I visited with my girlfriend in 2015 and stayed in the suburbs where her girlfriend's guy was working for MS. The burbs seemed pretty peaceful and green (older suburb—but I don't know the city). Maybe they were in Redmond proper.
It was a beautiful area, and I could definitely live with that. It's too bad it's pricing people out like that.
We were there only too briefly so we just hit some touristy options like the market and some hipster arcade bar, the Army/Navy, etc.
We live in Toronto and it felt pretty similar overall (though I'd give major points to Seattle for scenery). The same thing is ultimately happening here, too, though. Rents are skyrocketing but wages aren't.
With a lot of the political commotion and the desire for more outdoors activity, I haven't seen much of Canada mentioned in this thread and I'm curious if its landed on the map for anybody. And where?
If other countries are up for comparison, I would really love to move to Brisbane someday.
If I left Seattle (and the US) it would be for something completely different like Taipei.
I’m also a bit too patriotic to move out of the US while I can still build a life here.
Of course, that's true of a lot of US cities that are growing these days. Certainly NYC or Boston were much grittier in the 80s/90s than they are today with a net outflow of population.
Change is just constant I guess.