Seattle residents to Times reporter: 'Who are you calling wimps?'

Times Northwest correspondent Kim Murphy's recent story about the snowstorm in western Washington state -- in particular its headline, "Snow wimps: Seattle is shut down by first real snow of the season" -- didn't sit well with a number of Seattle residents, many of whom seemed to take special offense because the story originated from a Los Angeles news organization.

Murphy's story has been a topic of discussion for the Seattle Times and Seattle's KING-5 News ("The LA Times?! I will listen to the LA Times when it describes the microclimates on Kim Kardashian's continental derriere. That, it would know."), led to an interview on the city's KIRO FM and caused a mini-uproar on Twitter. (Apparently not all Seattleites take criticism over their response to winter weather as lightly as the creator of this series of videos, which we can't show here due to a wee bit of rough language.)

Thursday morning, Murphy, formerly The Times' Moscow bureau chief, reported that the storm "turned ugly ... blanketing much of western Washington in slick sheets of ice," prompting Washington's Gov. Christine Gregoire to declare a winter storm emergency. Hundreds of thousands of western Washington homes were without power as of midday as a result of the storm, and Oregon was facing its own problems as a result of flooding. 

Below, some of the responses to The Times' story from Twitter users. (Unfortunately, profanity prevented us from including a few of our favorite tweets.)

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Fallen trees are seen along a section of Central Avenue in Kent, Wash., after an ice storm, on Jan. 19. Credit: John Lok / McClatchy Tribune News Service  

 

 

Comments

[Kim]

I am from Seattle, I live in LA...LA would be a disaster if it snowed here. In Seattle you have to deal with lots of hills and the ground temp is much different than say back East. Sorry to say a lot of CA people moved up to Seattle area and they are the ones that mess up traffic if not add to it. I am bias to Seattle. If there was full time film production back home I would not live in this narcissistic town where people don't even know what a turn signal is ? Rude!

[Paleta Fresca]

Actually Kim, they don't use turn signals in Washington state anymore either. It's not just a problem here.

[Dennis]

For a town that shuts down because of rain.. at least the construction industry, I would say you have nothing to talk about, YOU ARE THE WIMPS, get a life and as usual take care of your own backyard before trying to comment on others!

[Mark]

Who cares? People in the Northwest have never liked Californians. I don't expect them to start liking us now, and that's fine. I have no use for them.

[D Robinson]

Seattle is bad enough on a descent day, throw ice, snow, wind, and California drivers on the roads it becomes a nightmare! I watched a 4 wheel drive Toyota Tundra get stuck with chains on all 4 tires because they stopped on a hill. As I passed I noticed the California plates. Its the morons that moved up here that cant drive in the rain let alone this mess, that make our city grind to a hault! Enjoy the smog, its brisk up here but it sure is refreshing!

[leftyman]

I've heard the term "California stop," never heard the term "Washington stop;" there must be a particular reason for that. Folks in L.A. can't even handle the rain, can't even imagine how the city would react if it actually snowed there. And fake snow on a Hollywood set doesn't even come close to counting.
Word of advice to Los Angeleans if it ever does snow there: drive slowly and take your time. The road contidions aren't the same when it rains; why would people feel the need to hurry if it were snowing? It's important to obey all traffic laws, especially in instances of inclement weather like snow. If you put on chains, don't go past 35 MPH, you'll just destroy your wheels and tires.
As a Seattle-ite, I don't take offense to the "snow wimps" comment. I just find it stupid and ignorant. Good day all and best of luck.

[K.E.]

I guess Seattlites don't realize that most Angelenos are originally from cold-weather states. (I'm from PA/MA & lived in CO for years before moving here.) Most of us moved here at least partly to escape scraping windshields, warming up frozen cars, and driving on icy, often salt-and-cindered roads.

The LAT article probably refers to Seattle's reaction vs. other cold-weather cities, which seems valid to me.

Anyway, why get upset? I barely pay attention when people in (or from) other cities bag on LA.

[Jan]

Having lived, if you can call it that, in LA and now living (and loving it) in Seattle I gotta say Ms. Murphy has her head up her derriere. She calls Seattlites snow wimps and then proceeds to report the basics of a mess created by Mother Nature. There appears to be no support for her name calling. Perhaps she, or her editor, just wanted to try to increase readership. Her "clueless" remark was just that. She has no clue what is involved in dealing with infrequent snow in an area such as ours. I say she should move back to LA where she doesn't have to look at the "clueless wimps". She can go back to looking at vain, image hungry, rude folks living in a perpetual and boring climate. (Can you imagine LA dealing with even an inch of snow on thier roads??) We in Seattle don't need someone like her in our town.

[Sparrows345]

Love the guy talking about the S. Cal morons who cannot even spell "halt" or "decent." People in the NW love Californians.. when they have their hand outstretched to take that CA money to buy homes etc. Seattle has some of the worst traffic in the nation by the way.

[Dave from Denver]

Can I laugh at Seattlites? I'm from Denver.

But I also remember visiting for Christmas a few years ago and hearing that the 5 had been shut down due to ice near Bakersfield, and the CHP decided the best course of action was to wait for it to melt.

[Collins]

Who allowed Californians to criticize about snow?
Are you up here? Do you know the situation on the ground.
Please, SoCal doesn't even know how to handle precipitation, don't make stupid comments.

[regina123will]

Please remember - all the LA Times articles are written by people either in, or from, Chicago.

[Seth Shotwell]

Where's our apology Kim? Where is your contrition as people are freezing with no power and heat? Where is your compassion when hundreds are trapped in accidents or lost in the weather? Where is your decency when it becomes obvious that your first article was way off base and, in fact, cruel in retrospect. Where is the apology from the Times? Remember us when you need water after the big quake .... you don't rate drinking our urine!

[AN]

@regina123will

Then the paper will have to deal with the consequences of letting this stuff be published under its name. As far as any casual reader would be concerned, this is LA's opinion, not Chicago's, and if the writer didn't even consider the response it would receive, then... that was dumb of her. :P

[Roger]

I imagine Ms. Murphy is doing what media people do everywhere - drum up some business, get an bigger audience so the ad sales people have something to peddle. So Ms. Murphy does a bit of trolling, just to create some action. If she is actually writing from Seattle, she surely would know about the typical combination of a few inches of snow, slight melting, serious freeze, a few more inches on top of the ice: a lethal - literally - combination. Has nothing to do with being wimps or whatever she was hacking on about. If it weren't drivers in Seattle, she'd see what else she could find to help boost readership and ad sales. Much easier than doing serious reporting work.

[stv]

Seriously, 361 comments all from Washington? Seattle can apparently dish it, but they can't take it.

[Steve]

I would love to see Los Angelites handle a snow storm.......lets see LA drivers drive around on a giant skating rink......oh and I wonder how many snow plows LA has? It would shut your weenie city down too. I could tolerate this kind of criticism from anybody who gets MORE snow then Seattle, but from a sun bleached city like LA.....I won't accept this criticism. You LA folks are the real wimps most LA people can't handle living in Seattle's climate. You wimps couldn't take our weather which is why on average Californians who move up to Washington end up moving back within 3 years.......WIMPS!

[Christopher Eaton]

Wow. Angelenos have always known about that hatred of L.A. borne in ignorance and jealousy held by anyone raised on the West Coast north of San Luis Opisbo. An inverse correlation exists in which the deeper the hatred, the greater the irrelevance of said hatred to the average Angeleno. And while Angelenos know that denizens of SF are grouchy and irritating, that Portlanders are twee and precious, who knew that a little jibe about snow-driving could send so many Seattleites into orbit? Can we say, "sensitive"? And how about "whiny" to boot.

[franc]

Seattle snow is different than any snow is super wet it begins with three days of rain then it freezes at night and solid rock and again snow next day and freezes again and guess what next day it rains- and is so miserable you want to sell everything and go to mexico and watch some sunshine

[sdfn]

Reminds of Frisco people's attitude toward LA. Two suburbs acting like LA was just another town like theirs. Point being, LA is much more than they get fed through TV. The Hollywood part is just that - a Hollywood creation. LA is also about the music industry, and regular life, imagine that. That LA has millions of people that work regular jobs and have other interests than Hollywood gossip. For those village people to think they can pigeonhole LA is quiet arrogant. When I was in Frisco, I felt bad for them after all I'd heard about their smug views of LA. The township feel was palpable, and their self-hype became evident. Betting Seattle is not much different, except its an even smaller burb than Frisco.
For 'real' people in LA you have to go where real people live.

[Bill Of La Quinta, Ca.]

The Rainbirds and Snowbirds fly south in the winter; the Sunbirds fly north in the summer. And, they peck at each other as they cross over Northern California. I have the best of both: Sun in the Winter; Pine Forests and islands in the Summer. All the rest of you can eat your hearts out.

[Matt]

I used to live in Seattle (or, more accurately, my parents forced me to spend most of my childhood there). Seattlites can't drive even in dry weather (a rarity since it does rain all the time). They're even worse when it comes to snow.

And Paleta Fresco- You're absolutely RIGHT- I suspect there are Washingtonians who don't even know there car is equipped with a turn signal.

[Sage on the Hudson]

Los Angeles and environs is a place where the locals complains when the temperature drops below 60 degrees, and whine that it's too cold to sit in front of Starbuck's in shorts.

If I had my druthers I'd live someplace with a perpetual foot of snow on the ground, where the temperature seldom if ever rises above freezing and the sun never shines.