mission statement / Seattle Freeze?

Post-Grand Adventure (GA) this blog has become a place to write about our shiny new experience of living and working in downtown Seattle.  I'm also interested in writing about the history and culture of Seattle and the PNW.


In that light, have you ever heard of the Seattle Freeze? It's the idea that people in Seattle put up a social wall that is hard to get past.  Read these to learn more:
the Seattle Freeze real or all in your head?
urbandictionary.com: Seattle Freeze

It's been in the back of my mind for a few months now.  Here are a few things I think are true:

• People are a little reserved.  If you talk first though, or ask for directions, they are quite friendly.  I think the expectations for contact with strangers are very low so people are almost (pleasantly) surprised if you do talk to them.  
• However, we live right in downtown and I suspect this reserve is mostly a feature cities.  There are a lot of people around all the time and a non-negligible number of them are crazy too.  Yesterday I saw a woman swooping her hand over the heads of passersby and holding up a 10" diameter mirror to watch people walking behind her.  At least we're a polite city.
• Furthermore, hardly anyone in Seattle proper is actually from here, so maybe it's a result of rapid growth and everyone thinking they're the odd one out.  At work, of the maybe 40 people in my office I've talked to enough to learn their origins, only 4-5 are actually from Washington state.  Seattle's population grew by 8% to 608,660 between 2000 to 2010.
• Boston absolutely has a freeze going on.  There is a huge divide between locals and everyone else and I found it terribly difficult to make friends because without the help of something like a university community.  Pittsburgh, on the other hand is actively friendly - Why you should say hello to strangers in Pittsburgh.  As for Montreal,  let's just say that bilingualism makes it complicated and that Seattle is probably more friendly.
• Every day more and more people opt to walk around plugged in to headphones at all times.  Maybe if the people who complain of a Seattle freeze went home, they would find that it had changed too.
• I certainly acknowledge that there are cultural differences within the US, but I don't think Seattle is unfriendly.  
• I am biased.

Other superficial observations I've made are that Seattle is an early-rising, green, dog-friendly place.  A lot of people start work at 7 or even earlier here.  This might have something to do with the abysmal traffic and the impressive number of people who work shifts for Boeing.  We are required to compost my office and our apartment building and a plastic bag ban just went in to effect.  I'm still surprised to see dogs on the laps of cashiers and cruising through stores like Target and Goodwill.