Why the Seattle Freeze happens
Tags: Seattle Freeze, Culture, City Living, Seattle, Sociology

THE REASONS

Seattle attracts and retains a certain type of person: I knew many people before they moved to Seattle and have since met many who live here. From this crew, the ones that are in it for the long haul broadly fall into one of three categories:

Socializing it not a priority: “I came here for the vibrant social scene,” said no one about Seattle. Ever. Not a single person I have met came to Seattle for the social / night life, so the people coming here are already those who prioritize careers or other things over making friends.

Introverted: Many, many people who have come and stayed here are self-identified introverts and homebodies (all second opinions from friends and families re-affirm that). If you’re unsure that you’re talking to one, listen for any remark about how they like the “chill” vibe of the city — a term synonymous with not going out. This is not the California chill where everything goes, it’s not the LatAm chill where social and family life trumps work, it’s the chill where I get the f*ck away from people as soon as I can and there’s no judgement for it.

Outdoorsy: Seattle is literally one of the best cities in the world to have a full-fledged career and yet be just a couple of hours away from stunning natural beauty, and it attracts people who like that. You’ve met them — from the hiking fiend to the bouldering beast. These are either people who were always outdoorsy or are in the pine-sniffing (i.e. outdoorsy) phase of life. Outdoorsy people are not city people, so they often don’t stick around during the weekend to kick back some shots.

The outdoors pulls us away: The outdoors are abso-fucking-lutely amazing, no questions. I mean wow — we are just a couple of hours away from the most beautiful slopes, hikes, camping, and more. But this gorgeous outdoors pulls people away to nature rather than throw them together. So, every weekend, we lose budding friends to hikes, camping trips, and ski days, and those relationships flounder.

Just small enough to not have a lot going on: Seattle’s stiflingly small entertainment, social, and nightlife scene make it difficult to find things around which to plan gatherings. Most weekends you’ll struggle to find one event that gets you excited, and finding one that gets more than 3 people excited is going to be damn near impossible. Eventually people opt for other, non-social options.

Just big enough to be impersonal: Seattle is not a large city, but unfortunately it’s large enough that the small-town atmosphere has eroded. While in most small towns neighbors know each other, and if someone new or unknown shows up, they want to know who that is (for good and for bad). But Seattle neighbors don’t share that trait, in this arena their proclivity is aligned with the large cities — from townhouses to walk ups and apartment buildings, neighbors don’t care to know who lives next to them.

Large number of techie / engineering folk: I am going to get so much shit for this, but here goes: because Seattle has a lot of engineers, it also has a lot of people who are not social. On average, the kids who picked engineering in undergrad were not social, and the ones who were came out on the other side of 4 years of engineering socially stunted. So, our city is flooded by a type of employee / degree holder who either does not care to connect with people, or is unable to (again, this is on average).

Transplants don’t really help the situation: Now to self-implicate. Transplants are great for many communities — they bring new ideas, new energy, and extra drive. But, highly mobile transplants have some cons. I am talking about the type of person that will up and leave the city in 2–3 years. These people are not around long enough to want to plant deep roots and contribute to a sense of community[2]. They are not joining PTAs, creating bowling leagues, or helping organize neighborhood kids’ theater. And when a large percentage of the city’s population is so mobile, the burden for creating community lies heavily on the shoulders of a few, who understandably cannot cope. Hence, Seattle is left with an underdeveloped communal infrastructure and sense.

The freezees become the freezers (horrible way to phrase the point, but I decided to roll with it): The most insidious and disheartening part about the freeze is how all newcomers begin to freeze others out. Over two years many of my very social friends and I gave up on meeting people and shut ourselves in. Sadly, this is going to only perpetuate the cycle.

The reasons this happens are: