Moving to Seattle! Need advice (Woodland: apartment, neighborhoods, restaurants)

[Gardyloo]

Well, for example, look at the Cobb Building, an historic former office/medical building partially converted to apartments: Center of Seattle Apt with closed-off bed area

The library is two level blocks, the Pike Place Market is around four blocks, buses at the door or in the bus/train tunnel a block or two away, secure, walkable to all sorts of commercial, entertainment, restaurants, ferries and water taxis close by...

In Seattle you see every sort of apparel in the downtown area - skirts and heels to business suits to jeans, utilikilts...

Amazon Fresh is fine, a little pricier than mainstream supermarkets, but you could use it for bulky stuff, then shop at the Pike market or Uwajimaya (fabulous Asian supermarket/department store) - an easy bus ride - for fresh produce, fish or meat (not AF's strong suits.)

[roastly]

Thank you everyone! Those are really good suggestions. I saw there is an apartment called "M Street". It is at Madison and 9th and google told me its 5 minutes walk from the Library. Anyone knows anything about M Street?

According to some crime report First Hill isn't very safe (it actually showed me First Hill has more crime than Downtown ). I am a bit confused....

[roastly]

Love Asian food!

[Kayela]

Quite frankly I would not live in the International District as a lone female. Still too much sketch. I'm sure it will gentrify since it's the only semi-affordable neighborhood close to DT, but nope.

I'm not familiar with the apartments you mention, but I will note that is right near 3 hospitals (and many clinics), and you will likely get a lot of noise.

[roastly]

Wow, thanks for the heads up (for the noise around those hospitals)! This is definitely a deal breaker for me

[RVD90277]

regarding amazon fresh, i have tried it a few times but haven't used it in over a year. i don't think it's good for your situation. there are minimum purchases (iirc something like $100 or $150?) or else shipping is not free, etc. so as a single person you may not want to spend so much on groceries at once.

at least when i was living here alone (similar to your situation, i moved here first and the rest of my family moved about 6 months later), i just went to the local safeway or whole foods and bought a few days worth of food at a time. i tried to use fresh but just didn't like having to fill up my shopping cart with stuff to fulfill the minimums.

there is good stuff available though like nice fish, cheeses, breads, etc. all from local sources.

[roastly]

Thank you for sharing! I just hate doing grocery shopping. Have been having meal plan at school's dinning halls for my entire college years because of that.

[roastly]

Thank you for sharing!
I just hate doing grocery shopping. Have been having meal plan at school's dinning halls for my entire college years because of that.

[Gardyloo]

Originally Posted by roastly

Love Asian food!

Originally Posted by Kayela

Quite frankly I would not live in the International District as a lone female. Still too much sketch. I'm sure it will gentrify since it's the only semi-affordable neighborhood close to DT, but nope.

I'm not familiar with the apartments you mention, but I will note that is right near 3 hospitals (and many clinics), and you will likely get a lot of noise.

Originally Posted by roastly

Thank you for sharing! I just hate doing grocery shopping. Have been having meal plan at school's dinning halls for my entire college years because of that.

I'm going to disagree slightly with Kayela regarding living in the I.D.; while there are some fringe areas of the I.D. that some might call "sketchy," for the most part it's pretty decent.

But it dawned on me that your love for Asian food, your adversity to grocery shopping, and your housing needs, might all be addressed in a "threefer."

Some years ago I was involved in the planning and development of "Uwajimaya Village," a development on the south edge of the International District (a block from the major office developments and light rail station along Fifth Avenue S.)

Uwajimaya is a Seattle institution - a giant pan-Asian supermarket and department store (but also carrying a full range of "western" foods) that includes wonderful fish and produce sections, among the best in the city. There's a terrific food court with numerous cool Chinese, Thai, Hawaiian, etc. stalls, all sorts of community activities, coffee stand, news stand, bookstore, bank branch... lots. Uwajimaya | Store - Seattle

Anyway, part of the development I helped with is an apartment complex located directly above the retail level. The building is extremely secure, many/most of the units have decent views, there's garage parking if you want, and your shopping trips involve a ride on an elevator, period. They have units in your price point, and getting to work would involve roughly a one-block walk to numerous bus or light rail options, with total travel time to the library area of around 10 minutes max. The units aren't huge, but they're new and pretty comfortable. You won't have a problem with smells or nuisance from the market; everything is very separate (by code.) But for convenience, I can't imagine a better solution.

Uwajimaya Village Apartments - 521 S. Weller - Seattle - EquityApartments.com

[quirky_alex]

I'll try to focus on the things that haven't been talked about as much . . .

1. What everyone else said! Depends on where in downtown you'll be work.

2. Your $2000 budget is good for a nice studio or one bedroom and you won't have parking costs (which are an extra $100-200)

3. Lots of factors can make apartments more quiet. I live in an old apartment on a busy street with lots of sirens from hospitals nearby, but they installed brand new windows before I moved it, and it's much more quiet than my neighbors. So a newer or updated building might be more quiet for you, regardless of street noise. Also, if you're on the top floor, you won't have to worry about upstairs neighbors being loud.

3. Yes, many people in Seattle don't have cars and do just fine. There are plenty of walkable neighborhoods around downtown.

4. Haven't tried it.

5. Yes, lots of Northface, Columbia, REI clothing etc. People seem to wear lots of dark clothing, hoodies. Most people use rainjackets instead of umbrellas because most of the time the rain is more of a drizzle than a downpour. Seattle fashion seems more practical than style focused, so I think you can get away with wearing whatever you're comfortable in. Professional attire depends on the company.

6. Invest in a good pair of waterproof shoes (I've got a pair of waterproof hiking boots I love that I got on sale from REI for around $100), and just carry your other shoes in a bag. Everyone here layers and men and women carry bags because we have to have the right gear for the weather.