Comments on: Seattle: The City Without a Soul

By: Seattleblue

Seattleblue — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:22:23 +0000

Maybe it’s nostalgia, but I remember Seattle being very different in the late 80′s/ early 90′s. That’s when I was a teenager so you know how that goes as far as memories.

But I remember wandering around exploring different places. It seemed that there was always some little nook with something cool, some funky neighborhood to check out, weird shops, MUSIC, and lots of things I don’t see today.

I moved away in the 90′s and came back in 2005. It’s just so different. I know I have changed as I approach 40. The world weighs heavy as we move through life. But… it’s still different in a way that I can’t account for by age alone.

It really is soulless. I don’t know if people like the mayor and the city council are the cause or s symptom. It’s a city full of empty condos that no one can afford. Clubs and those cool little bars where bands used to play get stomped out of existence with permitting processes and other procedural violence. Culture is whitewashed by the corporate mentality running the show because they want to present a sanitized face to the world. But sometimes dirt adds character.

Maybe its the winding down of the whole country. It just doesn’t feel like the same country I grew up in anymore.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:56:32 +0000

Holy Crap you’re absolutely right.
Seattle is super narcissistic, whitebread, and utterly soulless. I am getting out in a few days and I shall never return. Seriously, if I have to come back here to visit friends, damned the extra cost, I’m flying into Vancouver.

By: Savvy

Savvy — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:12:00 +0000

From what I know about Sea Town it was and still is grunge.

I get what you are saying, though and LA (where I am) has it’s problems, too. There are Christians, though. I guess it all depends on what pocket of people you run with. Even New York has its fair share of very ignorant people.

By: Lukobe

Lukobe — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 01:54:25 +0000

“Of No Consequence,” Welmer is absolutely right. Where do you get the idea that Seattle is a melting pot? It’s mostly white — I think, of cities of its size, only Portland, Oregon, is whiter — with a good number of Asians, some blacks, and a growing number of Hispanics — but it’s still mostly white.

“Multiple races inhabiting the same territory goes against the natural order” — yeah. Guess I must personally go against the natural order. I suppose you’re 100% white, yourself?

By: Welmer

Welmer — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:49:50 +0000

Actually, Seattle is one of the whitest cities in America. And yet it still sucks.

Not saying it’s because of the whites, of course, but rather the primitive state of culture here.

As far as culture is concerned, I like Paris and St. Petersburg in Europe, Beijing in China, and probably San Francisco here on the West Coast.

By: Of No Consequence

Of No Consequence — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:29:57 +0000

All places that are extremely “multicultural” (multiracial) like Seattle inevitably decline…multiple races inhabiting the same territory goes against the natural order.

By: Lukobe

Lukobe — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:24:11 +0000

That Gehry building, the EMP, was at least not paid for with public funds, unlike our Koolhaas-designed Central Library. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Central_Library

By: cayalx

cayalx — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:43:13 +0000

actually Murray, the big volcanic mountain near Seattle is Mt Rainier. St Helens did blow it’s top some 30 years ago, so it’s more significant for having done that, but it’s a lot closer to Portland (my city) than Seattle. I’ll just add that I think Portland is more friendly on the whole than Seattle, but it’s got some of the same issues.

that Ghery building looks like a rotten tomato, btw.

By: miles

miles — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:35:11 +0000

http://www.thecityreview.com/phaid55.jpg

There is much to be said for a culture and a civic leadership that allows such a building to be unleashed upon its citizens. How many citizens would have voted-Athenian like-to have that monstrosity imposed upon them?

That building teaches some bad lessons. Architecturally speaking it seems to cry out, “despite my unstraight lines and seemingly mathematical incongruity, Im still usable and viable”. Usually in the world the opposite is true. It also says, “look at me: Im big, loud, and ugly, but still command your attention and was built despite your dislike of me, and you will be paying for me for a long time anyway—-screw you Joe Taxpayer.”

A building like that is sort of an end-zone sack dance in the taxpayer’s face. Im sure loads of young women love it.

By: Welmer

Welmer — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:30:17 +0000

Yeah, I was pretty impressed by how accurate Murray was as well. However, what he and the rest of the country don’t generally know is what Seattle doesn’t have.

As a southerner, Murray probably takes fine local cuisine, hospitality and a good sense of history for granted.

Seattle has none of these. Seattle’s idea of hospitality is sending the homeless (or the Chinese last century) to San Francisco. Our idea of fine cuisine is endless salmon steaks on cedar planks (gets old real quick — better for dog food). Our idea of history… well, we have some, but hardly a soul here could tell you what it is (except Lukobe).

This town is so culturally deprived that people were willing to let Frank Gehry plunk what is possibly the worst piece of architecture in the world right in the middle of our city.