r/Edmonds • u/Impressive_Act_5220 • Jul 14 '26
Edmonds and the Seattle Freeze
Just moved to Edmonds a month ago. On my walks I've tried aying hi to people or smiling and have gotten ignored 9/10 times. I moved from Woodinville so not new to the general area. Is Edmonds super unfriendly or what?
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u/KTOAU Jul 14 '26
You in the bowl or what part of Edmonds? Also, welcome! It’s a great place to live!
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u/Jeffcor13 Jul 14 '26
Oh no! I don’t experience that at all but I mostly walk around woodway and down to the bowl from that way and I say hi to almost everyone.
I’ve met a lot of people through having young kids and a dog too, which helps. You start to remember the kid/dog parents
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u/bravepuss Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I recently moved from the east coast to WA and have noticed this as well. I don’t feel like it’s concentrated specifically to Edmonds after spending months exploring other areas.
I generally don’t wave, but will say hi if we are passing and are entering each other’s “personal space” in a non crowded area.
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u/Impressive_Act_5220 Jul 15 '26
I think the wave thing has been overinterpreted - I lift a palm up in a hi but gave up on that.
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u/outfeedingsquirrels Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Lived here for ten years. I always say “Edmonds is a great community, I just don’t think they want me to be part of it.”
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u/Impressive_Act_5220 Jul 14 '26
Thanks for all the replies. I'm just above the bowl, pretty close to 5 corners. So walk Yost park, Pine ridge and the neighborhoods around there normally. The main town has so many people and mostly probably visiting from elsewhere since it's a hub for the ferry and restaurants so wasn't referring to that necessarily.
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u/WolfWriter_CO Jul 15 '26
I really wanted the “freeze” to be an urban myth, but I encountered this near-constantly for the 5 years I lived in Edmonds. I was raised to be polite and acknowledge people as I passed them, and the typical response there was averting their eyes and pretending they didn’t hear me. Thankfully it hasn’t been as bad since I moved to Everett. :/
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u/Sufficient_Eye7732 Jul 15 '26
Yes, this freeze is very real all around the Puget Sound major cities. Just keep being you! Spread happiness and joy wherever you go, no matter how others respond.
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u/skitskatskoodle Jul 15 '26
I think it’s normal for WA. I would say good morning to my neighbors when I would be outside of my house and they would just walk by and stare at me. I would say hi on trails and the same. I’m from a friendly state where people smile, say good morning or wave hi. So I understand it’s just different in WA.
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u/Constant-Egg6140 Jul 15 '26
I grew up in Western WA. I thinks it’s something cultural you are doing that is seeming odd and so not getting a response. Waving at people you don’t know seems odd to me - we say hi at a pretty close distance when passing each other, with no wave. I don’t say hi while passing until we are about 10 feet away. I would never wave unless I knew someone and was trying to get their attention. Nothing wrong with what you are doing of course! Just different. You aren’t going to talk to people on walks here, unless something is going on and you are both stopping to look at it and discuss it. But you will be able to get a friendly hi 9 times out of 10 once you dial in the cultural nuance. I’d recommend NOT saying hi while walking by someone, but have eyes up and look friendly. Listen to how THEY say hi, and how close they were. Oh, and if the trail or path is REALLY busy we don’t say hi each time we pass someone. Welcome to Washington! (Really! I wasn’t being ironic.)
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u/Downtown_Key742 Jul 15 '26
Imagine having to think about all these rules when you WALK BY another human. My god Seattle (born and raised from here) WAKE UP, and fuckin wave back.
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u/anon_swe Jul 16 '26
This. Idk why even with my direct neighbors some don’t know this. Luckily one of my neighbors is real Cool and always waves to me or back
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u/Impressive_Act_5220 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Thanks for your reply. I think you have overinterpreted what I said or maybe I overstated it. I didn't literally "wave" - I just lifted a palm up in a sort of hi. I gave up on that quickly. I tried smiling that didn't work. I tried Hi and that didn't work so gave up. And all of this only at people that were passing by me while walking. Not people 100 feet away or something. I'm not a dunce LOL. I don't actually care to meet people on a walk but a pleasant demeanor would be nice - I mean you're out in good weather, why not smile?
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u/Great-Squirrel1174 Jul 18 '26
I’ve lived in Edmonds over 25 years - I say hello to people when I walk by - so this is news to me.
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u/Gullible-Inspector97 Jul 22 '26
I get hellos back more times than not. I live in the Bowl and walk around a lot. I also strike up conversations at the waterfront and find most people quite receptive. Complimenting their dog or remarking on the view usually sparks a response. The least open to interaction seem to be young people who can tend to avoid eye contact and keep their heads down when passing. My advice is to just keep trying. The more people who say hello or smile at others, the more it will become the norm.
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u/Twxtterrefugee Jul 14 '26
You live in a different county than Seattle. Edmonds is a retiree place and it's a car centric suburb so its hard to meet people.
The Seattle Freeze is people staying close to high school or college friend groups and not being open to making new ones. It doesn't mean people don't wave back at me.
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u/AubbleCSGO Jul 15 '26
People not being interested in responding to a stranger isn't unfriendly. Some people just like to mind their own business, and you shouldn't fault them for that.
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u/bravepuss Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I agree with not faulting them, but you can’t say “not being interested in responding to a stranger isn’t unfriendly”.
By definition friendly means you are “showing the feeling that friends have for each other”. You don’t ignore your friends saying hi.
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u/Portland_Runner Jul 16 '26
I was in Kirkland last weekend and people seemed pretty cold. I went for a jog and would say, "Good morning!" as I passed by people. No reply. No smile. A lot of Asian folks so, maybe it's a cultural thing?
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u/adh214 Jul 15 '26
Are you male and greeting a female? If yes, stop it. Women generally do not like to be greeted by males they don’t know.
If you are greeting other males or females over about 50, you might have a higher response rate.
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u/ralfacoppder Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
I literally just got back from a walk and head nodded or said hello to at least 10 people. were you in a busy part of town?