[cossatot]

I moved here a year ago and have found it to be extremely welcoming. But I'm in science, not tech qua tech. I have made most of my new friends through outdoors, particularly whitewater kayaking. The whitewater community here is vibrant and much preferable to other whitewater hotspots because there are few lifestyle/dudebro boaters and lots of people have interesting jobs or other hobbies and are smart and conversant. I'm also married which is better--I definitely wouldn't want to date here, although there seem to be a lot of girls in science and the outdoors.

I will have to say, though, that as much as I love it here, I definitely don't see it as a particularly soulful city. But I'm from the Ozarks, which while not really diverse still has a lot of music and art. Especially the music: People literally sit on their porches playing music, and you can come up and join them, chat them up, whatever. The boundary between music producer and consumer in the Ozarks/South is a wide spectrum with most people somewhere on it, instead of it being a hard line with most squarely on the consumer side (as in Seattle, supposedly a musical place).

But there are still fun, artsy and 'gritty' events in Seattle. The Fremont Soltice festival/ naked bike ride was super fun to ride in. The Deadbaby Downhill in Georgetown was crazy. But no one will mistake it for New Orleans...

[jskonhovd]

I don't think it's far to compare any city to New Orleans. I think everyone from the South is a little bit jealous of the culture of New Orleans. It's just a amazing place.