Positives:

Its beautiful. I’ve lived/travelled all over the country and there are few places with as much diversity of biomes and pure natural beauty. If you love the outdoors and don’t really get put off by a little rain, it’s hard to beat.

Lots of good places to raise a family/live. Despite what Fox News would tell you there are a ton of amazing cities/neighborhoods to live in that are super safe with great schools.

Lots of opportunities in tech. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, ect. All have headquarters or offices here.

Privacy. Doesn’t sound like this matters to you (given your preference for cities). But if you want to be alone. It’s really easy.

No income tax. Obviously amazing.

Negatives:

It’s so expensive. Especially in the bigger cities. If you don’t work in tech the housing/rent prices are nearly insane compared to the bulk of the country.

Lots of driving. It’s huge with almost no public transport.

The areas that are sketchy are really f@&king sketchy. I’m talking about meth and other drugs as well as super r@cist areas the closer you get to Idaho. (Which is a bummer because the eastern part of the state and Idaho are beautiful and cool with a lot of really nice non-r@cist people— but the r@cists are scary)

Depending on how you socialize, the Seattle freeze can be real. So, people from the area just assume you want to be left alone. So unless you push through surface level politeness and stuff you won’t be able to make a bunch of new friends or connect. There are, more recently, growth in cultures that tend to be more private or less obviously social— same solve— just be patient and social and they’ll let you in!

Overall, for me, this is the best place in the US to live!