My experience in Seattle compared to Los Angeles

I just recently visited the city again for President's day weekend after 7 years. It's such a unique experience seeing as how my last memory of the city was pre-pandemic. Here were my general observations during my trip:

  • This is more of a commentary on the state of our global economy, but on our departing flight from LAX our terminal was completely dead/empty. Our flight to Seattle was half empty which was nice because we had the row to ourselves. But this was very surprising for a 3 day weekend.
  • Aside from the poorly timed maintenance of the Light Rail, the public transportation system was and is still super reliable. We were able to travel throughout the city from Pioneer Square, to Down Town, to the Space Needle, and even Brewery Hopping in Ballard. The trains and busses were also a lot cleaner than what we're used to (smells of pee and weed).
  • We stayed in Pioneer Square and the amount of fear-mongering posts on this subreddit is a bit much. Yes there are definitely displaced individuals, but for the most part it's a safe area if you are aware of your surroundings.
  • I may be going to wrong parts of the city at night, but the night life seemed dead. I revisited Flatstick Pub and it was dead. When I last went years ago, it was packed on a Sunday night. This time around we only had maybe 10 or so people in the place.
  • Pike Place is still busy with tourists and locals. This place feels exactly the same since the last time i've been.
  • Didn't have an issue with it, but Police presence feels like it has increased in areas with high foot traffic. There were quite a few stationed throughout Pike Place and around public transport. The one's I encountered were pretty polite, I saw them politely ask a drunk displaced person to exit the train with no issues.
  • So many options for museums, we don't think we would have even be able to see everything if we had a month's time.
  • The coffee scene is immaculate. There's definitely good coffee in Los Angeles, but you need to kind of look for spots, whereas I would argue the floor of the quality of Seattle coffee is very high.

Overall we had a great time in Seattle. Will see you again in a few years.

Edit: Grammer and Wording