I'm finally moving to Seattle. Let's talk about where to live. (Bellevue: fit in, transplants)

[Tobias Wolff]

I've lived in several places over the years (east coast, upper midwest, northern California, and the southwest). A few years ago, I moved to Phoenix, largely for now moot family reasons. For at least 10 years, however, my heart's been set on Seattle thanks to my many wonderful visits to the area, including in the winter. Well, now is the time to make my move, and I'm doing it.

Frankly, although Phoenix does have its perks, they're not enough to outweigh what I absolutely despise about it:

1. Terrible downtown with small buildings scattered under a halo of smog

2. Few appealing neighborhoods; generally beat up ranch style homes in horrible locations or mud huts with desert landscaping (and the obligatory scorpion infestation)

3. Little to no walkable areas, which means the default is driving everywhere and oftentimes very, very long distances within the city itself

4. Way too many chain restaurants and strip malls, with few local coffeehouses and restaurants

5. Minimal greenery and no water, unless you include Tempe Town Lake or the canal system, and way too much dust and haze

6. Far too many Christians, particularly the anti-(gay, science, education, recycling) variety, as well as a large number of gun lovers, hunters, and unnerving stay-at-home wives (note I said wives, not mothers)

Although the heat is a pain (and lasts May-September), it's probably the least of my issues with the city, though I'm certainly not a fan of 110 degrees at 10 p.m.

I'll let you read the above list and guess why I love Seattle so much. I'm a single professional earning about 150K per year (but I do have pretty large student loans), which is about what I'll earn in Seattle.

Sorry for the long windup, but I wanted to explain a bit about myself before I begin asking questions. I'll likely have several more over the next couple of months. The first, however, relates to where to live (rent). On that note, a couple more points:

1. I'm interested in meeting others and making friends (even plan on joining a sports team and the anti-freeze group for fellow transplants).

2. In my ideal situation, I'd be within walking distance of good coffeehouses, restaurants, and even grocery stores. I'm not averse to commuting to work, though. (I'll be in the downtown area.) I already commute 30-40 minutes per day and actually like it, so a similar commute in Seattle is fine by me.

3. I'd like to be close to good walking or biking paths, and certainly a good spot to kayak or just chill by the water.

Based on what I've written, does anyone have recommendations or thoughts on places to live, whether in Seattle or the eastern cities (e.g., Kirkland)? I'm all ears. I'd love to read about your experiences.

[pw72]

This should probably be moved to the Seattle threads.

But, from your post, I would recommend the Green Lake/Wallingford/Fremont districts in north Seattle.

[Ira500]

I like pw72's ideas, and would add Ballard and Phinney, and also Seward Park/Columbia City in the south end. Seward park is gorgeous and has a 2.5 mile bike/walking loop...Lots of bikers use Lake Washington Boulevard in that area, and several Sundays in the summer, the street gets completely closed except for bikers and walkers...Columbia City nearby has both buses and the light rail, movie theatre, farmers market, bakery, alehouse, Thai food, tacos, African food, barbecue, and more.

[Under The Clouds]

I'd also add the neighborhoods of Leschi, Madrona, and Madison Park. All are just east of downtown and Capitol Hill. The section of Capitol Hill centered along 15th Avenue is also really nice, and very walkable to grocery stores, dry cleaners, etc. I also like the area just south of Madison Street and west of 23rd--it's really starting to come into own, though it's a little quieter than Capitol Hill and a few blocks further from stores. All of these neighborhoods have easy commutes to downtown via bus or walking, or would be short drives. Eastlake (just north of downtown and west of Capitol Hill) would also be an interesting choice, esp. given its access to Lake Union.

Really, you can't go wrong with any of the suggestions on this thread so far--just about any neighborhood in Seattle proper will be reasonably walkable. You can check Walkscore for a specific area, but you will have a variety of neighborhoods to choose from, which is good because they do have different personalities.

[LongDawson]

Sounds like you want to walk around rather than drive, and be close to greenery and nature, etc. Consider the downtown Issaquah area. Great bus service straight to Seattle, and the freshest air. Surrounded by forest.

The thing is, Issaquah seems to have a relatively high number of gun owners, but I could be wrong. There is a gun club, anyway. Well, I find your post quite humorous and dare I say there is a latent gun fascination within you. Move to Issaquah, get a pistol and a holster, buy a bus pass, suck in all the fresh air, and call it a day.

[seattlenextyear]

I live in Kirkland now and it would meet your criteria, but so would most of the neighborhoods mentioned (be skeptical of the Issaquah answer though). Whenever I meet an extrovert here, they tell me about this trivia night at the local Irish pub, so I assume that's where they congregate on Wednesday nights. I see sporty adults playing frisbee and soccer on teams in the parks. Lots of bars, good coffee shops, and there's kayaking in Houghton.

I guess first decide if you want to live in the city (great neighborhoods like Green Lake, Wallingford, Fremont, Ballard, etc etc etc), or in the burbs (Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond). Then go from there.

[Ira500]

....and then there's Renton. Has working class roots and still has a Boeing plant, but...
The historic downtown has been improving a lot in recent years.It has coffeehouses, a cupcake place, some great restaurants and bars,including an Irish Pub) supermarkets( including a branch of Uwajimaya Asian superstore), access to the cedar River trail, kaying and canoe rental , great public transit to downtown Seattle, downtown Bellevue, and the airport. Renton has lots of parks and is just a short drive to the "Issaquah Alps" the trails on Cougar and Squak Mountain, and Renton also has a mini mountain of it's own, Echo or Cedar Mountain, which is a rigorous but short hike with spectacular Mount Rainier views from the top.

[eskercurve]

Firstly, I totally agree with you. Last year I spent three months on assignment for work in Phoenix and I hated thet place. Boring, drab, quantity over quality, and race to the bottom common denominator all for saving a buck while mixing quasi-religious anti intellectualism is what Phoenix is all about. And everyone drives like a bat out of hell. The only reason why I took that assignment was I got a 10% bump in pay and I had nearly zero cost of living expenses in those three months.

Lately I've been checking out the Broadmoor neighborhood. There's all sorts of restaurants there, some coffeehouses, and it's close to Lake Washington way, which has killer views. You can walk pretty much anywhere you need to from there and there are lots of housing, but it tends to be upscale. You'll probably like Mercer Island too, with one exception being the coffeehouses (there's only starbucks and tully's here). Mercer Island has tons of park land, jogging / hiking / biking trails, it's 5 minutes drive (about 20 min bike ride) to either Bellevue or Seattle, rental rates are reasonable, and for long term planning, has some of the best schools in the area. Some of the people may be uppity, it sorta comes with the territory of average home prices well into the millions.

The above neighborhoods are all also good ones, and I'll throw in the U district if you don't mind dirty / slightly run down walks around UW and petty theft and stupid college kids (I lived there for two years and I couldn't wait to move out of there). In all there's many neighborhoods and I characterize the personality like this (feel free to correct me if anyone disagrees):

- Capitol Hill: a real mixed bag and very diverse, but expensive to live in and noisy if you decide to live on/close to Broadway. If you are anti-gay or carry some of that with you from Phoenix, don't move here.

- Downtown: Eclectic and not so noisy when you're in your place as most apartments are above enough of the noise. Crime will be higher due to higher density. This is great if you work downtown too as you won't have to fight traffic, and the bus system can get you anywhere in the Puget Sound region within 40 minutes. You also are close to historic and cool areas.

- Ballard: the "just out of college but still hip" crowd, or those who still fit into that. You can also find somewhat reasonable housing there and isn't as noisy. Same goes for Phinney.

- Fremont: the artsy, quirky part of the city. There's a statue of Lenin there, who gets dressed in drag every pride and solstice parade. There's also the group of people catching a bus which is a bunch of statues, which people dress as pimps, whores, clowns, etc. There's also really cool places to shop there.

- West Seattle: slightly more mature than Ballard, and is close to the water, but the only rentals around there which are affordable are on California ave. But then you're close to everything, including the water.

- Broadmoor: sort of like a suburb in the city, only cooler, and you can walk everywhere.

[Ira500]

If you're looking for something in the Broadmoor area, it's rarely called that in real estate ads. Mostly it's called Madison Valley, or Arboretum, or Madison Park ( which it's not, but it's not too far). The Arboretum is great for walking around in, and the neighborhood is nice.

[pw72]

Yeah, Broadmoor is actually a gated small pocket of wealth around the Broadmoor golf course. If only I had the means...I've always known the area as Madison Park. But even outside Broadmoor, it ain't cheap.