Moving to Seattle

In My Humble Opinion
21

Yes, but you’ll get the best traction from putting them on all 4 tires.

Yup.

Chains give you more traction whenever you need it. Climbs and descents are a common place to need it, but if you have poor tires, you may need chains even on flat roads when there’s snow or thick ice. (I don’t think there’s much of that in Seattle, though.)

Among other things, you want to stay below 30 MPH when you have chains on. You don’t want the chain to break and bash up your wheel wells.

I’ve never driven into Seattle from the south. If you drive in from the east, Snoqualmie Pass on I-90 is about an hour east of Seattle.

22

I gotta chime in here. I was born, raised and educated in California, then moved to Seattle for work. I only lasted three years before fleeing back to wonderfully sunny California.

Jobs- It’s been more than three years since I’ve left, so I can’t really say much about the job market. I do know that the health science fields are doing well there- maybe a biotech firm could use your skills?

Weather- The short and overcast winter days really got to my wife and I. I, too, was looking forward to experiencing some more changeable weather. However, by the middle of our second winter there, the novelty wore thin and my mood turned gloomy like the weather. Summers are nice, though too short.

Crime- I came from L.A. and lived in neighborhoods there worse than any I saw in Seattle. True, like most any major city, there’s going to be places you don’t wander around in at the middle of the night (Rainer Ave comes to mind), but Seattle seemed a relatively safe city.

Housing- Before moving to Seattle, I had to make two house-hunting trips before I found a adequate place for a family of three to live. At the time, decent rentals were hard to come by. We finally settled on a newish apartment complex off Aurora and N 130th (Bitter Lake neighborhood). It was an OK area, but the commute sucked. As I couldn’t get parking at my workplace downtown, I had to ride the bus- a 10 mile trip that often took 90 minutes to complete. After 6 months of putting up with this, I finally had to practically threaten a terrorist act to get my employer’s permission to park in their lot. When our lease ran out after the first year, we lucked out and through a friend of a friend deal, we rented a wonderful little house in Bellevue with a huge yard. Unfortunately, the commute into/out of downtown on the I-90 bridge could be brutal, but nothing an LA boy hasn’t dealt with before.

Both of these locales really don’t meet your criteria for a place with or near good nightlife. I had a couple of friends that lived in the Wallingford area- it has it’s own share of nice places to hang out in and it’s located between the University area and Fremont and their assorted nightlife attractions. It may be a bit pricey, though. A quick search of seattletimes.com shows small rentals going for about $750 and up.

Getting there- Definitely consider the southern route over to California, then shoot on up I-5. The mountain passes on I-5 (the Grapevine through the Tehachapi Mnts north of LA and through the Siskiyou Mtns of far northern California) are less likely to be closed due to snow than the Rockies and Cascades.

Good luck!

23

I hate that I’m telling you guys this way, but on Monday we’ll be moving to Los Angeles after having lived near Seattle for the last 18 months. But since the OP asked and the pros and cons of the area are fresh on my mind, I figured I should add my two cents’ worth.

We live about 25 miles south of Seattle in an area called Renton. We’re about a half hour drive from downtown Seattle. The area is somewhere between a rural town and a big city-- there are some major retailers here but downtown Renton’s building’s rarely exceed two stories. Boeing’s here, so there’s a blue-collar working class feel to the area. I like it a lot.

The main reason we’re moving is my roommate wants a warmer climate that has longer days. (I kinda like the cold and rain, but the dry air is bothersome.) He also has quite a few college friends in LA. Additionally, Seattle is a bit too much of a family town for us. It’s not so much that stuff here is aimed at couples or people with kids. Rather, there doesn’t really seem to be a night life (we aren’t club-types) and meeting young, unmarried people is difficult. My roommate says he’s read articles and talked to co-workers that agreed that Seattleites generally aren’t the most sociable of folks.

Other than that, there really isn’t a lot I dislike about Seattle. It’s not overrun with tourists, which I like, being from Hawaii. The economy could be better, but that can be said about a lot of places. I do like that there aren’t a lot of bugs here-- no worrying about ants eating my food or spiders taking up roost in my house. All the stores and restaurants I’ve ever wanted to go to are here and close by.

Let’s see… the transportation system’s fine. It takes me about an hour to 90 minutes to get to Seattle from Renton, and I haven’t had trouble getting anywhere. The crime level seems average. There are some obviously shady areas (like Skyway) but I’m comfortable in my secured-access apartment. The traffic can be bad, but it’s not the horrible logjam that it’s occasionally made out to be.

Some areas that we like: Southcenter for shopping, Green Lake for exercise, downtown Seattle and the University district for movies and entertainment and dining.

Best of luck to you.

24

:dubious: Are you sure it’s not because I moved up here? :wink: :smiley: :stuck_out_tongue:

25

I’ve ridden Metro (buses) all my life here and think it’s very good, not only in the city but in the 'burbs as well. Consider looking for a place in Burien or Des Moines, south of Seattle proper. For your $800, you should easily find something you’ll like. Burien has a Park and Ride lot where, if you catch an express, you can be downtown in 20 minutes. The buses are all equipped with bike racks so you could ride part of the way and bike the rest of the way to a friend’s place if you want.

Both communities are near the airport but its possible to live in an area where you don’t notice the planes all that much. Plus, you’re near Puget Sound and there’s some nice parks to beachcomb or kayak at. I also like that these areas have lots of trees.

I also like Ballard. It’s a laid back place. If you head toward the Sound, you will soon forget about the industrialness. It’s a great area for biking too. You might also consider the Greenwood to the NE. Rents are generally a little cheaper there than anywhere else north of Downtown.

You might consider doing temp work to start with. I’ve gotten several permanent job offers this way.

The frustrating part of the rain here is that it’s usually too heavy to legitimatly call mist but too light to call rain. This can go on all day with the rain gauges only registering a 1/2 inch of water.

Regardless, this is a lovely place to be. Good luck!

26

We figured you were stalking us. :wink: Seriously, I’m so happy that you’re finally getting out of Cally-fornya. Congratulations.

27

I don’t live in Seattle, but I go there once or twice a month on work. My suggestion would be find a place close to work rather than close to night life.
Seattle traffic sucks. It makes LA traffic look like a walk in the park.
You may go clubbing 2-3 nights a week, but you go to work 5 days.
Hours spent on a bus or in your car sitting in traffic are lost.

2nd on the go west till you hit interstate 5 and then north route.

28

This is very true. L.A.'s traffic is justifiably condemned. But…

On the 405 South you can do 80 for some pretty good stretches. Depending on where you’re going, there are alternate freeway combinations you can take. Surface streets are often good alternatives.

In Seattle, it just seems that there is a dearth of alternate routes. My impression is that the city is crammed between Lake Washington and Puget Sound, and that there is just no place to put more roads.

29

Visiting Seattle is such a joy and living there was such a nightmare. I quit my job in 1991 and drove out with no new job lined up. Every resume I handed out was greeted with the old “We don’t want you here” glare. The following year I took the hint and slunk back to my old job and apartment in Maryland.

Even visiting is less joyful than it used to be. Last time I was out there, I was shocked to find that the tax on my rental car was about 100%; everyone wanted a new stadium for the Seahawks, but nobody wanted to pay for it, so it was financed on the backs of visiting out-of-towners. I haven’t been back since.

The whole air of grooviness that saturated Seattle in the 90s has faded, as it did in San Francisco sometime earlier. Wouldn’t you rather live in Austin?

30

I’ve found that I can’t stand Metro (the bus transit system for Seattle and King County). The buses wreak, the drivers are rude, so I just stick with Sound Transit. Sure, it’s more expensive, but its a better commute, in my opinion.