The Seattle Freeze is, according to widely held belief, a difficulty with making new friends in the American city of Seattle, Washington, particularly for transplants from other areas. A 2005 article in The Seattle Times written by Julia Sommerfeld appears to be the first known use of the term, although the phenomenon was documented during rapid population increases in the early 1920s, World War II, and the 1980s. The phenomenon is sometimes found or associated with Portland, Oregon; Vancouver, Canada; or other cities in the Pacific Northwest as well.
Newcomers to the area have described Seattleites as socioculturally apathetic, standoffish, cold, distant, and distrustful. [1] People from Seattle tend to mainly interact with their particular clique in social settings such as bars and parties. [2] One author described the aversion to strangers as "people [who] are very polite but not particularly friendly", [3] while some residents dispute any existence of the Seattle Freeze altogether. [4] [5]
Speculation of the origin is the reserved personalities of the city's early Nordic and Asian immigrants, [6] [7] the emotional effects of the climate (such as Seasonal Affective Disorder), or the region's history of independent-minded pioneers. [7] [8] [9]
The Seattle Times reported in April 1920: “Seattle people have been accused of being too cold and distant.” [10] The Seattle Daily Times described similar characteristics as early as the 1940s. [11] [12] Seattle experienced an influx of new residents from California beginning in the 1980s, and a 2005 article in The Seattle Times appears to be the first known use of the term. [7] [13]
A 2008 peer-reviewed study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science found that among all 50 states, Washington residents ranked 48th in the personality trait extraversion. [14] In 2014, a report by a local nonprofit organization ranked the population 48th out of 50 similarly sized cities in "talking with neighbors frequently", [15] and 37th for "giving or receiving favors". [16] The rapid growth of Amazon and its accompanying influx of technology workers who could be considered more introverted than other working professionals may have exacerbated the issue. [17] [18] A 2019 nonscientific poll conducted by Seattle-based PEMCO Insurance found that about 40% of the 1,200 respondents in Washington and Oregon said making new friends was not important. [19] In a similar 2022 poll, about two-thirds of residents agreed, at least somewhat, that giving newcomers the "cold shoulder" was a typical trait from those in the Pacific Northwest. [10]
The Seattle Freeze was discussed in relation to isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic spurred lockdowns due to the region's already engrained propensity for "cultural distancing", [20] along with the Director of the University of Washington's Center for the Science of Social Connection describing it as "you feel outside the group but the group itself is intact". [21]
According to data from the a 2024 US Census survey, 43% of Washingtonians reported feeling lonely at least occasionally, one of the highest among the nation. In an early 2024 survey, half (50%) of young adults in Seattle reported feelings of loneliness. The survey also indicated that around 4 in 10 respondents reported thoughts of suicide. [22] The Seattle Freeze has been seen cited as an exacerbating factor for the high rates of loneliness in Seattle and the surrounding region; along with social media, the weather and the general rise of the loneliness epidemic. [22]
The Pacific Northwest, sometimes referred to as Cascadia, is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common conception includes the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Some broader conceptions reach north into Alaska and Yukon, south into northern California, and east into western Montana. Other conceptions may be limited to the coastal areas west of the Cascade and Coast mountains.
Seattle Pacific University (SPU) is a private Christian university in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 in conjunction with the Oregon and Washington Conference of the Free Methodist Church as the Seattle Seminary. It became the Seattle Seminary and College in 1913, adopted the name Seattle Pacific College two years later, and received its current name in 1977.
The Seattle Weekly is an alternative biweekly distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as The Weekly. Its first issue was published on March 31, 1976. The newspaper published its final print edition on February 27, 2019 and transitioned to web-only content on March 1, 2019.
The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC−08:00). During daylight saving time, a time offset of UTC−07:00 is used.
The 1700 Cascadia earthquake occurred along the Cascadia subduction zone on January 26, 1700, with an estimated moment magnitude of 8.7–9.2. The megathrust earthquake involved the Juan de Fuca plate from mid-Vancouver Island, south along the Pacific Northwest coast as far as northern California. The plate slipped an average of 20 meters (66 ft) along a fault rupture about 1,000 kilometers long.
KING-TV is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Everett-licensed independent station KONG. The two stations share studios at the Home Plate Center in the SoDo district of Seattle; KING-TV's transmitter is located in the city's Queen Anne neighborhood.
The municipal flag of Seattle is teal and white, featuring the Seattle city logo, with the words "City of Goodwill" above and "Seattle" below.
Charles Theodore Royer was an American news reporter and politician who served as the 48th mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1978 to 1990. After serving as mayor of Seattle, Royer became the director of the Harvard Institute of Politics.
The King County Administration Building is a nine-story office building in Seattle, the seat of King County, Washington, United States. Completed in 1971, the building is located at 500 Fourth Avenue, in between Jefferson Street and James Street, and parking is available in parking garages on all surrounding streets. Designed by the Harmon, Pray and Detrich architectural firm, it features a unique hexagonal, honeycomb theme in its walls and windows.
The Cascadia movement is a bioregional independence movement based in the Cascadia bioregion of western North America. Potential boundaries differ, with some drawn along existing political state and provincial lines, and others drawn along larger ecological, cultural, political, and economic boundaries.
Emmett Watson was an American newspaper columnist from Seattle, Washington, whose columns ran in a variety of Seattle newspapers over a span of more than fifty years. Initially a sportswriter, he is primarily known for authoring a social commentary column for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (P-I) from 1956 until 1982, when he moved to The Seattle Times and continued there as a columnist until shortly before his death in 2001.
Terapon Dang Adhahn is a Thai convicted sex offender and a former Bhikkhu who, in May 2008, was sentenced to life in prison for raping and murdering 12-year-old Zina Linnik in Tacoma, Washington.
Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington state to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington. Washington borders the Pacific Ocean to the west, Oregon to the south, Idaho to the east, and shares an international border with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north. Olympia is the state capital, and the most populous city is Seattle.
The Great Coastal Storm of 2007 was a series of three powerful Pacific storms that affected the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia between December 1, 2007 and December 4, 2007.
The Jungle, officially known as the East Duwamish Greenbelt, is a greenbelt on the western slope of Beacon Hill in Seattle, Washington that is known for its homeless encampments and crime. The Jungle consists of 150 acres (61 ha) underneath and along an elevated section of Interstate 5 between South Dearborn Street and South Lucile Street. An assessment counted 201 tents and estimate of more than 400 people in the area prior to a shooting on January 26, 2016, that increased scrutiny and a sweep of the greenspace. The area continues to be used by the homeless as of 2024.
The United States West Coast cities of Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon have a city rivalry going back over a century. According to various authors, the Portland–Seattle city rivalry is comparable to that of Charlotte and Atlanta, Cincinnati and Columbus, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, San Antonio and Austin, St. Louis and Chicago, or San Francisco and Los Angeles. Bases for competition include city sports teams, food and drink, regional economic dominance, and even preference for local volcanoes.
The first confirmed case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States was announced by the state of Washington on January 21, 2020. Washington made the first announcement of a death from the disease in the U.S. on February 29 and later announced that two deaths there on February 26 were also due to COVID-19. Until mid-March, Washington had the highest absolute number of confirmed cases and the highest number per capita of any state in the country, until it was surpassed by New York state on April 10, 2020. Many of the deceased were residents of a nursing home in Kirkland, an Eastside suburb of Seattle in King County.
The 2021 Western North America heat wave was an extreme heat wave that affected much of Western North America from late June through mid-July 2021. The heat wave affected Northern California, Idaho, Western Nevada, Oregon, and Washington in the United States, as well as British Columbia, and in its latter phase, Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, and Yukon, all in Canada. It also affected inland regions of Central and Southern California, Nevada, and Montana, though the temperature anomalies were not as extreme as in the regions farther north.
This page documents notable heat waves worldwide in 2021.
The Market Magic Shop is a magic store at Seattle's Pike Place Market, in the U.S. state of Washington.
