The problem with anecdotes like in [3] is that they don't really tell us much. I visited Seattle for the first time this fall and my experience was nothing like that. I did smell Marijuana once in public, but, otherwise, the streets were quite clean and I never felt unsafe downtown at night. The homeless were prevalent, but not on the scale you see in, say, San Francisco. I certainly wouldn't use the word "shocking" to describe anything I saw.