Sunday, June 28, 2009

Things I love, and don't love, about living in Seattle

I moved here a few months ago. Now that I'm telecommuting I can live anywhere, and I decided it was time to reconnect with my West Coast roots. However, I'm new to Seattle, and here's what I've found so far:

Things I enjoy:
  • Fewer people. You can actually get a table at Barnes & Noble! The rents are lower, there's room on the sidewalk, and you feel like you can breathe.
  • Nature. Even while driving the freeways, your view is of water and trees.
  • Summer weather. I don't think I've had such a long stretch of sunny, dry days in the 60's and 70's since growing up in Southern California.
  • Food. Great seafood, great produce, and if you ever get a chance, try something called a marionberry pie...
  • Good music. Haven't seen any great live bands yet, but even the radio stations are head and shoulders above what I've heard in other towns.
  • Relaxed fashion. People are very dressed down. I feel right at home in jeans and sweaters.
  • Eco-friendliness, &
  • Social justice. After living in Peru for a year, it's nice to live in a place that is conscious of eating local, buying & selling used stuff, and supporting causes around the world.
  • Great walkable neighborhoods. Fremont, Wallingford, Capitol Hill, Greenwood... there's an endless list of little neighborhoods that feel like the Village or Cobble Hill.
  • Proximity to Vancouver, Portland, and California.
  • Seattle Public Library. Tons of people use it, and it's got everything, so you literally almost never have to buy a book again.

Things I don't:
  • The weather during the rest of the year. I got a taste in March and April, and it was pretty demoralizing to be cold and wet all the time.
  • The homogeneity. Seattle ain't New York.
  • Traffic. Seattle has very few main arteries, and they are full of bottlenecks.
  • Public transit. Again, Seattle ain't New York.
  • Distance from everywhere but the West Coast.
  • Lack of directness. There is an odd awkwardness to social interactions here; people are friendly, but afraid to disagree with each other. For this New Yorker, this is a real shame; you learn so much more about people and life when everyone feels free to disagree and still be friends.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Forget giving a man a fish - give him broadband

One of the exciting trends I observed in Peru was that while the country might be underdeveloped in terms of roads, running water and electricity, young people in cities that had even partial coverage were already pretty wired. You might not own a watch or a refrigerator, and you might make only a few dollars a day, but you could easily have a cellphone, an email address, and be on a social network. Internet and mobile phone technology allow you to skip entire stages of industrialization, saving tons of time and money.

This article's title basically says it all:

East Africa gets broadband: It may make life easier and cheaper | The Economist

Shared via AddThis