This is a huge point I think. I live in metro Seattle as well. I've lived in a few other American cities in my life, all bigger than Seattle, but I've never felt further away from the rest of a city than I have living here. The city is just downright terrible to navigate and the normal kind of urban sprawl that gives a city its "heart" is totally choked by the terrain. I've lived in places where I wouldn't blink at a 30 minute walk to and from a friend's house or a bar, but in Seattle that almost inevitably means hiking up at 45 degree incline for half of the route. Genuinely I don't know what could be done to solve this aside from saturating the city with transit options, but it's in the back of my head whenever I hear people complaining about problems around here. "Why is the traffic so bad?" "Why is housing so expensive?" "Why is everyone sad?" It's because the topography of the city looks like a fucking rollercoaster.