1. City noise. Traffic and construction, though the latter comes with a booming economy.
2. City pollution. Bring on the electric-car revolution!
3. People in the service industry have more energy than I am comfortable with. A friend visiting from Scotland recently said the same. Perhaps my years living there affected me.
4. I find non-tax-inclusive pricing to be a very deceptive practice, and a failing of government. They can layer on federal tax, by state tax, county tax and city tax, so driving 20 mins away, outside of the city limits, items are taxed differently. Price tags and listed prices are always exclusive of tax which is calculated at the register.
5. I encounter a lot of homeless people and people with mental issues and substance addictions. Also, living close to downtown and catching busses often, I encounter them even a lot more. Seattle has one of the highest number of homeless people in the US. Having said that, to quote one homeless man on a bus, if you're homeless in Seattle, you'll never go hungry, and never need for the bare basics (he specifically mentioned clothing), as they will be given to you.
6. America-level violent crime. I still can't get my head around shootings actually happening, let alone being [frighteningly] common. Just last night a poor girl walking her dog in the nearby University District was shot 5 times in a drive-by shooting.
My entire adult life I have lived near cheap, high crime areas. Oats St, Perth; Kabukicho, Tokyo; Hanoi; and Leith, Edinburgh. I've never been involved in an altercation because I follow strict, common-sense rules and have been very lucky, but this place, with so many mentally ill people on the streets, and guns so readily available, it is just so much worse. I neither work nor live downtown, but I never feel safe when I am there.
Overall, I'm loving Seattle, but if I've learned one thing, it's that every place has its pros and cons. I maintain I made the right decision.
2. City pollution. Bring on the electric-car revolution!
3. People in the service industry have more energy than I am comfortable with. A friend visiting from Scotland recently said the same. Perhaps my years living there affected me.
4. I find non-tax-inclusive pricing to be a very deceptive practice, and a failing of government. They can layer on federal tax, by state tax, county tax and city tax, so driving 20 mins away, outside of the city limits, items are taxed differently. Price tags and listed prices are always exclusive of tax which is calculated at the register.
5. I encounter a lot of homeless people and people with mental issues and substance addictions. Also, living close to downtown and catching busses often, I encounter them even a lot more. Seattle has one of the highest number of homeless people in the US. Having said that, to quote one homeless man on a bus, if you're homeless in Seattle, you'll never go hungry, and never need for the bare basics (he specifically mentioned clothing), as they will be given to you.
6. America-level violent crime. I still can't get my head around shootings actually happening, let alone being [frighteningly] common. Just last night a poor girl walking her dog in the nearby University District was shot 5 times in a drive-by shooting.
My entire adult life I have lived near cheap, high crime areas. Oats St, Perth; Kabukicho, Tokyo; Hanoi; and Leith, Edinburgh. I've never been involved in an altercation because I follow strict, common-sense rules and have been very lucky, but this place, with so many mentally ill people on the streets, and guns so readily available, it is just so much worse. I neither work nor live downtown, but I never feel safe when I am there.
Overall, I'm loving Seattle, but if I've learned one thing, it's that every place has its pros and cons. I maintain I made the right decision.
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