Would Seattle Be a Good Fit For Me?

Some thoughts:

Weather: Polar Vortex is making us warmer, not colder. Less rain too. In general humidity here is vastly less than Florida.

Jobs: Didn't say what you do. Cities vary greatly for what's in demand. Plan on not working for 3-4 months because getting situated can take time in a new place. People tend to not hire noobs FOB unless you're being recommended.

Religion. Seattle ranks at or near the top for non religiousness. Almost no bible beaters or fundies. The entire Puget Sound region is this way, the churches tend to be polite and quiet, even the fundie ones. About as far from what you're used to in Florida as possible.

Conservative Democrat - Seattle people are very "boutique" with our politics. Everyone is pretty socially liberal - don't care who you marry - but some can be pretty libertarian on things like gun ownership. Over all it's a very live-and-let-live, get along with your neighbor kind of vibe, though there is also a strong streak of "nanny state liberalism" on topics like recycling or driving fast on the highway.

Roads: Everyone will piss you off, there's nowhere near the roads you're used to, and "car culture" is actively being curb-stomped out of dominance here by a strong tendency to want to wish away bad traffic. This will astound or frustrate you, so fair warning. We appear to be in the middle of a social experiment to see what happens to a city that is adding 50,000 people a year, but builds no more roadways to accommodate them, and is years behind on building out acceptable mass transit to handle them either.

Taxes: We don't have an income tax (Does Florida?) so we score out as being "regressive" in taxing. The poor pay proportionally more than the wealthy here. This irks people, but nobody wants to commit to changing it. The net result is the state is always lurching from crisis to crisis since it depends on car tabs and sales taxes for most of its income, and these are both wildly dependent on the economy and can fluctuate.

People. We're surface polite and sub-surface tend to be withdrawn and keep to ourselves. Your main friends circles will be other noobs, at least at first. Those that do best here learn to shut the fuck up and listen to people who have lived here a while, and quit expecting everything to conform to their already-held expectations for social life.

I'm out of ideas, but good luck, bring money, hope you are able to put up with culture not being "Southern" in any way, because if you can't, you're going to have a bad time.

/r/Seattle Thread