Steven Weissman

Comments

1

Hope things work our for you in Tacoma.

2

This rag has published at least 3 of these whiny laments EVERY YEAR SINCE IT BEGAN PUBLICATION. Seattle has ALWAYS "changed too much" for the "too-good-for-you" types who moan about "how it is not quirky enough anymore". She is now taking her priceless toys elsewhere where she can be properly adored, we suppose? As if anyone cares, especially the city itself.

3

CONDENSED: My unmarketable skill-set means that I can no longer afford to piddle about this city and whine about my personal aesthetics anymore.

4

don't let the door hit you on the way out.

5

"weren't slumming like your cousin down south"

byyyyeeeeee

6

"KCMU: Riding the New Wave." Oh shit, sorry, that was about 20 years before you got to Seattle.

7

Left a while ago. The liberal stranglehold that's happened in just a couple of decades is nauseating. I'll always be proud to say I was born and raised in Seattle, but the really sad thing is - this very moment - is the BEST Seattle will ever be and that's not very good. Makes me wonder what it'll be like in 50 or 60 years. Yikes.

8

I'm just seeing a lot of self-absorbed assholes here. If y'all could see beyond your Instant Gratification Providers and all other manner of self-indulgent, "rules is for OTHER people" modes of bullshit and PARTICIPATE in Life Here, we could ALL be a fuck-ton happier.

10

8, I can relate. The disdain locals treat "outsiders" with here is pretty ugly.

11

@2, apparently you care enough to comment about it.

12

Do not announce the manner of your leaving, just leave.

13

The tragedy is that no one ever gets to live in the city they fell in love with. It always changes in ways that seem, from the transplant's perspective, to be for the worse. You'll soon find this is true of Tacoma (or Portland or wherever it is you're going). Sure, a change of scenery might make you feel better for a year or two, but there's no way to escape this dynamic. In 10 years you'll hate what Tacoma has become since you arrived, even if by objective measures it's a vast improvement.

In most cases (absent some imperative like a irresistible job offer) the better option is to stay where you are and do what you can to make it a better place, whatever that means to you. I don't like a lot of the recent changes in Seattle either, but I've moved enough times in my life to know the grass is VERY seldom greener elsewhere.

14

The tragedy is that no one ever gets to live in the city they fell in love with. It always changes in ways that seem, from the transplant's perspective, to be for the worse. You'll soon find this is true of Tacoma (or Portland or wherever it is you're going). Sure, a change of scenery might make you feel better for a year or two, but there's no way to escape this dynamic. In 10 years you'll hate what Tacoma has become since you arrived, even if by objective measures it's a vast improvement. In most cases (absent some imperative like a irresistible job offer) the better option is to stay where you are and do what you can to make it a better place, whatever that means to you. I don't like a lot of the recent changes in Seattle either, but I've moved enough times in my life to know the grass is VERY seldom greener elsewhere.

15

So, how many of The Stranger’s writers are going to follow this person out of Seattle?

Door, ass, &c.

16

Ah, nostalgia. I remember the sad day when I broke up with San Francisco after ten intense years of passionate love. It was 1992 and I hated the way SF was changing, the heartless fiend. The Seattle that I returned to was quite different from the Seattle I had left ten years earlier when I moved to SF, and Seattle is utterly different from the Seattle I came home to in 1992. It's called Father Time and eventually he kicks the ass of EVERYONE. The only solution is to die.

18

“The tragedy is that no one ever gets to live in the city they fell in love with. It always changes in ways that seem, from the transplant's perspective, to be for the worse.“

I disagree. I fell in love with Seattle during two visits in the 1980s. It wasn’t great then, but I could see the potential. I moved here in the early 1990s — before The Stranger began publication! — and it has gotten better every year. Seattle continues to convert on that amazing potential. I hope I can live here for several more decades.

19

Nails it on the head. Goodbye, indie, authentic Seattle; Hello, corporate, vapid Seattle. A culture supplanted by wealth.

20

Tacoma's actually pretty nice nowadays - and you can still visit Seattle when you like.

22

Anonymouses addressing a city with "You" shows a startling lack of perception about their cypherhood.

23

"Seattle has always been a city that's constantly morphing into something new."

In other words, just like every city that has ever existed, except for the abandoned ones now in ruins.

24

That's ok anon. I may be moving to Seattle to take your place. Coming to town next weekend for final interviews. After years lurking on slog may get to experience it all IRL!

25

@18 your counterpoint is perfectly valid -- I was responding to the particular attitude expressed by the OP, which is fairly common but I shouldn't have universalized it. (Sorry for the accidental duplicate posting, btw.)

26

@25: Thank you for the clarification. Your point is indeed valid for anyone with the "grass is greener" attitude. I just got very, very lucky, and am hoping my run can continue awhile longer!

27

Bye. You won’t be missed.

28

I wonder if when you complain about your new city you’ll have the self awareness to see that the common thread could be you. Or maybe you’re right and this new city is wonderful and Seattle just wasn’t right for you. Either way, good luck!

30

It's a buyer-beware world. Be aware that if you move to a city in it's infancy, changes will happen more quickly than you would like. Seattle is in its infancy compared to well established cities with well established characteristics. The only thing you can count on in Seattle is change. I moved here long after there were actual artistic "communities" but people still used that rhetoric (still do). Seattle is a tech-town with a cold feel that has left many people feeling left out of something that doesn't actually exist.

31

AMF. (Lived here since 1979)

32

viva olympia

33

@29: I like how the whole thing is a pitch-perfect parody of a classic, “it’s not me, it’s you,” breakup speech. Everything is the fault of the dumped, who probably checked out of the relationship a long time ago, and is now relieved the constant, harping complaints will end.

34

I, Anonymous really sucks now.

35

Is she Ellensburg? She’s ellensburg

36

@7 kalakala: +1. I know, right? How sad that so many who have just moved to the Seattle area recently will never be able to enjoy what you, I and others like us once did growing up in this beautiful part of the world.
@20 Traffic Spiral: You must live in a nice part of town. Have you ever been to the Tacoma Amtrak station? While I consider Amtrak Cascades among the best sources of commuting and avoiding I-5 and its connecting freeways, otherwise, the Tacoma stop needs a little TLC. It's about all but deserted. Employees there are not very welcoming to out-of-town travelers unfamiliar with the Tacoma / Pierce County area. They've stopped offering Yellow Cab service at their depot interestingly as of Friday, July 13th (Jason lives?!), have disconnected and taped over pay phones ironically still installed but not in use (not every one of us has a Smartphone), independent cab drivers charge extortionist rates because they can, and the surrounding neighborhood looks like a ghost town.

37

The one thing these whinging laments have in common is that they were written by people who were sure Seattle was perfect when THEY first got here. And it's everyone since that's screwed it up.

Sweetheart, you got here in the dot-com boom. You screwed it up for everyone from the Microsoft boom, who screwed it up for everyone from the Boeing booms, who screwed it up for the people who came in the Alaska gold rush boom, who screwed the Duwamish, Tulalip, Puyallup, etc.

How about this - Seattle's always been a boomtown and grown in crazy fits and starts. And some people will always quit this city and move somewhere else when it stops standing still looking like the day you met it. Others stay. There's nothing wrong with Seattle. You changed, it changed. Good luck out there.

38

I can relate to this, even though it's a little bit bullshit. I lived in NYC for 4 years and some months, finally moving away this past summer (back to my origins, actually, down South.) When I first moved to NYC, a place I'd always wanted to live, I could see nothing but the good. Even the constantly blaring car horns were kinda cool. After 4 years I could see nothing but the bad. But it wasn't NYC that changed.

Had a similar but less extreme experience when I lived in the SF Bay Area for about 4 years. Ultimately I've ended up back where I grew up, a place I couldn't wait to leave. Pretty much anywhere is fine. But they all suck, too. It's just how humans perceive things as they grow stiflingly familiar.

39

Sorry for a second post right under my first post, but this article kinda hits home for me. I think it's an age thing as well. I assume (for some reason) that the author is no more than 30 or so. I'm pushing 40, and I've basically stopped looking for cool places to live. They don't really exist. No matter the city, you will get sick of it eventually and convince yourself that it's "not what it used to be." I no longer care if it's a cool place, as long as I can live in a comfortable house or apartment (i.e., not a closet with no dishwasher for 1700 per month), reasonable access to decent grocery stores, and a couple of pets.

40

Ugh, I'm failing, failing so badly here in the comments section. OK, so the author is almost certainly more than 30 since s/he met Seattle 20 years ago.

I'll go away now.

41

I arrived here in 1980. 17 years old, 1st apt on Capitol hill and loving it big time.. Comet tavern after work, Dropping acid on the weekends.. local bands, concerts in burned out warehouses in Sodo, KXRX radio fun, just a great time, However Im still here and still love it. . Yes things are not what they used to be, but to have it any other way is impossible.. Keep running I say. You will never find what you seek as long as you are part of the journey..

42

A lot of people leave because they cannot afford to live here anymore. Thanks Amazon and capitalism! Which has helped cause an increase in unhoused people. I have many friends in that situation. Its not because they don’t want to live here.
The working people and artists - many are gone due to lack of money. People close to me have died because of addiction and one recently because of a shooting. I am grieving. Do not be afraid to look at the reality of the damage done. We are not victims because we fight back.

I’m still here because I got lucky and got a house years ago when it was much, much cheaper.
Also, I am very old so I don’t want to leave. I like being close to a library and drug store and close to people of different cultures although our grocery store is gone because of negative growth. Besides I like to be annoying to the far right and their smug enablers as long as I live and breathe.

43

Since I live here I can be annoying to the status quo here as well as elsewhere. You can kill a revolutionary but you can’t kill a revolution because it still goes on anyway in whoever form it may take. Thank you all for reading this.


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