Tell me about Seattle

In My Humble Opinion
1

Aside from the coffee and grunge bands, tell me about Seattle, Washington.

I’m thinking of applying for a job there, which would mean a major relocation if I got it (which I have just the tiny change of getting), but I would at least like to have an idea of what it’s like to live in Seattle.

How about places to avoid living? (And why.) What’s the weather truly like? The overall job market? Transportation and a daily average commute time? Public schools? Any local options for continuing education (colleges)?

So, tell me about Seattle, please.

2

Unusual question, about 10 years ago I moved from Seattle to Harrisburg. (I’m not still there.)

Much has changed since I left, I’m sure, but start with this map. People will talk about the “west side” and the “east side”; they’re referring to which side of Lake Washington. It always seemed to me that the people who worked in Downtown (the west side) were the sort of button-down types who liked to live in the east side suburbs; and the people working on the east side (software and high tech) were the young bohemians who wanted to live closer to the city. So, during rush hour, the bridges across the lake (they almost always float, honest) are a nightmare in both directions.

I don’t know what sort of work you do, but find out where the company is and whether you want to live nearby or fight the traffic.

3

Gorgeous scenery, excellent food, plenty of public transportation, lots of music, theater, and other artsy stuff – you’ll never run out of things to do. When I was there, the job market was good.

When I lived there (1967-1990), the things I didn’t like:

Horrendous traffic – it’s rush hour all the time.

If you live “close in”, you’ll probably have to park your car on the street and your house will be very close to your neighbor’s.

If your house or apartment is more than 20 years old, it probably won’t have air conditioning. No problem most of the time, but you’ll miss it in August.

Housing is high – one of my boys pays $1200 a month for a one-bedroom apartment on the east side. $200K won’t even get you a fixer-upper anywhere close to the city.

If you’re accustomed to going to a lake or river and just sitting and watching the ducks or maybe fishing, it’ll be hard to find a place – anything close to water will be privately owned.

If you like lots of sky – day or night – there’s not enough. You have to leave town to see stars, and the mountains might make you feel closed in

Summer comes late and doesn’t stay long enough, but by August, lawns are brown and the air tastes bad.

You’ll lock your car even if you’re just gonna be in the store for a few minutes, and you’ll lock your front door if you’re sitting in your back yard.

4

Lived here in Seattle for the last 15 years.

The bad:
Home prices within or close to the city suck and are nearly impossible to afford without a 6 figure income (although renting is easy).

Traffic is terrible during commute times and weekends. I’m in a sweet spot reverse-flow commuting from Seattle to Everett (after all, who willingly goes to Everett?), but it is the exception.

Public transit schedules (busses and ferries) keep shrinking as costs keep rising. There continues to be literally no progress on next-generation transit over the last decade.

The city council in all respects has been in a state of beaurocratic paralysis for the last 20 years.

Continuing education is spotty. For graduate or continuing education there is the UW, and nothing else. Education options for working folks (evening programs) are very sparse (I know, I’ve struggled with it myself). But it all depends on the specific degree you’re looking for.

The good:
Great scenery, close to woods, mountains, skiing, hiking, boating, fishing, even scuba.

The best weather on the planet for 2 months of the year. Drizzly rain and clouds for the rest, but I still like it.

Great restaurants, culture, museums, music, parks, arts, and neighborhoods.

Job market has been looking up recently in all areas.

Even the crappier neighborhoods have been improving recently. There are very few “bad sides of the tracks” and those areas are very small.

Public schools are a very mixed bag. Disclaimer, my wife is an ex-teacher. There are wonderful elite districts right next to horrible dysfunctional districts. Your child will typically have no say in transfering districts, so if you picked the wrong side of the block to live on, you may be screwed.

5

I’ve been here in Seattle for 9 years.

I echo the people who say, lots of stuff to do, great food, beautiful scenery. Unfortunately I also have to echo high home prices and bad traffic.

The weather isn’t bad, when they say it rains a lot in the winter it’s a drizzle or a mist, we don’t get a lot of heavy rain, however from about october to May there are a lot of overcast days. Lots of gray. If you need lots of sunshine it may not suit you. That being said summers are amazing, usually never above 90 degrees, sunny, green, gorgeous. Winters are typically mild, rarely do we see snow and when we get it it’s gone within a day (although if you like snow there are mountains nearby).

In fact Washington state has a wide range of land types to explore: Desert, rain forest, pine forest, desiduous forest, plains. Lots of variety.

Now that I’ve lived here I wouldn;t live anywhere else.

6

Don’t listen to them. Four replies and no one’s mentioned yet that Seattle has slugs the size of your head? They’re just trying to draw you in. It’s a trap, run, run, while you still can!

:smiley:

(Seriously, big as your head. (If you have a small head.) Even this weirdo knows how gross Seattle slugs are. And Geoducks! Did I mention the geoducks? Huge, several foot long phalluses that thrust up out of clam shells! They’re disgusting, and they actually eat them!!! Not only that, but they pronounce “geoduck” “gooeyduck”, because obviously all that caffeine and rain has rotted their brains.)

7

I’ve lived here 10 years and I’ve never seen slugs like that, WhyNot. In fact, I haven’t seen many slugs at all! Of course, I try not to interact much with nature. There are lots of yucky things in nature!

Even if we do have those slugs, though, the relative lack of mosquitos MORE than makes up for the monster slugs. :slight_smile:

I agree with the previous posters – high housing prices (our 780 sq. ft. condo appraised for almost $250,000, and it’s not like it’s in a fashionable neighborhood), lousy traffic (depending on where you’re coming from and going to), and I do miss the sun in February. But I wouldn’t live anywhere else – Seattle is such a great city. We don’t even want to move out of Seattle proper, although we might have to if we ever want to upgrade from condo to house.

I don’t know much about the schools, since my first kid isn’t quite done baking yet, and the continuing ed stuff depends on what you’re looking for. If it’s just “for-fun” classes, the local community college system has lots of options.

I’ve generally been pleased with the bus system in the area, but I grew up in a place with almost no bus system, so I’m probably not the best person to ask. I do wish the monorail had happened, though.

Tell us more about what you’re hoping for, and we’ll be able to help you out more!

8

I forgot about that! No flies either. When I tell fellow Iowans that you don’t need screens on windows in Seattle, they don’t believe me. “All that rain and no skeeters?”

9

The slugs the size of your head are not a problem, because no one, no one, misses a big, huge nasty banana slug in the middle of your path. No one.

The ones that you accidentally step on are the equally nasty tiny baby slugs that slime their way around everything.

Right now, summer seems to have come early (yay), so it’s light outside forever all the time. The weather is mild, it really doesn’t get too hot (there is at most 1 week a year that you wish you had an air conditioner, but the rest of the time, its a total waste of money), nor too cold. It gets very dark in the winter - and that can be quite hard to adjust to if you’re not used to dark. (OTOH, I’ve heard it said that people in other parts of the country never get to experience the joy and beauty of a sun break). Job market is doing I hear. Traffic is hell, and we are deeply conflicted about public transportation, so those options pretty much sucks (if you live and work in Seattle proper, you’re mostly ok. If you live or work outside of the city, you’ll need the car). This is the map I’d start with and check it during 7am to 11am or 4pm to 8pm Pacific. As you can see, there’s an inconveniently placed (though beautiful) lake and very few ways to get from one side to the other.

Public schools vary greatly, depending on district and school inside the district. As far as continuing education, it depends on what you’re looking for. UW and Seattle U have some programs. (As do some of the smaller schools). But not necessarily the programs you want at the times you want.

10

So far, it sounds great. (Including the Geoducks, which I saw on Dirty Jobs.)

Decent rental properties? Check. (Not interested in buying a house.)

No snow, no stiffling heat? Check. (I can’t stand snow or excessive heat.)

Lots of stuff to do when I need it? Check. (For those moments when I’m feeling social.)

Mountains? Check. (Get me nestled in between mountains and I’m a happy…well, camper, I’d guess.)

I’d like to have the opportunity to go back to school if I want (graduate level), without having to drive to another major city to do so. I want a decent public high school for Hallboy without having to worry about “typical inner city dramatics” (take that as you will).

Slugs, I can handle. (Isn’t that what salt is for?)

11

Yeah, we’ve got that. (University of Washington)

12

Wow. I just googled “geoduck”. Wow. That is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen.

How common are they?

Tell me more. I may need to take a pilgrimage just to see one.

13

I’ve never seen a geoduck in its natural habitat, but most fish markets will have them, and definitely the Pike Place Market.

Damn, but I miss fresh fish.

amarinth, that map is cool! Traffic seems pretty light, for the day before a holiday.

14

Hey, let’s have a little respect when you talk about my college mascot, okay?

15

Hmm. I’ve been here for 3.5 years, and I’ve never seen a giant slug (or even a regular slug, to be honest - I used to see plenty of those back home), nor have I seen a geoduck.

I learned to drive here, and it’s not too bad if it’s not rush hour - at least not here in northern Seattle, in Ballard. We rent a one bedroom duplex for about $800 a month in the Olympic Manor. It’s crazy nice, and renting isn’t bad if you keep hunting hard.

Housing is expensive, though we have friends and family who have purchased homes in Bothell and nearby areas that seem very nice, and they work in the city.

It’s a pretty laid back city, kind of hippy. Friendly people. It’s like a mini-Canada to this Maritimer. :stuck_out_tongue: Not too big, not too small, a million things to see and do. Good hospitals. I wouldn’t move out of here if you paid me.

16

We do get snow every so often, on average once or twice a year, and when we get snow it sucks a whoooole lot. Snow + lots of hills + insufficient snowplows + clueless drivers = ice = agony. It would be a good idea to get tire chains. There was one snowstorm this past winter when it took a bunch of people 12 to 16 hours to get home. There have been times when I simply crashed in my office overnight rather than try to go home.

17

Housing: It’s cheaper for me to commute 100 miles from Whatcom County four days a week than to rent an apartment there. (I work in Belltown.) I heard of a studio apartment in the area for $635/month, and I asked about a furnished studio. $1,200/month.

18

Johnny L.A., I have a question you’re the perfect person to answer (though anyone who knows both L.A. and Seattle can answer if they want). Many posters have mentioned the traffic being bad. How bad is “bad” compared to L.A. traffic?

(I’m particularly curious because Seattle is a place I have considered relocating to)

19

But again you’re only talking about a couple of days - at most. This year we had a particularly harsh winter - what was it, two whole *weeks *of snow on the ground?

20

In L.A. I lived on the West Side. My normal commute was the 405 south to the 22 to near The Block (formerly The City). Traffic was generally good before LAX, packed up a bit passing LAX, and was generally good again, slow at the South Bay Curve, decent to the 22 (noting that just past the 22 the 405 appeared to come to a screeching halt – which I discovered when I lived there last year), good for about five miles on the 22, and then packed to the Fairview exit. Fortunatly I usually road a motorcycle so I could use the HOV lanes and could split lanes.

Up here traffic is good down to Everett, where it gets rather slow. There’s a short section after people get off at the 405, and then it backs up again for the rest of the trip. I get off at 273 for the park-and-ride and take the bus downtown.

In L.A. I had alternatives. If I heard traffic would be bad on the 405/22, I could take the 405 to the 105 to the 605 to the 91 to the 5 and get off at City Drive. Or I could take the 10 to the 5 and get off at City (only I hate the 5 – very rutted and the lanes seem narrower near downtown). If things were really bad on the way home I could get off at Sepulveda/PCH. It’s (usually, in the circumstances) actually slower than just staying on the freeway, but at least I’d be moving.

I haven’t discovered if there are alternate routes in Seattle. L.A. is spread out; Seattle is wedged between some Lake Washington/small mountains/hills and Puget Sound. On the way home from the Northgate P&R traffic is slow to at least Everett, and sometimes to Marysville. The weather is often not amenable to motorcycling, and lane-splitting is not permitted here in any case. In L.A. people tend to drive fast, and IME (not not in the experience of some others on SDMB) slower traffic will often move over. Here there are a lot more cops (State Patrol) who pull over a lot of cars, people tend to drive at or below the speed limit, and they generally will not move over to allow faster traffic to pass. As I mentioned in another thread a few weeks ago, I have not heard the phrase ‘fast lane’ up here. The ‘Slower Traffic Keep Right’ signs may as well not exist.

So I would say that due to the (apparent) lack of alternate routes, the geography, the number of cops, the tendency of drivers to not speed, the self-appointed pace cars (i.e., people not moving over for faster traffic), plus the tendency for people to slow down for things that seem incredibly minor compared to L.A. (gawker’s block), Seattle traffic is worse than L.A.

On the other hand public transportation is excellent. My bus runs every four to eight minutes, it’s clean, and has a stop just four blocks from the office. Parking downtown is around $10-$12/day (‘early bird’ rate at the lots) vs free parking at the P&R. My bus pass costs $54/month, but the non-profit I work for pays $45 of it. So my bus pass for a month costs me about the same as parking for one day.