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Ask HN: Why isn't Seattle(WA) more popular destination for California exiteers?

by phenkdo on 10/18/21, 12:10 PM with 7 comments

• by vgel on 10/18/21, 6:09 PM

  (I live in Seattle, moved from VA, have never lived in CA)

  * Seattle, anecdotally, does seem to be popular with ex-CA folks. Been seeing a lot more CA plates recently.

  * Weather is very taste dependent. I like it, but some people like taking fall walks that don't end with draining several gallons of rainwater from your clothes.

  * No income tax, but high sales tax, so it's kinda a wash for most people probably (unless you live near the Oregon border and can make the WA-no-income-tax/OR-no-sales-tax arbitrage, which isn't really practical in Seattle).

  * A good amount of the "I'm leaving CA" posts I see on HN mention a dissatisfaction with CA/SF politics. Washington is, in my opinion, a better run state than CA, but if you dislike CA's liberal dominated politics, perceived inaction on crisis issues like homelessness, anti-police stance and perceived rise in crime as a response, etc... you're not going to like Seattle very much either.

  * In general, the last few years has been characterized by a gridlock between a suburban-supported, more conservative mayor, and a city council that's more radical and outspoken, which has led to a very toxic political environment and not very much getting done, because the city can't agree on whether we want moderate centrists who will focus on compromising between activists and business interests, or radicals who will tell the business interests to f themselves and do what needs to be done.

• by eganist on 10/18/21, 12:18 PM

  Marketing's probably part of it, but I have a few points:

  * Austin's already been a vacation home of sorts for Bay Area folks with SXSW, so there's that familiarity.

  * Austin's cost of living is less than Seattle's even now, let alone back when the migration was more of a trickle (https://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/austin-tx/seattle-...). Same is true when comparing Miami (https://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/miami-fl/seattle-w...).

  * A distillation of learnings from the US Census contains a few other fun tidbits: https://apnews.com/article/texas-business-census-2020-scienc...

• by onecommentman on 10/19/21, 3:22 AM

  California was uberhip in the 1960s to 1990s. You didn’t need to ask why people moved to CA…it was self-obvious. It was the default choice. American culture from 1960 to 1990 was California culture. California was the hip place to be.

  The PNW took that crown away in 1990. Which was natural. The hipness crown only stays in a place for 25-30 years. PNW became the default hip choice for the 1990-2010 generation.

  It is 2021. The fans of Nirvana are 50+ at this point. Microsoft is just another Big Corp. It’s just not that hip, which feels worse than it is because it was so hip for so long. But it’s just the Zeitgeist. As it was for California.

  That’s my take…worth what you paid for it.

• by troydavis on 10/18/21, 12:37 PM

  It is a popular destination: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/us/where-californians-are...

  Texas includes multiple large metros, and arguably Arizona does too (Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa). For having essentially only 1 large metro area, Washington ranks quite high:

  > Texas (82,235 people in Texas had moved from California in the last year)

  > Arizona (59,713)

  > Nevada (47,322)

  > Washington (46,791)

  > Oregon (37,927)

• by enonevets on 10/19/21, 1:33 AM

  Among my friends (so extremely small sample size), most prefer warm weather (which is why Austin and Miami seems to be more popular). They wouldn't even consider the Pacific NW because of rain. That's before we even get to cost of living (which for Seattle metro is more expensive than Austin and Miami).

• by cosmic_shame on 10/18/21, 12:15 PM

  Comparatively bad weather and it's already expensive.