seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/a-teardown-a-day-bulldozing-the-way-for-bigger-homes-in-seattle-suburbs/This was a post in the comments section. Wonder which HH poaster it was?
"The people here are passive-aggressively hostile and unfriendly. Many of them are not from here, and because of this have no real friends from Seattle.
It is cool, cloudy and drizzly 9-10 months of the year - that's non-stop - as in gray skys and NO sunshine. With no friends and you stuck inside for 10 months, you will become severely depressed just like the vast majority of the other invaders.
And then you have the hostility of the Seattle natives. The people who were born and raised here, and have called this their home for all of their life. We HATE the invaders. We give them the cold shoulder, ignore them and avoid them like the plague.
You see, it's very simple. Seattle used to be a great home - 25 plus years ago. Most of the people living here were native to Seattle. Seattle was a large city with a small town feel. High quality-of-life, low congestion and low cost-of-living. Yes the weather sucked, but we were used to it and really knew nothing different and considered it normal.
There was a Seattle cultural identity that one was born into. A culture that was formed by a life long exposure to a peculiar climate and geographical isolation. This shared isolation forged life long friendships and familiarity with fellow-native idiosyncrasies, creating a culturally unique community. Seattlites took great pride in being different. You are either a Seattlite or not. And yes, this same social paradigm exists for all of the Seattle suburbs like Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah, Renton, Kent, ETC. Basically the entire Seattle region.
In 1979 Bill Gates and Paul Allen decided to move their merry little band of tech dorks from New Mexico to Seattle. Shortly thereafter began the introverted nerd invasion. The presence of so many invading nouveau-rich out-of-towners completely changed and ruined Seattle. Cost-of-living and congestion skyrocketed. Quality-of-life was plundered.
Every new person moving here makes the already horrific traffic worse and raises what has become an unreasonable cost of living. You moving here will only intensify the problem. And no, there is nothing special about "You" that makes you an exception to the rule. You can't move here and "become" a Seattlite, or "join the club" as many have tried. We used to loath the California invaders, but since the invasion began we have expanded our sentiments to include people from every corner of the globe - literally.
Before you are tempted to yell "xenophobia!", let it be known that Seattle natives are not frightened of other cultures. Seattle is, and always has been, a culturally diverse city. It is a matter of too many people being crammed into a small area, and the precipitous drop in quality of life as a result, that is the problem.
In a nutshell, Seattle natives HATE invaders. We don't want you here - anymore than we would want the neighbors dog to use our lawn as a toilet. We will not make friends with you. We already have our native friends."
Comments
The KBO's raison d'être was to protest the irritating and prolonged immigration of newcomers into the Puget Sound region, especially to Seattle. They clogged the roads, spent too much money bidding up prices, did not understand the "NorthWest way of life" and just generally made trouble, ... hence the KBO's mission statement. Watson periodically suggested actions that KBO members could take to make "immigrants" (perhaps especially Californians) uncomfortable, and, hopefully, encourage them to leave. Readers and others occasionally observed that it was all a sort of joke, and Watson sometimes responded that people could think what they liked, but that he would continue to promote the KBO as one way to deal with the decrease in the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest and especially in Western Washington.
I'd rather give ST $10 to $15 billion and see if their can lower their cost overruns before voting on the other $40 billion but maybe I'm too reasonable for Seattle now.
The organization was mostly anti-California, but Oregon was a very close second, as that state had essentially been compromised by California agitators by the mid 60's
Most people think it was fictional, but there are still a few splinter cells around. Deep underground, they meet monthly in the bowels of Pike Place Market
Across the street from their house, is the old farm house for the farm that used to be in that part of present day Ravenna. The old grouch that is the son of the guy that sold his farm off so that all of the new homes could be built in Ravenna in the 30s and 40s and 50s hated outsiders too, and would always yell at anybody that parked on the street in front of his house. Said that part of the street was only for him to park in. As a kid in the early 70s, my uncle and I would throw eggs at this guys house just because he was such a prick. We were outsiders back then.
Now I guess we are the insiders, because I'm a 3rd generation Seattle resident that can still remember how good the 1984 Huskies were when they kicked Oklahoma's ass in the Orange Bowl.
Today, I'm thinking of selling the house I've lived in for 25 years. Bought it for 160K, and a realtor told me last month I can probably get 750K for it now (big corner lot). I can walk to Green Lake and the U-Dub from here, but the neighborhood is full of people I don't know and my neighbor is a duck who plays soccer with his kids and just fucking pisses me off.
I know. Cool story. I'll fuck off.
Hope this helps
Anyway, that's Seattle for you unless you're in the top...three percent...
I'll see pictures of new buildings on social media and not recognize them..