Native New Yorker who grew up in Manhattan. Currently live in Chicago. Visited Seattle recently and was really impressed by how friendly and nice I found everyone. I’ve seen Seattle get some hate on Reddit but I didn’t feel like it was justified at all in my experience. People were generally quite polite, especially in customer service positions. Cashiers were more respectful. One big difference I did notice was that people were noticeably less direct than Chicago or NYC but I didn’t mind that too much. Being from NYC, I don’t find Chicagoans much different than NYers. Both tend to be pretty direct and straightforward. The only difference I see between the two is that NYers are friendlier and warmer but less polite, and Chicagoans are more polite but somewhat less friendly and a bit colder. Neither is bad, just different.
But the biggest thing that was a shock for me is that your drivers actually stop for pedestrians! Mind blowing! In Chicago, especially, this is a huge issue. Drivers in Chicago regularly will cut off pedestrians in crosswalks. Oftentimes you’ll be in the middle of a crosswalk and like 10 cars on either side will just keep going and strand you in the center. Me and my friends have also had instances where drivers will lay on their horns at pedestrians and then fly through the crosswalk, missing the pedestrian by like 6 inches. The worst I’ve experienced is a driver in Chicago once rolled down their window while I was in a crosswalk and screamed at me to “pick up the fucking pace, bitch” and then tore around me almost hitting me. Even if you stare at drivers in Chicago, they usually will not stop. Often times they just speed up instead. I’ve even had multiple instances where I’ll make eye contact with a driver and as soon as I actually step in front of their car, they floor it. In Seattle it seemed like drivers came to halt if I so much as seemed like I might go.
submitted by /u/Visual-Horror6013
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