Best Cities out West?

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Permalink Reply by Lauren Kelley on August 11, 2009 at 3:45pm

HI. I'm totally new to 20SB BUT I saw your post and thought id share :) I live 45 min south of Seattle and if you have the time you should definitely look there. Its a medium/good sized city with tons of life. U of Wash is in the middle of the city so its largely a younger crowd. (On the sunny days, ha!) everyone is out walking around, tons of cute coffee shops, stores, & farmers markets. And I feel like EVERYone owns a dog. :) Ha. Anyways, totally something to look at. We are considered one of the rainy states but its green, fresh, surrounded by water, and truly breathtaking. (I guess I'm slightly biased but still!) Hope this helps:)
-lauren

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Permalink Reply by Lauren on August 12, 2009 at 4:06pm

I love that you said it's dog friendly, green trees, fresh air, AND surrounded by water. I live right on Lake Erie and can't imagine living anywhere that doesn't have a lake, river, ocean.

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Permalink Reply by Writing to Reach You on August 11, 2009 at 4:17pm

I'd definitely make it up to Seattle if possible, especially if you're already as far north as Portland. Spokane is pretty far East of Seattle and I don't know if it's really what you're looking for as far as design/art culture. If you're already driving from Portland to Seattle, then you might want to stop in Tacoma. There have been efforts to revive downtown Tacoma with more of an art culture.

It really does rain a lot, but it's not always a heavy downpour. It's more often just cloudy and drizzly. But, it does get really nice in the Northwest around this time of year.

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Permalink Reply by Lauren on August 12, 2009 at 4:07pm

I am planning on doing both Portland and Seattle. I can't wait to see both places. As far as the rain goes. It rains a lot in Northern PA too, so I think I could handle it. Thanks for the reply!

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Permalink Reply by Hipstercrite on August 11, 2009 at 7:12pm

I lived in L.A. for 5 years and can tell you that California is beautiful and amazing and exciting and different, but probably isn't the smartest place to be right now (highest unemployment rate, high cost of living, tax payers not getting their refunds back...)
I just wrote an article about the ten best cities for young, creative people to move to and in the month of May, Portland had one of the highest unemployment rates of all the major cities in America (11.6 %). I have never been there though and hear it's beautiful and hipster central. I have only heard AMAZING things about Seattle (except for the often gloomy weather). I know Vancouver is in Canada, but it's often voted the best city to live in in the entire WORLD! Just kind of expensive. Back down in California, San Diego is also often voted as best place to live in America.
I moved to Austin, TX last year and it's the best place I've ever lived/been to in America. AMAZING CITY!

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Permalink Reply by Lauren on August 12, 2009 at 4:04pm

So you live in Austin? I was really looking into that city too. I went to Dallas/Fort Worth last month (family friends live there) and really wanted to go to Austin, but was unable to do so. I've also heard amazing things about Austin. However I didn't like Dallas or Fort Worth at all. Everything was so far away from each other, traffic was beyond bad, the water was gross (but that's just a minor thing) and it was just... concrete and buildings, it wasn't pretty. After that vaca I started to think that I need fresh air, green trees, etc... What do you love about Austin?

And I think I am going to do both Portland and Seattle. I didn't know unemployment was that bad though. That makes me think twice about moving there anytime soon.

Thanks!

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