Questions on seattle areas.. (Bellevue, Renton: apartments, house, neighborhoods)

[skrizzle]

What are the walkable neighborhoods one should consider?

From what I understand it is Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, and South Lake Union.

What are the best places around downtown and does downtown Seattle have upscale shopping areas? If not or even if so, what other areas also do?

Are there urban neighborhoods in Seattle where you can have an actual house that is walking distance to bars/restaurants/shopping/theaters, etc?

How well connected is the light rail in Seattle? For example while we are interested in downtown areas, if there are other walkable areas or even suburbs like Bellevue but they can easily get downtown by light rail, that would be a consideration. Is there any other transit besides buses or the S.L.U.T (LOL I want one of those shirts). Is the monorail downtown useful for anything or pretty much just a tourist attraction?

Are summers very humid in Seattle? I've noticed some apartments don't offer air conditioning, is that because it's not needed? (In KC you will die in the summer without AC) Is there ever snow in the winter?

And finaly, can anyone link to some good city or neighborhood pictures of Seattle from the street level? I have searched the forums and found a few threads, but mostly I seem to fail at finding good photo threads, I mostly just find skyline pics.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by skrizzle

What are the walkable neighborhoods one should consider?

From what I understand it is Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, and South Lake Union.

What are the best places around downtown and does downtown Seattle have upscale shopping areas? If not or even if so, what other areas also do?

Are there urban neighborhoods in Seattle where you can have an actual house that is walking distance to bars/restaurants/shopping/theaters, etc?

How well connected is the light rail in Seattle? For example while we are interested in downtown areas, if there are other walkable areas or even suburbs like Bellevue but they can easily get downtown by light rail, that would be a consideration. Is there any other transit besides buses or the S.L.U.T (LOL I want one of those shirts). Is the monorail downtown useful for anything or pretty much just a tourist attraction?

Are summers very humid in Seattle? I've noticed some apartments don't offer air conditioning, is that because it's not needed? (In KC you will die in the summer without AC) Is there ever snow in the winter?

And finaly, can anyone link to some good city or neighborhood pictures of Seattle from the street level? I have searched the forums and found a few threads, but mostly I seem to fail at finding good photo threads, I mostly just find skyline pics.

There are lots of neighborhoods outsideof the ones you mentioned that have a high walkability thing going on.
In no particular order:
The Central District
Wallingford
Ballard
West Seattle ( Admiral District and Alaska Junction nabes, in particular)
Roosevelt/Ravenna
Montlake
Renton ( Not in the city, but walkable bars, restaurants, shopping, and theatres)

There's no light rail to Bellevue yet.
There's also relatively little humidity in the summer. There might be a week or two where air conditioning would be nice, but most people don't have it and don't feel that they need it