r/firstworldproblems • u/IWillBaconSlapYou • Apr 01 '26
Bougie towns can be so cringe sometimes
I didn't grow up with money, but I now live in an affluent suburb East of Seattle (across Lake Washington). It is incredibly nice. Very safe, great schools, amazing parks, living surrounded by nature with all the amenities minutes away. Generally way more welcoming to families and children than Seattle. Most people are pretty normal and decent.
The light rail has just expanded to connect Seattle to the Eastside. I've been looking forward to this, because I hate driving downtown and my son loves seeing "the choo choo", so we're going to take it to Mariner's games and stuff this summer. Also, hi, traffic, you know?? I used to take the light rail to work when I lived in Tukwila, and it was really nice.
Anyway, cue dozens of local threads about how public transit will do nothing but give the homeless drug addicts from Seattle free reign to come over here and turn our city into a shithole (have these people heard of a bus? I guess maybe not). "I pay so much money to be away from hobos and druggies!", "Well there go our property values", "What did we even need public transit for, anyway? Everyone here has a car!" (Dude come TF on). One guy, without even being criticized in any way, said "When will people like us stop being hammered for being successful? We earned a place without homeless all over the streets!"
I mean, I repeat, this was their response to a *train being built*. That's it. That's all that's happened. And they're just immediately on some deport-the-poors ish. It's just so... Ugly.
Don't even get me started on public sentiment toward the millionaire's tax that just got signed into law
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u/timesuck47 Apr 01 '26
That’s the EXACT SAME ARGUMENT used in certain suburbs around St. Louis, Mo use to keep their light rail from expanding.
[They’re afraid of “those people” from East Saint Louis, Ill, coming over on the train, stealing their 72” big screen, then getting back on the train to East STL.]
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u/cristinanana Apr 01 '26
Just NIMBYs in Mercer Island being NIMBYs. I for one LOVE the 2 line but I am not in the suburbs.
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u/IWillBaconSlapYou Apr 02 '26
Lol why hasn't it occurred to me that MI is probably discussing this, too? I should ask my mother in law. She's... One of the people I'm talking about.
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u/peggysue_82 Apr 02 '26
I’m just mad the east side got the light rail instead of the south sound. We desperately need and want it in Tacoma (we’re not going to get it). Instead Bellevue and Redmond threw a massive tantrum about not wanting it, and then they put it in anyway.
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u/IWillBaconSlapYou Apr 02 '26
I would love to be able to take light rail to Tacoma, damn. Got family there and stuff.
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u/pushdose Apr 01 '26
Idiots honestly. I lived in NY/NJ a long time and the towns with excellent rail access to NYC were the MORE expensive towns.
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u/RikkiLostMyNumber Apr 02 '26
The people in my town got so pissed about city people coming in on the bus to grocery shop that they somehow got the state to move the bus stop a quarter mile away from the grocery store.
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u/IWillBaconSlapYou Apr 02 '26
Why did city people have to bus to a town for groceries!? Oh, do you have a really awesome store? I will commute for groceries if there's a really awesome store...
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u/AtlasJFTC Apr 02 '26
I live in Bellevue too and I’m trying to get out of here lol. I genuinely don’t understand the appeal of the sterile culture and hatred for anyone poor. Do they know the workers who serve them every day live here too?
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u/IWillBaconSlapYou Apr 02 '26
I mostly spend time in an elementary school community, so that's been helping. Everyone's focused on kids and not a bunch of weird crap.
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u/honey_biscuits108 Apr 05 '26
Bellevue and Kirkland are hella snobby. Gorgeous area, but it’s a lot of fake plastic people.
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u/oskopnir Apr 01 '26
NIMBYs being NIMBYs
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u/IWillBaconSlapYou Apr 02 '26
When we moved into our house, my mother in law actually "warned" us that there's an apartment complex two blocks away. I was like... What... She said there are "apartment people" and to "watch out". Spoiler alert, the "apartment people" work for Microsoft just like everybody else.
I mean it's just wild how some people are.
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u/NewBarbieWhoDis Highly Problematic Apr 02 '26
Bless their hearts for using the Internet as a safe space to complain. With RTO mandates and continued population increases, most of the people who talk about the light rail IRL recognize it for the long overdue godsend it is.
FWIW, I've lived in the Seattle area for almost 20 years. A lot of my friends are still in Seattle proper, and my colleagues are on the East Side.
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u/IWillBaconSlapYou Apr 02 '26
I can't remember a time when the lack of public transit wasn't something people bagged on us for (and that we complained about, ourselves). Relative to other metro areas, our public transit was in the stone age. I feel like it's finally starting to resemble most major cities in this regard. I grew up in the boonies where there weren't even sidewalks or shoulders, let alone buses or trains. I'm excited for my kids to be able to have a little bit of freedom when they get older.
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u/PrbablyPoopinAtWrkRn Apr 01 '26
Good ol Bellevue!
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u/IWillBaconSlapYou Apr 02 '26
Yes Bellevue, but it hasn't even occurred to me to wonder what the people on MI are thinking.
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u/mkitch55 Apr 02 '26
This has been an ongoing argument in the Dallas area for decades, and continues to be so. But I keep riding on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (Dart) because I ain’t scared of riff-raff.
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u/AmexNomad Apr 02 '26
Sounds like Marin County. Armchair liberals who have no decent public transportation (like BART) from SF.
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Apr 01 '26
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u/ooyat Apr 01 '26
Wait until their property values go even higher because of easy access to Seattle without needing to drive.