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Tell me where to live in Seattle
bigpanda
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Just moved to Seattle for a work relocation. I'm staying downtown until the end of the month so i need to find an apt/roommate(s) in the next 2 weeks. I work in South Lake Union and want to stay somewhere that's within walking/bus distance.
I'm looking at the following neighborhoods: Ballard, Phinney Ridge, Fremont, Ravenna, Green Lake, Wallingford, Queen Anne, and Capitol Hill. I'm also kind of looking at Northgate and Bellevue as apts seem to be a bit cheaper out there.
I'm trying to keep it below $1,000/mo if I rent a 1 bd/1 ba but would ideally like to find a roommate and keep the rent below $600/mo.
I'd need a place w/ parking as I have a car.
If anyone can recommend an apt building, that'd be cool too.
Thanks,
BP
I'm looking at the following neighborhoods: Ballard, Phinney Ridge, Fremont, Ravenna, Green Lake, Wallingford, Queen Anne, and Capitol Hill. I'm also kind of looking at Northgate and Bellevue as apts seem to be a bit cheaper out there.
I'm trying to keep it below $1,000/mo if I rent a 1 bd/1 ba but would ideally like to find a roommate and keep the rent below $600/mo.
I'd need a place w/ parking as I have a car.
If anyone can recommend an apt building, that'd be cool too.
Thanks,
BP
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Bellevue could be okay in terms of traffic. If you like the younger crowd that's not a bunch of preppy types, you might not fit in too well, though. The night life there left me wanting.
Any of the nighborhoods you listed would be good, with a word of warning: if you find a place on capitol hill, make it at least a couple of blocks from Broadway. It can get kind of skeezy there.
I would stay away from Ballard. It's very out of the way and the people who live in that area tend to be the older, married crowd. I got a few friends who live there and they hate it.
I ended up going to FOX Sports Bar downtown to catch the last couple minutes of the UMich game and there were a bunch of alpha male silverbacks in there. Not my idea of a good time.
Back when I was in Mich, there was a bar downriver called The Oak over in Wyandotte that I loved. A ton of different brews, cute waitresses, good bar food and alot of regulars that were there to hang out.
While it's a bit out of the way, the crowd there is definitely better than you might find in, say, Bellevue.
I don't know about the crowd in Bellevue. The only thing I heard about Bellevue is that Belletown has a good night life. Never been there myself though, except for mall-shopping.
Belltown is a neighborhood in Seattle.
Oh... I always thought Belltown was Bellevue's downtown, lol...
The downside is that there's only one bus that runs between them, and it only runs every half hour. So I'm a terrible person and drive.
I love the neighbourhood, though. I've been here in one place or another for the last seven years.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
I live in Redmond and work in Downtown Seattle. I probably commute 45 min one way, which is a significant improvement over my commute from Bothell.
If I was going to move in to Seattle, I think it would probably be Queen Anne, or one of the neighborhoods north of that (Green Lake, Ballard, maybe even Shoreline). I might consider Capital(sp?) Hill, although thats the "gay" neighborhood.
As an aside, my buddy once took me to a gay bar on accident, while we were waiting for a concert to start.
With all due respect, did you expect that they'd be discussing Proust while eating brie?
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
I've got a couple leads from craigslist which I have to call today.
I've been working on paying off some massive credit card debt the last 2 years so I want to keep the eyes on the prize so to speak and finish that off in 07. After that, I've got a car loan and school loans to work on since I've kind of become obsessed with becoming debt free.
BP
Queen Anne isn't that expensive. I have a friend also up here who has a 2BR for about $800/month. I used to rent a big 1BR for around $725/month. There at least used to be some 1BRs for around $600.
The last time I checked, Capitol Hill was at least as expensive, and it's more dangerous and noisy (although that's relative, there's no like downtown Detroit equivalent here). Of course, it's also got more cool night-life type things going on, and better bus service.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
Traffic pretty much sucks anywhere in the Seattle area, unfortunatly.
I'm pretty sure car theft is a big problem on Capitol Hill.
Are not in Seattle.
Not really. If I'm going home between about 4:30 and 5:30, okay, it's slow, but it's not "take an hour to get from Interbay to the North end of the Ballard Bridge" slow.
You can have a significant impact on your commute time by choosing your neighbourhood and commute times. For example, if I worked on the East Side, I could get over there on I-90 at 7-7:30AM with no delay.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
You're going to find a place that resembles your desired budget in Lower Queen Anne. You will also be literally right by the space needle, so friends and relatives from out-of-town can make jokes about you being a real Seattleite.
Traffic really only sucks in LQA when there's a Sonics game. Fortunately after this season we won't have to worry about that anymore. Also worth nothing is that LQA is extremely close to the South Lake Union area, about a twenty-minute walk.
And don't do what Bearcat did and try and make Nirvana jokes. Or Sleepless in Seattle jokes. Or Starbucks jokes. Because most everyone here couldn't give a shit.
Lower Queen Anne has good bus service to downtown. It still only has the shitty #8 for getting between it and Capitol Hill. I have so many years of hatred built up for that bus. Not only would it only come every half hour, but sometimes it wouldn't come at all, meaning an HOUR wait total. Plus it at least used to stop running at around 23:30-00:00, making it useless if you wanted to go to a nightclub or concert or whatever.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
Is there an area where intellectualism and rocking merge at all?
Somewhere where you can listen to classical music in leather, or talk about philosophy between heavy metal sets?
And I ask this seriously.
Working in Seattle nets me an extra 40,000 USD/year as opposed to 2 hours north in Vancouver.
They cast a shadow like a sundial in the morning light. It was half past 10.
Downtown - Where the Pike Place Market (America's Oldest Open-Air Marketâ„¢), the Showbox (Seattle's best rock venue, IMO, now that the Graceland is gone), the Symphony, the Washington State Convention & Trade Center (where PAX ought-seven is going to be), Colman Dock (the ferries), the Cinerama (absolutely ginormous movie screen) and the... library (the main branch, it's pretty groovy). Other than that, there's a lot of office buildings and mall-ish things. If we're playing SimCity Seattle, these are all high-density commercial zones, baby. This is where all the buses come to and from. This is going to be our reference point for other neighborhoods.
Pioneer Square - Immediately South of downtown. This place can get a bit rough, as the homeless contingent is high. There's also a huge nightlife--often times, there's a single $10 cover charge to get into the whole area, rather than individual covers at each club. It's all meat-market-bump-and-grind shit that you see on crap like Elimidate. It's also quite historic here, so that will either read "cool, brick apartment" or "shithole of a slum." This is also where Safeco Field (the Mariners) and Qwest Field (the Seahawks) reside. Safeco is a lot of fun to go to with friends, but it makes traffic down there absolutely horrendous during game seasons. Bus service is still excellent.
The International District - You'll likely just do shopping here, rather than living. Just south of Pioneer Square, it's rather expensive for what it is, and it's dangerous at night. But it is home to a zillion import shops and grocery stores from China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and the like. Old-schoolers remember the original Uwajimaya, which was far from the shiny mega-market it is today, rather a densely-packed grocery store with handwritten tags and the owner's mother hand-making humbows in the back. Bus service is still excellent.
Capitol/First Hill - Directly east of Downtown & Pinoeer Square, respectively. The part of the hill that most people associate with "Capitol" is a bustling hub of trendy bars, boutiques, restaurants (fuck Jai Thai), the Community College, and landmarks like Bruce Lee's grave or the mosque. It's also known as the "gay" district, even though it's only slightly gayer than the rest of the city. Violent crime isn't a problem, but over the last several years the area's become rife with drug addicts. Rents are also pricey for this area, due to its trendy nature. The northeastern area of Capitol Hill (bordering on the Madison Park neighborhood, which I won't mention since it's outrageously expensive) is really, really nice, a stark contrast to the rest of it. Bus service is great along the main strip, and naturally becomes more selective as one gets farther away. The main strip in this case is quite long, and you don't have to go far to find a major busline.
Belltown - Directly north/northwest of Downtown, Belltown is quite the yuppie area. Condos, condos, condos are what you'll find here, and also a few places worth going to (notably the Cyclops bar, and Belltown Pizza). If you want to buy a condo, you're in luck! Otherwise, you probably won't find much here. However, the nightlife is active here, like Pinoneer Square, but unlike that place there's very little "clubbing" mentality. Buses are less optimizes here (most of them simply pass through on their way to other places), but when you're so close to Queen Anne and Downtown it hardly matters, as buses there are easy to come by.
Queen Anne - Directly north of Belltown, and home to yours truly, Queen Anne is another historic Seattle neighborhood, and home to several landmarks. Foremost of these is the Space Needle, which is not viewable from Frasier's apartment, and The Experience Music Project, which is notable for being very empty and very blob-like. Also here is Key Arena (the Sonics), so during basketball season traffic suffers. The nightlife here is relegated to one club (thank god for it, too, all the meatheads/dumb girls are confined in one place) and several bars that are pretty cool. bus service is excellent, as one intersection is a major hub for several route heading to many other neighborhoods. Rents are well within your budget.
Another notable landmark is the Counterbalance, which is the name for the section of Queen Anne Ave between Roy street and Galer st (about seven blocks). It's a sharp incline up Queen Anne Hill--indeed, the Counterbalance rises 450 feet in those seven blocks, and Queen Anne is the largest hill in Seattle. But once you're on top, you are in a very upscale area known as Upper Queen Anne (the bottom of the hill being Lower Queen Anne, of course). Here is suburbia, Trader Joe's, boutiques, old schools converted into apartments, townhomes & short-story condos... surprisingly, it's not hard to find a reasonable rent here. Even though it's so close to the heart of the city, living up here is more like being in a small town.
Fremont - Directly north of Queen Anne hill, this is the Center of the Universeâ„¢. Fremonteers are the most loyal supporters of their own neighborhood in the city. It's a artsy/old-town type area, although it's become rather gentrified a couple of years ago. Still, that doesn't stop 'em. To their credit, it's a really nice place, with artistic landmarks (a gigantic statue of Lenin, a big rocket, the Fremont Troll, Gasworks Park) and a very friendly atmosphere. It's a bit tricky to get to--Queen Anne and Fremont are separated by the Ship Canal, so traffic bottlenecks at the Fremont Bridge in the south. And just a few blocks north of there, the streets rise a hill. And to make matters worse, Seattle's horrible street-planning rears its ugly head again, making the paralell streets one-way right around the bridge... yes, it can be a nightmare. But it is centrally located, meaning buses to Downtown, Ballard, Wallingford and the U-District are common, and there's an onramp to Highway 99 (one of the two major north/south drags in the city, the other being Interstate 5). And due to it's location and reputation, rents range from the "a bit more than I wanted to pay" to "holy fuck."
Ballard - Located just northwest of Fremont (the area between the two is referred to as "Frelard," because of the proximity), Ballard is the oldest of the oldtown, at least in mentality. Way back in the day, Ballard was its own city, and due to its location it was a major port city. That, and coupled with the fact that Seattle used to be dry on the weekends but Ballard did not, means that it used to have a reputation for rough-and-tumble-drunken-shenanigans. Used to, because nowadays its more gentrified than Fremont. Still, it's a great place to go have a drink with your friends, especially on warm summer nights. The old Ballard spirit is there--old Norwegian ladies who go down to the corner store and buy lutefisk, for example. Many residents, especially those who have lived there for a number of years, consider themselves "Ballard" residents before "Seattle" residents. Buses to downtown and the U-District run frequently, and rent isn't too bad--it can get expensive, but it's still possible to find something reasonable.
Wallingford - Heading east from Ballard/Fremont, Wallingford is an up-and-coming gentrification project. Not to say that is doesn't have any character, or that it's any more dangerous than any other neighborhood, but there's been a lot of work done recently. Subsequently, it's difficult to find cheap rent anymore. But it has appeal, being nestled between Highway 99 on the west and I-5 on the east. It has a busy quality to it, even though if you leave the main strip it's noting but single-family homes. Unfortunately, it suffers from transportation issues--most of the buses that service the area are just passing through on-route to other locations, so you often have to transfer to get downtown.
The U-District - Heading east from Wallingford (or directly north across the canal from Capitol Hill) lands you in the neighborhood known as the University District, so named because the University of Washington is located here. No place is more transient that this one--there aren't many permanent residents, that's for sure. Most everyone is either a student, or a semi-homeless youth known as an "Ave Rat" (so named because of their proclivity to the main street, University Avenue). Despite this description, isn't not a dangerous neighborhood, at least in the "give a guy the wrong look and you'll get shot" sense. But it's not safe, either. Random acts of violence or other threats to safety do occur, however randomly (it could be two years without anything major, and then suddenly two incidents happen within a week). But it has its perks, including readily available public transportation, cheap bookstores, awesome video stores, more quick-and-easy restaurants than you could shake a stick at, and the U (which is quite a sight). It's not hard to find cheap rent--it is rather hard to find cheap rent by yourself.
Greenlake - North of the U-District and Wallingford is this area, named for the two-miles-around lake in the middle of it. It's a very nice place to live, albiet a bit pricey. There are a few specialty shops here, but it's mostly a residential area. Unfortunately, due to the massive lake in the middle and the aforementioned poor street-planning, there really isn't any sort of major road. Subsequently, bus service is pretty shitty. You can get one to the U-District, which will get you elsewhere, but that's about it.
Greenwood - North/Northwest of Greenlake is this colorful neighborhood. I say "colorful" because it is a shithole, for the most part. There are some nice parts to it, but as you get closer to and north of the main strip (i.e., away from Greenlake and Crown Hill to the west, which is really just a fancy name for "North Ballard") it takes a dive for the slummy. It's a dangerous place, and run-down--not extremely, but definelty more noticeable than south of it.
In fact, this main strip is 85th street, and that's a good indication of the land value line. Once you start getting north of 85th, everything becomes lower-rent and higher-crime/less attractive. Still, if saving money is your absolute priority and you don't mind a longer commute, up here/Northgate is a good opportunity for that.
Other neighborhoods to note:
Eastlake - Terrible traffic, somewhat northwest of Capitol Hill. Sandwiched between Lake Union on the west and Interstate 5 on the east. Very noisy and busy.
Magnolia - Total surburbia, west of Queen Anne. Not on an island, but there are still only two roads leading two it, so bottlenecks happen quite often. Horrible bus service, very few amenities, and high rents.
Ravenna - North of the U-District, someone less transitory but also less things to do. A quasi-neighborhood.
Central District - East of Capitol/First Hill. Used to be very low-rent (almost ghetto), now it's rapidly being gentrified. Home to some of the weirdest cuisine in the world, Ethiopian. Still low on the rents, but also quite dangerous.
Madrona - Northeast of Capitol Hill, north of Madison Park. Both this place and Madison Park are outrageously expensive to live in, if indeed there's anything to rent. Just thought I'd mention it.
Mercer Island - This is where filthy-rich businessmen live, on top of piles of money. And use $100 bills to light their Cuban cigars. I hear Doc lived here at one point... richer.
Also to note:
West Seattle - This is almost its own town. There's just one bridge connecting West Seattle to the mainland, so it's a real commute to get there (though, non-rush-hour times aren't congested at all). There's a different atmosphere and attitude here, for sure. It's home to the best view of Seattle (from Alki beach). It's also anywhere from cheap and grisly to fashionably expensive, so results may vary. You may wish to ask a West Seattle native for more detailed information.
Bellevue and the eastside - Are absolutely nothing like Seattle, and are indeed their own incorporated cities (Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond, most notably). Many people live over there and commute over here, which is fine. Many people live over there and consider themselves to be Seattle residents, which is fine as long as you can't influence anything over here :P (like Knute Berger, editor of the Seattle Weekly newsweekly, who is vehemently opposed to mass transit and multi-family housing, claiming that it will "manhattanize" Seattle, even though he lives in Kirkland and such changes will have zero impact on his home life). I know it sounds like I have a chip on my shoulder, but I don't. I just want to warn you that these places aren't Seattle, and indeed, it's difficult to get to Seattle from across Lake Washington--the Bellevue-Downtown commute is one of the longest, most congested commutes in the city.
And a few things to get you localized!
Geoduck - pronounced "GOOEY-duck." A local delicacy (though they don't really have it in restaraunts, you have to get it at the grocery store), it's a gigantic clam with a eight-inch, extremely phallic feeder tube hanging out. A sight to behold on any of Washington's rockyFamou , driftwood-laden beaches.
Puyallup - pronouned "pew-AL-up." One of those places down south, there's an annual fair here that's pretty kick ass, if you're into that sort of thing.
Edgar Martinez - you love this guy. Even if you don't know why, you just do.
Famous dead people - Bruce and Brandon Lee are buried on Capitol Hill. Jimi Hendrix is buried in a town about a half hour south. Kurt Cobain is buried around here somehere, probably. The guy who (supposedly) invented the electric bass pickup was a Seattle native. The Green River Killer, while not dead, and Ted Bundy, who is certainly dead, both hail from the Seattle area. James Doohan, too--OK, so they shot his ashes into space. He did die here.
Famous living people - It's not common by any stretch, but there is a small chance that you will bump into Eddie Vedder at the grocery store/coffee shop/bar. There's plenty of others here too, like Bill Nye the Science Guy, Dave Matthews, the drummer from Blues Traveler (I fixed one of his radiators), Sir Mix-A-Lot (if you want to be dangerously hip, you can mention Subset, Mix's collaboration project with The Presidents of the United States of America that was even more awesome than it sounds), Jen Taylor, Neal Stephenson and Gabe & Tycho.
That's all I have the energy for right now. I may go back and add a few links here and there, and perhaps some prettier bbcode, at a later date.
I'm beginning to settle on either LQA, Ballard or Fremont at this point although I keep hoping to find something around 700+ sq ft for under 900. I'm beginning to realize that's not going to happen.
I had two viewings last night and today and one was a pit in Greenlake (500/mo) and the other was about as big as my desk drawer ($900/mo) also in Greenlake.
I'm headed to look at a 1bd/1ba in LQA in a few minutes then I've got a room to look at in Phinney around 7. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Peace,
BP
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
I've noticed it has a few interesting companies like Wizards of the Coast there.
And Microsoft. And the Mac & Jack's brewery.
:shock: Liar!
Anyway, Redmond can be tough for rent, and house prices are pretty ridiculous. As far as my experience goes, renting in Redmond is more expensive than Lynnwood or Bothell, and slightly less expensive than Bellevue. There will be exceptions for both, of course. I'm currently renting a nice two bedroom apartment near Lake Sammamish (near = a park across the street that is on the lake) for $1225 a month.
If you are looking for affordable and within easy commuting distance, I would look up north. Greenlake, Fremont, Phinney Ridge and Greenwood would all be good. A lot of the stuff there can be really expensive (especially around Greenlake), but you can get lucky sometimes. You should be able to get to work by bus in under 30 minutes from any of those places.
You may want to look into renting a Mother-in-Law apartment. There seem to be quite a few of them around here and they can be a pretty good deal sometimes.
BP
It will be horrible. Unless you are driving through seattle at around 3 in the morning, traffic pretty much always sucks. Especially when it rains. You would think that in an area like this, where it does rain somewhat frequently, that people would know how to drive when it is wet out. But they don't. Also, be prepared for the entire city to freak the fuck out if we manage to get 1/2" of snow this winter.
Anyways, once you do find a place to live, check out the King County Metro website. They have a trip planner where you just plug in your starting and ending address and when you have to be somewhere, and they tell you what bus to catch. It's pretty handy.
Looking for a roommate, in, say, two years?
:winky:
Cripes.
I pay 840 near fricking Fresno for just a one bedroom.
Yessiree, Seattle's the place for me. Screw this pothole.
BP