Suicide, Sunglasses, and Umbrellas: Seattle myths and truths

By Jack Brummet, Seattle Metro Editor

Seattle Myth No. 1 - Seattle has the highest suicide rate in the country.  

Artist's rendition of the suicide-prevention gates recently installed

on the Aurora Bridge (a/k/a George Washington Memorial Bridge)

Not true.  This high suicide rate is commonly blamed on the rain, and S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder), as well as serotonin deficiencies--caused by lack of sunlight--that lead to depression.   In fact, Seattle falls in the bottom half of the top 50 cities.  The top cities for suicide per capita (including many sunny and warm places):


1 Las Vegas, NV
2 Colorado Springs, CO 
3 Tucson, AZ 
4 Sacramento, CA 
5 Albuquerque, NM 
6 Mesa, AZ 
7 Miami, FL 
8 Denver, CO 
9 Jacksonville, FL 
10 Pittsburgh, PA 
10 Wichita, KS
12 Portland, OR 
13 Fresno, CA 
14 Phoenix, AZ 
15 Tulsa, OK 
16 Milwaukee, WI 
17 Oklahoma City, OK 
18 Atlanta, GA
19 Austin, TX 
20 Cincinnati, OH 
21 Charlotte, NC 
22 St. Louis, MO
23 Indianapolis, IN 
24 Louisville/Jefferson Co., KY
24 Virginia Beach,VA 
26 Nashville-Davidson,TN
27 Cleveland, OH 
28 Seattle, WA 
29 Kansas City, MO 
30 Houston, TX 
31 San Francisco, CA 
32 Fort Worth, TX
32 Honolulu, HI 
34 Columbus, OH 
35 Philadelphia, PA 
36 Omaha, NB
37 San Diego, CA 
38 Dallas, TX 
39 San Antonio, TX 
40 Arlington, TX 
41 Long Beach, CA 
42 San Jose, CA 
43 New Orleans, LA
44 Minneapolis, MN 
45 Memphis,TN 
46 Oakland, CA 
47 El Paso, TX 
48 Los Angeles, CA
49 Chicago, IL 
50 Detroit, MI
51 New York City, NY 
52 Baltimore, MD 
52 Washington, DC
54 Boston, MA

[source city-data.com]


Seattle Myth No. 2 - Seattleites buy more sunglasses per capita than any other city in the country.

True.  Various theories exist to support this; the most common one is that it is so rarely sunny that no one ever remembers where they put their sunglasses.  Another theory is that the tourists and visitors to Seattle don't bring sunglasses (because they've heard it is never sunny). 


Sources: Philanthropic Educational Organization Record  and Jet City Orange and Cha-Cha.  


Seattle Myth No. 3 - People do not use umbrellas in Seattle; it has one of the lowest per capita rates of umbrella ownership in the entire country. 

This photo from the Museum of History and Industry 

shows umbrellas have never been popular here.

Mostly true. Conventional wisdom on umbrellas in Seattle says only tourists or newbies use them. You see them, but I don't think anyone I know uses one. Mostly we just wear raincoats from REI, or wherever. Go to any clothing shop in Seattle, and you'll find them ranging from $10 plastic ones to $350 Goretex models. Mostly we wear hooded rain shells, not too heavy, because it doesn't get cold here often. When it does, you just slip on your down REI or Eddie Bauer vest and put the rain shell over it.

According to Komo News, Seattle is in the top five cloudy cities, with 226 cloudy days per year--well behind Anchorage, and three Washington cities, Forks, Astoria and Olympia.   And Seattle is in the top 20 rainy cities, with 140 days of measurable rain.


“People dress casual here,” said Satoko Kobayashi, owner of Seattle-based umbrella boutique, Pare Umbrella. “So if you wear suits, it’s OK to wear a rain jacket over it.”


From KOMO TV's website:  "KOMO photographer Doug Pigsley was in Seattle's Pioneer Square Thursday morning shooting a press conference when the skies opened up as an intense rain squall moved through. He ran around the neighborhood getting people in the downpour for footage for the website and evening newscast."

"But as I was making a photo gallery, it hit me while watching the raw video: Hardly anyone has an umbrella, but several did have a cup of coffee."

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