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this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
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Nothing in the article explains why this should be considered an "emergency" situation. And which part even? The people fleeing part? The people moving to Seattle part? Is it overcrowded? Whats the emergency?
Fuck Texas
appreciates the city's relatively decent cost of living
Ummm
It actually makes more sense than it might seem upon first glance, at least in the context of people moving from Texas.
Texas' minimum wage is the federal rate of $7.25/hr. Washington's is $17.30/hr, while Seattle specifically has it even higher at $21.30/hr
Cost of living in Seattle is around 55% higher than in, say, Houston Texas, but its minimum wage is about three times the amount.
Add on to that the fact that Seattle has an expansive public transit network that costs much less than owning a car (about $108/mo for unlimited public transit rides on all buses, sometimes paid for entirely or in part by your employer), and there are definitely ways people can drive their cost of living down more if they want to.
Hopefully the state will rezone the land near the light rail stations for.high density housing
They are!
HB 1491 has already been passed by the Washington legislature, but will only get adopted in 2029 (read more details here), and Seattle's Mayor, Katie Wilson, is trying to push through additional upzoning and denser housing requirements that don't just happen near light rail stations, but near other transit routes as well. (read more here)
My property taxes went down considerably going from Texas to Washington (though I did not move to King County). I did buy a used EV up here though since gasoline is crazy expensive and the infrastructure is much better. Most other costs went down or stayed the same. Houston is expensive as hell.
Yeah property tax is really high in Texas because it makes up for all the tax cuts over the years and lower sales tax. I paid more in taxes for a small condo I had there that was about 1/5th of the value of a small townhouse I eventually bought here. I had kept it thinking I'd move back, but Seattle won me over and Austin became less welcoming, so the property taxes made it not worth it even as an investment with the prices starting to rise at the time. Back then the cost for small homes was about 3-4 times Austin, now it's around 1.5 to 2 times the cost from what friends have shown me. Looking at current average cost it looks like Seattle is about 875K, Austin is about 510K and Houston is about 260K. I don't know about rent now, but at the time it was about double Austin's in Seattle.
But other than property tax, which is just generally ridiculous in Texas compared to many other states, the cost of living here is significantly higher. Food (I miss HEB prices), gasoline, electricity, trash, car registration, rent/house prices, internet service (screw Comcast and their virtual monopoly, though it is getting better lately), almost everything was more here when I moved from Austin but that was over a decade ago. One thing that was cheaper is public transportation, though. I do appreciate that, living in the city.
You bought property in Seattle proper? Wow.
though I did not move to King County
People in Houston usual just live 1 hour away from Houston, but that still counts as Houston except according to people in Houston.
I lived in Houston proper (outside the loop). I had shell casings on my street.
I had shell casings on my street.
I hope the pricing at least reflected that.
Oh I see. Yes. Good choice.
I’m happy you got out of Texas. Welcome to Washington!!!!!!
My family was already here, I'd been trying to get here for over a decade. The election just made it my top priority.
So how much longer until Canada?
That was the other person. Agreed with congrats to them
Reading is hard. I’m so tired.
Seattle is in King County, ain't nobody can afford to live there.
Why WA and not OR? We are just as welcoming (and expensive).
2SLGBTQIA+
These acronyms are getting absurd.
I was just going to post this comment except my phrasing was gonna be
"2SLGBTQIA+" Jesus fucking Christ when will it end, what does this even mean
Queer people are also unhappy about the acronym situation. Promise.
I’m one of them.
And me.
In my head I just read it as 'queer' nowadays, though I don't really care what others prefer to use.
I don't know why people in & out of the community can't understand that the +, in LGBT+ means all the extra letters, Q, I, A, 2S, and any future ones that may arise, it's future proof. "+" is the most inclusive you can get. I literally refuse to refer to the community as anything other than LGBT+. Our history of names was terrible, this is the most simple.
GSRM or LGBT+ seem good enough. Guessing its a result of people trying to be exclusionary and people feeling the need to explicitly include those groups, but still think GSRM still would be clearly inclusive of most of those groups anyway?
2SLGBTQIA+ is a result of being more inclusionary, and it is the standard for the Canadian government. The 2S at the front represents two-spirit people, which is a term that Indigenous people use (also why it was placed at the front, as a sign of respect since they were here before everyone else). The QIA+ are literally additions to include queer (which is a catchall), intersex (who were previously medicalized and excluded), and agender/asexual/aromantic people (who have historically been excluded/ignored), and the + obviously is to include anyone who doesnt feel reflected by the other letters. This is literally the least exclusionary way to do it.
GSRM has been attempted many times but framing people as minorities when providing allegedly inclusive terminology is generally out of fashion.
The acronym system is anti queer philosophically relies on strict taxonomies and fundamentally hierarchal exclusionary while not telling us why these people are lumped together their issues have so much in common its really liberally stupid and as as queer I take offense
I used to be uncomfortable with using queer as a self-descriptor, but TBH I'm getting to be in agreement with you these days.
Now I'm wondering about getting a T-shirt with it on, for pride (or any other day I don't mind stirring the pot)
Gsm/grsm works too but people might think you're too slow to do more than text on
Nobodies going to understand acronyms where I live anway, lol (words regarding all the labels feel pretty awkward to me in Spanish)
I'm aware of what it stands for. But using 'A' as a catchall for several identities means aro-spec identities are still frequently neglected, allies try to claim it just stands for them instead of ace, aro, and/or agender people, so its still ends up being exclusive in practice while just being unnecessarily long given its failure to achieve the intended goal.
The plus sign being where it is probably contributes to it being seen as a catch-all, even though it's not supposed to be; the acronym goes LGBTQIAA...
Idk, as an ace person, I personally appreciate it. I don't really care if allies try to claim it because they are wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don't mean to suggestion others shouldn't like it. Just how it makes me feel personally as someone who is aroace (and perhaps agender?).
I’ve never even heard of GSRM, so that’s another new one for me.
Its what phones used to use before 3g came along.
The first time I heard of it, it was just GSM, but I guess then romantic minorities got added?
No I think gsrm was the standard in Europe I still have an old gsm phone I think
This is how I know I’m getting old. Can’t understand what the dang kids are saying anymore!
Its easily been over 10 years since I heard of GSM, after I was done with high school at least. No clue when I first saw GSRM used tho.
I graduated high school 20 years ago. I think we barely had better than LGBT. I’m aware of it now at least. Better late than never!