Relocating: Eyeing Mercer Island

[eugene_b]

Hi, we moved here from East Coast last year too (from NJ/NYC and my wife spent several years in Baltimore too). Humidity and climate are much better. Our apartment doesn’t have A/C and if it had one, we’d probably run it may be a couple weeks per year, if any at all. Regarding politics, I cannot compare to Maryland because I only briefly visited but at least in comparison to NYC, I like it much better here. I haven’t really met any over the top extremely political people in Seattle. From what I can tell, people do hold their opinions and vote for things but I haven’t really met anyone who would want to passionately explain to me why their opinion is the right one (perhaps it’s the effects of the blessed Seattle Freeze). The protests/crowds I’ve seen are fairly mild and relatively sane too.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by eugene_b

Hi, we moved here from East Coast last year too (from NJ/NYC and my wife spent several years in Baltimore too). Humidity and climate are much better. Our apartment doesn’t have A/C and if it had one, we’d probably run it may be a couple weeks per year, if any at all. Regarding politics, I cannot compare to Maryland because I only briefly visited but at least in comparison to NYC, I like it much better here. I haven’t really met any over the top extremely political people in Seattle. From what I can tell, people do hold their opinions and vote for things but I haven’t really met anyone who would want to passionately explain to me why their opinion is the right one (perhaps it’s the effects of the blessed Seattle Freeze). The protests/crowds I’ve seen are fairly mild and relatively sane too.

Thank you, Eugene. This fits with my experience living in Seattle, which according to some posts I see here from time to time, is radically different from other people's experiences, or their perceptions (or perhaps: their trolling?). There are so many other topics with which to connect with people, that politics doesn't come up. But my experience was before the current Presidency, so that may make a difference.

[Blondebaerde]

Originally Posted by HitmanGFX

Hello,


Longtime lurker of these forums. Originally from Maryland and finding myself in the position of being the one relocating.

Questions:

(snip)

Thank you and hope to be in Washington soon!

No, there are few bums, vagrants, winos, and other zombies lurching around M.I. There are very few "resources" that draw them in, and it takes a little work to get there (bus to the MI park and ride comes to mind, and why on earth would they get off there?).

MI was my first choice when looking to buy a home some years back, Kirkland turned out to the be the ticket for various reasons however and no regrets on that either.

The commute to Factoria is minutes to "south Bellevue." Candy. You're bound by the I-90, which bogs sometimes, so, that's the consideration. I wasn't real worried about it when considering. The access to southern end of Seattle was real attractive to me, lots to do down there say SODO and Pioneer Square area. Not terribly far from Kirkland either in off-hours (like Saturday evening, as I write: 15 minutes on the 520). The 255 bus to Columbia Tower is like 15-20 minutes, for example.

"Impressions" on "the people." By and large White and Asian peoples who have little if-any time for non-professional nonsense from bums, vagrants, so-called "drug abusers", winos, dipsticks in undershirts / backward hats / driving Camaros with loud pipes all of whom have frequent "contact" with LE. Want all that, move to International District or south end of Renton.

I'm not a "liberal," knowing better from the school of hard knocks, and yes there are a good percentage of people who have strong views on all that completely opposite. Fine with me, I love getting right back on their case with calm logic and facts, being of the Ben Shapiro school of rigorous fact-checking in debates. So what? I don't bring it, and hang out with fellow professionals. I mostly steer clear of people and bull**** anyway. Two of my closest pals have crazy ideas along those lines, and I really don't care. I don't think they do either.

Olympics and Cascades are visible when it's clear, meaning "not that often." Nice when you can see them, though.

Best of luck, the area needs more taxpayers.

[robrath]

MI is too rich to put up with homeless encampments, the police force there isn't handcuffed like SPD by ultra left wing politicians who monetize the homeless. MI will have its own white collar/upper crust type crimes, instead of heroin in the schools you're going to find cocaine. MI is a good compromise as far as traffic to either Seattle (go west) or Bellevue (go east), but everything ON MI will be more expensive (gas, groceries, etc.). Ethnicity wise MI will be predominately White and Asian (together almost +80%) of MI, majority of whom are going to be in the 6 figure income level.

[HitmanGFX]

Yeah, purely from a geography/map perspective, it looks like it prices out much of the riff raff. That's appealing to me. And yeah, I've seen interviews with the Seattle Police off the record, basically saying they're afraid to do their jobs for fear of being fired and the people they arrest simply just get out the next anyway. That's just a situation that can spiral out of control (it did in Baltimore).



Waiting to hear from the job. I will probably be seeing the area firsthand for my second interview, so I'm looking forward to it.