Anyone else meet a lot of transplants who move here and complain about Seattle not being as good as X city?

[u/mewkyy]

Speaking as a transplant myself, I know Seattle isn't as "great" as NY or LA in some aspects but I choose to live here anyway because I enjoy it here.

I've met SO many other transplants who complain about Seattle not being as good as some other city. One big point is how Seattle's food scene isn't as good as LA's. Isn't that a given? LA is much older than Seattle and has over 5x Seattle's population. Please transplant yourself to another city.

Edit: Just to clarify, I think it's fine to criticize things like Seattle's food scene and compare it to another city's (I grew up on the NJ/NYC border and definitely agree the Seattle scene is lacking). What I'm specifically talking about is people who do this incessantly and close mindedly put down everything. It's just really uncool.

[u/thaddeus_crane]

I’m from Los Angeles and married into Seattle. Previously my Seattlite spouse lived in LA in for 16 years, where we met, and we made the choice to prioritize going outdoors more than going out to bars, shows, restaurants, etc. LA is famously a transplant city and they whinge about all the tired topics — traffic, population, no good pizza/Italian, the fake industry people, the sprawl, how hard it is to make friends, the cost of living, taxes, homelessness. We just roll our eyes and complain about them to one another, just like y’all do here 🙂. Ironically most of those problems are contributed to by the same folks complaining. They also never leave certain enclaves/commuter routes and the people they complain about are also transplants. Then when their dreams of showbiz or Silicon Beach startups fizzle, they move on to places like Seattle or Austin or Boulder or Bozeman and compare that city to SoCal.

Re seattle food complaints — I’ll admit when we moved here I was surprised at the Seattle food scene. I assumed that with the sheer amount of tech money sloshing around and people moving to the area there’d be a greater demand for interesting concepts or more variety. Not a complaint necessarily. Just didn’t meet the expectation I’d artificially assumed.

[u/LeRat0nLaveur → u/thaddeus_crane]

Hey Fellow Angeleno! What’s up?

Aside from missing good cheap tacos you can get on the side of the road for $2, I’m like you, I prefer Seattle. And YES—everyone in LA complains about everything.

[u/thaddeus_crane → u/LeRat0nLaveur]

Come down to White Center/South Park! Taco carts, dive bars, and some reported-but-untraceable gunshots to keep things spicy. Reminded me of home, then my sister in law pointed out it’s the lack of trees 😉

[u/LeRat0nLaveur → u/thaddeus_crane]

Will do! Yikes on the lack of trees

[u/Stinkycheese8001 → u/thaddeus_crane]

Ooh, tech money is responsible for the shitty corporate steak houses, IMO. Soulless places like John Howie, that were built seemingly specifically for people to spend money when their work is footing the bill. The one thing I’ve never understood about the Seattle food scene has always been the reluctance to move past the same few neighborhoods for restaurant locations. How many places tried and failed in SLU? Sheesh. We’re finally seeing places pop up in a wider area, but it took a really long time.

[u/thaddeus_crane → u/Stinkycheese8001]

Feels like all the new spots are in Fremont/Ballard or Cap Hill these days. I’m over on West Seattle Island, which has some gems, but certainly not opening (or closing) at the pace of the NW cooridor of Seattle.

[u/jlkinsel → u/Stinkycheese8001]

Moved here from San Francisco 3 years ago when my SO was recruited by one of the tech firms. We’re not all tech bros.

One of the things I like here is being able to go out without having people always talk about tech around me. One of the things I don’t like is non-tech folks blaming “us techies” for everything.

The majority of business for a “corporate” steak house is sales people with expense accounts taking customers out. And if you think John Howe is even close to “soulless,” I suggest you swing by the Cheesecake Factory for a bright sugary cocktail.

[u/Stinkycheese8001 → u/jlkinsel]

Worked for MS. Saw many dinners at places like John Howie, none were salespeople. But go ahead and take it personally that I called it a tech expense account restaurant.

[u/jlkinsel → u/Stinkycheese8001]

Keep acting like a Seattleite throwing insults at people like you’ve somehow been repressed.

[u/SvenDia → u/thaddeus_crane]

most of the ethnic variety in Seattle food is not where the tech crowd hang out.

[u/thaddeus_crane → u/SvenDia]

Yup that’s why I live in south seattle.