Why Living "Close" To the Job Doesn't Always Work in WA

[roodd279]

in WA especially, Convenience is Golden.

What does that mean?

[DallasYankee]

Roodd279, convenience is golden to me, because having to drive 30 + minutes (in every direction) to get to quality gyms /yoga studios, restaurants, diverse shopping like PetSmart, Trader Joes, Costco, Marshalls, etc. each and every day in addition to a similar job commute is simply exhausting and wears one down. We are tired of this daily, unnecessary grind.
Issaquah is smaller than Renton but doesn't require 30+ minutes to get to a nice strip shopping center with plenty of choices, much like other cities in other states we have lived previously.
As for Renton, it may be diverse, but it is still unfortunately not to my liking.

[jabogitlu]

I'm curious where you were living in Renton.... PetSmart and Marshall's are in Renton Landing. Costco is nearby at Southcenter, which has every store I could ever think of, from Ross to Nordstrom to Kohl's to Best Buy to Michael's... it's suburban retail overload. I will give you Trader Joe's though. It's kind of interesting that there's not a TJ's anywhere between Burien and Bellevue.

[DallasYankee]

Jabogitlu, we were living close to odious Fairwood off of Petrovitsky Park in Lake Desire.
We did go the Landing sometimes, but I found the area to have a rather gritty urban vibe (even though it was somewhat gentrified) and the traffic around there was not particularly pleasant. And crime is definitely worse there than in Issaquah.
We even knew a couple of gentlemen who lived in LD and who both worked remotely for Boeing, so were my husband to change companies and end up working there instead, then chances are he could also work remotely, thereby removing the necessity of having to live in Renton.
We used to like Tukwila immensely, but aside from World Market, Lamps Plus, DSW, Kohl's and the Southcenter AMC movie theatre, there's not much of a lure for us to go to that town. We do like Grazie (a very upscale Italian ristorante), and a few other nearby eateries, like The Old Spaghetti Factory, etc., but not enough to go there often. Again, the same layout (dense shopping clusters with many nicer stores and higher-end restaurants with good - sized parking lots) exist in both Tukwila and Issaquah, but the former has more chain restaurants, while the latter has more unique single locations, some in the appealing Historic Downtown (only 5 minutes from our new rental!)
BTW, there is a Marshall/Home Goods, Best Buy ,Ross and Michael's right in Issaquah!

[jabogitlu]

I gotcha. Sounds like you wanted more of a smaller-town, close to the large city, kind of vibe, but with a higher level of amenity. It's hard to get that in Maple Valley or even Covington, so I can definitely see how you were driving often.

I hope you enjoy Issaquah! I've only been out there a few times, but the downtown looks really cute and quaint. And the Costco will always be top notch!