Thoughts on Seattle

I’m on a discussion list where someone (from the Bay Area) has the opportunity to take a position with a company in Seattle. He was asking for suggestions, experiences, and recommendations. Mark Richer posted a followup on-list, and I asked for his permission to reprint it here. This is Seattle from a visitor’s eyes:

I have been there visiting a few times over many years and always really enjoy Seattle. It’s a multi-cultural city with significant Asian and African American populations. There are great restaurants there, especially if you love seafood. There is plenty to do especially with kids I don’t know if the night life is very exciting overall, but I am sure there are plenty of music clubs. However, if you have kids and you are mostly looking for day time fun, then Seattle has some areas that offer a very lively street life during the days which I find stimulating and perhaps less 20 something yuppie or mega wealthy oriented. One of the things that impressed me about Seattle many years ago were the parks … there are nice parks all over Seattle, very green and lots of water all around. Last trip there we went to a really nice park with a lake and a beach. It was great.

The University of Washington is a great public university and there are plenty of shops around there as well as the other shopping districts in or closer to downtown. Living in a city with a university often offers more cultural and other amenities. With the university, Microsoft, Boeing and other companies in Seattle, you will find plenty of very educated people there. Also it’s a very liberal city so if you’re looking for something akin to San Francisco, it has that.

As far as the weather goes, it is frequently overcast and drizzles a lot. It doesn’t really pour hard often so it’s very different than Portland’s weather. You find 1/2 the people walking around with umbrellas and 1/2 that don’t bother. The actual amount of rainfall is higher than San Francisco, but lower than Miami. It’s just not sunny very often. While it’s cooler in the winter than San Francisco, it’s still a west coast city with moderating temperatures in the winter because of Pacific Ocean currents. The nicest sunniest weather is in the summer. Finally, another factor to consider is that Seattle is way north which means long days in the summer (like 10 PM sunsets) and shorter days in the winter. If you crave sun, then move to Colorado or Southern California or Arizona or some place that is frequently sunny. If you want a moderate climate and don’t mind a dark sky most of the time, then there is nothing otherwise harsh about Seattle’s weather.

Other things to note about Seattle is that the traffic can be horrendous at times. I don’t know about traffic in the city as much from personal experience as traffic south on the freeways to/from Seattle and Olympia. On our way in last time from Portland, we hit really bad traffic, but on the way out leaving after 3 PM on a Friday in the summer, we got caught up in horrendous traffic on the freeways. Unable to escape by rush hour, we got caught in the commute traffic for each of the cities as we crawled south. Perhaps escaping up north is easier. I would find it a huge benefit to be close to Vancouver BC and the rest of western Canada. The Canadian Rockies for example are incredibly beautiful, and starting from Seattle on a summer trip, are much more accessible than from California.

Finally, what I would do is check into the options for schools for the kids. In general, I believe Washington has a stronger commitment overall to public education than most western states. However, if you plan to live in the city rather than target a community with a rep for great public schools, then you should really find out how good the city schools are now. It’s just a challenge to operate large urban school districts for many reasons, but that doesn’t mean you won’t find excellent schools if you look carefully. Private schools are also an option. And if your kids aren’t school age yet, then you can always plan a move later to a location that optimizes for that.

Could’ve been worse.

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