“I moved here two years ago from LA and find this town to be the most hip place on the west coast. From Fremont to Belltown, from Pike Place to Capital Hill, Seattle is what’s happening.”
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I’ve been to Seattle, and I don’t think I can add too much more than what is already mentioned. I more give a warning about the outlying communities. Many of them are really depressing with lots of really ugly, ultra-modern strip malls where the likes of JC Penneys, Wal-Mart, Target reign supreme, it’s the type where the countercultural-minded should avoid at all costs. Many of these communities also have really ugly new subdivisions with golf course style lawns, oversized and overpriced homes. So your best bet is to stay in Seattle proper.
Seattle is by far one of my favorite places to visit, everything thats previously been said is very true. except for the comment on the outlying communities. Yes its true most of them are dominated by strip malls and the like but why care about the outer layer of a community. I live in the Bremerton area and the people who live around here are truly amazing, and I know the heart of the area, every place has its ugly new subdivisions, its something that most cities and towns can’t get away from, but the whole NW is teeming with nature and wildlife, and amazing local artists and musicians. You just have to get out there, meet a few people who know the area and you’ll learn a lot of new things.
My criticism of Seattle wasn’t in Seattle itself (after all, the city limits can only go north and south, it can’t spread out eastward, because of Lake Washington, and the fact Bellevue is on the other end), but the rampant out-of-control development between Seattle and Tacoma is appalling. I’ve been to Tukwila, and I never seen such an ugly strip mall in my life as there. Burien, on the other hand, was nicer, and they seemed to have little shops lined up by the road, without all the unsightly development that plagued a lot of the area. I also liked the fact Burien seemed stuck in the 1970s. Vashon Island has a nice countercultural scene going on, it’s near Seattle, but you don’t have to put up with Seattle’s problem of traffic. Bainbridge Island is nice, clean, and development is kept in check, but expensive to live there. Mercer Island is yuppie land, so avoid that, didn’t look like the place had much character (I should know, as I’ve been through there going to Bellevue). East of Bellevue is Issaquah, used to have that small-town charm, but I was there, and it seemed to have what seemed to be the largest strip mall I have ever seen. I remember Kent getting made fun of constantly on Seattle’s Almost Live (on KING-5 right before Saturday Night Live), as being a redneck haven. So I guess there was the good and the bad living in the Seattle area, now I look back on it. I live in Oregon (as I had most my life, except for the three years in the Puget Sound, and the first three years of my life living in southern California), and while there are some Oregon towns with some hideous sprawl like Klamath Falls (although it looked like most of that town’s sprawl was buildings around 30 or so years ago, rather than new development in the last 10 years), Bend, and Medford, it wasn’t anywhere bad as some areas outside of Seattle.
Seattle STILL kicks ass over many areas in the country. I live in Everett, just north of Seattle and it is NOT dominated by strip malls. It has a pretty good downtown and a new arena scheduled to open in sept. 03. I dont know of many places on earth that you can go skiing in the mountains and swimming in the ocean on the same day.
mq/ac/wp
peace
Oh come on. Look around you. Ugly old buildings, homeless drug addicts, people are staring and talking to themselves like it is some endless mental clinic parade, and the slowest busess(especially when they hit that stupid tunnel) that I’ve ever seen. Capitol Hill buses are even slower and travel nowhere important(unless you attend UW). The city is ugly and depressing. And the faceless suburbs are even worst. Seattle is surrounded with military bases. There is just not much IQ out there. And since there is no desent housing in the city , most residents forced to drive in traffic to their homes in the woods. It is overpriced and plain ugly, and the mayor Nickels or what’s his name, doesn’t understand that it is not normal for people to stop everyone on Capitol Hill and ask for some buulshit like change, or cut nails in front of a restaurant where people eat, or to hear your neighbour snoring and farting because the walls are so thing, and to pay for that dump more then people of Miami Beach or Vancouver BC. I lived in both places, snap out of it Seattle, those people live like royalty compare to you, and pay almost half of what you pay.
Seattle has become my hometown. I’ve lived near, in and around the Seattle area since I was almost 17 (August 1978). I came here fresh from living in southern Mississippi for 4.5 years, and before that time, I was in New Hampshire, where I’d been born and spent the first 12 years of my life. And I have to say, I absolutely LOVE Seattle!!
If you’re a hippie, you definitely want to check out Seattle. Not the outlying areas, like Bellevue (ew), Mercer Island (yuppie heaven), Bainbridge Island (another yuppie heaven). Someone earlier mentioned Burien. That’s just south of the Seattle border, and that’s where I first lived. It’s pretty cool. I was an atheist going to school there for one year (my senior year), I was (well, am…) a sci-fi/Trek and science geek, and never got dogged on for any of that. Didn’t even get dogged on for not standing in assembly for the Lord’s Prayer on the first day of school (“liberal” Seattle, yeah, right…)
But any way, let me tell you what I, as a wannabe-hippie kind of on the fringe, think about some of the very cool neighborhoods in Seattle.
By far the best: Capitol Hill. One of the two times I actually resided in the city of Seattle was on Cap Hill. It’s the most densely populated neighborhood north of San Francisco, and you can tell. It’s what I call Seattle’s “bohemian” neighborhood. It’s also the neighborhood that most gays and lesbians choose to settle in, which is cool too. But one of the things I so love about it is that it doesn’t roll back sidewalks at 8PM like downtown Seattle does. I always thought, before living in a “big city,” that there’d be things happening 24/7. Boy, was I wrong!
However, when I was living there, there were many things for a lone, single woman like myself to do. I was too shy to meet and make friends (something I really regret now in my older and hopefully wiser early 40’s). A pagan shop, Edge of the Circle Books, had a drumming circle till the wee hours of the morning. I walked home from this, and while being alert to things around me, I felt very safe. The only encounters I had were usually other young folks and couples walking home as well. Another cool place for late hours was Twice Sold Tales, a used bookstore on the corner of Broadway (the main drag thru Cap Hill) and John St. They’re open from Friday morning, nonstop, until Sunday evening. I went in one morning, about 3am, loathe to go home after drumming, and found about 30 people there! And cats!! The owner, Jamie, a friend of my brother Bear, loves cats,and the place is set up for their fun, comfort and convenience. There’re overhead “catwalks” between walls and rooms, scratching posts, platforms for sleeping, many things a cat person could enjoy.
But the main thing I tell people about Cap Hill is this: You can do your own thang, and NOBODY would blink an eye over it. I and my son used to love to go just to buy some ice cream, and prop up against the wall and people watch. My son saw a bunch of biker dudes in their leathers, ran up to talk to them (he was about four then), and they were just awesome with him. He thought they were the coolest guys on earth. Gay, straight, hippie, mundane, pagan, buddhist, hindu, black, white, asian, indian… it’s all good on Cap Hill.
Other neighborhoods in Seattle that seem very hippie friendly are Wallingford (west of the U-district, over I-5) and Fremont (home of the famous Fremont Troll, a lifesize Troll gripping a life-sized VW Beetle, under the I-5 bridge). West Seattle, which considers itself a city in its own right, is also very cool, if you’re a south-ender and don’t want to go all the way into Seattle. And if you don’t mind dealing with a GREAT variety of the “downtrodden,” the Ave (U-District’s main drag, officially called University Way) is a cool place to hang out, or at least it was when I was a bit younger. I have to admit it’s been a few years since I’ve truly hung out there.
Now, one of the most annoying things to ever happen to me in Seattle, happened just off the Ave, right next to the UW. I was going to catch a bus to Burien, a good bus that bypassed Seattle, and went to a shelter with a bunch of people waiting. I asked, three times, if the number 133 had come yet. Without fail, EVERY single one of these people just looked at me like I was a bug. Now, I know we get people from outside the area to go to the UW, but still, I thought that was EXCEEDINGLY rude. Sadly, this happens too often in Seattle. Maybe my being raised by Southerners, who will talk to just about anyone, is why it peeves me so when I try to strike up a conversation, and people just stare at me like I”m a freakazoid or something. A simple “No” or “I don’t know” would’ve sufficed, or even, Fuck off, bitch. At least that’d acknowledge that they heard and understood me!
Also, in downtown Seattle, they’ve been trying to sanitize and sterilize and get it all yuppyfied for the masses. Would you believe it’s ILLEGAL in downtown Seattle to SIT on the sidewalk?? I kid you not! I told my then five-year-old son that, and one time, when we’d been walking around a while and were tired, he pipes up and says, Oops, I’d better not sit on the sidewalk, I might get arrested for vagrancy! LOL, what a kid!
They’ve taken a lot of the old buildings out of downtown and put in new, sparkly, shiny ones with lots of windows and concrete (some of which aren’t even being used now, after all the spending they did). They took out the old, original Monorail platform and shortened the track. I tell my son how things were back in the day, and he’s just amazed.
Seattle is charming because its special. Its special because its a shithole that manages to be expensive.
seattle is the most horrificly putrid and disgusting place ive ever been in my life which is saying alot ive been homeless in san fran, chicago los angeles…… and none of these places hold a candle to the vileness and overall depressingness of the hell they call seattle. ive been stuck here 4 over a month now and just when i was about to leave i met a girl thati really like and now she wants me to stay here i think i might just kill myselfplease someone get me out of here now
I would LOVE to go to seattle just for a day to see where pearl jam’s first show took place!!!
I am looking with my family to relocate to Washington. We were very interested in Bellingham after spending a couple of hours walking around. I am interested in finding out about the public schools. I teach elementary school and our children would be entering middle-school, in high school and looking at the colleges. Where we live in the Bay Area in California, we enjoy living in a multi-cultural setting where our children live, learn and play with children from all over the world. I would not want to loose this by moving away. Many of the comments I have read on this website make me even more interested in becoming part of the Bellingham community. If you have any insights about the schools in Bellingham, we”d love to hear them.
Washington suuuucks. the traffic suuucks.