I Am Finally Leaving Reno | Why I Chose Seattle
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- In July, I am going to move from Reno to Seattle, so for this video, I want to discuss how I wound up in Reno and why I would rather live in Seattle.
Sources:
Yes, the Tesla thing is real:
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WalkScore:
www.walkscore....
www.walkscore....
Seattle’s rate of car ownership saw the biggest drop among big U.S. cities - by far:
www.seattletim...
No Right Turn on Red Default in Seattle:
www.theurbanis...
Congratulations on making the move. It's definitely the right choice.
Reno is a place that is beyond hope in the forseeable future, and it's more valuable to have a committed urbanist like yourself promoting great projects in Seattle, eather than mediocre projects that will rarely get completed in Reno.
I'm looking forward to your experiences in Seattle! 👍
Leave north America !
Reno video in the near future?
Reno will make you or break you. It broke you.
Most people who come from a big city, Denver, to a small town think it sucks.
It's why I'm moving back to reno. Big cities are full of rude, obnoxious people. And no one knows how to drive.
You're such an elitest.
When you guys say a place is beyond hope, are you specifically talking about walkability and nothing else? Seattle has miserable weather, generally not well liked people, and not the same access to the outdoors like Reno. Is biking in 200 days of rain really that much better than the inconvenience of a car with 300 days of sun?
Congrats! Looking forward to videos on Seattle. We can definitely relate to wanting to live in a place with like-minded people that feels like it's at least going in the right direction.
Welcome to the city when you get here. Different city, different challenges, but the transit is certainly better. I moved back from Taiwan a bit over a year ago and I haven't really needed a car for anything. When I do, a car sharing service works just fine. Voting is super easy and the Seattle Channel here on youtube shows a lot of the stuff the city is doing. Best of luck when you get here, hombre.
The Seattle Channel is on UA-cam? Good to know, I don't have cable.
I could never live in a such unsafe and woke city tbh. Seattle isn’t as good as it used to be
@@grandhomme4183 Same bro, it's a shame
@@grandhomme4183 Is it really as woke as you think? Some of the national media portrayals are exaggerated and misleading.
@@grandhomme4183 I hope you dont mind me asking but do you mind sharing the city you live in?
The reason I ask is because I have lived in many US cities and from my limited experience pretty much every city has crime and is left-leaning.
In other words I would be very fascinated to learn which city you chose and in what concrete clear ways it has less crime and is less"woke".
Thanks and I hope to hear back from you.
As someone who moved to Seattle from a sunny state, I love it but make sure to take care of yourself over the winter. The gloominess can really wear you down.
I'd rather shoot myself than live in Seattle for that exact reason. The weather is merciless.
im trying to move to the PNW BECAUSE of the gloominess. I am done with the sun. I need clouds and rain
Moved to the PNW from Florida and it took a few years to adapt to the cloudy dreary winters. I quite like it now
It’s not even like it snows either because Seattle borders on a cloudy Atlantic Mediterranean climate
We all grow to love the rain in Cascadia
I moved from car-centric suburban Ottawa to Montreal last year and I find it difficult to even describe how much better things are for me. I don't own a car, so just existing in public outside of one felt like I was a burden and unwelcome in Ottawa, whereas I feel genuinely welcome in Montreal. Here's hoping you have the same experience with your move
I had a similar experience when I relocated from London, Ontario to Toronto. Often, we can't rely on waiting for issues that may never be adequately addressed. Urban planning plays a crucial role in shaping cities and ensuring a more welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone.
Ottawa is so controlled by its suburbs it’s awful. They complain that places like ByWard Market has too little parking.
I move from Ottawa to Montréal 7 years then I needed better so I moved to Copenhagen and then Malmö next I think is Nederland's. Montréal still has way to much space for cars I figured to be happy with Montréal infrastructure I would have to wait till I am 85 years old. I don't wait say Montréal is good for north America anymore. We should all compare the world :)
Ottawa was doomed from poor decision making in the 80s when it was decided that hoards of busses were the answer versus light rail. It may have made sense financially at the time, but look at where we are now. A failed light rail implementation that barely works during good weather and seizes up in winter.
@@whapabab4340 Amalgamating with the suburbs was a bad idea in retrospect. The suburbs are all like Bane to the city: "Do you feel in charge?"
Yes!! Move!! I hate the attitude that some people have that urbanists should fight to make where ever they are from or happen to be better. Life is too short and our individual voices are too small to make enough change in many places. Better to go somewhere interested in the change you want and work towards accelerating it. Moving somewhere more alinged with my values was the best decesion ive ever made
That's what destroyed Seattle more than anything else. We used to have a functioning city council and a city that was more or less high-end backwater and we liked it. But, as a city, no matter what we do, there's only so much that can be done with people that come here. The city is blocked in on 2 sides, with one of those sides having only ferry traffic and the other having 2 bridges to cover the traffic. Within the city, there are tones of ravines and steep hills that make development a challenge and roads oftentimes have to be laid out to suit the topography rather than the needs of the residents.
It's been decades of people moving here and bringing with them dysfunction and trying to make us a "world-class" city, when I don't think anybody who was living here before the mid '90s wanted that. Not every city needs to be world class and the resulting changes have mostly destroyed the livability, not to mention that the city has nearly doubled since 1980, but the space to build hasn't kept pace and there's limited ability for the city to grow outward due to the bodies of water on two sides.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade Many cities in the world are constrained by water and/or other natural resources and/or political factors and yet they are still able to grow and build housing for their population although of course it could always be better. New York, Boston, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Amsterdam. Just need to build more smartly and densely.
Not to be rude but a lot of the rest of your comment is hard to understand what you are upset about and you dont really specify whats changed since the 90s that has made it less "liveable".
Without guessing what your specific complaints are the only thing I can say is the city of Seattle never entered into a countract with you saying things would never change and the city would never grow. Pretty much every major metro area with a vibrant growing economy worldwide is grappling with housing affordability issues. Some are tackling this better than others.
@@concernedcitizen6572 Which one of those cities doubled in size over the course of one generation, in large part due to people coming into the region with large amounts of money and no particular consideration for making the necessary changes to accommodate the growth?
Change is one thing, but being in a city where the growth exceeds a certain limit combined with NIMBYs gets to be a massive problem pretty quickly.
Not to mention that the SDOT head is on record as saying that it's not his job to make traffic safe and efficient, it's to force people out of their cars.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade I dont doubt that Seattle has had a faster growth rate than any of the cities I listed. I dont have an argument there but I dont think it changes any of my original points at all.
To alleviate upward price pressures on housing you have to either lower demand or increase supply. You are never going to have the power to outright keep new residents out of a city/town/community so lowering demand for housing is basically out of the question. So the best thing you can do is build more housing. Of course with overly restrictive zoning and restrictions and community hearings and blah blah blah this can def be an agonizingly slow process.
@@concernedcitizen6572 Sometimes there is “frontier” mentality on an “island” - an Easter Island mentality.
If you ever decide to leave Seattle again, you are very welcome in my city (Frankfurt) 🤝🏻
Seattle is terrible and I was born and raised there. It's gotten progressively worse over time and I see no reason to have any optimism that sanity is going to return. We used to have local government that functioned reasonably well, but those days are gone. We can't even address the homeless crisis or retail theft in any sort of sensible way.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade I spent some time there myself. Horrible place. I would never recommend living there.
You'll enjoy it! Make the most of it. I moved from Manassas VA which looks pretty darn similar to these Reno B-roll shots, but more trees- to Chicago. I walk everywhere for everything. I ride my bike daily and take the metro occasionally. Im sick of the wind but its MUCH better than living in a dystopia where you feel completely neglected and out of place. Looking forward to the eventual seattle videos!
Chicago, Philly, and NJ by Philly/NYC are on my watchlists for underrated cities
yeah northern virginia kinda sucks in terms of urbanism except for arlington and alexandria, though fairfax is upzoning around metro stations. Anyways, prince william county sucks hard
Hey I live in Bristow looking to move to a city, how did you adjust to Chicago?
@@applesyrupgaming yuppppp
@@sammymarrco47 had to adjust more socially tbh. public transit and closeness of things felt natural and not overwhelming as you might expect. first day in a city I waved at everyone I walked past LOL ... not used to seeing people outside of a car
3:37 "Rather than viewing transit as a way to absorb predictable commutes..."
This is so true. So many people are going to the same areas anyways if you think about it. The same schools, the same working districts, the same grocery stores, the same parks etc. Yet everyone drives themselves and gets stuck in their own creation of traffic.
"To the same areas" yes, but not necessarily from the same areas. A lot of the traffic is people committing into the city from their rural homes 20+ miles outside of the city. I don't ever see public transportation working for them or families with 3 or more young children.
Actually, 45% of all car trips in the U.S. are 3 miles or less. It’s these journeys that an alternative (walking, biking, transit) can work best. Sure, you can commute by car, but what if you could do your daily errands by a quick walk or bike ride?
@@goldcoin2444And yet freeways are a good solution?
@@goldcoin2444 how many people do you see in Downtown or near your local grocery store that are from a f*** town far enough away that transit would not be able to serve them, considering we literally built the transcontinental railway in the 19th century, it is 2023, and we're having this conversation over microelectric impulses modulating slight currents in wires across continents and oceans?
That's right, not anywhere near enough to overload what roads would be freed after the turbo absorption, and DEFINITELY NOT ANYWHERE CLOSE TO ENOUGH that building out that infrastructure would be a waste, considering we dump national money pit levels of money into roads to have them end up not transporting shit anyways cause CARRAIGES ARE NOT MEANT FOR HIGH VOLUME PREDICTABLE ROUTES, THEY ARE MEANT FOR ARBITRARY, RANDOM POINT TO POINT TRAVEL
I.E. NOT A COMMUTE
@@supercellex4D 20% of the US population still live in rural areas. The grocery store where I worked during high school was the only real one for the next 40 miles to the north. Most of the people that live to the north of me don't live in towns but on land that their family settled on in the 1800s. They drive 10-20 miles to the store and 20-30 miles to work daily. Also, public transportation is impractical for families with 3 or more children under the age of 10.
Congrats on the move! I moved from Chicago to Dallas 1 year ago to find better job. But have gotten really frustrated with Dallas's car centric nature and general lack of city vibe. Can't wait to move to Portland or Seattle, which are kinda target destinations, but getting a new job there as a mechanical engineer is not easy given the job market.
Don't trip over the homeless tents.
From what I understand dallas really does have a good transit system (its just really really spread out like my hometown of Jax Fl)
@@FrederickJones-bi1fv Dallas has light rail and buses are not too bad near downtown. But everything is still very spread out and connections aren't great. And I work in a northern suburb just outside Dallas proper, near one of the busiest arterial in the city. So driving is kinda the only option.
@@michaelcap9550 In all seriousness have you found a major metro area in the US where homelessness is not a problem? If so please share we are all ears.
I have not been to every US city BUT every US city I have been to has had major homeless populations / tent cities.
@@concernedcitizen6572 You're absolutely right about the homeless issue. I live in Northwest Florida and there's homelessness there, too.
I'm so happy for you! Outside of a few blocks downtown, Reno is a wasteland and it's going to stay that way for a really long time. No matter where I am in the world, thinking about all the people needlessly driving back and forth tens of miles in Reno, makes me angry. It's a colossal waste of our resources that went into actively making a place horrendous.
1:07 "I don't want anyone getting the impression that I have given up on the city. Giving up requires having faith in something in the first place." Savage.
@@zherkezhi it's not the 15 minute cities commie hell hole they're dreaming of. Seattle on the other hand....welcome home, commies!
This video almost exactly encapsulates why we are moving from Bellevue to Seattle, after living in Bellevue for 6 years. Seattle has everything I have ever longed for my entire life growing up in car-dependent suburbs, and I didn't understand that until going down the urbanism rabbit hole last year. I feel similarly toward Bellevue as you do towards Reno. Perhaps I'll send this video to city council when we move. See you soon in Seattle!
Is this Lara G?
Heyy welcome to the city! As somebody who lives in Lower Queen Anne Seattle I can tell you, you will love it here in comparison to Reno. It's by no means a perfect city and has a lot of its own problems regarding a car-free lifestyle, but I have been living car-free for a year and do not miss my car one bit. I can't wait to watch your content regarding Seattle and see what you like and dislike about the city!
I've never had a car and I've lived in Seattle for for 34 years, and in Bellevue (suburb) for 10 years before that. It's definitely doable, even if you're limited on where you can live and work conveniently.
When you get here, please do a video comparing the east side (Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond) to the Seattle proper. Despite being just a few miles away, they have drastically different urbanist philosophies
Ballard walking is not the best, and it's pronounced like the name AL, bALard. Cap Hill, Queen Anne, and Fremont are my common choices. Cars act differently in different districts, it's weird.
Most places around downtown are a 15 minute city, it's great!
I'm so glad you are moving to my city!
I couldn't disagree more! It's amazing to walk around Ballard. It's actually my favorite neighborhood to walk around. We have lots of stop signs and narrow traffic circles that slow down drivers, and drivers stop when I'm not even at the crosswalk yet. It's amazing! I can't imagine living in Queen Anne and walking home 🤨 unless you like hikes 🧗
Glad you pointed out the pronunciation, I heard it and RAN to the comments 😭
ngl, I kinda like the ball-erd pronunciation.
That's interesting. While Seattle is obviously going to be miles better than Reno, I've never thought of it as a super walkable city. It has a lot of very wide roads between buildings and outside of the neighborhoods near downtown, it turns into mostly single family homes, that said, maybe the public transit makes up for it, and maybe it's a good biking city. I would've probably moved to Philadelphia or Chicago. I mean ideally I would move to NYC but I know that's not possible for many people due to how expensive it is. With that said, I'm looking forward to seeing an urbanist's perspective on living in Seattle.
The single-family mindset is one reason that Seattle lost its lustre for me. That said, they are now finally allowing accessory units and duplexes and quads to be built in “single family” zones. Plus, whatever its faults, Seattle is still easier to get around by bike or transit than is Reno.
As soon as you get north of the university district area, it becomes very suburban feeling really quick too when I stayed near Northgate station
Seattle's "urban village" development model is a travesty. I'm crossing my fingers it will get replaced with a broad upzoning model in the next comp plan next year, but recent leaks seem like it might not despite lots of public feedback requesting it. At least the stepped in no require 4 units on all lots and two detached ADUs (current city law allows only 1 detached and 1 attached)
Seattle's streets aren't super-narrow but they're narrower than 85% of the country. The six-lane Aurora highway is unusual, but I've been in Sunbelt cities that had those every mile.
Seattle is not perfect, but compare to other U.S. cities, it is pretty good already. It's the entire U.S. sucks in transit and walkability. In Canada, a lot of smaller Metro areas like Vancouver (2.5 million), Montreal (4 million) and Calgary (1.25 million) have a lot better transit and walkability than big U.S. Metros like Dallas (7 million), Atlanta and Miami (both 6 million)
I greatly enjoyed Reno when I lived there, even as someone that is pro-urbanist (Granted I did have a car). So it sucks to hear that Reno failed you by not offering an effective car-free alternative like every decent sized city should. I hope Seattle works out much better for you and elevates your quality of life as a car-free urbanist.
I recently moved to Denver ironically and even just having the light rail option has done wonders for me. Good luck!
Funny how different all of our experiences are. Some folks complain about Silicon Valley being built very car centric but it was the most walkable place I ever lived lol, they had light rail and train. Now I live in TN and it’s ACTUALLY impossible to live without one, not difficult
Welcome! The car-dependant locals here in Seattle will complain about our transit system, but those that have given it a real shot can certainly trust it'll get us around without issue. Honestly, using transit here is just about on par with some of America's best transit like NYC and Atlanta's Marta system (in my experience), the only thing holding us back is that we're not as big of a city.
Since moving here from car dependant So Cal, I've met so many people that don't have cars and people who bike to work. The only problem with using bikes here is that bike theft is pretty prevalent, so anytime you leave a bike locked up in a publicly accessible place, it's at risk even with a good lock or 3.
We live in North Seattle, which can be described as matching all the criteria of a streetcar suburb that NotJustBikes talks about. We downsized down to 1 car when moving here, and usually only need it for groceries, trips outside the city, or roadtrips. If we lived closer to downtown, we could go completely car-free.
San Francisco is an even smaller city, but far too dense. The city is historically transit-oriented and the bike infrastructure is decent. Much better than the bare minimum crap we've got in NW Florida.
I think another advantage to living in seattle is that it would be a lot easier to actually make some more improvements to the city's urban planning. Maybe you could make some videos about stuff like getting involved with the local city government to improve the city.
I lived in Reno briefly to live with my partner at the time. It was really stressful getting home from work late at night. Luckily I lived in downtown reno, and my work was on the virginia line so I was lucky to be able to be close to both my home and my work but it was still a pain living there without a car if I wanted to go anywhere outside downtown.
The problem is that Reno/Sparks is a small single dwelling extropolis, the lack of both centre and density, make transit at useful frequencies very difficult.
The only real destinations are the spread out casinos and people don’t travel between them much. Outside of a small rush hour the traffic is never really that bad and the city must have 4 times as many parking spaces as citizens, so parking is never a difficulty. Therefore transit for most journeys is always going to struggle to be a better alternative, when driving is so easy.
It would be a difficult to design a more car oriented city than Reno/Sparks.
The reason why driving is so easy and faster is because lobbyists and politicians spent billions of dollars to make it that way, while public transit projects remain underfunded. And that why we have car dependency and too much traffic.
Huge congrats on leaving Reno. It’s really unfortunate that that is the only way to escape car centric cities. My hometown was the same and it was considered dangerous to walk places even more so biking places. The city I live in now is really cracking down on including bike lanes which is great but there’s still a long way to go until cars are no longer people’s primary way to travel. I’ve been biking as much as possible to encourage others that see me on the road to do the same. But it’s difficult when drivers consider you a pest on the road essentially. But I won’t let that stop me, hoping car centric cities are something we see die down over time.
People like you could make a big difference for Reno but you can't do it by yourself. Thanks for trying. You've gotta do what you've gotta do. Best of luck to you in your new life in Seattle.
I used to live in Reno and I had my car stolen while I was there and I was not able to get another one. I remember what it was like trying to get around without a car. There were lots of places that were inaccessible without a car and I can see that hasn't changed a whole lot. I like Reno's climate, Setting and especially its location. Reno is within a day's travel of just about everybody I would like to be able to get to, which Salt Lake City area is not. I have made a decision that I would like to be car light from here on and save use of the car for road trips. Reno is not compatible for that.
As someone who lives in the Seattle area, it's not perfect, especially as you get farther from downtown. But I can confirm it's much more possible to live without a car here. Welcome!
East/west can be a bit tricky sometimes, but it's pretty solid still. The biggest issue for me as a woman is actually downtown...some of the lightrail/bus stops are pretty sketch. I avoid it whenever possible. Generally the people there (and throughout the city) are chill and minding their own business, but occasionally I'll get weird vibes and need to get somewhere else quickly. But Northgate to UW are always fine and the others are generally OK when it's busy, they just may not be very clean and will have encampments around them.
I did a visit to Seattle, stayed at 5 star hotel. Afraid to leave the place
because of the homelessness. It was bad everyplace I went. No
thanks, you can have it.
After my car was totaled in a crash, I didn't have the money to replace it. To be honest, I couldn't afford the car in the first place - I bought it from my family for $1 and never even gave it so much as basic maintenance. I started taking the bus to work, but there were multiple occasions where I couldn't take the bus home because they didn't run long enough. It's always "fun" knowing that if a single thing happened outside of my control I'd be spending the night walking home instead of sleeping, and getting home just barely in time to take the bus back to work
I commute by bike now, and riding my bike I'm able to see just how many people are in the same situation I was in, just one unforeseen circumstance away from seeing exactly how my city's bus system fails the people it's supposed to serve. It's still amazing how many people I see driving cars that are clearly multiple years overdue to see a mechanic. In my experience, most people who have cars can't afford them. If buses are for the poor and desperate, cars serve primarily to make people poor and desperate; by draining people's bank accounts and taking away basic consideration for anyone who doesn't drive
You have a good point there. I drive buses for public transit and I see people driving in near bald tires, trouble lights, broken AC, non-working headlights and taillights, etc. That’s a tell-tale sign that people can’t afford a car in the first place, but they desperately need it to get around in a car-centric environment.
Best of luck with the move. I'm currently staying with my grandma in British Columbia, Canada and I can live car-free thanks to the SkyTrain and extensive bus network. I can't comment much on downtown Seattle because I never spent too much time in downtown nor took transit in Seattle, but it would be interesting to hear your experience. Take care and have a great day.
If living car free is your priority go ahead. If you can tolerate open drug use, public defecation, and rampant crime enjoy Seattle, I think it would be better to go back to Denver.
There is no perfect place. Seattle average home price is $850K vs Reno $500K. Rents are vastly different as well. Sunny days/year in Seattle 152 vs Reno 300. While transportation in Seattle might be OK, it ain't no Vancouver, BC, which is far superior. There are pluses and minuses and a lot will depend on you, your attitude, and taking advantage of the things you can appreciate wherever you are.
I live in Cleveland Ohio, and while our cities transit is better than Reno, it's far from ideal. I will continue to live in Cleveland because it's affordable, and I've been a long time commuting cyclist. In 2017 i got an ebike and this has really helped cover more distance more effectively. I would like to live in a better place for car free lifestyle, but the switching costs are too great, and i want to ensure i have enough money and time to enjoy the place i am at and spend time with family and friends. In the USA, our best designed cities are also the most expensive, demanding extra work to be able to live there.
Cleveland is the best - you're lucky to live in a lovely, affordable city
Seattle's activism and urban+activist media is strong, and has been slowly overcoming WA's overall car-centrism. There are also decent coach/train options to reach WA's different centers. Seattle's car-centrism resembles Boston's in its compactness
My family moved from L.A. to Reno in 1975, I finally left in 2023 and moved back to Los Angeles County and glad I left
It's not Reno's fault that you are terrified to drive a car. You might need therapy.
Bummer, I’m in carson city and enjoy the local commentary, good luck
Much of the issues you’re describing is a result of how zoning laws have existed within the United States since the 1940’s.
Bear in mind cites such as Los Angeles was a haven of public transport but as Euclidean zoning took root along with redlining, that’s where you see the issue with unwalkable suburbs, stroads, and mandatory parking minimums.
Was Denver better in terms of public transit? If you lived in the downtown core, yes, but beyond that, absolutely not. I had to take public transit when I was in High School, it took me two hours from the suburb that I lived in, to my school.
The issues that you describe with Reno are endemic to every city within the United States aside from places such as New York or San Francisco.
You bring up a lot of complaints about the lack of public transit yet you don’t talk about the political and economic reasons as to why we’re here nor do you talk of any solutions to this issue.
Have you considered talking about public housing? Land use? Nimbys and yimby’s, institutional racism, capitalism? All of these things are why we have these soulless suburbs now.
You're lucky you can get out. I'm stuck in the DFW, and the sprawl here has been destroying my will for everything for years.
This is going to be great for your channel. There are a lot of things to make videos about here in Seattle- both good and bad.
Welcome to Seattle! It's no secret there are plenty of issues and things to complain about, but as you pointed out in your video, there's also a lot of (often frustratingly slow, but very real) steps in the right direction. I look forward to seeing your content, there's a lot of interesting projects (primarily the light rail expansion) on the horizon over the next 2-5 years.
I'm gonna miss you man since you were the only urbanist creator I know of who focused on my hometown, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Hope everything goes well for you!
oh hey
@@clay_geo yo
I'm glad you can finally leave to a city that actually does accommodate for people not in a car and is continuing to improve. I know you wanted to leave Reno anyways but it is messed up you had to leave in order to live in any comfort or dignity. It's extremely disheartening that there has been little to no progress in the region as it is not possible or reasonable for everyone who cannot drive to leave Reno.
Im so jelous. I live in small town in BC Canada. It is suburbia and it sucks. I wanted to move to the closest big city (Vancouver) but it is so expensive that I just can't afford it. Since "Not Just Bikes" and your channel, I have begun to understand why do I feel so depressed living here. I hop someday I can scape (just like you). Good luck in Seattle man!
I feel ya. I'm privileged enough to be staying with my grandma who lives in Pitt Meadows and has a frequent bus stop right in front of the house. Once you get pass Maple Ridge it becomes car centric with there being a stroad the moment you enter Maple Ridge from Pitt Meadows.
I really enjoy Vancouver. I am lucky and have a good paying job plus I moved in when the pandemic was holding rents down and am now locked in to those rents with rent control. But it really sucks that walkable cities are so artificially scarce on the West Coast and lock so many out. And yes, it is a completely artificial scarcity, because laws that mandate the building of sprawl make it impossible to legally build another Vancouver. The latter is changing, but not nearly fast enough to keep up with housing demand. And what’s worse is then all the people living out in the sprawl because they can’t afford anything else get counted by proponents of sprawl as “see, that’s where people are moving and voting with their feet to live in.”
Great news! I look forward to your impressions of my home town. Your high level assessment of Seattle is pretty accurate and I am interested in hearing your take on some of the improvements the city has made to bicycle infrastructure in the downtown core. I hope you're prepared for the price shock coming from Reno, though. I used to live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and could easily live car free (even though I worked in Redmond), but it's extremely expensive. I now live on the Eastside, which is much more affordable, but it's also much more...suburban. A car is a burdensome necessity. But we're about to get light rail, and there's even a separate bike path I can take to the nearest station!
I moved to Omaha from Denver as well and basically everything you explained in this video is exactly how Omaha cares about their public transportation as well. Everything is so car dominate out here and there are no bike lanes or even sidewalks. I never had a car until I moved to Omaha. Even the airport is next to Downtown Omaha. It's only a few miles away and there is no way from you to get from the airport to Downtown Omaha by bus! It is absolutely insane!
So...they actually do have a bus to the airport but it's clearly for intended for staff who work at the airport shops based on the hours. Some of the students used it when I went to Creighton. Also, whatever happened to the protected lane on Harney? I know they extended it until the streetcar construction started after the protest--thanks to the private donor (ridiculous they needed one in the first place...). But Omaha did have at least 2 miles of protected bike lanes last I was there. Awful, and Stothart keeps threatening it but not quite zero...
As a Coloradoan... I was excited when I learned you were from Denver, hoping you would move back to Colorado and make videos about RTD. I live down in Colorado Springs, I used to Commute to Centennial and downtown to MSU Denver... I would take the E-Line and Bustang. It added so much time to my commute but was better than sitting in I-25 traffic; especially during The Gap construction. I am making the career transition from Aerospace to Urban Planning. I hope soon I can find the time to make videos about urbanism along the Front Range.
But Seattle is cool too. Good luck!
I visited Seattle recently, Seattle and Denver are very similar in terms of transit availability. I was expecting Seattle to be better but I wasn’t able to conclude that at the end. I also visited Pittsburgh and there it’s worse than both. Makes me appreciate the Denver area a bit more than I did before.
@@TimurTripp2 I'm from Pittsburgh originally and it's not that bad if you live in the South Hills. I could walk to a light rail station and be downtown in 15 minutes, or visit a very walkable suburb like Mt. Lebanon where they don't even have school buses because it's so walkable. Ig compared to the sunbelt where I live now, anything is better transportation-wise
Denver and Seattle have a lot of similarities in terms of urbanity, transit, etc. I'd give Seattle the slight edge because they have a slightly larger core, more grade-separated transit, and slightly denser urban nodes outside of the core, but those are relatively small differences. Overall these cities have a lot in common (aside from weather!)
Congratulations dude! A decade ago I left Seattle for a sprawlville a few hours from Chicago (my hometown), thinking I'd be home within a couple years following that. (Didn't happen for a variety of reasons both in and outside of my control). Thankfully I now for all intents and purposes have one foot out the door.
The moment I am 100% settled in a walkable neighborhood in a major metro area, I am never turning back. Car-centric cities are utter soul-sucking dystopias. Good luck dude!
Moving from one bad city to another bad city? Makes sense.
Side note from a Seattleite: No one calls the area north of Belltown and south of Queen Anne "Uptown" except city marketing staff. Everyone calls it "Lower Queen Anne."
Interesting. Clicked on to possibly hear a take on Reno pertaining to MORE than just your preference to "not drive". Wow. If Life were that simple. Really? That's the only thing worth discussing about the pros and cons of living in Reno? I don't think I am hearing anything other than the "car" issue. Guess I will have to find another video on the people, any "cultural positives, demographic changes in the last 40 years, stuff like that. Too bad.
Good, one less person in the population. Blame it all on the state/county/city governments, giving away tax credits to businesses who want to build their companies. This brings in more people for which the cities are not prepared to handle. Their solution to population growth is to build wider roads which is supposed to alleviate traffic. Actually it just brings in yet more people. I just wish more people who leave the Truckee Meadows area. When the Wells Av. Overpass, I knew it was the beginning of the end. I moved out of Reno, but only to a nice neighborhood in Sparks. Seattle would not be my first choice to move to, if any, as my son wanted me to move outside of Portland, but I saw that the precipitation there occurs half of the year and I know Seattle would only be worse. I appreciate all four seasons. I would love to move closer to the edge of the city limits, but since I have gotten on in years, I will stick it out til I am gone. I hope your videos others to move out of Reno...Good luck and please don't come back!
If you can't afford Seattle, I recommend Indianapolis, San Antonio, or Bloomington/Normal. Out of all the transit systems that I've ridden, San Antonio is by far the best. When it comes to the best place to ride your bicycles, Indianapolis was a great experience, way better than DC. Bloomington/Normal was by far the best even though it lacks a good network of bike lanes but the community felt so friendly especially the Normal area.
Happy to discuss this with you as a longtime Seatte resident. Off the top of my head I’d suggest Portland OR. for transportation. West Seatte might be worth a look. Capitol Hill and downtown have lots of crime, drug and homeless issues. Seatte growth is out of control and this means ALL of King County. Rent starts at 2k month. And you better enjoy being wet, waking up in dark and going home after 5 also in the dark. Also the Seatte freeze is real. See all that water? Guess what traffic has to go around that or over it on very limited roads & routes. Seatte voters passed almost every transit referendum but mostly didn’t manage to actually build any of it unless the route goes directly to Microsoft or tech companies. Most Seattle residents are very unhappy with the last decade or two of growth. Homes start at 800. A million buys a fixer. Hate to rain on your parade but most newcomers only last 2-3 years.
Yep. I left after 2.5. It's nearly impossible to lay roots down. The crime and drug problems are dystopian. Bums crapping everywhere. Awful, disgusting place.
This man is definitely fed up with Reno 😅😂, hope America get better some day from his car issue
My hatred towards car depenency in American cities has my blood boiling. Car dependency is so fucking backwards. It looks like the past couple years, there has been a lot of interests from many Americans, especially younger ones, to live less car dependent.
I've been in Reno since 2005. Not many places would be unavailable after 6 pm on our city buses. And honestly. You can EASILY walk from the center of downtown Sparks to downtown Reno. Since you dislike Reno so much I'm thrilled you left. If you didn't already leave I'd surely help your azz move on. Enjoy the rain and heroin in your new town
Welcome to Seattle!! I’ve really enjoyed every video you’ve made, and now I’ll be even more interested since you’ll be showing my city. I moved here for similar reasons, albeit only from Bellevue.
Good for you, getting out of a place that sounds like it was sucking the life out of you.
I too left Reno (Sparks) for Seattle (Kent). Close enough. Love the greenery & mild summers here.
Welcome to Seattle, brother. Just...please dont pronounce ballard that way and we will get along fine.
Seattle is pretty darn good as it goes for North American public transit at least within a radius of downtown. I've taken PT to and from the airport several times when visiting and it was rather painless. But, Seattle is indeed gloomy way more than most people are comfortable with. It will probably be a contrast/adjustment for you coming from Reno.
I found Seattle to be very underwhelming from an Urbanist perspective. It does try with some bike paths and the light rail but it can’t seem to fully kick its auto addiction. It could be great with all that coast line and potential for amazing trees but, it’s very much auto oriented, not much green space, best views and waterfront set aside for mansions or businesses. Basically LA of the north, like really bad traffic getting in and out of the city and yes you will need a car. The wilderness once you escape the Seattle metro area is top notch though.
LA of the North? 🤨 Do you even live here? lol
Yeah lived there for 2 years in lower Queen Anne. How do you not see the similarities with all the traffic and the poor transit network?
He's absolutely right. Do NOT come to Reno. It is absolutely awful here. If you've moved here in the last 5-6 years. It won't get any better. You should just pack up and leave.
Reno overall does better than the other major area to the south, Las Vegas.
Clark County is having a meeting tomorrow to update its General Plan. Sadly much of status quo is being perpetuated
One day i was walking on virginia, and i almost got hit by a car that swerved into the shoulder because there is no sidewalk there. The drivers are reckless in reno. The highway patrol and traffic police are non existant
I went to UNR and now live in Seattle (I can walk to my doctor and stop by the hardware store on the way home!) trust me, you're gonna like it better!
I'm sure you will like it better in many ways but it's outrageously expensive. I find downtown is still a mess since the mass exodus of office workers but it's coming back. Be sure to ask someone local how to pronounce "Ballard".
Congratz on the move! I too had to move from a car-centric place to StL for similar reasons. Hope you enjoy Seattle while you're living there. :]
Putting cars in a tunnel is so so stupid. The problem with cars is the car-not that it’s above ground. With a cars in a tunnel, there are still mostly one rider with more than enough space, weight, and fuel expenditure.
Also, an accident or fire in a tunnel is much more dangerous than above ground, but the Tesla tunnel is lit with pretty purple lights so…
Elon's taxi tunnel seems more like a way to generate "Certified Pre-Owned" Teslas than anythign else.
Hope you make a ton of money, studio apts are over $1700 monthly even renting a room in a home is up to and over $1200 monthly.
You should visit Tokyo. It would be like heaven for you! Good luck in your future move!
Much welcome to you when you come to the PNW!!
Welcome to Seattle! Can’t wait to see the videos you make about living here!
I hope you keep making videos. They are great and cant wait to see how it is in Seattle.
Good, people need to learn vote with their feet. Reno is the way it is because the Renoites like it that way and works for them, but if you don’t, the right call is to move to a place where they have what you want and you will be happy. I wish the NJB guy did more videos encouraging his viewers to move instead of complain. There is a piece of America for everyone.
Yeah with all the Californians moving in Reno is now a horrible place to live thanks Newsom
I feel your pain, especially every time you say "Reno". Moved from Orlando to Baltimore for similar reasons (well, also because Florida).
Welcome! I'm a lifelong resident of south Seattle (aka Tukwila haha), I'm glad to hear you're moving here! There's tons of local activism and ongoing projects, so I'm sure you'll have no end of topics to cover.
It’s important to vote with our feet - though, that isn’t always feasible! Ideally, people leaving one city for another with better services will show cities what people are looking for. It’d be great if Reno would improve on a mobility front, but no one has to stick around to hope it’ll happen. Glad to hear you’ve moved somewhere that’ll do better for you!
Even as someone who loves driving it makes me angry how poorly planned or completely absent other infrastructure is. When I ride my bike I have to ride on sidewalks that often are just dirt paths, even on major roads. I can't take the bus to work because the latest bus is 5pm. All in a city of 200,000 people! We need to do better and provide more options.
Seattle is a great choice if you want to study incompetent road design. We've got some of the least qualified engineers working tirelessly to ensure that nobody gets where they want to go in a timely fashion and inventing new, and illegal, signs and markings just to ensure that people spend all their time looking for traps rather than trying not to run over pedestrians, that are pretty much allowed to cross wherever they like, wearing whatever they like, at any time of the day or night.
Imagine if we took the 40 billion in foreign aid and used it to reinvest into public transportation
Idk why you ddint just move to Midtown Reno smh. So much cool stuff in the city you missing out. I understand where you coming from but you do better good helping people that need it
Welcome to 9-10 months a year of gray sky and none stop rain...enjoy your walking!!
Seattle doesn't have perfect Transit, but between the light rails, S and T lines, 15 minutes busses it's not bad. I'm glad they are building out the light rail to Bellevue and Mount Lake Terrace, and South towards Tacoma
I'm so opposite from you in my outlook on driving, and your channel fascinates me. I love driving, and I love suburbia. It's cool to see people with a different perspective.
I also love driving but I hate commuting by car
@@darthmaul216 There's no joy to be found in a stroad.
I like simracing and driving on windy mountain roads, but sitting in traffic makes me extremely frustrated. I would rather live entirely car free and instead spend money on a full sim rig.
@@nlpnt Driving a stroad on a summer night, with the roof down, is good. All those fancy car showrooms under bright lights to stop and check out.
Liking cars is a curse to an urbanist (me), although I only like small cars (I can hear City Nerd laughing..). I love car free city living, especially in historic neighbourhoods.🇦🇺🏳️🌈
@@JohnFromAccounting I hear you, but I live in Shanghai, which has arguably one of the best mass transit systems in the world, and riding crowded subways definitely doesn't beat sitting in a car.
Welcome to Seattle! We're definitely making good progress. We just earned #3 on People for Bike's large city ratings, I believe for bike-friendly cities and we've won #1 for bus transit networks a number of times. The light rail is...coming a long...slowly, but it's nice if you live along it and need to go to the airport at least. (I do wish it were faster like NYC's...)
Oh, and you may have discovered it by now, but Ballard is "Bal-erd" (the "bal" rhymes with "pal" as in friend and the last part sounds like "heard" without the "h") not "Bahl-ard". :)
Living in Kent, WA, despite walkability, is still unsustainable, rents are still ridiculously high. As in San Francisco (equally walkable) high. And the bus shelters do double duty as homeless shelters. I live here, and am speaking from experience. It's why I drive everywhere, the fentanyl addicts often drape blankets over their heads to concentrate the vapor (I call it "tenting") from smoking the drug. In the outlying areas of Seattle, such as Kent, there's been an ongoing crime spree of perps stealing SUVs or trucks and using them for smash and grab crimes where they would smash them through storefronts and grab everything not bolted down.
Excited to see your new content focused on Seattle! I'm actually moving there too in a month (from Dallas), so we'll be learning how to get around at the same time!
A great decision. I moved to Seattle and have lived a car-light life for first time ever and love it. I liked your videos before, but can't wait for some Seattle content! Looking forward to it
I am now wondering what are the *few* positives Reno even had, even if it's just one tiny downtown street, before your move to Seattle.
That article does not state they're adding No Turn On Red signs to all of downtown - just that all new or modified intersections will have it. Downtown has a lot of construction, so most of the intersections due to be modified this year are downtown. But certainly, as it said in the article, there are only 100ish right now with No Turn on Red and while that will go up to 150 this year, there are well over 1000 intersections in the city of Seattle, so it's unfortunately still a small percentage. I hope we'll get there eventually; right now I see a driver encroaching on the crosswalk at a red light every day while walking in Seattle.
Seattle City Council rejects bill to crack down on drug use despite overwhelming support from residents. Good luck with that. Stay safe!
seattle is incredibly beautiful. love all the nature there
You're going to fit in here. I have a car but I don't use it much here in Seattle. Everything is super walkable and enjoyably so, because as you said it's the scale of things and how they are built. Everything is pretty dense and close together and the transit system is pretty expansive. I choose to ride a bike and do so all year. I haven't driven to work in like 7 years.
I am happy for your move and can't wait for your next video. We urbanists definitely want to fix our places where we grew up but at some point... It becomes very futile. You have to try and experiment with what tools you have but Reno/Carson City region is just... Well, that's why you left and that's why NotJustBikes left Canada.
I hope other people who see this video don't see this as running away from the problem and more of an major exodus for you at this point of your life.
Best wishes and can't wait for you to show us how Seattle treats you.
Been car-free about 6.5 years in Seattle. Had my car the first 4 months while my car lease ticked down... was so happy to be free from it. I live in Capitol Hill and I do not miss having a car. The transit is great (I grew up in a Denver suburb starting in 1980) and is certainly better than anywhere else I have lived. I am lucky enough to have worked from home for the last 26 years, but I ride transit nearly every day. Sometimes just for fun... or to go find a new Starbucks to sit at and work! Looking forward to more Seattle content (just watched the video on austerity motives with ST).
It's too exhausting waiting for places to change, especially the places that drag their feet the most. By moving to better places, at least we have a chance of happiness in our lifetimes.
yes, there's that, and you're voting with your feet, which officials will hopefully notice
You seriously compared Reno/Carson City to Seattle.🤣 Seattle - 3,500,000 population Reno - 275,000 population. Great comparison.
Look at Europe, i doubt you will find a 275k City without public transport and you don't need a big city, for it to be walkable.
My City has 30k, the busses aren't that great but you can get home after 5 p.m. and trains run every hour until midnight, and you can safely walk or ride a bike.
Doesnt change the fact that reno allows for large infrastructures like casinos, which attract people, failed to plan ahead for growing population. Have you seen the civil engineering on the the exit for Oddie north bound? They nearly crash into the people entering the north bound from Sparks. And they paid someone for that 😂 typical reno, they bite off more than they can chew
10:20 Adum, is that you?
I am stuck in Reno, taking my e-bike to work 22 miles round trip. I have people honk at me and yell. I hate the weather here. Summers are basically fire season. It’s a horrible place to live. I want to get out so badly but my interest rate on my house is 2% - and Seattle is so expensive. Are there smaller towns in Washington that are bikeable ?
I'm with you 100% when I lived in reno, the residents were absolutely horrible. I'm going 70 (5 over the limit) and people still pass me and even cut me off and break check me because they think I'm going too slow and it bothers them...
I almost got hit by a car on virginia while walking because there is no sidewalk. I felt like cars were even swerving into the shoulder on purpose to scare me because reno is full of bullies in cars
It's absolutely stupid how that RTC connector only runs 3 times in the morning and at night. I hate it.
I hope you enjoy it a lot more over here! I'm excited to see familiar places featured in your videos. One of the coolest things transit-wise for the greater Seattle area is the ferry system. I'd be awesome to see you cover places like Bremerton and Port Orchard. Places that I'm very familiar with and could use some encouragement on how to be better.