Love/hate Seattle (Vancouver, Central Park: townhouses, neighborhood, theater)

[Gentoo]

I love it from my short time there so I'll set that straight now.

What about the rest of you?

[blueshogun96]

Love it. I'd rather die than live anywhere else in the US.

[HeyHolliday!]

Love:
-Summer in Seattle
-The city is only improving
-Coffee Shops
-the relaxed and friendly attitude displayed among the locals
-Seattle is somewhat centralized
-Golden Gardens Park
-The bike trails
-The city is quite walkable
-Its located in between Vancouver and Portland

Hate:
-Horrible transit system
-The large quantity of NIMBY residents.
-The REI crowd: People that dress in camping/hiking gear yet have never gone on a hike or pitched a tent once at most in their life
-Large quantity of Yuppies and Hippies
-Seattle lacks a main park like Vancouver's Stanley Park, SF's Golden Gate Park, NY's Central Park
-The most scenic drive in the city and probably the entire state is being torn down(Alaskan Way Viaduct)
-The Weather

[jm31828]

I want to chime in that I LOVE Seattle! I just moved here in November so I have not yet been jaded, but I will say without a doubt, of all the places I've been in the US this is my favorite. Here are some highlights for me:

-Scenery- top notch, more beautiful than anywhere else in the country
-Cleanliness- most of the metro area is very clean, very few dirty, nasty, or bad areas in comparison to most other major cities

And though it gets a bad rap, I put the weather as a plus as well. It all depends on what you are comparing it to- I come from the northern plains, so the mild winter temperatures and lack of snow and ice are a huge plus- I don't mind the rain, in fact I like the freshness of it. And I hate the hot, sticky summers from back in the midwest, so the cool to mild summers here are perfect as well.

[eskercurve]

Overall I love it here.

[blubrd]

Its the best place to live IMO!

[Ira500]

Love:
How green the area is. Trees, water...Sushi, smoked salmon, chowder, teriyaki, lots of great Thai and Vietnamese food, Indian buffets, an environmental ethos, relatively easy to grow great things in the garden..Broccoli, peas, marionberries, rhubarb, blueberries, etc all love it here and do very well.

Hate:
Traffic. Days of continuous dark, gray, wet weather. The political process, where something gets studied for five years, argued about for five more years, and then a wrong decision is reached.

[Blindtom]

Love the green, the summers, the rain, the ferries.
Hate the traffic, the dark evenings.

[dacx]

Originally Posted by HeyHolliday!

Love:
-Summer in Seattle
-The city is only improving
-Coffee Shops
-the relaxed and friendly attitude displayed among the locals
-Seattle is somewhat centralized
-Golden Gardens Park
-The bike trails
-The city is quite walkable
-Its located in between Vancouver and Portland

Hate:
-Horrible transit system
-The large quantity of NIMBY residents.
-The REI crowd: People that dress in camping/hiking gear yet have never gone on a hike or pitched a tent once at most in their life
-Large quantity of Yuppies and Hippies
-Seattle lacks a main park like Vancouver's Stanley Park, SF's Golden Gate Park, NY's Central Park
-The most scenic drive in the city and probably the entire state is being torn down(Alaskan Way Viaduct)
-The Weather

Could almost be my posting except don't mind the weather.

[svartkatt]

Love it here - wouldn't want to live anywhere else, although I suppose I'd settle for a nice penthouse on the Upper East Side overlooking Central Park if I had to.

Love: The emerald green of the trees, water everywhere, and mountains. Awesome summers and absurdly beautiful sunsets. Parks. Restaurant/food scene. Very active cultural scene (theater, visual arts, etc). Tons of local/indie businesses. Access to the outdoors. Farmers markets. Neighborhood villages. Walkable central part of the city. Beautiful skyline. The Space Needle. Mix of old and new buildings downtown, and historic preservation that encourages adaptive reuse. Beaches on the Sound. The tacky waterfront. Live-and-let-live attitude, and social conscience of people who live here. Ferries. Urban wildlife. UW. Paramount and 5th Ave theaters. People are polite and friendly.

Dislike: The darkness of the winters. Slow progress of rapid mass transit and poor bicycle infrastructure. Totally agree about the Seattle Process and our sloggy political system. Ugly cookie-cutter cheaply made six-pack townhouses with tall fences around them. People who get dressed up in full-on hiking gear to go shopping at REI (don't know why, it's just a personal pet peeve). Open-air drug markets in Pioneer Square and Belltown, and too much tolerance for derelict behavior downtown. As soon as we fix these few minor issues, Seattle will be totally perfect.