Columns Aug 19, 2015 at 4:00 am

Be Grateful Iā€™m Here, Seattle

Steven Weissman

Comments

1
There's a Phil Hendrie character named "Ted Bell" that comes to mind whenever I read shit like this.
2
This guy is right! Lets thank his over-educated ass for bringing money in to the city, then listen acceptingly as he bitchs about all the poor people on the streets, high cost of living and constant rain that comes starting October. And when no one who works at Pagliacci, Hot Mama's, Blue Moon Burgers, the co-op, Ballard Farmers Market, the local bike shop, Future Vapor, Vivace, and tons of other LOCAL places, can afford to live or do business in Seattle anymore, then they can take up the matel and work for those wonderful establishments that resist a 1/2 way livable wage of 15.00/hour. If there is one thing I know about bubbles, they pop, and unless you are at the forefront of everything that is going on at every moment, then you're left with nothing but a paper hat and a ""Welcome to --------, how may I take your order" script. It wont matter what kind of education or degree you have, you'll do what you need to do to survive. Enjoy your possible futures because reality is only one CEO's decision away from reality. History ALWAYS repeats itself.
4
Wow so seattlites are suppose to be grateful for your insufferable rich attitude ? My bad !
5
Fucking amazon employees are so annoying.
7
Bite me.
8
I'm all for density (not sprawl, which destroys farmland and causes worse traffic, etc.), but there comes a point where the people coming here destroy the very quality of life they sought out. as one house after another in my neighborhood (phinney) is replaced by cost-no-object mega-houses sporting hi-tech security, the neighborhood is losing its character - it's not hard to see how this ends: non-stop construction (tearing down old houses to be replaced by said mega-houses, and constant remodels), squeezing out of non-wealthy people, huge property tax increases - it's hard to find a silver lining here. I'm glad our economy's healthy - and that it's largely non-polluting industry - but things are getting ugly out there, and the quality of life here is suffering from the 'boom'.
9
I for one am happy your here as the housing prices going up help most of us that worked hard and through a tough economy to buy homes that are appreciating in price. The black clouds that complain about you moving here are those that will never be happy and just want to complain to hear themselves and think that they are relevant like brooding grunge rock stars, but really who cares what they think. They are the ones with no skin in the game and feel that because they don't have theirs that those that do are insufferable. They like to feel good about themselves by condemning those that don't want homeless encampments ruining the neighborhoods and that the drunks and panhandlers are adorable, i'm guessing because they don't have an investment in a home that drops because of this. They will say that Bernie Sanders rocks, because everyone should be equal regardless of effort and that capitalism stinks because they are the have nots and not the haves.
10
Actually, I wish you guys would bring your damn lunches to work every once in a while so the rest of us SLU workers could find a place to eat at a normal time that didn't require blowing our whole lunch break waiting in line.

Also, stop staring at your fucking phones while walking down the street and expecting everyone to walk around you. And when there are ten of you and one of me would it kill you to move out of the way so I don't need to step in the dirt patch or street to get by you?

This has been my and my coworkers' experience with you Amazon people every freaking day. We don't want to hate you, but you make it so hard. Also, use your indoor voices, people,
11
prejudice : unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of a hostile nature, regarding an ethnic, racial, social, or religious group.
12
You don't understand, dipshit. We all were new once. Only we had the social skills to introduce ourselves personally and say what you have to say "anonymously". See, this is Seattle. And some of us believe we shouldn't hide who we are, opinions and all. And once you make a Seattle friend, you have a friend for life. There is a community bubbling under you that hates the fact you don't get that. This is our town. You can sit down, have a beer, and make yourself a human being, or you can judge us "anonymously". You were not the first of your kind with money, you won't be the last. Me and my friends, we all range---I would guess---from "Doesn't report a legal income" to "Owns a house even your Amazon ass can't afford." And we care for one another. And relish every opportunity to meet new people. You list local business names in your post like a racist says "My black friend..." and a homophobe says "my gay friend." To us, that's where our friends work. We are all over. We are brilliant in the fact that we know we aren't perfect, so we want to go forward together. I am sure you mean well. Next time, sit down at a pub, or go to a local show, introduce yourself, smoke a joint, and make a human connection.Tell us your fears, we'll tell you ours. Boom, you make a friend. Now you are part of Seattle. Just having a damn zipcode, drinking Starbucks, taking your out of town friends and relatives "anywhere but Pike Place or the Space Needle...those are tourist traps", and taking a selfie peeing on the Troll does not make you part of Seattle. You need to understand why we all want to be here.
13
True story, a few months ago at a local establishment, an kid walked up to me and asked if I hung out there a lot. I said, "Yeah." And he asked where he could get some "special". I knew what he meant, because he obviously wanted coke and thought that's what special means. This was evident in how he sniffed and wiped his nose. So, I was like "I have no idea what this millenial is talking about." to my friend. The kid then goes, "You know, coke.". At this point , I asked him if we had ever met before. When he said no, I asked him "Then who the fuck are you to ever ask me that?" I then yanked him out of said bar, and as I tossed him out said "Don't. Come. Back." He actually asked me why I was being a dick, and I said "Go buy a fucking soul.". I then yelled out "Bill Hicks" and walked back in.
14
Read between the lines.
These megacorps are sucking profit from all over the globe (having lucked into a somewhat stable internet natural monopoly).
Now, where would you rather live, again?
15
If you want to please the locals, what you really need to do is share your abundant supplies of MALT LIQUOR and COCAINE.
16
I assume this was actually written by Ryan Boudinot.
17
I'm with the OP. When I moved here 15 years ago I was amazed at the cost of living. I lived in a 1.5br shack near downtown in a crime ridden neighborhood that was one more Nisqually from collapsing on my head and the neighboring crack dealers having full run of the place. A little research revealed the decrepit shack was worth $500k. $500k for a getto shack in 2000? $20 an hour wasn't enough to afford the shack. Which doctor wanted a 1/2 million dollar getto shack? The decay could be continuing if it weren't for all the opportunity coming in and people taking a chance on making it better. Keep in mind, the value is in the land, not the sticks on top of it. Seattle's land availability and lack of sprawl is squeezing you out.
18
@ 15:

MALT LIQUOR and COCAINE are so 2014. Get with the times, we've all moved up to designed gin and marijuana.
19
Cities do change, and many of us are transplants contributing to that change (2002 high tech transplant, myself). But the rate of change in high tech hiring (Amazon et al) is now far outpacing housing and transportation infrastructure. A lot of those who wanted to be here without high-tech income could figure out a way to make it work for them - most used to be able to keep up with rent increases. But the surge in rent in recent years as new demand has far outpaced new supply, drives people out and breaks up social circles that have existed for years. And for those driven out to lower cost suburbs, they get a healthy dose of traffic headaches now.

As for the places where you spend your money? That's great. Except about 1 1/2 years ago, the ST reported that downtown had lost about 1/6 of its retail since the great recession - in spite of all the population and job growth downtown. As much a shift to online shopping, I suppose.

My favorite indie movie theater, Broadway Market, closed just three weeks after I moved here. Change happens in cities. But when it's a favorite business AND one's home AND one's social circle AND the time that must now be spent stuck in traffic - and some people are losing a lot with all this change.
20
@12 Amazon employees don't have time to go to a pub, see a show, smoke a bowl etc. Not if they're doing 80 plus hour work weeks
21
Amen brother, Amazon isn't the problem. The dumbass voters of this city and state are the problem. The voters in the city are selfish enough to make laws that prevent large buildings from being constructed and then stupid enough to blame high rents on other people. The voters of this state can't even raise a soda tax let alone raise enough money to meet our transportation needs. And even when we do get the money together we get assclown ideas like "Bertha" as our solution. We're rivaling San Francisco in levels of smug lack of self awareness. I welcome Amazon!

You know what's worse than Amazon moving here and bringing people with them? No big business moving here and people leaving here to find work. You know what's worse than your favorite coffee shop closing and being replaced with Starbucks? Your favorite coffee shop closing and being replaced with NOTHING. You know what's worse than 5,000 job openings in a high paying industry? No job openings and underemployment. If you don't like it you can move to Portland and try to find work as a hip bicycle vendor to pay off those gargantuan student loans. Good luck.
22
"The voters in the city are selfish enough to make laws that prevent large buildings from being constructed and then stupid enough to blame high rents on other people. The voters of this state can't even raise a soda tax let alone raise enough money to meet our transportation needs."

Bingo. This city has been refusing to plan adequately for over a century -- City Engineer Bogue's excellent plan for civic progress was rejected by voters in 1912 -- and now we're straining to accommodate the very growth we should be grateful to have:

"You know what's worse than Amazon moving here and bringing people with them? No big business moving here and people leaving here to find work. You know what's worse than your favorite coffee shop closing and being replaced with Starbucks? Your favorite coffee shop closing and being replaced with NOTHING. You know what's worse than 5,000 job openings in a high paying industry? No job openings and underemployment."

Right on. The problems we're having come from the collision between what we need, and our failure to plan for what we need.
23
Do you volunteer or donate at any of the area organizations that are working to make lives for those displaced by this housing crisis easier? ARE YOU EVEN REGISTERED TO VOTE HERE? Buying groceries at the Co-op is well and good, but if you want us to be thankful for your presence, then you better be using said presence to participate in this community, instead of just blowing your money wad on "Cap Hill," especially considering there is no tax on your wondrous income to support the infrastructure here otherwise.

From my experience working face to face with your kind in a cafe in the Amazon buildings, and my experience working in fundraising at a local nonprofit, I'm going to guess that your answer is no. If the roots and ties you have here are as shallow as a Pagliacci pizza then forgive me if GRATEFUL is not the word that leaps to my mind when I think of you.
25
23-
that is the problem, you want people to donate and volunteer to help those that won't do it for themselves. Tell me why there are so many homeless. Is it because they are displaced by high rents or is it easier to stand on a corner asking for free money than it is going to wenatchee and picking apples for 20.00 per hour..?? you will say that's not feasible , i'd say, why not.. thje more we diminish what people can do and the more we GIVE them, the worse the problem gets..but I don't think many of the socialists in Free-attle to get it.
26
Anyone who hates all Tech Employees, let me just say...

FUCK OFF.

What right do you have to hate us? You blame us, personally, for rising cost of living? We happen to get paid well simply because there is enormous demand right now for tech products like websites, online shopping, smartphones, etc....which surely you use. This massive demand increases our wages since there aren't enough engineers - not that many people want to become one, and it takes a lot of dedication and hard work to get a degree in these fields. I'm sorry the economy is setup the way it is - there's a lot I don't like about it too - but castigating tech workers for making more money which may lead to people making less being priced out isn't our fault. We just took the best jobs we could get, like everyone else does. The majority of us, I think, would do this for far less money, because it is what we are passionate about.

Living in a city is expensive. I don't know why you feel you have so much more of right than any of us to be here. I didn't get to do it until I was in my late twenties since I never made enough to do it before. I wasn't angry at people who were able to, though. I don't really have any answers for you on how to resolve the situation, but if you're really pissed about the rising cost of living, maybe try to effect change through political means, or by economic pressure (e.g., not buying all the tech products whose workers you hate). You could blame the tech companies for not doing much to counteract rising prices, or the city council, the mayor, the state, or whatever, but its not our (tech workers) fault. We have no control over it. And the enmity towards us for no fault of our own is a real bummer. It's mild compared to more serious discrimination against other things, but its still really negative and unnecessary.

And before you say we're "ruining the culture", or we're "tech bros" (I've met 1 'bro' at the company I work at), etc., I highly suggest you actually meet and talk with actual people working in tech. Most of the things said in The Stranger about tech workers are absolute fictitious bullshit. And even if there were many "brogrammers" or whatever the claims are, how about you start judging individuals on their own merit rather than by some group they fall into...tech workers are a diverse group with varying personalities and perspectives. Maligning them all is based on some category they fall into (rather than how they act) is the same type of categorical, prejudicial thinking about ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender. Its stupid, and I think Seattle should be fucking better than this.
28
@27
I'm not sure who your comment was even directed to, but I assure you we're all very scared of your "shit fury". Having > 700 ways to kill me barehanded is impressive - do you have these tallied in a spreadsheet somewhere? I'd like to see. I must say I'm impressed - where as many would've thought four or five hundred ways to kill someone barehanded would be enough, you had the foresight to know that one day you would be angered by an internet commenter, and need fully over 700 techniques.

@20
Clearly you don't actually know many people who work at Amazon. I don't know about the business/HR/other people, but a lot of us on the tech side like to hit a nug and even more like going to bars. Some teams have beer at work on Friday afternoons (some teams even bring in kegs, from what I've heard). And we don't work 80 hours a week - the average is probably 40-50 from what I've seen. At least on the tech side, we have tons of other opportunities if we're overworked/unhappy.
29
@26: yes, your comment about the issue with rent control and cost of living is an issue. If that had been buttoned down several years ago instead of being unlimited

About your comment w.r.t. diversity: BUWAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE NOT BEEN IN TECH THAT LONG.

- I am an SDEt (yes, the t is intentional, because I develop fixes more than test) for a large company in the area.

- I've been in this industry 10 years (I know, I'm still a baby).
- I have worked for 2 startups and 4 large tech companies.
- I am a systems engineer at a large company in the area.
- I am one of the few "minority" groups in tech that you claim is exists in high numbers (queer).

First off, the ratio is predominantly male in the tech industry, so less diversity when it comes to gender: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04… (this article claims 7:4, but it seems higher at places where I've worked in the past). I've heard a lot of misogynistic innuendo and slurs in the past, so I doubt that the industry is evolving to become more inclusive of women: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/changing-… .

Second off, LGBT folks are definitely underrepresented in the industry: http://www.geekwire.com/2015/out-in-tech… (and I've bit my tongue SEVERAL times after I've heard homophobic and transphobic comments and slurs in the past).

Third off, my ethnic make up of the work force in Seattle of the 2 jobs I've worked is white, or white passing people. There are a handful of contractors and locals who are Asian (which includes Indian), but the rest of the folks are white. So no pass there on racial diversity.

The _only_ tech campus I've seen that was diverse was Google in Mountain View. Everything else engineering-wise pretty much follows a straight, predominantly white, male narrative in the tech industry.

Tell me -- how diverse is our industry?
30
Erase "tech" from the OP's comment and all I read is "privileged ignorant person claims that their money is helping out Seattle", i.e. "I'm 20 something, privileged and I think that what I'm doing is good for you, so shut up".

People like the OP are detached from what's going on with Seattle's inhabitants. They think that what they're doing by funneling money into the area is ultimately helping the area longterm. Once their company realizes that they're expendable, or they're out looking for a job, their tune will change really quickly because then they won't be able to afford the Pagliacci's pizza or the vape juice, or whatever other creature comforts they had because they didn't save any money and they were priced out of where they used to live. Seen it happen many times before with engineers, some in Seattle, some in the Bay Area.

Quite frankly, if Seattle keeps on going this way, it will become the Bay Area aka "Man Jose", and that area is a soulless pit (lived there 5 years). There's a reason why I have no interest in living somewhere like that -- everyone just jumps on the tech treadmill 50-60 hours a week (at least; more during release time), and are pretty much mindless 2-D drones (no, not the flying kind) with a myopic view on how the world works. There is little to no diversity in south bay really (other than ethnic), because of the ratio of people in the working force there.
31
@25: where are your sources for "fruit pickers in Wenatchee earn $20/hour for picking apples"
32
@28: depends on where you work, but 50-60 is average based on my experience, and many people work a lot more (especially in the Bay Area).

40 is on the level with "either I'm in a niche industry, living fat on the hog and will be obsolete in a few years or acquired if I'm lucky", or "I'm about to be shit-chatted/leave for another job".
33
@29
I meant 'diverse' in terms of personalities, belief systems, etc. not specifically ethnic diversity or minority group representation. I think that was clear from the surrounding context but there may have been a better word to use instead, sense 'diversity' is a common discussion regarding the industry. I'm not challenging the diversity issue in tech, my only point was to say we aren't all white "brogrammers" who grew up in privileged families. There are a large number of Indians, Chinese, and Europeans where I work. These people come from very different cultures and social environments, and that was the point I was trying to make. Obviously, it is also true that there is a problem with other groups (particularly women, Latino, and African-Americans) being underrepresented. Amazon seems very LGBT-friendly and while I don't speak in any official capacity, I've never heard and can't imagine any gay-bashing being tolerated here. Wherever you are that you are hearing homophobic slurs, I implore you NOT to bite your tongue...
34
@33: About the anti-LGBT slurs and other misogynistic comments -- it only works if you're either at work or at company sanctioned functions. Unfortunately HR can't do much about comments with employees outside of work; the big reason why I'm very picky about who I become personal with, why I avoid company functions like the plague, and why (if I do attend said functions) even when I get drink tickets I never, ever use them. It's interesting how many little comments get said here and there that shade how people actually think.

And no, I've tried to change peoples' minds, but it doesn't work with some folks; the offending person in this particular case is notorious for saying derogatory things about women and people just write it off as alcohol + his ethnic background + gender, which is horse shit (people shouldn't get off innocent for making crass comments at others' expense by objectifying them).

I used to be similar to the OP to a lesser degree before my perspective was changed. My previous "assumed" gender/sexuality (in part) and religion blinded me to the fact that I was extremely privileged, and I used to think that I was God's gift to the world when I lived in California for reasons like the OP claimed (to a lesser degree albeit, but I still did think that way). Now that I have experienced more, I realized that my seemingly "enlightened" perspective was backwards and self-centered in so many ways.

To which I apologize for being a douchebag unaware tech person and for allowing my industry to enable the mass exodus of the original inhabitants of this city and the homogenization/vanilla-ization of all its neighborhoods. I used to go to school and lived here during the dot-com boom, and yes, it has changed a lot (not for the better in some ways).
36
Subtle humor lost on these people. The artists who have worked at Mama's Mexican Kitchen are now treated as servants, the clientele not having any understanding many are working "in character." Taken completely at face value instead of the honed performers they are. "Get me this" "get me that" Completely unaware they are in the presence of royalty. Grady aka "Dina Martina" used to work at Two Bells Tavern. Dan Savage used to work at the old Septieme in Belltown. Can you imagine the new transplanted techies snapping their fingers at them? Utter complete ignorance of the scene they claim to understand and claim the importance their tech dollars keep afloat? Oh, not so. The hubris. Something far more precious than money used to happen out there. Crybaby? World Pizza? Raison d'etre? Penny University? They did not need to lick the heels of those not in the know. Often they would just close the doors when such folks would amble in. Your dollars do not make it worth staying in business. You ruin everything. It's not fun anymore. Not everyone is in it to become rich, some are in it for the humor and beauty.
37
@27: "I am trained in gorilla warfare...."

Let's take it easy on the poor gorillas, please.
38
Look people, there is so much coke flowing into the Amazon complex, can you blame the San Fran and New York transplants for wanting to keep the flow going?
40
31- read something other than the stranger and you'll read that crops are going under because there is nobody to pick them. The apple industry was offering 20.00 an hour to get people th do the work last year, yet the work was too hard for the sensitive ass holes that want to step in to a 75K job just because they took sociology classes at evergreen state. there are kobs out there, the state unemployment rate is just under 4%, people just have to get out of the mindset that they don't want blisters on their hands as it may affect their Xbox game in their parents basement while they are 30 years old and still whining.
41
Entitled techies from other places that drink PBR, but they will tell you "Only an IPA" ... Yeah, bullshit.
42
OP +1 // Fuck all these low-rent whiney assholes. If your social mobility is limited due to your skillet of eclectic was music and rare limited edition vinyl, then improve your skill set and get a real fucking job. I am so glad the new transplants are called you perpetually pms'ing twats out. It's survival of the fittest.
43
AMAZONI ITE DOMUM
44
of course you vape.
45
Does this person realize that many people have been displaced from their homes and lives because of the exorbitant rent raise that's happened? That they can no longer buy pizza from Pagliacci or even live in the city now? How can you sit back and sanctimoniously talk about buying local pizza knowing that? If your life and actions have harmed people, just own it. If you've kicked them out to appropriate their culture, just own it. What's happened is that an entire group of people have been ousted from their homes, lives and community and their homes have been appropriated by another group. And these new techies are patting themselves on the back, riding the coattails of the remaining hipness of the neighborhood until it's all been smothered by their lame presence. See guys, you can't have a hip, progressive, energetic neighborhood without the subversive types who make it that way. When you kick them out, that vibe goes, and fast. Maybe if techies were a stereotypically more socialized group of people, they'd know that. Don't pretend you aren't all congratulating yourselves, pretending to be hip in our old hangouts, trying to soak up the juices outside Neumos, in a fruitless attempt to lend a little style to your pathetic, passionless lives.
46
Kiss an Amazon employee in the head on your way home tonight. Not like those computer nerds can fight back. And it'll make you feel better.

And Kudos to the comments mentioning that Seattle was actually cool BEFORE Amazon started up here.
47
@36 so, uh, people "in character" are upset that people are treating them as if they are the character they are portraying? Are they performing in "blueface"?
48
KICK!! I mean KICK!! Damn fucking iPhone's auto-correct!!!!
49
@42 People as stupid as you should be euthanized.
50
FIVE STAR TROLL! WOULD READ AGAIN!

What's going to be really funny is inevitable script flip (already under way) where the Stranger realizes where it's bread is buttered and starts the epic ass kissing of the tech community or gets driven under by a pub that does.
51
Seattle, I love you, but you are your own worst enemy sometimes.

I've lived in Seattle and SF and I don't know which one of the two is more pretentious and self satisfied. Or faux progressive.

You guys can talk about how the mean techies are pushing out the lower class and minorities, but let's be honest: ya'll have been doing that for years before the techies ever showed up, just now you just have a convenient scapegoat.

Seattle has always been mostly white, mostly upper-class, and definitely one of the most segregated cities i've ever lived in. Don't act like the techies made it this way.

The attitude people have towards transplants is appalling and completely non-constructive. Who are you to shut the door on people moving here for a better life? Who are to determine who's allowed to live where? Who are you to determine what careers are acceptable or not? It's nonsense. Most of the people in this thread are probably transplants, hypocrites.

Instead of complaining about tech workers who are just going where the jobs are, like anyone would in any industry, you should be asking yourself why Seattle can't handle the smallest influx of inhabitants without collapsing on itself. What was your plan, I wonder? Never grow, never change? Cities always change, and every city should be prepared for that.

But instead Seattle (and all of WA state really), has spent the last 50+ years doing everything BUT preparing for this.

You've slashed bus service repeatedly, raised rates, and now you won't shut the fuck up about traffic you helped created (admittedly Olympia is more to blame for this, but Seattle could've fought it).

You started building out a 'subway' several decades too late.

You've deliberated made building anything but condos economically infeasible.

You've invested heavily in a low density, suburbanite, gated view of your city.

Bertha.

Seattle should be bending over backwards to build out housing as fast as humanly possible to bring down the cost of living, but instead you'd all rather just complains about 'tech bros' ruining your perfect little paradise. Guess what? They aren't going anywhere. Your complaints about fairness aren't going to change the economy one little bit. You can't build a wall around your city.

You can continue to do nothing, and watch the lower and middle class get squeezed out via your own inaction, or you can finally accept the fact that Seattle is a booming city and act accordingly.

It's like you guys don't remember the 'Last one to leave Seattle' billboard. Seattle is in the middle of a GREAT thing, but instead of embracing and capitalizing on it, you're fighting it every step of the way. It's madness.

52
Nice Latin @43. It's not everyday you 'meet' someone with a classical education.
53
Mighty powerful troll bait this.
54
@49, can you tell me the best needles to buy for my turntables?
55
The idea that rising rents are the tech workers' "fault" somehow is beyond ridiculous. What should they do, say to themselves "I've got a great job offer in a great city, but some of the residents there don't care for growth so I guess I should turn it down?" First of all, no humans think like that, and secondly it wouldn't help if they did, as someone else would just take the job.

Rising rents are obviously and clearly the fault of long term residents, who've allowed local NIMBYs to severely restrict the development of new housing stock for ages. When we nearly ban new units in most of the city, of course growth is going to create lots of development in the small slice of the city where it's legal, and of course it's going to cater to the top of the market. That we don't have more housing and at a greater diversity of housing is entirely our own fault.

Trying to blame our failings on newcomers makes us look reactionary and parochial, no matter how much we try and dress it up in lefty "anti-gentrification" language.
56
Whoa now, everyone hold on to your fedoras.
57
Pretty amusing to read the comments from those who insist THEY were the hip people who discovered Seattle when it was cool, before all the boring people came along.

If you came here within the past 25 years you should look at your own entitled self before trying to blame the latest batch of newcomers.
58
And that's why we don't know you
59
Maybe everybody hates the techies because - Y'all show up acting like you own the place, you're NOT remotely involved in our community unless you decide to get drunk and gay-bash someone and you have panic attacks over people not giving an f about how much money you make, hence the need for status symbols. God forbid you move into an old building. No, you have to have luxury condos, luxury bars, luxury restaurants... and give no thought to how you "economic impact" has cost those who don't make shit tons of money. Who's gonna wait on your table? Mix your drinks? Deal with your insufferable attitude for $15.00 an hour? You feel the need to live among all the shops and theaters and yet nobody can afford to stay in the city and work at any of these places so... You can't say you're highly-educated while being so ignorant to your effect on the city and the scene here. Sorry (not really), you can't have it both ways. You're not cool. You never will be cool. You're just taking up space in a town that was so much more fun and better off without you. People like you ruined San Francisco... and you're mad at us for not wanting our town to be taking over by the same swarm of tech-locusts?? Seriously?? Fuck the fuck off and fuck off while you're fucking off. ESPECIALLY the Bros. Even if you had a soul, I'm sure it got alcohol poisoning years ago in your frat days.
60
@59 cool story bigot.
61
People who gay-bash are fucking awful and deserve all that's heaped upon them and more.

People who hold tech employees collectively responsible for some gay-bashing that may (or, you know, may not) be committed by people they share an industry or employer with are being incredibly stupid and obviously unfair, in a really obvious and silly way. Gay bashers suck because they suck, not because they write code for a living.

God forbid you move into an old building. No, you have to have luxury condos,

If you actually care about affordable housing, you should be glad they like the fancy new construction. The last thing we need is more rich people competing for older, less expensive apartments.
62
@55 thank you for getting it.
63
You're not cool. You never will be cool.

When you find yourself saying this agrily and without a hint of irony, and you're older than 14 years old, it's a pretty good sign you've gone off the rails and probably need to calm down and try again. This is among the most pathetic, inane things an adult can actually say to another adult.
64
"If you actually care about affordable housing, you should be glad they like the fancy new construction. The last thing we need is more rich people competing for older, less expensive apartments."

And thank you for also getting it. What would they rather have? Rich tech types competing for what little affordable housing is left, or new condos you would have never moved into anyway?

I think a lot of the new condo buildings are ugly too, but if they weren't there things would be a lot worse than they are now.
65
I like new people. I like economic prosperity. I'm fortunate that I can still afford to live here even though I don't work in tech. I understand that cities change, even while I'm said to see some small businesses go.

What I fucking HATE is the "me and my money are God's gift to you, Seattle" attitude that some tech transplants have adopted. I'm sorry they are giving the rest of you a bad name, but they really are vapid assholes.
66
@59: I'm not sure the techies are the gay-bashers. the bridge and tunnel d-bags are the bashers, but are they the same bros? maybe, maybe not. what do the bridge and tunnel bros do for a living? I have no idea, but there's a huge difference between the nerds i see herding around SLU at lunchtime and who I see on Pike on Friday nights.

yours is the John Cristicello critique, but he doesn't understand who his enemy even is. he doesn't want douchebros or basic bitches in his gayborhood, techbros are boring, but these people have ALWAYS been part of seattle; just not "cap hill". Belltown is their natural habitat, Fremont attracts them as well.

development in a place where land and construction costs are so high makes the rent high. it's not just "developer greed", or the poor taste of straight cis males with good jerbs.

people have to live somewhere.
67
When you look at a certain person's history of comments, you can find an awful lot of product placement for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. I guess it's an offbeat marketing strategy, kind of like that creepy king in the Burger King commercials.
68
Everyone is wrong.
69
If only the the "born and raised" Seattleites had spent a winter day in one of the East Coast or Midwest cities, they would have seen this massive influx of transplants a long time ago. 50 degrees and cloudy is what we called Springtime when I lived in Chicago, not "frigid cold" January weather. I don't work for Amazon nor am I tech worker, but as a transplant I'm quite happy with Amazon's effect on the rest of the city. Our inability from decades past to have built a subway/train system and single family zoning is the only thing to blame. There is no shortage of cheap, auto-centric, sprawling cities to go around in this country. If you don't realize just how good we have it here, then move somewhere else.
70
I submit: it's a cultural problem.

Engineering people tend to be illiterate in the humanities. And humanities people tend to be REALLY illiterate in math. Mathematics is part of culture too, you know.

If more people were committed to full literacy, then there wouldn't be such a low supply of qualified tech workers, then they wouldn't command such large wages that shock the system. Note that I say *qualified* tech workers; there are supposedly enough engineering degrees in this country to fill the job openings, but that is a very crude measurement of worker qualifications. Think of it as a pyramid. With a larger base, there will be a larger pinnacle.

"Math is hard, so I can't do it, so I need a job doing something else" is a ridiculous excuse. Math is hard for *everyone*, because it requires such a high degree of reasoning. Math solutions are only correct if they are perfect.

The root problem is our society's lack of commitment to education: unequal opportunity, high cost of college, and cultural acceptance of the "impossibility" of math. Personifying the evil as Amazon is delusional.
71
@70 The engineering school I went to forced folks to have a third of their degrees - the same amount as their major - be spent in a wide variety of the humanities. What is it like in the typical program?
72
I'm a relatively young newcomer to Seattle, and while I am not a tech worker and am low income despite all the sacrifices I made to get my STEM degree, I can definitely relate to the struggle to fit in in a new city. So I have some advice to the OP:

Suck it up, sweet cheeks!

Moving into a new city is hard, and if you want friends, you have to be a friend. Buying local is great, but it barely scratches the surface of good citizenship. You have to do grown up things like be an informed voter, donate to charity, volunteer if at all possible, and look for every opportunity to give back to the city that let tou get to where you are. You can't just show up and expect everyone to love you. If you don't want people to think you are a stuck up spoiled rich person, you need to change your attitude.

And for the people placing all the blame for gentrification on tech workers and other wealthy newcomers, consider that we are all part of the society that encourages people to think they are oh so special just for how much they put into the economy buying random crap.

Long live Seattle!
73
This guy is exactly what I think of when I think of Seattle asshole tech workers. Like, I couldn't possibly come up with a more stereotypical post. I almost don't believe it's real, it fits so perfectly.
74
@72: The OP wasn't necessarily looking for friends. He just doesn't want to be stereotyped as an asshole brogrammer just because he got a good job that happens to be in technology (like, oh, hundreds of thousands of other people around here).

The immaturity of the people posting here -- "You're ruining my cool city with your uncoolness!" -- is breathtaking.
75
looks like he's from seattle to me
77
Hey, Anon. Do you want to buy my house? I bought it in 2007 for 700k. It is located 6 minutes from downtown Seattle, traffic permitting, and is super close to 99 and I-5. It is also located in the part of Seattle that apparently tops the list of desirable areas for recent transplants like yourself. I will sell my wonderful house to you for twice what I paid fir it. I was born and raised here but would like to leave before my beloved city loses all of its charm.
78
You're officially a Seattlite when you are as annoyed by self-absorbed newcomers as the rest of us.

I don't care what industry in which you work. It's more important that you make an effort to make our community better.
79
I think we kind of screwed ourselves here in Seattle by fighting so hard for our single family model on capital hill. I'm sad to see houses get turned into apartments too, but I'm sadder that the housing shortage we inadvertently created by trying to make the Hill be 1992 forever has basically forced us to leave the city we were trying so desperately to save.
80
I'm an assistant to a local tattoo artist and painter on Capitol Hill... Let's just say he's known for his staunch character. We had an Amazon worker come down for a tattoo once, who talked to us about the good he was doing by creating a search engine for art... Where one simply types descriptors like "abstract" "deep" or "charcoal", and bam... You had art lined up like a section of ikea, ready to add to your online cart.

My boss and I had no words to follow his oddly enthusiastic presentation. He didn't understand the reduction. You don't get it either. You moved here for 75k salary to feed a fucking beast of search engine algorithms, digital shopping carts and screen taps. You are in a bubble, a high demand, living wage, shitty art keggers in the office on fridays bubble. You don't do us any great favor by flocking here for that. When your bubble bursts, you'll get it.

You make it sound like you should mean something here, but let me ask you this: do you even fucking care where you live for 75k? You don't, obviously, if that's why you left wherevercisco. Are you going to move to the next bubble? Of course you are. Stop pretending to care, it doesn't fit you. Your needs are met almost upon concepton.

What's really sad here is that all this attention is wasted on you, who in the grand scheme of things, is just a drop in the bucket. We should be getting pissed at policies and people who are not letting this city evolve to meet the needs of people below the tech line. Our needs should be met just as quickly.

Someones making a run with the cookie jar, while we fight over ONE at the table.
81
The only thing you offer this community is cash? Fuck you, from all of us musicians and artists and writers who are also your bartenders and waiters and counter store clerks... Fuck you.

When is the last time you went to a DIY art show? Seen a fucking band at one of the last remaining venues? Guess what we have too? We have cash and we used to have a lot more before your fucking companies started buying up all of the land and buying blocks of housing to make space for their offshore slaves raising our fucking rent. Yet another boutique sports bar with a $12burger (oh but this one comes with our special housemade aioli and pickled turds) instead of the scene run local bar that supported local bands and local artists.

You march right past all of these awesome little places trying to get to the few gentrified hermetically sealed trust fund baby nerf coated superficially fashionably acceptable little shops that cater to your fat suckling lazy cheap loud ignorant closed minded mall shopping hypnotized suburbia consumer fucking adult--fucking-infant fucking nightmare.

We never wanted you, we do not need you, go die in the room your parents still keep for you in their safe little gated community - you know you are just headed right back their in 10 to 20 years anyway - get your trophy mate bag up all those dockers shorts and pastel plaid button-up shirts and get the fuck out of my city.
82
Some of that exorbitant salary should go towards therapy in an effort to try to gain a new personality, less privileged and sanctimonious and more cooperative and compassionate. I think s/he's going to need a raise for that kind of money for that kind of therapy. That's alotta therapy. However, the passive-aggressiveness should fit in nicely. Have fun, good luck, I'm out.
83
I liked it when nobody here made any money. So, please leave now, mmmkay?
84
How many of you commenters were born in Seattle, or the greater Seattle area? Just curious.
*raises hand*
85
What I've learned from being in Seattle as a tech worker:
1) People will make assumptions about you. Simply being a tech worker is enough to dismiss you entirely. You must be either a gay-bashing brogrammer, aspy nerd with no social skills, or a foreigner. There's very little distinction in any of the comments about "some" tech workers being assholes...we're all the problem.
2) While I've yet to personally see any tech workers treat anyone badly, I see other people be dicks towards us, particularly if I'm still wearing my badge or an Amazon hoodie. It sucks being judged based solely on your membership in a group...
3) People in Seattle blame us personally for the rise in the cost of living. I get the anger - our economic system makes it extremely hard for a lot of people. I've experienced it myself in the past. But why blame me personally for taking a job with high-pay? What the fuck was I supposed to do, say "nah, I don't want to displace the locals in Seattle, so I think I'll pass"?!?! Being a programmer was what I wanted to do and I would've done it even if the pay was modest. So why have the childlike belief that we did this because we don't care who we displace? I have no fucking control over that.
4) "Tech workers don't give back to their community". Repeated several times here...does anyone think that might have anything to do with the fact that a significant proportion of you despise us and make us feel unwelcome?
5) Apparently you can't be a tech employee and have any interest in art and culture. What a bunch of stereotypical bullshit. Fuck you if you think that, not that I should give a flying fuck what you think.
6) People think they have an exclusive right to live in the city because they were here first. It sucks that the place you love is changing, but that doesn't give you the right to act like you fucking own the city (which you oddly claim tech employees do, although I've never heard or read a tech worker tell anyone to "get the fuck out of our city"). We came here to take a job we wanted to take...and we have as much right to live and work here as you do. If you're getting angry again, re-read #3.
86
Anonymous's higher education was criminally insufficient.
87
"But why blame me personally for taking a job with high-pay? What the fuck was I supposed to do, say "nah, I don't want to displace the locals in Seattle, so I think I'll pass"?!?! Being a programmer was what I wanted to do and I would've done it even if the pay was modest. So why have the childlike belief that we did this because we don't care who we displace? I have no fucking control over that."

This is what you never hear any answer for. (And, of course, in the unlikely event that you selflessly decided to abandon your career because some people in Seattle would prefer you don't move here....your employer would just hire their second choice!) The strategy is to retreat into "tech workers be like this" stereotyping, rather than respond directly to the challenge.

The reason for this, I think, is that deep down a lot of these people know the big problems are actually our region's fault, not yours. The fact that you pay as much as you do for housing isn't something you're doing to us, it's something we've done to you, due to decades of coddling the NIMBYs and the "How dare anyone suggest any changes to exclusionary single family zoning in my less-than-two-miles-from-downtown neighborhood" crowd," we've, predictably, got an acute housing shortage. It's our fault, we should have known better, the chickens are coming home to roost, and we're desperate for someone else to blame.

Taking a step back, it's fascinating to me that people who view themselves as progressive or leftist are very careful to remove any trace of bigotry toward immigrants from other countries or parts of the world, but don't even bother to disguise their open bigotry for immigrants from other parts of their own country. When I was kid it was all about the horrible Californians; that isn't completely gone now but it's primarily directed at people who work in a particular industry.
88
@21 @22 I think earthquake is the biggest reason that ppl are oppose constructing large buildings and subway.
89
OP here's the problem with you tech newbies. I came to Seattle in the 90's because I was a life-long west Coast person who was feeling crowded out of California by an highly paid economic migrants who were driving up prices and making the place generic. Seattle was still a manageable and soulful city. I moved to Seattle for one reason only - Seattle itself. As such, even though I was a newcomer, I had a reason to adapt to and preserve Seattle's culture. I loved, for instance, that the average car in the city was 3 years older and one level down from the Bay Area. You people though didn't come to Seattle for Seattle; you came to Seattle for a job. You came from places with wildly dissimilar tastes and ethics, and because you didn't come for our place and ethics specifically you all don't feel the need to adapt to those ethics. Look what you don't site as your contribution to the city - not progressivism, or a the unique Scando-derived community sensibility, or a fondness for nature, or water, or quirkiness, or stolidity, or artistic skills, or a gateway to the NW sense of pioneering adventure, or your proud and out gayness, or your Ph.D. and the good you're trying to bring with it, or your bowling-and-pull-tabs old school soulfulness, or your crazy love of all things books and coffee. You simply came here for a job and say you belong as part of the city because you spend the money you make at the job. All you contribute is a service industry that used to be able to support and keep in town many of the types that made this city great, people who now live on the Peninsula or in Portland or Montana, or have given up on blowing glass because one bar-tending job no longer keeps you in Georgetown, I'm trying to be nice here, but showing up en masse and sprinkling your small bills around does nothing for the city but generic-ize it to death, and it's pathetically entitled that you don't see that. Seattle kind of sucks now, and yes, it is your fault.
91
@89
Have you ever considered that for the many immigrants at Amazon and elsewhere that you're right, they didn't come to Seattle for "Scando-derived community sensibility" - they came here for better education, economic opportunity, and more freedom? Maybe that's more important than whether they have a love of books and coffee...

And by the way, a lot of us DO like nature, progressiveness, or are gay and wanted to be in a large gay community? There's a lot of different types of people in tech. Your assumptions otherwise are stereotyping. Personally I liked a lot about Seattle and the culture was a factor in why I came. But I also think it's really stupid to think that everyone else should have to conform to the rules anyone else sets. If you want to show the benefits of the culture you describe, you guys might be better off trying to be nice to new tech workers instead of unwelcoming and sharing with them what makes Seattle great. And if they don't like books, coffee, or your politics, maybe that's not the end of the world, ya know? Not everyone has to be the same, or conform to Seattleite groupthink. You speak of progressiveness, but you and so many other people's attitude has a distinct far-right tinge to it - lauding the superiority of your own group of people, saying an influx of new workers (half of which are probably immigrants) are ruining your city and its culture...sounds familiar to me. Maybe those of you who despise tech-workers so much can form a little Nationalistic movement!

Also does anyone not get the irony that all these people who hate tech workers are spewing their hatred on a website? And likely reading this on their smartphones or tablets...everyone loves these products of the tech industry, yet they don't want to accept the presence of tech workers who bust their ass to create new devices and software and products which they undoubtedly use. So how about this: anyone who thinks tech workers are so detrimental to their way of life, start a boycott! Burn your laptop. Toss that smartphone in the trash. Go get a print copy of The Stranger instead of reading it online - that alone can get rid of a few web developers! Not that The Stranger would ever want you to do that. Their anti-tech propaganda probably brings in a significant amount of bullshit click bait ad revenue...
92
Barf. It's your city now, enjoy your creation we're taking our money and leaving you to it. Good freakin' luck.
93
The point Seattleites have is moving to a city does not make you of that city. I like to think of it in terms of "How I Met Your Mother." There were certain things Robin had to do before she could call herself a real New Yorker. In that respect there are certain things you have to do to be a real Seattleite. Some of these thing include: Watching your favorite sports team get shit on by the refs and/or make a tactical error that snatches loss from the jaws of victory, go nearly insane from the dark (not the cold or rain) of the winter- this usually coincides with the winter solstice, refuse to use an umbrella no matter how rainy it is, complain about too many sunny days during the summer, fully embrace sarcasm though it is a lesser form of humor, vote for something good that passes and somehow never happens, vote against something shitty that doesn't pass yet then somehow still happens, and finally fight for social justice. That's a good start on how to be a real Seattleite.
94
@93 -- You forgot to add "and complain that everyone that moved to Seattle after you did ruined it." (That works in NYC and every other city, too, by the way.)
95
All hail Amazon! All hail tech!!
Without you, the true life blood of our city; we would lie in our squalor and be content. But with you, we see our true potential. We can see that truly, we are more than blue collared average jobs! We can aspire to new heights, your heights. To live amongst those who truly bring the life and blood of our capitalistic society.

So thank you, for reminding me to be grateful of your magnanimous nature. Truly, your bring the future of our city.........
96
It doesn't really matter if this is a troll or not. I've heard this assertion offered quite seriously on more than one previous occasion, unfortunately.

Dear Transplants,

Please understand that, since its very establishment by humans of any variety (frontier people and the Natives before them), the great Pacific Northwest was a place people came to get left the f*** alone, and this is a preference that lives on in the subsequent generations of those early misanthropes. That is certainly why my Great Grandfather came all the way to this corner of the earth so many years ago.

Did you know that Seattle gets less rain annually than any major city on the East Coast? But rarely will you hear a native Seattleite make that correction. I feel a little uncomfortable doing it now, in fact. No, we will gladly perpetuate the myth if it keeps people away.

This ingrained desire to accept no more newcomers is not exclusive to Seattle. It exists quietly in southern Oregon and grows ever more pronounced as you move north. The last time I visited the beautiful city of Juneau, AK, I caught a public service campaign imploring the locals to be decent to the tourists, and couldn't help but smile and think to myself, "My people! I know your suffering..."

All the flaws with this city you've listed here are accurate, ARE our fault, and are absolutely derivative of this often subconscious instinct to keep you away. If we expand public transport, PEOPLE WILL MOVE HERE. If we build more houses, PEOPLE WILL MOVE HERE. And, as a collective, we've taken every conceivable step (or inaction, as the case may be) to prevent that from happening.

This is also why we are notoriously amicable when we meet you out and about, but might never call you if we exchange numbers. Weā€™re sure youā€™re a great person. We had a great time chatting. But, when we get home, we realizeā€¦ if you make friends here, youā€™re more likely to stay. Besides, odds are good that weā€™ve already got the two friends any native Pacific Northwesterner really requires. See? Nothing personal.

I hope Iā€™ve explained the situation adequately. Itā€™s not your fault, but itā€™s not really our fault either. Many of us donā€™t even realize we want to be left the f*** alone, and until now, there was no way you could have possibly known either.

But, be glad you got in. If we ever get Cascadia up and running, youā€™d better believe it will be a closed-border nation. Weā€™d be building walls before we even realized it.

Wishing you all the best in some other part of the country,

Seattle Native
97
Conservative, isolationist, segregated Seattle. Long may you complain.
98
Both sides sound pretty entitled.
99
The problem of wealth inequality in Seattle is just a symptom of the larger problem of technological unemployment. It just takes fewer people to be more productive these days because a lot of the dull, unfulfilling work that people do has been automated or streamlined by technology. Banks used to need tellers, and now we've done away with most of them because we have Automated Teller Machines. Same with the express checkout at grocery stores that replaced cashiers. Generally, getting rid of this type of labor is a great thing because it frees humans from dull repetitive tasks that bring no personal fulfillment. However, whenever this happens some segment of society is disrupted because they lost their means of income. Additionally, people who can work to automate tasks are highly prized (and therefore well-paid) as they reduce operational costs (income for labor) significantly. Automation leads to greater wealth inequality. Non-technology jobs are being eliminated, increasing the worker to available job ratio for such jobs, pushing down the market value of the job. Combined with globalization, people working in non-technical fields find themselves being financially squeezed by oversupply of labor and competition with labor in 3rd world countries.

So the changes in Seattle are reflections of STRUCTURAL issues in the general economy. (One of my favorite internet comments read, "But considering structural issues is Un-American!" haha) Blaming any one human, or even one group of employed individuals is silly. Nor is it appropriate to attribute all of their success to "privilege." Most people working in tech put in time completing tough degree programs instead of taking a self-reflective romp in the humanities. Privilege doesn't apply as a label to something you've developed and earned through hard work. Nothing burns me up more than a white guy with an english major who's making a ton of money in sales because his face is more "trustworthy." That type of privilege is not something you can associate generally with tech workers.

Stop villainizing one group for these structural issues. Tech workers are mostly just young guys. Having an influx of young men around, whatever the profession becomes a nuisance. Note that every Army base has a pawn shop and a strip clup right outside the gates, and the locals hate them too. If and when Amazon downsizes, all the businesses in the area will bemoan the loss of revenues, just like when the DoD closes a base. Accept that your problems are structural economic issues that can't be stopped by your hate, and then figure out a way to keep this city's culture alive with economic realities in mind.
100
Spin it how you like, but just like the Bay Area 15 years ago, Seattle has lost a lot of it's flavor and become far more generic because of the influx of people coming here primarily for the job, not the culture of the place. It's not the first change that's happened in this city, but it's the one that will irretrievably erase most of what most people liked about this place 20 years ago. Not everywhere is a New York that morphs and endures; some places turn into half an Indianapolis and never return. Seattle kind of sucks now.
101
You know what's unfair? The fact that five years ago ago, I paid LESS THAN HALF of what I do now to rent an apartment on the SAME STREET in Capitol Hill. The fact that as an independent 19-year-old I could afford to have a car, and that at 25 (and earning a higher wage! let's not forget!), I can't. I am not a tech worker, but many of my friends are. I am college educated, but I'm not a college graduate.

I work in the service industry- a profession about which I am both passionate and proud. My employer is a local business in Seattle, and I wait on entitled pieces of shit like you day-in and day-out. You think you're so high and mighty for "supporting local business", when you're making it impossible for the employees of those local businesses to live anywhere near where they work. I have people bussing (not driving) in from places like Bellingham and Poulsbo. I have employees in their late 20's living back at home with their parents. AND WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE FUCKING GRATEFUL?!!!?!

The percentage of my paycheck that goes towards my rent is a three-digit number. Can you guess it? Yes, that number you guessed... is 100!! 100% of my paycheck goes towards my rent in Capitol Hill. I refuse to be driven out of MY neighborhood, MY community, because throngs of douchebaggy money-addicts like you flock to this city like rats off a plague ship. So I swallow it, I live entirely off of tips, and yes, sometimes I starve.

But you know what? That's what REAL Seattleites do. Because we're used to dealing with hardship- something you clearly have never known anything about. This city was literally built atop a shit hole, and we've been digging ourselves out for the past 100 years. Your dirty tech money didn't save Seattle- it destroyed it. So get the hell out.
102
@89 I can't speak for all tech workers (though everyone else apparently can), but I came to Seattle because I wanted to, you know, live in Seattle. There were job opportunities in Austin, San Francisco, and other cities too.
103
BRAVO!!!! I am a lifetime Seattleite and I am also a gay man who lives on Capitol Hill. I have seen my City grow and mature into a beautiful place. I've seen many transformations.

I feel the need to remind my "community" who fought hard for many decades to be included or "mainstream". We wanted EQUALITY.

I hear from my fellow gay community members and others, say that they hate gentrification. Guess what?!!! This is being EQUAL!!! We wanted tolerance and now it is time for us to give what we get!

Welcome to everyone who has moved here! I'm happy you are hear and yes, you ARE a Seattleite!
104
@101
So you say you have friends in tech, but you say we are 'entitled pieces of shit'. I call bullshit.

You're angry some people bus in, but others complain about the number of cars and traffic near Mercer and say we shouldn't drive. Of course living in neighborhoods a walkable distance from work also isn't a choice since we're allegedly ruining the culture of Capital Hill/Belltown. Can't win.

Oh and about us being "money-addicts"...its an absolute joke to think anyone would be a software engineer just for the money. Getting the degree is very challenging and the job has many frustrations. You have to love it. Asks your alleged friends in tech. There is no other industry to my knowledge where the product of years of work that could be sold for a heap of money are often given away for free with minimal restrictions (i.e., open source). Money addicts just don't do that.

And one question for you - why do you assume tech workers have never experienced hardship? What a blind and ignorant assumption. You don't know what any of us has or hasn't gone through. at least in my case you're way off the mark.

Maybe this is just stooping to your level, but since you're such an asshole, saying we're the ones who think we're entitled - what exactly makes you think you're entitled to live here, and we don't? Maybe it's not entirely logical to think that you'd be able to live in a highly popular neighborhood in the center of a large metropolitan area and always expect everything to be affordable for you. You didn't put forth the effort to finish college, yet you expect to get paid enough to live comfortably in an expensive area, despite lacking the training that would be valuable to businesses. Your profession doesn't require you to be in Seattle - you could be a waiter anywhere, whereas tech workers typically need to be located in a city. And you could easily move to another less trendy neighborhood in the city and save 40% or more on rent, but you refuse. Instead of taking any personal responsibility, you blame us. You're right though, after spending years busting my ass studying challenging material, frequently feeling like shit from sleep deprivation, and passing up a lot of social opportunitie (while working part-time) I really should've turned down my job offer here so that you could continue to live in one of the most desirable neighborhoods without having to have put in the same amount of work. You think you're one of the people who really are fucked by economic forces (and many are), but in your situation, its a result of not working as hard while expecting more than other people, and not taking much personal responsibility. You're the one who's entitled.
105
Wow, we found patient zero for the epidemic of entitled tech worker transplant assholes.

"Tech workers are not a hive mind." Nobody would call you guys a hive mind if you didn't act so similarly to your annoying compatriots as to warrant the comparison.

"I think we're being unfairly singled out as the reason that rents in Seattle are rising and local businesses are closing." There's nothing unfair about it, it's perfectly fair to blame you for it. You're all too happy to move into brand new apartment buildings that cause others in the city t be priced out, you spend money in the least creative ways imaginable, and it is in anticipation of people like you that natives get priced out. Don't like being called a gentrifier? You poor poor baby, someone from Seattle (an actual native Seattleite, unlike you) told it like it is. How unfair that you're a part of a system that other people criticize! Let me wipe away those big crocodile tears with your Amazon (or functional equivalent) employee polo.

"Cities change and evolve, with or without the influx of highly paid, highly educated tech workers." Then it's no loss if we evolved without you. How about you evolve into someone who lives somewhere else?

"Seattle should be happy that people like us are moving in." No we shouldn't, and if you actually listened to what people in Seattle are bitching about, maybe you'd know why, but it's more convenient for you to not listen and to keep shitting up the city. For the record, I'm not even pissed off that you guys are pricing out everyone else, that's just a thing that happens, I'm pissed off that you and your ilk have zero respect for or even interest in Seattle's history, culture, natives (in every sense of the word), etc. You act like you do but your behavior says otherwise or else you'd be much kinder to this place and you'd fight for the city that you are now a part of, but instead you're content to just piss on part of it and call it yours and then act like we should all give you a big wet blowjob for gracing us with your presence.

"We all want what's best for Seattle." No, you want what's best for your personal convenience, and if the local color adds spice to your weekends then you'll give it lip service but god forbid you actually engage with it. You're the kind of guy who says he loves living on Capitol Hill because all the local LGBT life makes it so bohemian and artsy but you would never in your life be caught dead in a gay bar for fear that someone might see you and question your comfortable status as the almighty tech worker.

"please stop aiming your guns at us." Criticism =/= violence and if someone in Seattle actually did aim a gun at you, maybe for once in your life you'd have something to truly bitch about instead of how all these local liberal meanies don't share your autofellating self-image. Maybe it would give you something to talk about over the water cooler with your fellow transplant buddies as you engage with exactly one native Seattleite, your barista. $20 says you're the kind of guy who would tell her she ought to smile more, then proceed to complain about the "Seattle freeze" to your bros.

"We are just as much Seattleites as someone who has lived here their entire life." I cannot tell you how much I fantasize about having unlimited funds so I could pay each and every last person in Seattle like you to go back where you came from.
106
#80
I always crack up when a new techie starts talking about the awesome amount of money they'll be making at their new job, and then they toss out $75k like they just got adopted by George Soros.

When I tell them how much I made before I was sent out to pasture at 37, just after the turn of the Century, they don't believe humans could have ever made that much coding.

Sometimes, if I see and recognize them rooting around a dumpster, I'll but them a bowl of soup, and ask them how well they are living in Seattle on $75k.

Let's face it, Seattle's cost of living sucks red, veiny, animal penii, and after a few weeks every techie knows it.
107
Blaming an influx of people over the past 2-5 years for all of the city's problems is small-picture thinking at its finest -- probably the same type of mentality that set these issues into motion decades ago. "Real Seattleites" should also realize that many, many of the techie transplants being scapegoated here are, like myself, immigrants. For a place that prides itself on being so liberal and progressive, you certainly haven't welcomed us with open arms.
108
Seattle could've had a beautiful park where amazon is now, but the "real" seattlites voted against it.

Seattle could've had a subway station but the "real" seattlites voted against it.

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