Moving to Seattle

[Ricemarine]

I prefer living in Shoreline and taking Sand Point to UW 🙂.

 

[flashbacck]

bump for late night people

 

[Martin]

I was there for a few days and fell in love with the place. Mercer island Alki beach looked awesome, though probably quite inconvinient for you...

 

[AreaCode707]

Welcome to the neighborhood. 🙂

Apartments Link - their map does a good job laying out the areas.

U-District: It's a little city-ish for me but then I'm a country girl. Lots of people, frat row, shops piled on top of each other, active even late at night. Ravenna is a nice little offshoot just a few minutes off the campus that seems calmer and more residential.

East: Bellevue, Redmond and Mercer Island are the WASP-y cities - typical suburbia, soccer moms, SUVs and expensive housing. Nice areas to live, good schools I think, not too bad a commute.

West: Green Lake and Ballard are nice close and fairly calm residential areas. Green Lake is one of my favorite Seattle spots. The small lake there usually has walkers and joggers around it, lots of kids in the area, cute shops, just an overall friendly feel. Ballard is a little less community feeling but still a good place to be.

South: South of UW is the city center and south of that are some good and bad areas to live but anything south of the city center is going to be a bit far for a driving commute, although not bad by bus. Immediately south of the UW are the Montlake and Capitol Hill areas but I don't know much about them. My impression of Montlake is that it's fairly similar to Ravenna, and Capitol Hill is a little closer to the heart of the city feel.

North: Not really familiar with the area north of campus, sorry.

Orsorum has lived in the area his entire life and in the UW district for the last several years. If you shoot him a PM, he may have more insight.

 

[codeyf]

Sounder Train makes living up north (Everett) and down south (Puyallup) bearable.

Otherwise, Bothell/Kenmore/Canyon park area is nice, more reasonable than the Eastside, and there are 3 great Park & Rides in the area that have routes to the U district.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

I just moved to Federal Way about 2 weeks ago. It's not too bad of a place to live, but it wouldn't be very convenient for a commute to UW everyday (which is sorta ironic because I'll be commuting there for work every once in a while). I don't know too much about many other places. My mother lives by Lake Sammamish on the south side, but it's pretty spendy there. I've heard Mukilteo is a good place if you've got a family, and it wouldn't be TOO BAD of a commute to UW. That's about the best of my knowledge so far.

BTW, I made the drive from Los Angeles to Seattle in 1 straight shot, 19 hours, pulling a U-Haul trailer.

You don't happen to work in biological/medical research at the university, do you?

 

[KillerCharlie]

I just moved to Mukilteo from Everett (lived in Everett for 6 months temporarily). Mukilteo is a very nice place, and is mostly made up of two kinds of housing: apartments and multimillion dollar mansions. I obviously live in the former. I don't think there are too many middle class homes (of course houses out here are ridiculously expensive). I HATE commuting and luckily I work at Boeing so my commute is 10 minutes on a bad day. I'm not sure if I would commute from there to UW, especially since you're going in the rush hour direction.

Since I recently moved, I really looked around at apartments. Everyone else who posted though definitely has more experience here than me. I definitely didn't like any of the apartments in Kenmore, but most of Bothell seemed pretty good. If you want to live close, definitely live in north Seattle (Greenlake - I love that area).

Seattle has horribly congested traffic, overpriced real estate, and polluted air on hot summer days, but coming from LA you'll probably think these things don't exist. However, for outdoor activities in the summer, there is simply no better place in the country!

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: EvilYoda
My friend lived in a really nice neighborhood...I think it was the northern region of Seattle? I'm trying to remember the name, but it was right next to the Cinerama. A bit more $$$, but it looked clean and more upscale than downtown.

its called belltown

 

[IndieSnob]

Belltown and Capital Hill are my preferred neighborhood.

And anyone that says Bellevue, I have to disagree. Unless you like living in a burb full of snooty jerks.

 

[flashbacck]

Originally posted by: Garth
...
You don't happen to work in biological/medical research at the university, do you?

Yeah, I'd be in the genome sciences dept. in Foege Hall.

killercharlie:
Since I recently moved, I really looked around at apartments. Everyone else who posted though definitely has more experience here than me. I definitely didn't like any of the apartments in Kenmore, but most of Bothell seemed pretty good. If you want to live close, definitely live in north Seattle (Greenlake - I love that area).

Seattle has horribly congested traffic, overpriced real estate, and polluted air on hot summer days, but coming from LA you'll probably think these things don't exist. However, for outdoor activities in the summer, there is simply no better place in the country!

That's alright, I appreciate any comments. Since you've recently moved, you might have a better idea of the rental market too.

 

[gopunk]

ehh.... a lot of you guys are not really talking about neighborhoods around the uw... those would be u-district, ravenna, laurelhurst, etc. everett?? good god 😛

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: IndieSnob
Belltown and Capital Hill are my preferred neighborhood.

And anyone that says Bellevue, I have to disagree. Unless you like living in a burb full of snooty jerks.

I live on Capitol Hill at the moment, and I prefer it to almost anywhere else in the Seattle city limits.

I'm not a huge fan of Bellevue either, but that's mostly because I grew up in Kent. 😛

Originally posted by: gopunk
ehh.... a lot of you guys are not really talking about neighborhoods around the uw... those would be u-district, ravenna, laurelhurst, etc. everett?? good god 😛

I'm a big fan of the area right around Greenlake; easy place to find jogging, you have a number of other neighborhoods (U District, Northgate, downtown) all within a decent driving or busing distance.

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: EvilYoda
My friend lived in a really nice neighborhood...I think it was the northern region of Seattle? I'm trying to remember the name, but it was right next to the Cinerama. A bit more $$$, but it looked clean and more upscale than downtown.

its called belltown

Not a fan, personally. But, I work on Second Ave and Cherry; I prefer not being able to walk to work, helps me keep a separation between my personal and professional life.

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: HotChic
Welcome to the neighborhood. 🙂

Apartments Link - their map does a good job laying out the areas.

U-District: It's a little city-ish for me but then I'm a country girl. Lots of people, frat row, shops piled on top of each other, active even late at night. Ravenna is a nice little offshoot just a few minutes off the campus that seems calmer and more residential.

East: Bellevue, Redmond and Mercer Island are the WASP-y cities - typical suburbia, soccer moms, SUVs and expensive housing. Nice areas to live, good schools I think, not too bad a commute.

West: Green Lake and Ballard are nice close and fairly calm residential areas. Green Lake is one of my favorite Seattle spots. The small lake there usually has walkers and joggers around it, lots of kids in the area, cute shops, just an overall friendly feel. Ballard is a little less community feeling but still a good place to be.

South: South of UW is the city center and south of that are some good and bad areas to live but anything south of the city center is going to be a bit far for a driving commute, although not bad by bus. Immediately south of the UW are the Montlake and Capitol Hill areas but I don't know much about them. My impression of Montlake is that it's fairly similar to Ravenna, and Capitol Hill is a little closer to the heart of the city feel.

North: Not really familiar with the area north of campus, sorry.

Orsorum has lived in the area his entire life and in the UW district for the last several years. If you shoot him a PM, he may have more insight.

Hotchic nailed it pretty well, I think. Ballard is nice but it's currently the "trendy" place to live so rents are disproportionately high. Bellevue isn't a *bad* place to live, I just don't like it because I feel out of place.

I think your opinion of the U District depends on which side of the UW campus you live on. If you live by U Village, I think you'll generally find better surroundings than the Ave (University Avenue) side; if you live just North of campus you'll get frats and cheap student apartments (Ted Bundy, anyone?), if you live further Northwest you'll get closer to Greenlake. South/Southeast of the UW campus is the Montlake cut; I hate the Montlake cut and have a burning desire to see it destroyed, mostly due to me spending 1/4 of my college years tied up in traffic there.

Once you pass over 520 and head south on Montlake/24th Ave, there are some beautiful houses and neighborhoods in general, but probably more appropriate for families than a young (presumably single?) person.

I like Capitol Hill, but if you're conservative or don't approve of alternative lifestyles, you may be challenged here. Additionally, here you get the worst of the smarmy, passive aggressive Seattlelite jerks. I'm used to it now, but it still grates on me every now and then.

 

[HombrePequeno]

I wouldn't suggest the U-District. It kind of scares me that there was a shooting right outside the house I live in a few weeks ago.

Wallingford seems like a pretty decent area.

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno
I wouldn't suggest the U-District. It kind of scares me that there was a shooting right outside the house I live in a few weeks ago.

Wallingford seems like a pretty decent area.

Which part of the U District?

 

[Rudy Toody]

Originally posted by: IndieSnob
Belltown and Capital Hill are my preferred neighborhood.

And anyone that says Bellevue, I have to disagree. Unless you like living in a burb full of snooty jerks.

I agree with the Bellevue description.

I live downtown, 3 blocks from Orsorum's workplace. My two favorite areas are Belltown and Fremont. Fremont is the "Center of the Universe" and located between Ballard and Wallingford. It's an easy commute to the UofW.

 

[CountZero]

I will probably be just parroting what others have said but here goes.

I've lived in the u-district for years. Its nice in that you can walk to anything (and in your case work). It has gone steadily downhill as shops move off the Ave and more and more thug type folks seem to litter the streets. If you go udsitrict be sure to get a secured entrance apt. Mine isn't and I've more than a few times kicked homeless drug users off my steps.

North of me is Ravenna which is a fairly nice mostly residential area.

To the west of Ravenna is Greenlake which is very popular with the grad students I know. I don't know much about it but the couple times I've passed through it seemed like a nice neihborhood with a mix of stuff you can easily walk to and easy connections to getting around.

Directly west of the u-district is Wallingford. I've never lived there but it looks like a decent place to live, mostly residential with a few fairly long strips of shops and food places.

I think south west from Wallingford is Fremont. Its been sort of the bohemian neighborhood of Seattle but people have been complaining that its popularity with the yuppieish crowd has ruined it.

Belltown is pretty much downtown. It is, or at least was, the cool place to live for up and coming professionals. Easy to commute to and from by bus and you are close to just about anything since you are near the center of the city.

Capitol Hill is a little ways south of UW. It was described to me as the 'gay' neighborhood. Its definitely got a higher proportion of gay folks that are very open about it than elsewhere. The non-gay folks tend to be hipsters.

Bellevue is suburbia. If you want suburbs full of SUVs and soccer moms its the place to be. The commute across 520 everyday can be a pain if you work regular hours.

If the UW will fly you out for a house hunting trip I'd say hit up capitol hill, wallingford, fremont, greenlake and the udistrict and you will probably know fairly quickly which you like and which you don't. They are similar but all have a distinctive feel. Oh and I don't know about LA but Seattle is tops for passive agressive I'm better than you attitude.

I should also add that I didn't list the popular neighborhoods I'm not familiar with but Queen Anne and Ballard are both very popular.

Good luck!

 

[flashbacck]

Thanks, everyone, for all the info.

 

[flashbacck]

well, I signed a lease yesterday! The place I got is 2-3 blocks east of Green Lake right next to the I-5 (around 65th and Ravenna).

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: flashbacck
well, I signed a lease yesterday! The place I got is 2-3 blocks east of Green Lake right next to the I-5 (around 65th and Ravenna).

Nice! Green Lake is a good area. We'll have to do a netmeet or something soon.

 

[Soybomb]

just marking this cause i'm thinking of moving there too 😉

 

[Eos]

Originally posted by: flashbacck
well, I signed a lease yesterday! The place I got is 2-3 blocks east of Green Lake right next to the I-5 (around 65th and Ravenna).

Ravenna was my exit off of NB I-5 when I delivered to the PCC Green Lake over at hwy 99 and Winona. Plus there was a Whole Foods at 64th and Roosevelt I would go to as well from the same exit.

Good luck.

If you wait until spring for a netmeet, I would be tempted to come over from the desert! It's just about 3 hours drive in solid weather.

 

[Orsorum]

Good call, that's a decent place to live.