Pros and cons to living in Washington state (Seattle, Spokane: ski resort, crime rate)
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A major negative right now is dealing with all of the sudden Seahawks "fans" who have come out of the woodwork. Where were they in the previous seasons? Oh, that's right, they were rooting for one of their other "favorite" winning teams. *rolls eyes* The biggest crock of crap a Seahawks "fan" says is how they've been a fan since childhood. Yeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, right!
There are really quite few areas in the country with die-hard fans despite having a losing team - Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and maybe a few others. It is fairly common for the fans to become more enthusiastic and turn-out to support their team when they are winning, and it's pretty ignorant to insinuate that Seattle is any different than any other place.
Unfortunately , money drives everything, but fortunately because of that, professional sports teams have to TRY to make their team better simply because it puts butts in the seats. That's a good thing for the Seahawks and for the city and state right now, because it generates revenue.
And there are plenty of us that DID have our butts in the seats when the team was in their 2-14 years. There sure are a lot more people around us right now, but I guess I see that as a good thing, not as something to rant about.
There are really quite few areas in the country with die-hard fans despite having a losing team - Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and maybe a few others. It is fairly common for the fans to become more enthusiastic and turn-out to support their team when they are winning, and it's pretty ignorant to insinuate that Seattle is any different than any other place.
Unfortunately , money drives everything, but fortunately because of that, professional sports teams have to TRY to make their team better simply because it puts butts in the seats. That's a good thing for the Seahawks and for the city and state right now, because it generates revenue.
And there are plenty of us that DID have our butts in the seats when the team was in their 2-14 years. There sure are a lot more people around us right now, but I guess I see that as a good thing, not as something to rant about.
Signed, a Seahawks fan since childhood.
That's fine and dandy. I find the sudden fandom a bit stupid since most of the so-called fans will only fly their team's colors when they're having a successful season. Once they begin to suck, they go back into hiding and pretending to be fans for some other better team. I absolutely despise bandwagoners. Even if they're rooting for the team(s) I like.
Thank you all for the good information. I think there is more advantage living in WA than CA especially tax.
Nathan
It really depends on what you are looking for.
Plenty of CA expats living in Washington... some for decades.
By the same token I'm surprised to meet people from Washington in Southern CA... many first came via the military and decided to stay as is true for many in Washington.
I really like just about everything in parts of Western WA... the only glaring problem has been the unexpected 80% bump in my property taxes... quite a shock going from around $500 a month to a $1,000 each month.
I think that depends in part on how highly paid an employee that you are. The lack of an income tax (and the state's reliance on sales taxes for revenue) means that our overall tax structure is quite regressive. Folks at the lower end of the pay scale pay a very high percentage of their income in local taxes, particularly sales taxes. I may not have the numbers exactly right, but I think, based on newspaper articles I read last year, that the bottom 20% pays something like 17% of their income in state and local taxes, which is one of the higher (if not the highest) rates in the nation. On the other hand, if you are a highly paid employee, the system is in your favor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by StealthRabbit
If you are an 'employee, rather than an employer... and if you RENT rather than own your house... WA might be to your advantage.
I think that depends in part on how highly paid an employee that you are. The lack of an income tax (and the state's reliance on sales taxes for revenue) means that our overall tax structure is quite regressive. Folks at the lower end of the pay scale pay a very high percentage of their income in local taxes, particularly sales taxes. I may not have the numbers exactly right, but I think, based on newspaper articles I read last year, that the bottom 20% pays something like 17% of their income in state and local taxes, which is one of the higher (if not the highest) rates in the nation. On the other hand, if you are a highly paid employee, the system is in your favor.
This has been argued before, and IMO the biggest problem with this is that the democrats will never alter the current regressive tax structure.
That would require a creation of an income tax, along with a severe reduction of the sales taxes, B&O taxes, and possibly property taxes. The "progressive" democratic state government already tried to create an income tax two years ago, but not surprisingly, they "forgot" to try to lower the other taxes at the same time.
Simply raising taxes does not make our tax structure progressive.
This has been argued before, and IMO the biggest problem with this is that the democrats will never alter the current regressive tax structure.
That would require a creation of an income tax, along with a severe reduction of the sales taxes, B&O taxes, and possibly property taxes. The "progressive" democratic state government already tried to create an income tax two years ago, but not surprisingly, they "forgot" to try to lower the other taxes at the same time.
Simply raising taxes does not make our tax structure progressive.
If they arent gonna lower the other taxes if an income tax is implemented than its completely pointless. Id rather keep the no income tax.
I'll focus mostly on the western third of the state because chances are, if you move to this place, that's the only Washington you'll really know well.
Pros:
1) The Scenery is top-notch. It is easily - easily - the most physically beautiful location in the lower 48 states. In the west, the combination of sparking ocean inlets, glistening white peaks, and highly changeable weather is just excellent. Further east, we have deserts, rolling plains, more gently-contoured mountains, lakes... you name it, we have it. I've never been any place like it. And I cannot emphasize enough what a quality of life point this is.
2) Taxes are (relatively) low, especially compared to old(er) world locations like New York and New England, and newer ones California. It's not some super-cheap place to live, but there are tons of places that are way worse off.
3) The rain isn't nearly as oppressive or constant as some people would have you believe (this goes for western WA, of course). Nor is the drizzle. There are numerous grey days in the winter, but you know what? It's cloudy in most of the northern tier states this time of year. If you have seasonal affective disorder here, chances are you'd suffer from it in Maine or Minnesota, too.
4) Many, many residents here are transplants, too. You can argue about how much of a positive that really is (I believe it significantly damages community bonds and gives the entire region a feeling of almost loneliness within a crowd). But, the fact remains that a lot of people here are new to this place too, and this may reduce biases seen elsewhere allayed against 'unwelcome foreigners.'
5) The economy is fairly healthy, but stronger for some fields than others. Because there are fewer individual towns than in a region like, say, New England or the Mid Atlantic (there you might have 10 distinct towns in a 30x30 mile square; here there are probably 3 in the same area), there are going to be fewer library jobs, teaching jobs, police jobs, etc. Well-settled portions of the state have a strongly consolidated feel, and due to this, there simply aren't as many slots for 'supporting cast members' as there are elsewhere.
Cons:
1) Its obsessively liberal and getting worse by the day. And along with that, there's an almost desperate aggressiveness associated with this prevailing philosophy. In contrast to an extremely leftist location like, for example, San Francisco or Boston, people in the Seattle area act like they feel threatened by the mere presence of differentiating viewpoints. There's a faded McCain bumper sticker on the back of my car, and I've actually been verbally assaulted over it by random drivers (as if John McCain was the devil himself). I've never seen that kind of behavior anywhere but here. It can at times border on frightening. I believe it may be partially due to the fact that the eastern half of the state is fairly conservative, thus leading to this sort of cultural civil war mindset. But, then again, so is northern California, and I never encountered anything like this when living there and visiting the remainder of the state.
2) In western, WA, the infrastructure simply isn't prepared to handle the number of people here, and it's a problem that the region continues to react clumsily to (or not at all). I-405 constitutes what many cities would consider an 'inner beltway' (though it doesn't, of course, encircle the city), bypassing the urban core. But there is no outer beltway to convey the prevailing north-south traffic flow around 405 even as it is itself buried under sprawl. I've never seen traffic as bad as it is here - never. The inner city transit system is fairly strong, but when compared to the heavy rail commuter systems in Chicago or Boston or NYC - systems design to move hundreds and hundreds of thousands of commuters to various bedroom communities in multiple directions away from these cities - Seattle possesses nothing that warrants comparison. The bus system is overwhelmed and slow (and will still get bogged down in traffic jams at all hours), and the highways are completely underwater. And, to top it all off, there are no serious plans to address these massive problems in the coming decades.
3) Aside from the Seahawks, the sports situation is laughable. The Sounders are perhaps the most popular soccer team in the U.S., which, to me, says a whole lot about the state of athletics here as a whole. Soccer is boring - horribly, horribly boring. I've attended games; I've watched it on TV, and it almost inevitably puts me and most of the rest of America to sleep. The fact that people here find it compelling is an accurate reflection of the hipsterish, 'dare to be different for difference's sake' culture that prevails here. Perhaps if they had some real teams to watch for the better part of 8 months out of the year, they'd scoff at soccer here, too. But, then again, I'm likely giving these people too much credit.
4) The Seattle Freeze exists. It is a real phenomenon. And it is not a good thing.
5) Finally, it bears mentioning that the western half of the state is a veritable disaster movie waiting to happen. We are due - right now - for the largest megathrust quake ever seen in U.S. history (in the southern 48). This will cause 30-foot tsunamis on the coast, but the quake itself will likely release untold devastation on an interior region that stretches from northern California to Vancouver, BC. These huge quakes spread down the entire length of their associated faults, usually last upwards of 4-5 minutes (in constrast, the average earthquake lasts like 30 seconds), and will cause all kinds of sub-disasters that (while present in normal quakes) will be much more widespread here. Whole hills will collapse. Many of the cliffsides overlooking Puget Sound will slump and then slide into the water, creating localized tsunamis. According to scientists, the geology directly under central Seattle resembles a bowl, and this will have an amplifying effect on the destruction. It's going to be bad. It's going to be the worst thing you've ever seen. And there's a very strong chance it will happen in the next fifty years.
The volcanoes, too, cannot be ignored. At several times in its history, Mount Rainier has suffered catastrophic flank collapses that occurred without cause. Yes, that's right - the mountain can literally collapse under its own weight without any build-up associated with a pending eruption. The flank collapses create lahars that can (and have) traveled as far as Tacoma and southern Seattle. Much of the topography directly south of Seattle (the flat terrain surrounded by hills) is actually the result of previous enormous mud flows that filled entire valleys.
'Fun' fact, but did you know that an arm of Puget Sound once extended from Harbor Island in Seattle all the way to approximately southern Kent? Know what happened to it? It was obliterated by a lahar. Yes, an entire inlet on Puget Sound was filled in by one of these things. And they can happen without nearly any warning. The alarm systems in place have routinely failed in past emergency drills. Some 200,000 people could at any moment (perhaps high noon; perhaps rush hour; perhaps 3 a.m.) have 30-60 minutes to flee for the hills before a 30-foot high wall of mud obliterates their homes and businesses. When it happens again, it will devastate this region with an epic disaster - perhaps of a magnitude unseen in human history.
So, yeah, food for thought.
Last edited by PrincessoftheCape; 02-16-2014 at 09:29 PM..
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