3 ms·

For those of you in Seattle, what are your thoughts on the Seattle Freeze?

by curiouscat321 10y ago

mavelikara 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Freeze https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Freeze The Seattle Freeze refers to a belief that it is especially difficult to make new friends (particularly for immigrants from other cities) in the city of Seattle, Washington.
RickS 10y ago
Smallest possible data point, but here: I'm moving to Seattle in 2 weeks and was recently there for a few days interviewing and whatnot. I read extensively about the Seattle Freeze and nonetheless tried to strike up conversations every chance I could. Everyone was awesome. Every single person. Had a great uberpool where the two people I was riding with told me about neighborhoods, then had the same convo with the driver when they got out. Ate lunch with a waitress who, because it was so slow, hung around for a long time giving me her take on the city as somebody that'd been there for a bunch of years. Various other people (hotel clerks, etc) were all great. I know that's somewhat different than breaking into friend groups long-term, which is where I think the freeze might really lurk, but in the short term it seems any kind of freeze can be overcome by east coast peppyness. And I'm not an extrovert by any stretch, just a "how do you like seattle" is enough to get the ball rolling every time. For me, the freeze is a complete non-fear in moving. Far more scary to me is that downtown seattle is so blindingly obviously sick with the same ails as SF, just 3 - 5 years earlier. The city is building much more aggressively than SF, which is great, but I hope they learn from our mistakes here in the bay and invest 3x more than they think they need to in mental health and shelter facilities, or their already nationally known homeless problem is going to catalyze.

3 ms·

For those of you in Seattle, what are your thoughts on the Seattle Freeze?

by curiouscat321 10y ago

For those of you in Seattle, what are your thoughts on the Seattle Freeze?

mavelikara 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Freeze https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Freeze The Seattle Freeze refers to a belief that it is especially difficult to make new friends (particularly for immigrants from other cities) in the city of Seattle, Washington.
RickS 10y ago
Smallest possible data point, but here: I'm moving to Seattle in 2 weeks and was recently there for a few days interviewing and whatnot. I read extensively about the Seattle Freeze and nonetheless tried to strike up conversations every chance I could. Everyone was awesome. Every single person. Had a great uberpool where the two people I was riding with told me about neighborhoods, then had the same convo with the driver when they got out. Ate lunch with a waitress who, because it was so slow, hung around for a long time giving me her take on the city as somebody that'd been there for a bunch of years. Various other people (hotel clerks, etc) were all great. I know that's somewhat different than breaking into friend groups long-term, which is where I think the freeze might really lurk, but in the short term it seems any kind of freeze can be overcome by east coast peppyness. And I'm not an extrovert by any stretch, just a "how do you like seattle" is enough to get the ball rolling every time. For me, the freeze is a complete non-fear in moving. Far more scary to me is that downtown seattle is so blindingly obviously sick with the same ails as SF, just 3 - 5 years earlier. The city is building much more aggressively than SF, which is great, but I hope they learn from our mistakes here in the bay and invest 3x more than they think they need to in mental health and shelter facilities, or their already nationally known homeless problem is going to catalyze.