7 ms·

Old Seattle was an interesting place, but also a much rougher place. The SLU was mostly warehouses, junkies and prostitutes. South Seattle was the real hood, no

Old Seattle was an interesting place, but also a much rougher place. The SLU was mostly warehouses, junkies and prostitutes. South Seattle was the real hood, not the semi-tamed version it is now. Wallingford was a hippy commune where someone might walk into your house and take a nap. Blaming Amazon is a total cop out. The death of "cool Seattle" started before Amazon was even a thought in Bezo's head. It's also funny that many of the people complaining about this issue were first wave gentrifiers pushing out people before them in an effort to get to the hot neighborhoods. It's frustrating how many Seattleites refuse to admit their own hand in this process. Never mind the fact that your Ad Agency's contract with Amazon allowed you to buy that house. Anyways, everyone in the region knows the "new Seattle" is Tacoma. So if you really want that "dive bar but might get stabbed" vibe you can move there?

barsonme 9y ago
> So if you really want that "dive bar but might get stabbed" vibe you can move there? As somebody who's lived there my whole life, :( I know we were just ranked the most violent city in Washington (or something) but tbh it's never _felt_ that way.
- jschwartzi 9y ago
  How's Hilltop? I remember it being pretty dicey when I was young.
  - barsonme 9y ago
    Much better than it was. They had some big gang busts around 2009 if I remember correctly. No huge shootouts since '89 ;)
- jorblumesea 9y ago
  It's a joke :) Tacoma is a pretty awesome place and I love it. Yeah it's violent but in general it's not too bad, just certain places (Hilltop) can get really bad. Compared to Seattle it's crime is much higher; the stats don't lie. But much of that is concentrated in specific parts.
- sjak299 9y ago
  To put in perspective Ferndale, MI, an affordable but awesome neighborhood of Detroit, is about 4x safer. 800 to 200 violent crime per 100k per year
  - supernumerary 9y ago
    Stop fronting. Ferndale is north of 8 mile.
  - smelterdemon 9y ago
    Ferndale is an inner ring suburb not a neighborhood
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Pretty sure that honor goes to Wenatchee. Heck, people forget the huge slide Spokane has taken since its heyday.
  - barsonme 9y ago
    People on the west side forget about the east side in general lol.
- saosebastiao 9y ago
  Because it’s not. Comparatively within Washington, sure...but nowhere near Oakland, South Chicago, Baltimore, Compton. I grew up in Stockton CA and while I live in Seattle now, Tacoma still feels like a pretty nice blue collar town to me.
- sizzle 9y ago
  What about Renton?
techsupporter 9y ago
> It's also funny that many of the people complaining about this issue were first wave gentrifiers pushing out people before them in an effort to get to the hot neighborhoods. It's frustrating how many Seattleites refuse to admit their own hand in this process. This, right here, is what drives me the most nuts about all of the complaining. Of the handful of native-born Seattleites I know (yes, yes, anecdotes don't make data, I get it), they're split about half and half between "meh, who gives a rat's butt" and "holy shit my family is rich for the next nine generations because my parents got divorced in the mid-90s and both of them bought a house in [Ballard | LQA | Capitol Hill | Magnolia] and they've said that's my inheritance." There's a poster on reddit who typifies this to a T. He regularly whines and moans about the construction, traffic, noise, and people around his place on Capitol Hill. The thing is, in his rants, he gripes about how things were so much different when he moved here 20ish years ago. He refuses to see that HE was also a "dirty gentrifier" considering people didn't move to the Hill in 1997 who weren't looking for that hippy cool vibe and bar doors you could get all kinds of exotic diseases by simply walking past. Cities change. They always change. Sometimes they change in ways a particular person likes; sometimes they don't. But this whole business of "good Seattle" is just crap. > everyone in the region knows the "new Seattle" is Tacoma I've been to Tacoma several times. They can keep it.
- nodamage 9y ago
  > There's a poster on reddit who typifies this to a T. The Seattle subreddits (both of them, because drama) are particularly toxic as far as city forums go. Not exactly sure why, but there seem to be a lot of people who have nothing better to do than post angry rants all day. I had to unsubscribe.
  - foota 9y ago
    Perhaps because it's not acceptable to be toxic in person?
    - Clubber 9y ago
      Acting like that in person yields a much higher chance of getting punched in the face than acting like that on the internet. :)
matwood 9y ago
This is happening in popular coastal cities all over the US. I live in the city that I grew up in, but most people I run into moved here. I'm on a Slack group where people, many of which have been here < 5 years, were complaining about the traffic and wanting the 'old' version of the city. Every person wants to be the last person to move to a nice city. Thing is, I remember the 'old' version of the city. Almost zero tech jobs. One of the current most popular places for hanging out, restaurants and bars was a place you never went after dark (or much in the day time). Infrastructure was much worse (one of the more popular places to live now had a sulfur problem with the water so it smelled and tasted horribly). I understand the frustration with growth, but I like the new version city much better than old, and hope it continues.
- DrScump 9y ago
  Almost zero tech jobs. Boeing and GTE Mobilenet seem like obvious examples.
jroseattle 9y ago
This is exactly the case. If anything different, I'd argue that many looking for "cool Seattle" are really lamenting "little Seattle". I moved here in 99, part of an influx at Microsoft. I interviewed there on a Friday, stayed the weekend to get familiar with the area, and flew out on Sunday. As we are leaving, my wife and I sat at the airport gate wondering why we would ever want to sell our full two-story, 2800-sq-ft brick Tudor in our hip east coast neighborhood to pay $300 more per month for an 1100-sq-ft 2br apartment in Seattle. Three other couples within listening distance were doing the exact same thing, with a few of the ladies in tears. Everyone was struggling with the same thing -- a job offer in hand (I got mine same day), but how can we ever afford to live there? We decided to come to Seattle. We bought a house in the confluence of Wallingford, GreenLake, and the U-District. On a bus, it was 15-20 minutes downtown -- and that includes stopping in Fremont and getting stuck at the bridge every day. The south side was much more sketchy (our impression) and we didn't really know anyone who recommended that side of town. Nowadays, the commute is much longer and the houses around us are all much nicer. Few can afford to move, so everyone is remodeling their existing house. This notion of "old Seattle" being wiped out has been happening for a long time, and it didn't start with Amazon -- they're just the latest flavor to blame.

barsonme 9y ago

> So if you really want that "dive bar but might get stabbed" vibe you can move there? As somebody who's lived there my whole life, :( I know we were just ranked the most violent city in Washington (or something) but tbh it's never _felt_ that way.

jschwartzi 9y ago
How's Hilltop? I remember it being pretty dicey when I was young.
- barsonme 9y ago
  Much better than it was. They had some big gang busts around 2009 if I remember correctly. No huge shootouts since '89 ;)
jorblumesea 9y ago
It's a joke :) Tacoma is a pretty awesome place and I love it. Yeah it's violent but in general it's not too bad, just certain places (Hilltop) can get really bad. Compared to Seattle it's crime is much higher; the stats don't lie. But much of that is concentrated in specific parts.
sjak299 9y ago
To put in perspective Ferndale, MI, an affordable but awesome neighborhood of Detroit, is about 4x safer. 800 to 200 violent crime per 100k per year
- supernumerary 9y ago
  Stop fronting. Ferndale is north of 8 mile.
- smelterdemon 9y ago
  Ferndale is an inner ring suburb not a neighborhood
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Pretty sure that honor goes to Wenatchee. Heck, people forget the huge slide Spokane has taken since its heyday.
- barsonme 9y ago
  People on the west side forget about the east side in general lol.
saosebastiao 9y ago
Because it’s not. Comparatively within Washington, sure...but nowhere near Oakland, South Chicago, Baltimore, Compton. I grew up in Stockton CA and while I live in Seattle now, Tacoma still feels like a pretty nice blue collar town to me.
sizzle 9y ago
What about Renton?

techsupporter 9y ago

> It's also funny that many of the people complaining about this issue were first wave gentrifiers pushing out people before them in an effort to get to the hot neighborhoods. It's frustrating how many Seattleites refuse to admit their own hand in this process. This, right here, is what drives me the most nuts about all of the complaining. Of the handful of native-born Seattleites I know (yes, yes, anecdotes don't make data, I get it), they're split about half and half between "meh, who gives a rat's butt" and "holy shit my family is rich for the next nine generations because my parents got divorced in the mid-90s and both of them bought a house in [Ballard | LQA | Capitol Hill | Magnolia] and they've said that's my inheritance." There's a poster on reddit who typifies this to a T. He regularly whines and moans about the construction, traffic, noise, and people around his place on Capitol Hill. The thing is, in his rants, he gripes about how things were so much different when he moved here 20ish years ago. He refuses to see that HE was also a "dirty gentrifier" considering people didn't move to the Hill in 1997 who weren't looking for that hippy cool vibe and bar doors you could get all kinds of exotic diseases by simply walking past. Cities change. They always change. Sometimes they change in ways a particular person likes; sometimes they don't. But this whole business of "good Seattle" is just crap. > everyone in the region knows the "new Seattle" is Tacoma I've been to Tacoma several times. They can keep it.

nodamage 9y ago
> There's a poster on reddit who typifies this to a T. The Seattle subreddits (both of them, because drama) are particularly toxic as far as city forums go. Not exactly sure why, but there seem to be a lot of people who have nothing better to do than post angry rants all day. I had to unsubscribe.
- foota 9y ago
  Perhaps because it's not acceptable to be toxic in person?
  - Clubber 9y ago
    Acting like that in person yields a much higher chance of getting punched in the face than acting like that on the internet. :)

matwood 9y ago

This is happening in popular coastal cities all over the US. I live in the city that I grew up in, but most people I run into moved here. I'm on a Slack group where people, many of which have been here < 5 years, were complaining about the traffic and wanting the 'old' version of the city. Every person wants to be the last person to move to a nice city. Thing is, I remember the 'old' version of the city. Almost zero tech jobs. One of the current most popular places for hanging out, restaurants and bars was a place you never went after dark (or much in the day time). Infrastructure was much worse (one of the more popular places to live now had a sulfur problem with the water so it smelled and tasted horribly). I understand the frustration with growth, but I like the new version city much better than old, and hope it continues.

DrScump 9y ago
Almost zero tech jobs. Boeing and GTE Mobilenet seem like obvious examples.

jroseattle 9y ago

This is exactly the case. If anything different, I'd argue that many looking for "cool Seattle" are really lamenting "little Seattle". I moved here in 99, part of an influx at Microsoft. I interviewed there on a Friday, stayed the weekend to get familiar with the area, and flew out on Sunday. As we are leaving, my wife and I sat at the airport gate wondering why we would ever want to sell our full two-story, 2800-sq-ft brick Tudor in our hip east coast neighborhood to pay $300 more per month for an 1100-sq-ft 2br apartment in Seattle. Three other couples within listening distance were doing the exact same thing, with a few of the ladies in tears. Everyone was struggling with the same thing -- a job offer in hand (I got mine same day), but how can we ever afford to live there? We decided to come to Seattle. We bought a house in the confluence of Wallingford, GreenLake, and the U-District. On a bus, it was 15-20 minutes downtown -- and that includes stopping in Fremont and getting stuck at the bridge every day. The south side was much more sketchy (our impression) and we didn't really know anyone who recommended that side of town. Nowadays, the commute is much longer and the houses around us are all much nicer. Few can afford to move, so everyone is remodeling their existing house. This notion of "old Seattle" being wiped out has been happening for a long time, and it didn't start with Amazon -- they're just the latest flavor to blame.