Apart from transit, I’d urge you to take weather seriously. I lived near Seattle for two years, and going without sunlight for months at a time drained me.
This is a big problem for me. I think that if we move near Seattle, there’s something like a 40% chance I’ll just completely bail after the first or second year and be like “well, I guess this life plan isn’t for me after all”. But I’ve sort of been keeping quiet about it ’cause as far as I know I’m the only one who’s part of the move and has severe SAD. Didn’t want to make considerations even more complicated just for my sake. But if people regularly move to Seattle and then develop significant SAD symptoms, that seems really important to know.
Purely for completeness, I’ll go ahead and represent the opposite preference: I am noticeably energized by overcast days, and I enjoy rain. Long, unbroken sequences of sunny days feel oppressive to me. I think my ideal week would be overcast 4 days, medium-light rain 2 of those days, and sunny on the remaining 3 days for evaporation & variety.
Of course, I realize that pluviophiles are a small minority, so any community/subcultural hub in a chronically cloudy place will suffer an excess SAD burden.
And it’s not just the number of overcast days that is a problem. Bellingham is very far north—enough so you get significant swings in day length between summer and winter—that is great in the summer, it is still broad daylight out at 11pm at night—but winter days are really short. Sunset is around 4:30, or earlier, from mid-Nov to mid-Jan. The sun has gone down before you get off work. Here is a link to sunrise-sunset data for Bellingham https://sunrise-sunset.org/us/bellingham-wa/2020/10.
I think I like rain and overcast days (though I’ve never lived in a place like Seattle or London, so maybe I’m underestimating how annoying I’d find it).
Separately, I suspect that my productivity takes a dive when there are fewer daylight hours: my brain wants to say ‘the day is over’ when the sun starts setting, which is not ideal if that’s at 5pm.
Sunlight changes my mood pretty significantly, and I’d definitely be sad to move to Seattle for this reason. Though it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me.
Same for me. Good weather in the Bay is quite good, and I would probably be willing to 2x my rent to have Bay weather in most places. This more than eliminates any rent advantages of basically any non-Bay location for me.
Yeah. I think I’d currently also be willing to 2x my current rent to be able to sustain this level of weather relative to e.g. Manchester (where I grew up).
This is a big problem for me. I think that if we move near Seattle, there’s something like a 40% chance I’ll just completely bail after the first or second year and be like “well, I guess this life plan isn’t for me after all”. But I’ve sort of been keeping quiet about it ’cause as far as I know I’m the only one who’s part of the move and has severe SAD. Didn’t want to make considerations even more complicated just for my sake. But if people regularly move to Seattle and then develop significant SAD symptoms, that seems really important to know.
Purely for completeness, I’ll go ahead and represent the opposite preference: I am noticeably energized by overcast days, and I enjoy rain. Long, unbroken sequences of sunny days feel oppressive to me. I think my ideal week would be overcast 4 days, medium-light rain 2 of those days, and sunny on the remaining 3 days for evaporation & variety.
Of course, I realize that pluviophiles are a small minority, so any community/subcultural hub in a chronically cloudy place will suffer an excess SAD burden.
And it’s not just the number of overcast days that is a problem. Bellingham is very far north—enough so you get significant swings in day length between summer and winter—that is great in the summer, it is still broad daylight out at 11pm at night—but winter days are really short. Sunset is around 4:30, or earlier, from mid-Nov to mid-Jan. The sun has gone down before you get off work. Here is a link to sunrise-sunset data for Bellingham https://sunrise-sunset.org/us/bellingham-wa/2020/10.
I think I like rain and overcast days (though I’ve never lived in a place like Seattle or London, so maybe I’m underestimating how annoying I’d find it).
Separately, I suspect that my productivity takes a dive when there are fewer daylight hours: my brain wants to say ‘the day is over’ when the sun starts setting, which is not ideal if that’s at 5pm.
Sunlight changes my mood pretty significantly, and I’d definitely be sad to move to Seattle for this reason. Though it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me.
Same for me. Good weather in the Bay is quite good, and I would probably be willing to 2x my rent to have Bay weather in most places. This more than eliminates any rent advantages of basically any non-Bay location for me.
Yeah. I think I’d currently also be willing to 2x my current rent to be able to sustain this level of weather relative to e.g. Manchester (where I grew up).