Any dopers care to give me an inside view on Seattle?
First, allow me to extend a premature welcome to the Emerald City. Here is a virtual tour. Its fairly interesting, and informative.
Now the real stuff.
Seattle lives up to her nickname, The Emerald City. She is beautiful, with alpine lakes scattered around the city. The largest of which is Lake Washington, at approx 25 miles long by between 1 & 2 miles across. It defines the eastern edge of the city proper.
Unfortunately, about 20 years ago technology came to roost, bringing with it people, traffic, crime, pollution, and people. Did I mention people? They did bring money, a flood of money.
Those of us who have the Pacific Northwest in our blood are reasonably tolerant, we’re also independent and original. Those techy types that migrated here over the past two decades have learned our ways and adapted.
You’re probably thinking that sounds ok… but there’s a dark side. * We are all compelled to drive our cars, and not share them* Yes, a few people ride the bus, or car pool, but we drive. Traffic is a nightmare, fast approaching the horror show called LA.
Remember that money thing? When it was pouring in, it drove housing prices up. Well, the tide has turned. The tech industry leveled off. But the housing prices didn’t come down.
A house that cost $170,000 in 1999, is now worth $350,000 ( and people still buy them!)
Since we live at the end of the earth, Gas prices are well above the national average. I paid $2.70 a gallon for mid-grade yesterday. Regular was $2.50/g
Enough bad stuff.
We have major league sports coming out our ears. We have two brand new stadiums, Seahawks, and Mariners. I believe there is talk of a new Basketball venue in the near future for the Sonics.
We have EMP (Experience Music Project) too. Its an eyesore, in my opinion, but I’ve never been invited to write for Architectural Digest. Its one of the many projects, sponsored/supported by Paul Allen. (The other side of Microsoft.)
We have a major, state supported university, as well as a couple private ones.
We support the arts. The Symphony opened Benaroya Hall, a state of the art concert venue, recently. Music of every style is nutured here. As well as other preforming arts.
The weather isn’t as bad as its reputation. We usually have very mild winters, with some notable exceptions, but those are rare. The summers are mild as well. In fact, air conditioning is not very common. I’m not sure why, but traditionally, few houses have screened windows.
It does rain here. It can rain anytime. I was born here, and I can’t tell you when the “rainy season” is. But, its just water and we’ve proven that no one melts… We don’t let it overly influence our lives. I’ve mowed the lawn in the rain.
In winter, when it raines here, 50 miles away, its snowing. We have a number of ski areas accessible as day trips.
I’ll stop here. I’m sure others will be along soon with more.
I moved to Seattle in 1996, and except for a two-year hiatus elsewhere for my wife’s degree have lived here since. We love it here and hope to stay (will we? insert various dull work-and-family considerations here).
Since Seattle was already a bustling, tech-happy city when I moved here, I can’t compare it to the good ol’ days. But in my view the pace and temper of public life are more relaxed here than in type A eastern cities such as Philadelphia and Boston. There are many midwestern transplants (I’m in that category) and taciturn native Swedes, but other cultures and ethnicities are somewhat represented.
The non-rainy season seems to span July, August, and September. Housing is unreasonably expensive and shows no signs of getting better. (We’re still renting.) As for transportation, my wife and I both walk to work and often take the bus elsewhere, putting gas in the car once a month whether it needs it or not. Habitual single-passenger driving is voluntary, not compulsory.
It’s great to have a major university in town, and there are also some excellent bookstores and, of course, great coffee (Starbucks? don’t make me laugh!). There’s a huge film festival every May-June and a first-rate jazz festival in October-November.
The mountains and water are beautiful. Vancouver is three hours to the north, Portland three hours to the south, Oregon coast just a bit further, lovely islands and peninsulas and hiking and such. Relatively liberal politics…in the metro area, anyway.
What are you looking for, where do you live now, what are you interested in, etc…maybe if we knew more about you we could tell you more about our city.
Hmmm… yes… are you moving north? East? South? West? Each area of Seattle is different and you’ll get some more localised Doper responses from those areas - that is, if you know or have a general idea. 
I just moved here over a year ago, and personally, I love it. For me, it’s wonderful, because I came from a very small town (one stoplight town? HA! We didn’t have any stoplights! We were lucky that our roads were paved!) and so, to me, there is anything and everything I could ever ask for all in one convenient place. Do you love zoos? Do you love parks? Do you love breathtaking mountain views? Or beautiful water views? Or both together? Yeah, we got that. 
Sonics games, Mariners games, Seahawks games… all here. Always seems to be something going on, or something to do. As far as cities go, it’s “small”, but let’s be honest, it depends on what cities you are used to! My husband tells me compared to other “major” US cities, Seattle is fairly small. Well, where I come from, the closest city took all of ten minutes to drive by.
And yes, it is pretty expensive to buy a home out here. I’d love to stay in Ballard, but the husband and I have been poking our noses in and around Shoreline and Edmonds a little bit, as well, where it’s a little less expensive. Do you want to live in the city? Downtown? Buy a house? Buy a condo? Rent? It all fluctuates drastically, depending on what you’d like to do.
Huk24 –
There are a lot of Dopers here, living in a variety of areas. Some, like Johnny L.A., a recent immigrant, live closer to Canada.
Tell us a little about what you’re looking for because you can live on a (house)boat, out in the country, on an island, in a mobile home.
But there are a few generalities that ring pretty true about the area:
- real estate values have been continuing their steady upward pace
- commuting here is a nightmare along the traditional routes
- it’s the land of eternal springtime and it rains continually in the spring. (But July, August, September here can be spectacular and dry-ish)
- the city is not as ethnically diverse as many American cities
- the outdoors are accessible – and a huge percentage of the city heads for the islands/mountains/coast each weekend
- the city is the gateway to Alaska and has a lot of economic and transportation links to the 50th state
- the University of Washington dominates the university scene here. But this isn’t a Chicago or San Francisco with multiple major academic institutions
Best regards,
Mooney252
Uh… because we have no carnivorous bugs? Compared to Texas, anyway, SEA is a bug-free heaven. I have yet to get noticeably bitten by anything in four years of residence here, and my bloodstream is mostly sugar and caffeine, so make of that what you might.
Yep – Redmond Town Center and U-Village (both malls) provide umbrellas for shoppers. Other than that, I’ve noticed that pretty much nobody but recent immigrants/tourists/elderly seems to use an umbrella. Everyone else sloshes around as is. (which reminds me – I need to drop by REI and find a nice new jacket – my old leather jacket is starting to give up the ghost)
Hey, Anastasaeon, what’s the name of that cool-ass record store in Ballard? Bop Street, right? My SO and I visited Seattle for two weeks a couple years ago and fell in love with Ballard. We went to the locks and this big street fair, and some great bar… something to do with horses… where the bartender gave us free shots. Ballard is the best.
ZJ
I just finished watching the BBC documentary on the Cascadian zone and tsunamis. How come none of us have mentioned the earthquakes?
LOL! And we have 4 volcanoes nearby (Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, Glacier Peak, Mt. Baker).
I don’t live there, but I visited, and as far as I can tell it’s ever more rainy then I have been tols, and Holy Hell, it’s Hilly. Every street looked like a mountain, from a pdestrains point of view, when I got down to the bottom of each street.
Aye, aye, it’s Bop Street you’re thinking of, I’m certain. Sonic Boom on Market isn’t too bad, either. As I’ve probably mentioned a trillion times in the past ( ) I live across from the Locks.
I do love Ballard, and I hope, no matter where we go around here, that we end up in Ballard. I never want to move too far away. Heck, if this apartment wasn’t too small to raise a family in, I’d stay* right here * where I am forever! We’d love to find a house nearby, buuuut… it’s looking pretty expensive.
Scott, what’s interesting is all the jokes I got from back home about how rainy it must be in Seattle, they would send little comics involving Seattle rain somehow, make silly jokes, etc… but ever since I got here, it hasn’t rained that much at all. The past year has been a pretty dry one. But we have had lots of gorgeous, sunny weather! I have a feeling I’m just tempting fate at this point, though, and that infamous Seattle rain will come pouring down at any time…
When it does rain, however, I must be an obvious immigrant - walking around with my umbrella! I wondered why most people just trudged along, sometimes with their hoods up, sometimes not. However, when I was visiting here a few years ago, I saw all these people on the sidewalk, on a beautiful sunny day, carrying a folded umbrella at their sides. I asked my then-fiance why they did that. He told me: “They know it could rain at any time.” Sure, an three hours later, it did rain. I do have to wonder, though… he’s from Federal Way, and that’s where we were driving around. As my husband says, shaking his head, “There seems to be something in the water in Federal Way.” 
(no offense to anyone from Federal Way, we’re talking about a handful of people we know)
Could the bar have been the Fire House?
Anastasaeon But if you live in Ballard, you DO live in a small town! I’m not even sure you can get to the city from there!
I’m only kidding. I love Ballard, and Fremont. They both have a bit of that small town flavor, without the inconvience.
Ballard/Fremont seems to have that happy medium I’ve been looking for all my life. Not too big, not too small. It’s the third bowl of porridge -* juuuust * right.
huk24, where do you live right now? I have, at one time or another, lived in just about every part of the country. I might be able to key you in to some of the differences to expect.
Seattle is a town where your ability to enjoy the city is almost 100% dependent upon the specific area that you live vs work. As mentioned before, traffic sucks. Badly. If you have to depend upon either I-5 or I-405 as your primary travel path, you will be miserable. But most have adapted, I know folks who shrug off a daily-1-hour-drive-plus-1-hour-ferry as completely normal. Me, if I drive for more than 20 minutes I go crazy, but reverse commute with the traffic so am lucky.
On the other hand, the back streets and secondary roads can be used to transit the whole city very quickly if you do it right.
My only real gripe with the city is the lack of bike-friendly roads. Most roads have questionable or non-existant bike lanes, a lot of hills, and poor shoulders. So that means that you will be spending a lot of your time getting sprayed by cars going through puddles, squeezed off the road by buses, etc. Cycling in Seattle is not for the faint of heart.
Do you know about apartments and the like and how much they run for…? I don’t think I’ll be buying a house, necessarily, right when I move…I know it’s different all over, but I’m pretty simple…
I need to look into the universities…maybe getting my masters. I hope one there has a masters english program…!
Currently Texas and before that Arkansas.
Hello.
Huk24 –
Must not be a lot of renters here. Apartments in southern Snohomish County are about $700-$800 per month for a good one bedroom. But you can find some very nice complexes, including swimming pool.
I don’t know much about the U District, Green Lake, etc.
Best regards,
Mooney252
As fate would have it, those are a two of the few places that I have visited but have never lived. So, I will confine myself to some general observations that I have as a transplant (having spent the 14 years before I moved here in New England).
First, a disclaimer: These are just my personal experiences and opinions. Others may feel differently, but I hope that you find at least some value in them.
You will probably hear that the people here are nice. I find that this is not true. Rather, my take is that they are unfailingly polite (but not necessarily nice, if you get the distinction).
It is expensive. Housing is pretty expensive if you want to live in Seattle itself. You can do a bit better in some of the outlying communities, but you are trading pretty bad commuting if you do that (assuming that you work in Seattle).
The University district is interesting to visit, but I don’t suggest living there.
Everyone here walks and drives the exact wrong speed. You know the one, just a little faster than would be convenient to pass but just slow enough that it is irritating as hell to be behind them. Also, I have never seen anywhere so baffled by the mystery of turn signals until I moved here.
We have a lot of panhandlers.
All of that said, I can tell you that it is pretty as all get out and that the climate here is wonderful. Even in the height of summer, it rarely reaches the low 90s, there is usually no humidity to speak of and it just about always cools of enough to be quite comfortable at night. The winters, while pretty gray and wet, are quite mild compared to a lot of places.
There is also a lot to do. Lots of good camping pretty close, art, libraries, music, and so forth.
Bingo - look around hard enough and you can find some pretty sweet deals. My husband and I lived in South Seattle (in Boulevard Park - not a great area, but not too bad, either) in an apartment complex that had a swimming pool (actually, if I remember correctly, it was called “Whisperwood”) and had huge (IMO, for one room) apartments, and we got in while they had a deal on the one-rooms for $550. After a year, the rent went up to $650, but it was still a pretty good price for what you got. Walk-in closets, too.
We moved here to Ballard last October, and this place is just a touch smaller (the old place was like, 700 sq. feet, this place is about 600 sq. feet), older, but centralised to everything useful, and it costs about $640-$675 per month. Frankly, I think we got lucky with this place, but keep searching, there are deals to be found. However, you should probably expect to pay between $700-900 per month.
Hubby has lived in the U district, and his recommendation: Stay out of the U District. It’s an interesting place to visit, but don’t live there. Overpriced, and not a very good neighbourhood.
One of the places we like to browse, though we don’t always use it, is the site rent.com. I’m sure there are plenty like it. Check out Craig’s List, as well. If you find something that looks good, perhaps pop back in here and point it out to someone, and someone will certainly have an opinion on the area. Seattle is a great place if you know where to go.