> I do feel like an outlier in that I really enjoy living in distinct seasons.
You're not really an outlier, I learned that I feel the same way after living in SF for a while. It's just that it doesn't occur to many people because many people don't live in two such radically different climates.
> the people i met in the MW were way nicer than the people i knew from the east coast or west coast.
I read once something along the lines of "People in New York say 'fuck off' but mean 'have a good one' where as people in California say 'have a good one' but mean 'fuck off'"
I am from the Seattle area and prefer neither of those scenarios because we are often fairly introverted (see the "Seattle Freeze").
> As a west coaster, I can't stand Chicago or New York. The weather sucks, the topology is boring, the people are either boring Midwesterners, or crass north easterners. I'm happy the west coast gets more play, though I would probably not want to live in SF.
While the stereotypes exist for a reason (and anybody who's lived in NYC or Chi-town testify to these particular ones), have to disagree with you on the being able to put up with "those" people. It's the west coast that is the outlier here as a (stereotypical) bunch of pansies who can't (again stereotypically) deal with rawness of reality.
> I have realized that crappy climate is a poor reason to avoid the move.
I'd be interested to hear your reasons. For me, I'm the exact opposite. In the 3 years I've lived in CA, I haven't had bronchitis once, which used to happen almost every year on the east coast. Not having to deal with 14 degree weather and snow is one of the main reasons I moved away. For me, so much happiness flows this simple fact.
> Nobody's been thinking that Seattle sucks because they only had two of the four major US pro sports present in the region.
A part of the reason why I live where I live is good access to live sports I'm interested in. Even within the city where I currently live, I chose the area in the city based on good transit options to the stadiums or decently close geographic distances. While it wouldn't be a deal breaker to move to a place where I don't have access to those live sports, it would be a part of the considerations on my move. And then its not even just the sports but also all the other events which go on at such stadiums and venues.
I wouldn't say Seattle sucks because they didn't have an NHL team, but it absolutely would have impacted my math on moving at least some amount and would have affected where I would have decided to live in Seattle or the surrounding area. Now that they are soon to have an NHL team again, I'm more likely to find it agreeable to move there. I wouldn't even consider myself a major sports fanatic.
> I'm already right on the edge of deciding to move due to having lived most of my life in sunny regions and really disliking the gloomy weather here.
I'd say that's valid enough reason to move on its own. I've lived in Seattle for forever and the weather is one of the things that has kept me here through economic ups and downs.
The cost of living is only "low" here for people like us who are already doing very well for ourselves and I'm not at all enjoying the yawing inequity becoming increasingly wider. I'm not someone who pines for the "better days" of yesteryear or wants to cling tightly to some treasured local watering hole. We need a sane tax policy and a sane housing policy otherwise this all comes to a crashing halt.
>Sometimes I think people on the west coast seem to think of a city as a place that's supposed to stay the same forever ("forever" being defined as starting at about 1960).
No, forever is defined as "the day after _I_ moved in"
Well, the climate in the populated parts of Canada parallels the northern United States, i.e. Chicago (9.5m in metro area) and Toronto (6.4m in metro area) have similar climate, as well as Vancouver and Seattle.
There are huge populations in these areas who are used to northern climate and have no trouble with it. I live in Chicago and really love the four seasons, prefer the cold to the heat and would never move to anywhere south of say North Carolina.
Climate preferences can vary quite a bit, I would say.
What? I'm from Seattle, seasons definitely change there. It's as "west coast" as you can get.
reply