Comments

1
Shocking since The Stranger is sure we're living in either Nazi Germany or the Jim Crow South.
2
gates lives in medina. it's a ritzy suburb that barely counts as "seattle," imo.
3
and what's racist about seattle, exactly? it doesn't have to address the issue, really. racism isn't a problem when you are surrounded by white people, so where would the racial tensions even BE?
4
Louis Farrakhan once said Seattle lacked ghettos.

I grew up in a city that was WAY more racist than Seattle. You could get your ass kicked for being a white boy in the wrong neighborhood. And vice versa for being black in an Appalachian neighborhood. The poverty where I went to High School makes Rainier Beach look like the Truman Show. there were literal race riots in the 90s.

Sure, the Whiteness obfuscates it, but there IS less racial tension here than my hometown, and far more diversity. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
6
What's our rating/ rank for existential ennui? Or coffee addiction?
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@2 - Well, that depends, doesn't it? If Medina is a 'suburb' with downtown Bellevue just 10 blocks away, then Madrona is a 'suburb' as well. I think everything surrounding Lake Washington effectively counts as the "greater Seattle metro area", and that swings all the way up to the border of Everett (probably includes Everett actually (sorry Everett)), and down to the edge of Tacoma, or at least Auburn. Eastwards, anything west of Lake Sammamish is basically "Seattle".

What do you consider Los Angeles? Just the tiny, literal incorporated city in the middle of that giant sea of concrete? Or the entire metropolitan area which is commonly referred to as "L.A."?
7
@4 It's really hard for people raised in the South or really anywhere east of the Mississippi to believe that folks in the west aren't consumed by anti-semitism or re-establishing Jim Crow. Slavery never made it this far west as an institution, and the frontier didn't entice a lot of jews. Tough to develop a culture of hating people who were never around to be hated in the first place. Oregon's constitutional racism was more about complete exclusion than oppression.
8
@4, Seattle certainly isn't overtly racist like the part of the country you came from--east coast? However, it has its issues. While you don't have the violence against POC in Seattle that many have encountered in places like NYC, Boston, and Philly, you do get quite a bit of "covert action" in Seattle: As a POC in Seattle, I've been subject to hostile stares and looks of shock in job interviews from middle managers and employees in the workplace (and I am so not gangsta.) Intensive store detective follows in stores, and cop cruiser follows on the street (north and south seattle.) Since the city is not that racially diverse compared to some of the aforementioned cities, some Seattle white people do get freaked a bit and, in some cases, get downright hostile when they encounter blacks because they aren't used to being around them even if they socially believe in the equality of the races.

Not to mention the SPD beating of a black man at the War Room back in 2005 and the recent harassment and jailing of William Wingate by an SPD cop.

I'm not saying Seattle is bad, but it shouldn't assume that its sh*t doesn't stink.

And this guy had a few things to say as well:
http://kuow.org/post/black-man-white-cit…
9
WTF does "security" mean in this context? The press release says only, "Perception of Security." What is it that people perceive as secure or insecure in a city? Is this just a brain-dead euphemism for fear-inducing? Rate of pearl-clutching? Percentage of "bad neighborhoods"? Degree to which the U.S. Department of Fear has everyone looking over their shoulders? Crime rate as perceived by affluent straight white people?

Every time I read or hear "for security reasons" nowadays, I wonder if anyone could put into words what that means. I mentally translate to, "due to various hysteria surrounding things that authority figures hope that you fear."

SECURITY
10
@8: and I don't assume that. there's the history of redlining and anti-Asian violence, there's xenophobia, there's ignorance borne of isolation, there's white supremacists in N. Idaho, just a few hours' drive away.

but I bet you'll take side eyes and clueless comments over getting your ass kicked by drunk Appalachians. Seattle is racism lite.
11
@9: My mistake. "Perception of Security: Weighted official average rate of theft and murders in the city. Then this was weighted with the local Perception of security per capital."

So they're calling it "perception of security" but it's really weighed average of actual theft and murder rates. WHAT?
12
I've noticed that when Seattle is being described as oh-so-white, they seem to think that there are only 2 states of being, black and white. I wonder how all the Latinx, Asians, Native Americans and/or First Nations people feel about that. When I moved back east, everything looked strange to me because I was used to so many more POC that weren't of (recent) African descent.
13
If by "greenspaces" they mean "roadside methcamps," then yes, we should rank up there with the best of'em.
14
I guess that I’m the only one here who went back to the ORIGINAL story? Bagdad, Iraq is on the list.
So is Dubai, and all of Qatar. Only two US cities even made it. The other was Boston. Let’s not get all excited here.

Garbage in, garbage out.
16
Housing insecurity should have probably been more heavily weighted. The climate in San Francisco (undoubtedly among others on this list) is one of "if I lose my current housing, I'll have to leave the city." Unless you're in the top 5%, it's a reoccurring paranoia. It doesn't compare with being bombed, but it sure outranks access to green spaces.
17
I'm not sure what this post is about, I got stuck at online dry cleaning and I haven't been able to think about anything else all day.
18
Understandable. Our passive-agressive nature takes up most of our time.
20
I only trust the finest online dry cleaners with handling and interpreting complex sociological data.
21
So, I am from Washington State and now work and reside in Appalachian SWVA after living in Charleason, S.C. and the panhandle of Florida (Southern Georgia, for Floridians). No, Seattle and the PNW is not racist in the black vs. white sense, but it is classist in the "I am a preppy, consumerist and new-money-West-Coast" manner vs. those who "live in Mills Creek and still drive a 2004 Subaru" way. Get a grip, folks. No one gives a crap except for Portland, Bellingham and Victoria, B.C!! SMH for psuedo-journalism.
22
It's almost like a place can be relatively better than other places yet still have problems. I'm sorry that makes your brain explode.
23
@20 FTW!
@19 Maybe Yemen hasn't invested in online dry cleaners. Also fuck Saudi Arabia for their horrific, US-supported, anti-civilian war against Yemen.
25
You guys need to get out more

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