Seattle is utterly soulless (school, universities, live)

[CrazyDonkey]

New York: 8.5 million
Chicago: 2.7 million
Seattle: 700 thousand

You're comparing a watermelon to a grapefruit to an apple. I'd say you've got your expectations seriously out of whack.

[fnh]

Stop feeding the troll.

(Yes I see the irony in this post.)

[Finance2Tech]

Originally Posted by Seacove

It is terrible. OP definitely should move. Maybe NYC or Chicago is where happiness lies?

I lived in NYC and Chicago before: truly America's greatest cities. I cannot wait to move back next year.

[87112]

No he has a point. The jungle Amazon built in SLU is soulless as well as all the new condos that replaced the character filled old homes that were in Ballard, Beacon Hill and North Seattle. Its not all rosy going foward. Everywhere tech people invade they don't add much flavor to a city.

[jakebarnes]

Sounds like you should consider a move to a city which meets your needs Finance2Tech. I can understand the need to complain, but there's really no reason to stay if you dislike it so much. Unless you are one of those people who never wants to improve their life, just complain endlessly about how nothing is good enough.

[homesinseattle]

Damn Finance, it just happened again, not 20 minutes ago. Crazy how if you hold your head up and smile, people respond to you. I was famished, missed breaky this morning, stepped out of my Green Lake office to the PCC store nearby. I grabbed some food from the food bar, walked over and sat down at a table next to a few others doing the same. As I always do, I smiled and said hello to the people next to me.

The woman right next to me (probably 38 years old) was speaking Portuguese, apologized to me that she was doing it while I was eating. She was animated and Facetiming her mother in Lisbon. I said "no worries, that's life", I ducked into her Facetime screen and said "obrigado" to her mother, the one word I know in Portuguese. Laughs all around.

She got off the phone, engaged me. We talked about linguica sausage (she was eating breakfast sausage), a small Portuguese food store/wine shop I know in the Greenwood area on the north side of Seattle and futbol (soccer). I asked her some questions about the Portuguese community here, I don't meet many Portuguese people in Seattle and was interested. We somehow segued to travel and accents, she told me about a cool year she lived in Mozambique and did post war NGO work. So, far from a robot, she came here to take a tech job and likes it. She plays co-ed soccer and loves Seattle, has been here 3 years. She described her workmates as being from all over the world, they get together regularly and cook meals from each others' cultures. She invited my wife and I to join them sometime.

Then, she asked me what I did for work and why I was so interested in other cultures. I told her, she hired me to help her, no joke.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

Damn Finance, it just happened again, not 20 minutes ago. Crazy how if you hold your head up and smile, people respond to you. I was famished, missed breaky this morning, stepped out of my Green Lake office to the PCC store nearby. I grabbed some food from the food bar, walked over and sat down at a table next to a few others doing the same. As I always do, I smiled and said hello to the people next to me.

The woman right next to me (probably 38 years old) was speaking Portuguese, apologized to me that she was doing it while I was eating. She was animated and Facetiming her mother in Lisbon. I said "no worries, that's life", I ducked into her Facetime screen and said "obrigado" to her mother, the one word I know in Portuguese. Laughs all around.

She got off the phone, engaged me. We talked about linguica sausage (she was eating breakfast sausage), a small Portuguese cafe I know in the Greenwood area on the north side of Seattle and futbol (soccer). I asked her some questions about the Portuguese community here, I don't meet many Portuguese people in Seattle and was interested. We somehow segued to travel and accents, she told me about a cool year she lived in Mozambique and did post war NGO work. So, far from a robot, she came here to take a tech job and likes it. She plays co-ed soccer and loves Seattle, has been here 3 years. She described her workmates as being from all over the world, they get together regularly and cook meals from each others' cultures. She invited my wife and I to join them sometime.

Then, she asked me what I did for work and why I was so interested in other cultures. I told her, she hired me to help her, no joke.

OK, now you have my interest, being 100% Portuguese myself, what is this cafe? After 23 years I have yet to find real authentic Linguica or Bacalhauanywhere around here.

Bom dia!

[homesinseattle]

Here you go Hemlock, link follows. Disclaimer, I'm no Portuguese food expert but used to eat it often when I spent more time around Boston, Providence and Cape Cod. I have been to Brazil too, beautiful spoken language. I would go see her soon. I'm sad to say this but I think the food is obscure enough in Seattle that she may not last a long time in business: Home - Luso Food And Wine

[Neerwhal]

Originally Posted by Finance2Tech

It lacks the diversity, urban dynamism, nightlife, and social energy of a truly great city such as NYC and Chicago. Rather, it is a glorified suburb and company town, filled with tech robots whose lives revolve around coding.

Thank you for your input. We will take that into account in the future.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

It does seem that way, or perhaps it's envy? This is over a year ago, but tech workers were still at only 8.2% of Seattle workers, that's certainly not near enough to generalize a whole city.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/...workforce.html

This is what I don't understand; why people so often (I'm talking about Seattle residents who occasionally post here) say Seattle is a tech city, when tech is only a small part of the overall picture. I'm surprised at how many people overlook the university scenes, Boeing, and other employers. How can there be "not enough women" (that perennial complaint), when there are hospitals full of nurses all around town, three universities and several community colleges, not to mention the schools, all staffed by women?

Anyway, thanks for posting this statistic. I hope it provides a reality check for our hit-and-run complainers about the social scene.