As far as Johnny's post, I lived in San Francisco for years and loved it. You are right that people are much nicer and truly more interesting in the north west. they travel, are open to different cultures. But....after time the city will wear on you. Im sure Seattle has its homeless problem, parking problems, crime, etc. Visiting a city and living in one are very different.
I'm in San Francisco at least once or twice a year, beautiful city. You are dead on with regards to the cliche "big city problems." I pass a number of homeless on my 4-block walk to and from meetings every day. Your last sentence couldn't more dead on.
I'm not sure how the crime is here, but the police know how to deal with punks that get out of line:
Don't pass judgment on the cop. The story has been pretty big the past couple days and that girl is lucky she only got one punch to the face. It all started over the cop stopping the girls for jaywalking.
Now, I'm used to walking and driving in Boston where people cross the streets regardless of the traffic signals and cars travel without regard for pedestrians. When I first got here and was walking around, I noticed that people pay very strict attention to the traffic/pedestrian signals and almost no one crosses the road outside of a crosswalk.
Just one more thing to add to the list of how Seattle is different from the East.
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