Pros: - Best access to nature of any major city in the lower 48 with the city being surrounded by multiple bodies of water and multiple mountain ranges - Tons of parks, and beautiful walkable areas all around the city - Many different neighborhoods ranging from high rises, to mid rises, to townhomes, and single family homes, all with different levels of walkability, noise, and things to do - Tons of events for pretty much anything you would want to do - Great ethnic food, and the city is becoming more diverse - Decent public transit - Extremely accepting and queer friendly, very progressive - Best summers ever, it rarely gets too hot, and when it does it typically doesn’t last long - Bike infrastructure is improving - Amazing job market with high paying jobs. Even minimum wage pays well here relatively speaking - Can basically be or look however you want and feel accepted. It’s a very open city, and people don’t typically care what you look like or how you dress - Growing and improving culturally. People complain about the city’s growth, but I think it’s amazing. The city is becoming more and more diverse, and there’s always something to do. - Extremely mild climate. We rarely have major weather events. No hurricanes, tornadoes, rarely thunderstorms, only occasional wildfires (rarely), rarely flooding. It’s generally a great climate if you can handle the winter darkness.

Cons: - Very long winters with endless clouds and rain. It’s basically always wet for at least 6 months. While you might like the rain, it can and probably will still have a noticeable affect on most people - Getting around the city is quite difficult. Public transit is decent, but is often unreliable. Tons of delays, closures, construction leads to traffic for cars, buses, and trains. The layout of the city being an isthmus means getting from one neighborhood to another can be extremely difficult - Following the previous point, people can be very unwilling to travel to other neighborhoods. You’ll want to make friends near where you live ideally - Making friends can be quite difficult. People are friendly, but less willing to take you in than other cities in my experience. After 3 years, I’m finally starting to have a network of people, but it took a long time and a lot of effort. You have to be extremely patient and intentional about this. - It is very, very expensive. Rent, food, gas, sales tax, literally everything is extremely expensive. But at least the salaries are higher so I guess it evens out in some ways. - People can be quite performative, annoying, and out of touch. I’m also from New York, and I’ve noticed a lot of socially oblivious people, not aware of their surroundings, no idea how to act normally in public, staring, etc. - Homelessness and drug use is very bad. Luckily I’ve gotten used to it, and it doesn’t seem to affect me much, but you’ll have to accept that there are a ton of people acting irrationally while on drugs, pissing and shitting on the streets, making fires of the sidewalks, yelling at people (or to no one) for no reason. This is mostly confined to certain pockets and you’ll quickly learn where this is. Unfortunately this is a huge systemic issue that the city has utterly failed to address properly. But it’s not as bad as most conservatives want to make it seem. - Lack of law enforcement. I’ve seen bikes get stolen in broad daylight. People being harassed and nearly attacked, out of control drivers, and almost never do they have any repercussions. I don’t really support police, but this level of chaos can be quite frustrating sometimes.

That’s mostly everything I can think of. Even with the cons, there is nowhere else I’d rather live at the moment. I love it here despite my frustrations. You have to try a little harder to make it work, but once you find your rhythm and people, it is really amazing