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Comment by pera | Hacker News Reader

I keep reading all these scary stories about how unwelcoming people from Seattle is; I moved here back in February and my experience until now have been completely the opposite: almost every Seattleite I meet is super friendly and talkative, at the point that it feels almost like being in a small town.

Maybe I am just lucky? but I think Seattle is one of the coolest cities in the US, except of course for the traffic.

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My experience was the same as yours. Frankly I've never lived anywhere where I felt like I made more beyond the surface connections with people than the Seattle area. I never experienced any hostility for being in the software industry, nor any for being an outsider not from the pnw. IMO Seattle has something that I've missed since leaving quite a lot - a high % of thoughtful, intelligent, down to earth people.

I think it depends greatly on your personality, how you spend your free time, what part of the city you're in, and how your first few experiences shapes you perception.

I find Seattle to be unwelcoming, personally, but it's not that people aren't friendly when you can get them to talk. It's the pervasive avoidance of eye contact and general desire not to engage with strangers that can make it a lonely place.

I had only lived in big cities before (Buenos Aires and NYC) where is very unusual to have any kind of interaction with strangers. In my experience here people starts conversations all the time in almost any public space (grocery stores, parks, buses, etc.) and I have to say that I'm not used to that haha but I really enjoy it. I wonder if this is a neighborhood thing maybe?

Yes. I grew up in Seattle and people rarely make eye contact. It's terrible. It wasn't until I visited other areas that I realized that it wasn't just me.

People here do want to be forced out of their shell though. If you don't require the slightest bit of affirmation in your personality, you'll do fine in Seattle. If not you'll most certainly get the blues. I do fine on some days and then sometimes it's just a chore.

Sounds like Finland/Scandinavia. Well, they were the ones to supposedly settle Ballard, I guess.

I dunno, Pera. That's been my experience of Seattle too.

I mean, sure, I remembered the street protests that lead to the minimum wage laws; and people getting angry about one thing or another. But by and large, I don't get the cold shoulder or hostile looks.

Maybe it is because people in Seattle are sensitive to being judged, and are aggressive about political correctness? I'm OK with that.

Seattle is a beautiful city. I'm glad I had the chance to live there :-)

It very much depends on if you fit the Seattle type. The reality is that Seattle and the Northwest in general is very hostile to people who are different from the norm there. If you happen to line up with that it's a great place to be. If not it can be uncomfortable.

Having a giant lake dividing Seattle from the rest of the area has a really negative impact on traffic.

I lived in Seattle for 4 years and I generally found people cold and distant, my wife did too.

That might be part of it too. I worked from home. I lived in Capitol Hill, parked my car in the garage, and I think I drove it maybe once the entire year I lived there. I walked everywhere. Folks were pretty friendly.

would you say your experience with seattleites was limited due to your staying in a small pocket of the city?

Well, that's turn that around: how would not staying in a small pocket of the city expose me other types of Seattleites?

Or better yet: How would typecasting what Seattle folks are like give me insight into myself, or into the city, or improve my life?

After fifteen years of living here, I've concluded that a large part of the traffic woes are brought on by the general driving habits of the residents themselves. Can't properly merge (speed up to the flow of traffic, please), can't stay out of the left lane, and huge gaps are often left because a driver can't be bothered to push the accelerator (exacerbating the jerky stop-and-go). Seattle doesn't need more roads, Seattle needs to learn to operate their vehicles (though Seattlites will tell you it's the immigrant Californians; talk about denial). Contrast to, say, NYC where it appears to me that everybody just wants it to work and if you're screwing it up for everyone else you get a horn and a finger. Which, despite stereotypes, doesn't seem to happen all that often (disclaimer: never lived there, visited lots) because everyone else wants it to work, too.

That, and they should have said "yes" to federal light rail dollars forty years ago. Now we're stuck with a tunnel that I'm becoming increasing convinced is never going to get finished.

The traffic. Ugh. ...I remember, even twenty years ago, having to slog along under 40 mph from SeaTac to Seattle on a Saturday - early in the afternoon.

I visit Seattle often and find the traffic to be wonderful! Of course, I live in Beijing, so my perspective is a bit unusual.

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