4 ms·
Been here 12 years and while I agree with those things (not that I care for IPA or weed), there are HUGE major cons: -Traffic is quickly becoming worse than al
by icelancer 9y ago
Been here 12 years and while I agree with those things (not that I care for IPA or weed), there are HUGE major cons:
-Traffic is quickly becoming worse than all cities in the US and the tunnel nightmare will not solve that (many projections say it will make it worse)
-Local and regional bureaucracy is far worse here than comparable west coast cities
-Massively regressive taxes due to no state income tax (consumption taxes disproportionately levy the burden on poor people, and regional small business taxes/fees/etc are incredibly bureaucratic here in comparison to other areas, though the state laws are favorable)
-NIMBYism is just as bad here as it is in SF, and worse in some areas
-As a result of the above, property values are skyrocketing at rates faster than some areas of SF. My $230k townhome in the middle of a "bad area" bought 4 years ago is worth $500k+. This is ridiculous. There is no reason I should have experienced a 100% ROI windfall for simply accidentally timing the market for housing.
Heroin epidemic is especially bad here, Seattle City Police have been investigated and busted by the US DOJ in the past, high school education has serious redlining going on which encourages private schooling (which is insanely expensive here), and so forth.
I love it in Seattle but it's very much moving the same way SF is, and in many ways, trending much worse.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoThere are plenty of nice school districts outside of Seattle. Bellevue, Shoreline, Northshore.... Coming from LA, I'm looking forward to cheaper housing prices when I move there next month.
- icelancer 9y ago>Bellevue, Shoreline, Northshore That's the issue. It's all urban flight to suburbs. I live in the inner city and see it every day.
- wyclif 9y agoAnd of course, that means heavy commuting and long drives to where the tech campuses are.
- throwaway312387 9y agoYes, but Bellevue is itself a cluster of tech and only minutes away from Redmond. Also, I've been told it's like being back in India :)
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoWhat? Most of the campuses are on the east side. Unless you are working for Amazon or maybe Apple, your commute is super easy from Bellevue vs. Seattle. Coming down 405 from another can suck, however. Nothing new with east and north side schools being better than Seattle schools. It was that way in the early 90s when I was in HS.
- wyclif 9y agoYeah, I admit I was thinking of Amazon because of personal bias...it's the only PNW company I have any experience with.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoAmazon is the perennial company in Seattle, but the Seattle's tech center has always been dominated by the empire Bill built (aka, Microsoft). Google, for example, has two campuses, a smaller one inFremont (which is Seattle), and a much larger one in Kirkland (to attract former MS employees). Ditto for Facebook.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago(I just noticed Facebook is located in South Lake Union now as well...that area is getting hot!)
- cylinder 9y agoYou act like people are forgoing some Epic Utopia City to live in Seattle. Hate to break it to you but every major US city has these problems and usually more. Dysfunction is at every level.
- icelancer 9y agoThe "cons" are literally comparative to other cities.
- vonzeppelin 9y agoSeattle was nice but it had no lightning bugs so I left. Lightning bugs are important.