13 things I hate about Seattle

It’s Thursday which means that it, once again, is time for the fabulous and informative Thursday 13 meme. This week we once again return to my reader selected lists. If you’ve been around long enough you will remember that in previous weeks we have learned what not to put in our butts, ways to spot a gay, ways to know you’re gay before you’re 13, restaurants in Seattle to try and things I love about Seattle. This week we’ll be taking a look at things I hate about Seattle.

Haven’t made a Thursday 13 list, don’t know what the hell it means when someone says Happy TT or you’re just bored and need something to do? Head on over to the Thursday 13 meme hub and join in on the fun. It doesn’t take many qualifications to participate in this meme – be able to count to 13 and have a list of things to share with the world. Link back to the meme hub and watch your traffic soar.

So, without further preamble, the much awaited list of 13 things I hate about Seattle:

1. the traffic~ we have the worst traffic I’ve ever experienced right here in Seattle. I’ve been in LA, Dallas and Atlanta rush hours – ours, imho, is worse. The only place that has worse traffic than us is midtown Manhattan, but that’s only because they triple park and block the lanes. It can take hours to go just a few miles and a true Seattlite knows how to get from one side of town to another without ever getting on a highway or freeway.
2. no mass transit yet ~ unbelievably we are still without a true mass transit option in Seattle in 2008. Yes, the bus system is great, but what we need is trains/subways/etc. The light rail will start running from downtown to the airport next year and that’s a start, but we need it in all the neighborhoods and we need it yesterday.
3. no second airport ~ we’re the last large city in the country to not have a second airport. If we had another airport like most major cities, we could alleviate a lot of the traffic and headaches around Sea-Tac.
4. no third runway at Sea-Tac ~ the existing airport needs a third runway to more efficiently move air traffic. With a third runway you could still have two runways operational during severe winter storms, as it is that situation limits us to one runway. We’re all painfully aware that problems in one airport will ricochet across the country causing delays and cancellations across the board.
5. bad roads ~ there are roads in Seattle that rival goat tracks in third world countries. Don’t go to fast down some major streets or you’ll risk losing an axle in a pothole.
6. stupid bikers ~ I’m all for getting people out of their cars and onto their bikes, but come on people you need to follow the rules of the road. I’m sick and tired ofwatching bicyclists run through red lights, ride the wrong way down the street, ride on the sidewalks, etc.
7. the inability to get anything done ~ combine many of the issues already listed and you get the grand result that we can’t get anything accomplished in Seattle. We vote and vote and then vote again on the same issue and then have that decision over turned, changed or just flat out ignored. Monorail anyone?
8. lack of air conditioning ~ when it gets really hot in Seattle during the summer about the only way to ensure that you’ll be in air conditioned comfort is to go to the movies or the mall. Neither of which are terribly appealing to me in most cases. I just wish more restaurants had their a/c blasting during the summer that way I wouldn’t have to sit in my car all day long.
9. removal of turn signals from all cars sold in Seattle ~ it’s a tragedy that no car in Seattle can include a turn signal. It would make driving so much easier if we just had some way to signal to other drivers what our intentions were.
10. the inability of drivers to understand gridlock and it’s results ~ take any busy intersection during rush hour and you’ll almost be guaranteed to find drivers blocking the intersection. It seems that they just don’t understand how that makes the already bad traffic situation worse.
11. tourists at the market ~ geez I understand that it’s historic and all that shit, but come on do you really need to take pictures of the vegetables and fish lined up for sale? It’s my grocery store and I find it just a little bit odd that you want pictures of my groceries before I take them home.
12. Sea Fair ~ this is less annoying to be than it was when we lived in Seward Park and saw thousands of red neck suburbanites descend on our neighborhood, but I still hate that time of year. The worst is the Blue Angels and their practice runs over the city and having to close one of the bridges over the lake for them to waste gas entertaining the yokels.
13. everyone assuming I work for Microsoft ~ when I say that I live in Seattle and work for a software company everyone assumes I mean the big one. Nope, there are other software companies in Seattle believe it or not.

This was actually a difficult list to compile, I love Seattle and almost everything about it.