Any advice on moving back to Seattle, WA?
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Hello everyone. I know this isn't a good place to discuss this, but I want to seek some input. Here's my situation: I currently reside in Arizona, but I miss Seattle so badly. Having lived between Washington State and Arizona many times, I've noticed my body doesn't quite like Phoenix. Plus, there are things I do not like about Phoenix, but I'll leave it at that.
It's highly unusual for me to have sinus problems, headaches, and body aches almost all year long, at least it seemed like that last year. It wasn't quite like that when I came to Phoenix years ago. It used to be that it would be allergy season in the spring, then everything else would be fine the rest of the year. Now, something seems off. Either the air quality has gotten bad, or maybe I just need to go see a doctor. When I visit Seattle (or anywhere in King County), I felt much better.
I'm originally from Seattle, born and raised there. Yes, there are bad things happening there, but I still enjoy visiting my home state.
My biggest concern is that I won't be able to find a job over there. I do not feel like moving elsewhere. I'm weighing my options and prospects. But with how bad things are, especially the job market right now, I feel hopeless.
What are your thoughts?
Seattle Washington rang a bell for me for some reason at first... and then I remember why, jxself.org about me section on his website, he mentions that he is near Seattle
I guess you could ask him is what I am saying.
I see. I'll probably ask him at some point.
My mom lived in Phoenix for about 20 years and she has had life-long allergy problems wherever she lived. She said her trouble in Phoenix was from olive trees, and that it was seasonal. She said that people used to say Arizona was pretty much allergy free, but a few decades ago people started bringing olive trees into the state, and that allergies from olive trees are about as bad as cedar fever in places with cedar trees.
Not sure that's any help at all for you as you make your decision, but figured I would pass it along since she told me that info just now when I read her your inquiry.
As for me, I don't suffer from allergies particularly. I normally want to live somewhere with no state income tax, so Washington (no state income tax) would win over Arizona (flat rate state income tax) for my way of thinking. Not that it would particularly save me any money overall, but I prefer not to have the extra layer of bureacracy to deal with.
I was thinking that the weeds that grew where I live are partly to blame. I suffered from allergies back when I grew up in Seattle, but I've never had constant allergies that bad in Phoenix. I think I'll see a doctor and get a checkup. Other than that, I feel ok.
As for the income tax, I have a feeling Washington State will introduce an income tax at some point. I miss not having to pay income tax. That's for sure.
I didn't knew olive trees existed in Arizona. Upon some research, it looks like those trees are actually banned in Phoenix. I am definitely going to try and remove those pesky weeds.
>"I didn't knew olive trees existed in Arizona. Upon some research, it looks like those trees are actually banned in Phoenix."
She moved away from Phoenix in 2001, so possibly they banned olive trees sometime in the past 25 years. Or maybe they were banned before that but still popping up in people's backyards regardless, or something like that.
I just realized, when I saw a picture of what those looked like, I think there are lots of them in my area. Or at least, they look similar.
She said her allergies from the olive trees were extremely bad, so maybe similar to your experience.
Thanks for bringing up the olive tree allergy. Looking around on my way to work, I saw so many of these trees. Even if they aren't olive trees, I suspect they are the culprit. I even think there are weird and invasive plants around my area too.
Seattle is incredible. I wanted to move there a decade ago, but never did because of cost of living.
Arizona is dreadfully hot (especially Phoenix) and I would want to get out of there too. I'm a shorts and t-shirt type of person in the middle of a snow storm, so I could never live there.
I remembered growing up there. Although I don't remember what it was like in the late 90s, it was nice during the 2000s.
Somehow, the weather in Phoenix has been getting weird lately. Last winter, it wasn't as cold as before.
There's a lot of things I miss about Seattle.
There used to be the green waterfront street cars that have since been retired. And there also used to be carnival rides around Seattle Center.
A lot has changed. Now, those are childhood memories.
Also, it used to be up until maybe 2013 that you could get a free ride on the metro bus in Downtown Seattle. Not anymore. There were buses that ran in the Seattle Bus Tunnel from the Chinatown Intl. District to Westlake Center. That was also discontinued in 2019. Now, it's only the light rail.
My family would go see the fireworks at the Seattle Waterfront (then Lake Union for one time).
- I'm originally from Seattle, born and raised there.
Me too, and have always remained.
re Health: probably wouldn't hurt to see a good doctor to address sinus issues, headaches and body aches. My provider is a DO and seems very knowledgable and helpful for this old timer.
My daughter lived in Arizona and came up here for some vacation time. Before she returned she had lined up a job and reserved an apartment. That was a long time ago but maybe you could come to Seattle for a consideration vacation.
I am out of the job market myself but know quite a number of people that are recently laid off and looking, or recently graduated and still looking but I suppose it depends on a persons skill set, career focus and expectations. Meta and Amazon are laying off people but Boeing is currently hiring.
It seems like we have one of the highest cost of living in the country.
I looked at a report from WalletHub and see that Scotsdale, AZ ranks #8 on the happy list while Seattle comes in at #13. But a Reader's Digest study found Seattle the #80th 'happy city' and Phoenix ranked #191. At the moment though, we have a huge 'going to the superbowl' boost and a new ranking would be considerably higher, maybe even #1.
I'm guessing you were laid off recently? I'm terribly sorry to hear that. I'm concerned about my own job too, but it's my future prospects that worries me.
I wish I made better decisions when I was in college regarding my career path. But, upon graduating during the covid mess, I was forced to take a job I hold to this day.
I definitely will consider seeing a doctor at some point. I feel fine other than the allergies.
I am planning on returning to Seattle this upcoming March. I've been flying back and forth every spring and fall. My biggest problem is my recently-developed fear of flying.
It's scary to look outside the plane during turbulence, only to see the wings flapping up and down. I've decided that flying back in February is a no-go. I wasn't scared of flying up until I started hearing about recent plane crashes last year.
Interesting note about the happiest city ranking. I thought people were happier in Phoenix than in Seattle. When I look around in Phoenix, people seemed nicer and happier there.
Getting hired by Boeing is tough. I interviewed for an internship there when I was in high school. Didn't make it, but I did get into the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). I interned over there twice. Wonderful times.
I'm weighing my options and seeing where to go next. Moving back is not an easy decision for me. But, as my dad always tells me, "there's always a solution."
Haven't been to either city but I don't think I'd want to live in Phoenix because of the heat (I've lived my entire life in the Northeast and Midwest) as well as the extreme car dependency. Since graduating from high school, I've lived in Boston and Chicago, and I love both cities. Seattle seems cool and I'd love to visit.
The summers in Phoenix are pretty brutal. And there are lots of bad drivers too. It's a great vacation spot, though. I'll give it that.
There are many places you can visit in Seattle. Depending on what interests you, I think a good place to start would around the downtown area. Maybe the Waterfront, or Pike Place Market. There's many restaurants around Seattle too, especially the Chinatown Intl. District.
Now, if you plan to visit Seattle, the way I would try to get around transportation-wise would be to take any King County Metro bus routes that goes to Seattle with cash. There's also something called the Link Rail, operated by Sound Transit. It can go directly from Sea-Tac airport to Seattle. You can either buy tickets with cash, or buy something called the ORCA card.
This presents an issue I have. I believe using those ORCA cards requires non-free ways of paying electronically. And I'm sure the ticket machine itself is running proprietary software. So, if you plan to take the metro, have enough cash ready on hand. The route you need to take if you exit from Sea-Tac would be route 161. Then, stop at the Burien Transit Center. You have three options. Take RapidRide line F, route 131, or 132. They all go to Seattle. You can probably use a taxi that takes cash too, but that'll be expensive.
Someone else might have better knowledge than I do regarding transportation.
Hope this was informative. Seattle is fun, but navigating around will take some planning.
One more thing. I think visiting around June to October would be a good time to visit. I admit, one time, when it rained in Seattle, I got really depressed momentarily. I call this the Seattle depression. Weather can affect your mood.
I always reload transit cards with cash, for privacy reasons. The exception may be my CharlieCard (Boston), since it is on my college ID card (the ID card expired when I graduated but CharlieCard continues working).
I would also love to bike around Seattle and the surrounding area. Since moving to Chicago I've become an avid bicyclist and gotten into bikepacking.
Right now, I'm near San Francisco for an extended period of time (family-related) and have been enjoying the cycling. It's quite different from what I'm used to since Chicago is extremely flat and this place has steep hills, but I love it.
I don't mind gloomy weather so much. While none of the places I've lived are comparable to Seattle, I think Pittsburgh, which I've been to several times (I'm from the other side of the state, and my brother went to school there), comes close. Chicago also goes through long periods of no sun sometimes.
As for Phoenix, the nature in Arizona (and the rest of the southwest) is very appealing to me, but the city not so much.
Bicycling is a great idea. I'm definitely looking to get more active at some point. As for Seattle, I have no experience bicycling there, so I can't speak to that. I do know that there is a bicycle lane in the Chinatown Intl. District area, but that's it. As long as you are careful around cars, I think you should be fine. I would assume there are many places you can go cycling there.
CyclOSM shows a substantial number of bike lanes in Seattle, though I don't know how good they are. I'm fine with riding around cars though. I've even ridden some actual highways in rural Illinois (US-6 and IL-29 west from Peru for about 14 miles).
One thing about Seattle is that it has gone into rental ebikes and scooters in a big way. see https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/bike-program/how-to-use-scooter-share-and-bike-share
We went on a guided tour from the waterfront and around Magnolia and for an old guy that only likes to pedal a little bit, electric power was pretty nice.
I saw those on the streets last time I visited Seattle. I did not knew you could rent these with an ORCA card.
As someone who walked from the Chinatown area all the way to the Space Needle many times, I prefer to walk instead. That's just me. I love walking around Downtown Seattle.