Artist and wife moving to Puget Sound/Seattle (Tacoma, Everett: 2014, to rent)

[Rozeg2014]

We are considering moving from NC to Washington. My husband has been to the Puget Sound area before, although it has been many years. We are in our early 50's and don't want to move again, after this move.

He is a disabled veteran and an artist. I have a lot of experience in Non-Profit Administration and Business Administration. If I cannot find a job there, our other choice is for us to open a gallery/working art studio for him and other artists. We would like to know the following:

We want to be near at arts district and need to be within 100 miles of a V.A. facility. So what are the 'arts' areas within 100 miles of Seattle? Where is the nearest V.A. facility? If you are a veteran, on a scale of 1-10, with ten being the best, how would you rate the V.A. facility there?

What are the top ten employers in the Puget Sound area?

Any help/constructive advice would be greatly appreciated!

[flyingsaucermom]

Originally Posted by Rozeg2014

We are considering moving from NC to Washington. My husband has been to the Puget Sound area before, although it has been many years. We are in our early 50's and don't want to move again, after this move.

He is a disabled veteran and an artist. I have a lot of experience in Non-Profit Administration and Business Administration. If I cannot find a job there, our other choice is for us to open a gallery/working art studio for him and other artists. We would like to know the following:

We want to be near at arts district and need to be within 100 miles of a V.A. facility. So what are the areas within 100 miles of Seattle? Where is the nearest V.A. facility? If you are a veteran, on a scale of 1-10, with ten being the best, how would you rate the V.A. facility there?

What are the top ten employers in the Puget Sound area?

Any help/constructive advice would be greatly appreciated!

Any help? I'll give it a shot, but don't expect much from me. First of all, I happen to have a friend who's husband is currently in treatment at a VA facility in Tacoma. There is the big JBLM (joint base lewis mccord???) smack dab between Tacoma and Olympia. It's definitely within 100 miles of probably all of Puget Sound.

There is probably an arts district (I'm thinking Fremont? Georgetown? honestly, it's not my scene...), but I do know that artists live in all parts of the region. Even here in Issaquah (SE suburb) we have a our own: [url=http://www.bromart.com/]Brom Art[/url].

The biggest companies are in tech: Microsoft and Amazon. Costco and Tmobile have their offices here too. And then there is a whole lot more, but I'll leave that up to someone else. And for non-profit .... Gates Foundation is certainly a biggie.

The hardest thing is, as always, the cost of living.... I thought it was expensive when I moved here and it's just getting worse...

good luck!

[Ira500]

Large Puget Sound employers include Boeing, Microsoft, the Navy( Whidbey Naval Air Station, Everett base, Bremerton shipyards), the army/air force( Joint Base Lewis-McChord), the University of Washington, and Amazon.

Arts areas? Where artists live or where there are galleries? Pioneer Square in Seatle used to be a place where artists had cool loft space, and where rent was cheap. There are still lots of galleries in Pioneer Square, but most artists can no longer afford to rent there. Capitol Hill is the same way. Fremont is still somewhat artsy, but is increasingly unaffordable.
Artist have migrated to Tacoma. To Burien( very cool downtown area). To Renton. To White Center. Georgetown still has plenty of artists. Vashon Island is artsy. So is La Conner. I've heard that Bremerton has been attracting artists for a while.

[Rozeg2014]

Thank you both for the information! We truly appreciate the frankness and honesty provided. The information is very useful in making our decision.