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Everyone Loves a Wikipedia Dustup

raincityvideo.jpgWhat are the people who edit the Seattle article on Wikipedia fighting about these days?

Whether or not "Rainy City" is a real nickname for Seattle. Someone is bored at work.

A user with the catchy name of 67.161.84.145 insists that it's not. In fact, they insist it's slanderous:

I changed the nickname. As a Seattle native, I have never, ever heard it called "Rainy City." It is not, nor ever has been a common nickname of Seattle. For one, we get less rain than most cities East of the Mississippi River. Seattle is most commonly called "The Emerald City" followed by "Jet City." If you folks want to continue this nonsense, of re-posting a lsanderous nickname, please provide some documentation.
Their proof? Searching HistoryLink for the phrase "rainy city" gets no hits. "You tell a local Puget Sound resident that you are going to 'Rainy City,' they will assume you are talking about Forks. It is not a nickname for Seattle, and never has been, except by a few people trying to slander the place."

Dexonline shows 12 entities named Rain City something, and 2 named Rainy City something, with only 10 named Jet City something. Clearly, some local people claim the name.

We have no idea how the Wiki fight's going to turn out -- our nerdiness only takes us so far -- but we do have to ask our fellow Seattleites:

Are we Rain City, as well as Jet City and Queen City?

Photo by Kathleen W. on Yelp.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By James in on January 25, 2007 4:41 PM

Comments [rss]

  • Eliza, I'm more relieved that I didn't follow my first instinct and take a whirl through HistoryLink to do a rundown on Seattle nicknames, instead deciding to do a quick-n-dirty "ain't those Wikipedians odd?" piece capped with an off-the-cuff question.



    My take: Rain City's obviously a nickname; Rainy City, a variation.

  • Eliza

    James, are you shamed by the rich any meaty facts about Seattle's nicknames that studded the article by this mysterious "Steve"?

  • Who's "Steve"? Not only don't I remember that post, I don't remember him.

  • Eliza

    Ah, Seattlest. Is your institutional memory so short? You guys blogged on this very topic not too long ago..where's the l ink? I can't paste in the URL, but if you search Seattlest for the title "We're Not In Washington Anymore" you'll find it.

  • El Cheapo

    Call it what you will so long as it's not metronatural.

  • Jake of 8bitjoystick.com

    You know since two right wing assholes who spend way too much damn time editing the Wikipedia got me banned from editing articles dealing with washington state politics I say Nuts to you Wikipedia.

  • Fnarf

    "Rain City" is a coffee company -- marketing, not a city nickname. "Rainy City" is just plain garbage. No one says that. I'm not 67 dot, but I fully back his efforts here. These are not nicknames, and Wikipedia is not a place to start an ad campaign.



    Wikipedia demands verifiability, so whomever can come up with some ACTUAL CITES, and not just company names out of the phone book, is going to win this argument. "Rainy City" is imaginary and thus "original research" -- forbidden on Wikipedia.



    Seattle was originally the "Queen City", then "Jet City". "Emerald City" was dreamed up by marketroids more recently than you think, but actually got some traction and is now by far the #1 choice. My own preferred nickname is "Seawash", which city designation the post office has accepted and delivered mail for on at least a few occasions. Try it sometime -- "Seawash 98103".



    I thought Portland was "Rainy City", anyways.

  • Seth

    I've never heard anyone actually call Seattle "Rain City"--I suspect the people that started the "Rain City" businesses are transplants. That said, I hear people say Sea-Town fairly frequently. It's lame, but then so is Emerald City. I think I'd go with Jet City if I had to. Or "The Fleece Capitol of the Universe."

  • Cascadia Girl

    Rain City, yes. Rainy City? That may be an accurate description most of the year, but not a nickname.

  • charles

    I tend to agree with 67.161.84.145 -- i've never heard of "rainy city" and it's a prett weak nickname at that. Nobody really calls Seattle "Sea-town" (in the vein of P-Town for Portland, OR), so if you're going to count "Rainy City" then "Sea-town" or even the airport code "SEA" should be in there as well. Fact is, they're not really worthy of being in there

    That said, I think 67.161.84.145 gets a little too fired up over it. But if I had to pick sides in the great wiki wars I'd side with the IP address.

  • I would have to agree with Mr. or Ms. 67. We are the Emerald City, Rain City, and Jet City, in approximately that order. I would assume anyone who calls us the "Rainy City" is probably some East Coast denizen who analogized from Chicago's "Windy City" nickname after hearing that it rains a lot here. (Still: "Slanderous"? Jeez, get a grip.)



    Before we were the Emerald City, we were the Queen City, but today Cincinnati seems to have that honor all to itself.

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