I remember when Steve and I went to Salt Lake to visit some friends. We were struck by the difference in style of interacting with people, the lack of social graces, the constant use of a loud "What?" in response to a request (order, question, etc.) To the outsider this all appears to be in the realm of rude yet over time--a couple of days, one realizes that it's the culture, it's part of the experience of being in SLC.
Our friends told us the worst thing about SLC was the service in restaurants. The food--as good as the Bay, but the service.... Buck said he wanted to open a restaurant with OK food but stellar service--he was convinced there was a market of hungry people who wanted the experience of a being treated in a manner consistent with, for lack of a better way to put it, "We're here together, let me make you as comfortable as possible for the next two hours."
Seattle has its own sort of mode of being. Yesterday something seem to click in my head. There is a lack of attunement, there is a lack of awareness and most dominantly there is no will to recognize the consequences of this. There are sparks of hope--people who in the face of everything "NO", when the opportunity is openned up safely are in their quiet way have a deep desire to "go", to make it what it can be. There are others most comfortable in how it is--leverage it--enjoy it. Yet the mass majority, I wonder. San Fran has angst...constant meandaring through one's head of left and right issues. New York has an edge. Seattle has...not fully identified yet.