* World-class rock climbing, mountaineering, and hiking less than an hour's drive from downtown

* I moved here from Canada, the weather really isn't that bad; it's been a beautiful spring here while all my Canadian friends are still dealing with snow

* Seattle has a huge number of sakura and so the city has beautiful pink cherry blossom clouds everywhere for the entire month of April

* The entire environment is so incredibly lush & green; it's called the Emerald City for a reason!

* The food is quite good, actually

It's funny that the thing you think Seattle has going for it - low taxes - directly contributes to the issue of homelessness and half of your complaints.

> The only thing I see that Seattle has going for it is low taxes.

The Seattle City Council is tirelessly working to fix that.

I'm a native New Yorker with all the chauvinism that comes with it, but I didn't find Seattle that bad! The weather is no worse than New York's brutal humidity in the summer. The food isn't that bad. Sure the Asian food is thoroughly mediocre compared to New York's, but that's mostly cause New York has great Asian food. The seafood is wonderful too. Service wasn't that bad either—I suspect that's very subjective. Sure, Seattle does shut down at night but how many cities realistically have an all night culture? Even New York's "city that never sleeps" is super exaggerated. There's only a handful of places that stay open past 2-3 am (Gammeeok, Veselka, Coppelia, Great NY Noodletown, Wonjo if you want a few). The homeless does seem to be a problem, albeit I'd say the homeless in Seattle are a little less grungy (heh) then New York's.

> Where NYC is a city that doesn't sleep, Seattle sleeps

Are there any other US cities that don't sleep?

God yes, I left there for my hometown a year ago and it's so much better. I have sunlight again, I live in a 3-bedroom house in the middle of town that I pay 2/3 of what I paid for a decaying 2br in the U, there's all kinds of colorful wildlife around, there's a thriving arts scene because people who are not making big IT money can actually afford to live there. And homelessness is much more under control, Seattle was insane on that front.

I miss legal weed, but I sure don't miss much of anything else in Seattle.

Yep. It's totally terrible. Possibly even the worst. Don't move there- and if you are there, please leave!