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[navkat]

I was never really able to enjoy Seattle. I just felt like it was expensive and not as nice as Vancouver, you know? But then, I've only been there twice and one of those doesn't count because I spent a couple of days sort of stuck and miserable after being denied entry at the Blaine overland crossing over some silliness.

You want to know what's funny but true? Neither Portlanders nor Seattlites say much about Vancouver.

San Francisco, we'll talk about, sure.

San Jose and Vancouver? No fucking way.

Vancouver is crap. Oh sure, it's pretty enough to look at, but it's all tourists and hippies and junkies and meth whores and not the cool interesting kind either. And it's got to be the most expensive city this side of Geneva. We don't talk about it because there's nothing about it that's interesting enough to make even derisive jokes about.

Wow, no. Agree to disagree.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Twid, is there a thread somewhere on The Irishness I should be throwing my theory in?

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I was never really able to enjoy Seattle. I just felt like it was expensive and not as nice as Vancouver, you know? But then, I've only been there twice and one of those doesn't count because I spent a couple of days sort of stuck and miserable after being denied entry at the Blaine overland crossing over some silliness.

You want to know what's funny but true? Neither Portlanders nor Seattlites say much about Vancouver.

San Francisco, we'll talk about, sure.

San Jose and Vancouver? No fucking way.

Vancouver is crap. Oh sure, it's pretty enough to look at, but it's all tourists and hippies and junkies and meth whores and not the cool interesting kind either. And it's got to be the most expensive city this side of Geneva. We don't talk about it because there's nothing about it that's interesting enough to make even derisive jokes about.

Wow, no. Agree to disagree.

I used to correspond with a lady who lived on Cordova. Said she had to check the clothes dryers for hypes and sometimes step over dead homeless people when she went out.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Gogira- doks thread about st patricks day

[East Coast Hustle]

I was never really able to enjoy Seattle. I just felt like it was expensive and not as nice as Vancouver, you know? But then, I've only been there twice and one of those doesn't count because I spent a couple of days sort of stuck and miserable after being denied entry at the Blaine overland crossing over some silliness.

You want to know what's funny but true? Neither Portlanders nor Seattlites say much about Vancouver.

San Francisco, we'll talk about, sure.

San Jose and Vancouver? No fucking way.

Vancouver is crap. Oh sure, it's pretty enough to look at, but it's all tourists and hippies and junkies and meth whores and not the cool interesting kind either. And it's got to be the most expensive city this side of Geneva. We don't talk about it because there's nothing about it that's interesting enough to make even derisive jokes about.

Wow, no. Agree to disagree.

I used to correspond with a lady who lived on Cordova. Said she had to check the clothes dryers for hypes and sometimes step over dead homeless people when she went out.

Vancouver is basically Disneyland for Druggies. It's like every cartoonish western cliche about Amsterdam brought to life. And its suburbs are huge and dismal tracts of swampland filled in with uniform grey sprawl.

The rest of southwestern BC, however, is stunningly beautiful.

[navkat]

The thing that kind of impressed me about Van was the level of showmanship the panhandlers resort to. I mean, I left a club one night and while we were standing outside figuring out what to do after, this guy lit something on top of his hat on FIRE. I didn't even realize he was a panhandler until I noticed that the group I was standing with were deliberately trying to ignore him. I felt like a buffoon, standing there, jaw open, eyes wide with this "sure, come on over and ask for money" look on my fayce.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Seattle: Not quite Canadian but not Portland either!

Seattle is quite unique and wonderful in its own right. But I think that when Portland became New York's big crush after it had been so in love with Seattle in the '90's, Seattle got jealous (not that it wanted New York anymore, it just couldn't believe that New York would choose Portland over it) and ever since then, the way Seattle feels better about itself is by putting Portland down. "Oh, well, I'm older, more grown-up, and more sophisticated than Portland!" "Everything Portland does, I do better, and I did it first!".

Seattle, it's about time you let go of this. You're better than that; instead of dancing around trying to divert attention from Portland, highlight what you're good at. It's time to let your little sister off the hook for dating the boy you had a crush on in seventh grade, and instead of trying to upstage her at all of her talents, write your own mythology. You have so much potential, if only you'd quit comparing yourself to your kid sister. It's demeaning.

It's been happening since even before PDX became the cool new "in" city. And the amusing thing is that it's a behavior that is almost solely engaged in by people who are, of course, not really from Seattle at all. People move there and get the "Seattle Freeze" from the local populace so they think a good way to prove their hardcore Seattlishness is to be obnoxiously vocal and intense in their civic support. I went through the phase as a teenager, thankfully, and got over it before I became a real person worthy of being paid any attention to by other real people.

The problem has been exacerbated in recent years as gentrification has taken over the inner core of the city and robbed it of many of its long-time indentifying characteristics and landmarks. One thing I LOVE about Portland is that nobody cares about some rich asshole from out-of-state who wants to remake the place in his image. And as far as I know, nobody even bothers trying that shit here. No Paul Allen building up South Lake Union into a high-tech yuppie cluster. No Kemper Freeman trying to build a walled city full of glitz and social immobility in Bellevue. No Howard Schultz yowling paeans to the glories of civic virtue out one side of his mouth while selling off some of the city's most beloved and identifiable treasures to people who just want to destroy them or relocate them. If Seattle is a wealthy real-estate developer's wet dream, PDX is that same developer's sweaty nightmare brought on by too much greasy korean food and inevitably ending in a bed-soaking shart.

Not only that, but have you been downtown lately? I avoid going downtown if at all possible, but over the last decade or so all the identical glitzy chain stores and restaurants moved in, making it look pretty much like every downtown ever. Then, yesterday, I was there for a class, and HOLY SHIT

It's almost starting to look like my childhood Portland! Those shiny clean new businesses are starting to take on the shabby wear and grime of budgets with no room for maintenance, and over by the Justice building there's some kind of shiny dystopian monstrosity that I can't even comprehend, apparently being built with Federal renewal funds.

Soon, perhaps the chains will close, and it will be the boarded-up downtown I remember from my youth.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I was never really able to enjoy Seattle. I just felt like it was expensive and not as nice as Vancouver, you know? But then, I've only been there twice and one of those doesn't count because I spent a couple of days sort of stuck and miserable after being denied entry at the Blaine overland crossing over some silliness.

You want to know what's funny but true? Neither Portlanders nor Seattlites say much about Vancouver.

San Francisco, we'll talk about, sure.

San Jose and Vancouver? No fucking way.

Vancouver is crap. Oh sure, it's pretty enough to look at, but it's all tourists and hippies and junkies and meth whores and not the cool interesting kind either. And it's got to be the most expensive city this side of Geneva. We don't talk about it because there's nothing about it that's interesting enough to make even derisive jokes about.

San Jose isn't even a real city. It's just the largest suburb in America.

So is LA, though. That's just how California rolls.

San Jose actually does have a nice downtown, but the suburbs are so epic that actually finding it is a bit of an ordeal.

I really like Vancouver. There's a lot going on all the time and the restaurants are plentiful, affordable, and mostly excellent. Plus beaches and quick access to wilderness.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I was never really able to enjoy Seattle. I just felt like it was expensive and not as nice as Vancouver, you know? But then, I've only been there twice and one of those doesn't count because I spent a couple of days sort of stuck and miserable after being denied entry at the Blaine overland crossing over some silliness.

You want to know what's funny but true? Neither Portlanders nor Seattlites say much about Vancouver.

San Francisco, we'll talk about, sure.

San Jose and Vancouver? No fucking way.

Vancouver is crap. Oh sure, it's pretty enough to look at, but it's all tourists and hippies and junkies and meth whores and not the cool interesting kind either. And it's got to be the most expensive city this side of Geneva. We don't talk about it because there's nothing about it that's interesting enough to make even derisive jokes about.

Wow, no. Agree to disagree.

I used to correspond with a lady who lived on Cordova. Said she had to check the clothes dryers for hypes and sometimes step over dead homeless people when she went out.

That's just Canada.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Victoria is much nicer though.



Maybe a little too nice.

[East Coast Hustle]

Victoria is nice because it wants to be FRIENDS with you Nigel. Don't you want to be FRIENDS?

[Doktor Howl]

How is this thread now about Northern communists?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Victoria is nice because it wants to be FRIENDS with you Nigel. Don't you want to be FRIENDS?

All I can imagine when I think about Victoria is BEES.

[Freeky]

Victoria is nice because it wants to be FRIENDS with you Nigel. Don't you want to be FRIENDS?

All I can imagine when I think about Victoria is BEES.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Victoria is nice because it wants to be FRIENDS with you Nigel. Don't you want to be FRIENDS?

All I can imagine when I think about Victoria is BEES.

Yes.