of the country. Like, there are farm owning gun nuts who lean libertarian towards people's personal lives and respect the land in a real way that your average Cambridge liberal could never comprehend.
Tacoma is sort of like Worcester, but is trying its best to be Providence
Tacoma, about 35 miles south of Seattle, is the city every region has that all the big-city types rag on. Its nickname is Tacoma Aroma. That should sum it up. There was pulp mill plant that was a government Superfund site and though they've cleaned it up, you still get a whiff of it from time to time and it is not pleasant. It went through a long period when its businesses fled town and crime went through the roof.
But it is making a real attempt at a comeback and it is starting to pay off. The
downtown has been ramped up with a university district that bustles on weekdays, as
several big regional schools opened satellite branches; there's a museum district with a revamped art museum; there are a couple historic theaters downtown; there is a new light rail system running through downtown; there are good restaurants on the waterfront; a great park; and a decent casino outside of town. If you spent a week out in the Northwest, you could spend an enjoyable day in Tacoma.
I'm stunned I just typed that last paragraph, because I lived in Tacoma six years ago and couldn't move out of there fast enough. And if anyone in Seattle is reading this, they're scoffing. But Tacoma ain't half-bad.
Seattle drivers are the worst in the country
Seriously. Not Boston. Not New York. Not LA. Seattle. I didn't say "most aggressive." I said "worst."
Traffic is terrible in Seattle. Part of it is just the city's geography; there's only so much you can do when you have a downtown on a narrow strip of land jammed between an ocean inlet and a massive lake. There's only two bridges going over the lake to the trendiest suburbs (one of which is I-90. If you ever wondered where you'd end up if you got on the Mass Pike and kept going the answer is about a half-mile from Safeco Field). Now throw in the fact these roads were built long before Seattle hit a growth explosion.
But then there's the underlying cause -- the worst drivers in America. They are so ridiculously passive that no one can get anywhere, ever. All it takes is one slow, stubborn driver to snarl traffic. Four lanes in each direction on I-5, and some latte-soaked idiot will go 45 MPH down the fast lane; and someone in a tuff-looking pickup will box you in on your right, and if you even thought of going around it all, there's inevitably a logging truck or military vehicle in the slow lanes. When it rains, they drive like it has never rained here before; when the sun comes out, everyone slams on the breaks. Traffic congestion would be greatly eased if all the slow-moving jackasses just picked up the pace a bit.
That's strictly a Washington thing, too. The second you cross the border into British Columbia people drive normally and at some point in Oregon they start driving like Californians.
Public transportation in Seattle is a civic disgrace
It is 2005, and a city the size of Seattle does not have a subway or metro-type trains.
Let that sink in for a second.
Amtrak pulls through and there's a short monorail downtown. But that's it.
Seattle sees itself as superior to the cities around it. But Portland figured out a workable light rail system. Vancouver, the true jewel of the Northwest and a world-class city, has great light rail system and is adding another route.
But there are head-in-the-sand opponents of growth in Seattle that would give South Boston politicians a run for their money.
Light rail and expanded monorail projects were passed by citizen vote in the 1990s. Politicians ignored the will of the voters and killed them. The voters passed them again. Now there's all sorts of stalls and delays. They've finally got construction going on the light rail, which winds south of the city from downtown. But it will pull up a couple miles short of the airport, despit heading in that direction. Brilliant.
This is a city with pretenses of environmental friendliness; there's gridlock on the road; the price of gas is going through the roof; and yet vocal and powerful in the people in the city still want to shut down viable alternatives to cars.
It is truly mind-boggling.
They poured a bazillion dollars into a commuter-rail type system connecting Seattle to Tacoma. They then decided to run three trains into Seattle early and three out of there late. And that's it. If I am reading the schedule right, the last one into the city from Tacoma leaves at 6:45 a.m. and the last one leaves Seattle at 5:40 p.m. So the trains are timed in such a manner that they have minimal impact on I-5 traffic. Yet another stroke of genius.
Anyway, next time you gripe about the Big Dig, just be glad Seattle city planners
didn't get their hands on it.
The top dogs in town sports-wise are ...
The University of Washington Huskies. The Sonics always had decent support. The Seahawks still don't sell out all their games, even with a new stadium and a playoff team. The Mariners were a fad whose peak has passed, though Safeco remains a great place to see a game. (An aside -- all season long the Mariners are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the 1995 season. Can you imagine any Boston team making a big to-do about a division title season in which said team won one playoff round?)
The Huskies were here long before the pros came calling, as was Washington State, for that matter. The pro teams have their peaks and valleys of popularity, but support for the Huskies is always there.
Well then. I've probably just made Seattle sound miserable. Far from it. I've moved out here, moved home, and decided I wanted to be back here, and for good reason. People are generally more mellow, the weather doesn't get too cold or too hot, the cost of living is significantly less than the big East Coast cities and California, and when the clouds go away and the mountains come out you can't imagine anyone with a pulse ever wanting to live anywhere else. But Seattle has its downsides, like any other city. If you're from Seattle and reading this, just hit the gas pedal a little bit harder on the highways and everything will be fine.
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