Same in Seattle. I walk around my neighborhood, get coffee, talk to people working in their gardens, pet friendly cats, it’s quiet at night, I go to Jazz Alley, then walk home around Lake Union. My friends from rural Washington ask me how I can stand to live in Seattle. They literally try to convince me that I’m wrong to believe it isn’t a hellhole. Of course, they turn me down when I suggest they come visit. Come to think of it, when I suggest a roadtrip to Portland, some of my Seattle friends look at me in horror too. It’s surreal—even intelligent people prefer to believe what they see in the news and on social media to their lived experience.