Ask HN: What are the cons of the Seattle area? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are the cons of the Seattle area?

8 pointsjmilinion13 comments

On paper, this city and state seems almost perfect. The government is solvent. There's no income tax. The housing is somewhat affordable. A rail system is actually being built. I hear there is a strong technical community there as well.

While Silicon Valley is definitely first, it looks like Seattle could be a good alternative.

So what's the cons of the place? The only ones I can think off on the top of my head is the lack of a non-compete agreement worker protection, less venture capital, and a giant volcano which gives me nightmares of Pompeii. Anything else?

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Housing is expensive. In a lot of areas, it's cheaper to rent a house or apartment than to pay a mortgage on one of similar square footage, but occasionally you can find good deals.

There is a lot of theft. Not trying to scare you, but three of my friends' cars have been broken into or stolen. King County seems to break up theft rings every few months, posting online pictures of stolen property to be reclaimed.

While there are a lot of ethnic food restaurants, they are average to poor compared to ones in other metropolitan areas, and are often Americanized. So if you like authentic spicy Tamil South Indian, Indonesian, or Thai cuisine, you may be disappointed as compared to San Francisco, Houston, or Chicago. American food and sushi, however, is plentiful and good. BBQ is rare, and finding good BBQ is often a topic of casual conversation, and it becomes a big deal whenever a BBQ restaurant opens or closes.

If you have sinus problems like non-allergic rhinitis, the stagnant damp air and the lack of frequent sunshine as a disinfectant often leads to sinus infections. Having lived in three different regions (Midwest, South, and Seattle), I've had far more sinus problems in Seattle than in the other regions. Many people have told me they started having allergies only after they moved to Seattle.

As others have said, there's traffic.

Agreed on the allergies, if you got 'em then you got 'em. Mine went away when I moved away. I'd still go back.

The traffic is atrocious. Because the tech community is split between Seattle and the Eastside across the lake, which only has two bridges, you either have to only work at companies on the same side of the lake as where you live, move whenever you change jobs, or endure a nasty commute.

The rail system isn't going to be that helpful. That's a mainly north-south link, but there's no good east-west transit or arterials in Seattle. If they ever manage to get rail to the Eastside, that'll be helpful, but that's probably a decade away.

The weather and sunlight levels during the winter, which is from late October through mid June, is depressing. It's constantly cloudy, drizzly, and dark. The sunrise is around 9, and sunset is around 4:30. Because of the dense cloud layer, I often keep my lights on even at noon.

The people are hard to befriend. Search for the "Seattle Freeze". Everyone's polite, but no one invites you to do anything.

There's a reasonably high earthquake risk, more likely to happen in your lifetime than a volcano.

On the social side, Seattle tends to be somewhat slower paced than SF or NY. You might not see the same level of high intensity and fast paced tech development that you find elsewhere, and might feel like you're moving slower than you want. There is an oft-noted 'seattle freeze', where people are polite, but reluctant to form close friendships - meaning that you might have more trouble finding the same strong friendships and communities that you can elsewhere.

How hard is it to network and have spontaneous idea exchange with strangers? How hard is it to find help from strangers?

It's really easy to get help from strangers. If you're lost or need a tip on where to go, you can stop and ask a local. Networking is easy too--plenty of tech networking events in the city. Spontaneous idea exchange at a coffee shop is probably a bit more difficult. As other commenters have noted, the Seattle Freeze is a real thing.

We opened up an office there just over a year ago. Finally saw it in March last year. We'd planned to go in January, but the few feet of snow and freezing weather wasn't going to fly with my fellow Texans. When we did get out there, it was beautiful. Cost $3.00 to take the rail from the airport to downtown where our office is located. Everything was within walking distance and there's a lot in that area. Never needed a car. I'll visit again, so long as its warm.

I've never heard of the Seattle Freeze, but upon reading about it, it can't be any worse than the Salt Lake City freeze if you're not downtown. Interesting, I wonder if moving from Salt Lake to Seattle would make the "freeze" feel like nothing.

Other than 9 months of grey skies and drizzling rain, it is perfect. However, a short 2 to 3 hour drive eastward brings you into brilliant sunshine 300 days per year. I've chosen to live in the east half of the state. :-)

I would argue that the rain is a perk, and not a negative. But there are some that love the rain, some that live with it.

Washington is a beautiful state, the east side is a lot drier if you prefer less rain.

Lots of opportunities and 20minutes from Seattle takes you into the Mountains to get lost.

The traffic is pretty bad.

And the public transit isn't great either. No subway and a very limited light rail/streetcar system.

Try it for a couple years, you might never leave. Not everything is an exercise in optimization. You could plus/minus yourself right out of the most magical place you'll ever live.

Cons, because you asked and because everyplace has cons:

Greyer/rainier/mistier than most places, colder and snowier than some.

Related, it can be hard to see much of the sky sometimes, with frequent overcast or moisture combined with everygreens everywhere. You may sometimes feel you're living in a green maze and can't see for long distances. But there is plenty of open space too.

Housing is more expensive than the midwest.

Traffic in Seattle is terrible during commutes if you have to cross Seattle North/South or cross the lake.

Pros, because I used to live there and miss it:

You will never run out of something to do or somewhere to go.

It's beautiful. Stunning. Seattle is on Puget Sound, a giant inlet leading to the Pacific, but protected from waves and water violence. You can take ferry rides all over the sound. On some days the water is glass, the sky is unbelievably blue, and Mt Rainier is large and looming no matter where you go. Gulls surfing in the ferry's air wake, killer whales, kayaks and boats and ships of all sizes. Giant drift wood, and charming houses and evergreens right up to the shoreline.

It's so green that moss grows on arterial roads in the shade.

There's a lot of old buildings and new, and lots of neighborhoods are still identifiable as distinct neighborhoods.

Archie McPhee.

Green Lake.

Lots of higher education, UW and PLU and others, and all the spillover that comes with it. It's not Stanford, but it's good, and widespread throughout the Sound.

The Cascades Range to the east. Skiing in the winter. It's not consistently dry powder like Colorado, but it's skiing. Lots of places to ski Nordic; they leave the logging roads open for Nordic, and you buy a cheap sticker for your car to pay for the porta-potties in the parking turnouts.

Hiking in the spring and summer.

Kayak camping in the San Juan Islands.

The Olympic Peninsula to the west, including the Olympic Rainforest, and a very rugged west coast facing the Pacific.

A great skydiving community (start with Snohomish and/or Kapowsin), and if you just like to fly it's an incredible view, a line of volcanoes and ranges from British Columbia to Oregon. Lots of little lakes besides the Sound itself, looks like green and gold and blue coins sparkling on a green rug.

There are no snakes in Western Washington.

Farther east is Eastern Washington, essentially desert. There are snakes

To the North is British Columbia. Victoria, Vancouver. Cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska.

You should go.

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