Is Seattle a great place to live and work? (Bellevue: apartments, rent)

[savvyd20]

Hi,

I just got a job offer in Seattle and will be moving there in the last week of August 2008. I would like to know if Seattle is a fun place to live and work. Where do people usually rent apartments? Can you suggest some decent neighborhoods east or south of Seattle, Redmond area? I did not have much of chance to check out the neighborhoods when I visited Seattle.

My husband and I are moving from Tampa, Florida. We have lived in Boston, MA before and are hoping that Seattle is like Boston or even better. I am told that the weather is not all that bad as people often say about the Seattle area. I think it rains much more here in Tampa than in Seattle. What are your thoughts?

[Ira500]

Seattle is definitely a fun place to live and work, but it's not for everybody. The weather is frequently cool and damp. It doesn't get all that cold , and if it does it's not for too long, and it doesn't get too hot, summers are fabulous but sometimes too short...There's lots of stuff to do and great places to hike...I have a cousin who moved here from Boston and she likes Seattle better( and she likes Boston), and I've visited relatives in Boston a lot, so...there are similarities in that they are both cities with a fair number of educated people and there's a fair amount of culture around, but Seattle's a lot newer and cleaner with a lot more trees.

[allforcats]

Seattle can be a lot of fun. What kind of fun depends on what you like. It's a very eclectic city, with just about everything from opera to kayaking. Your colleagues will help you learn what you need to know to live here.

I don't know Tampa but I do know Boston somewhat. Seattleites' attitudes about almost anything you can think of are far more relaxed, flexible and accepting than my experiences with those of Bostonians. There's a lot of live and let live here.

Nice areas east or south of Seattle: Kirkland, Woodinville, Bellevue, Redmond, Mercer Island, Issaquah, northeastern Renton. People rent apartments, condos, townhouses or houses in all of those cities.

The weather here is cloudy with frequent drizzle for 9 months, sunny in the high 70s and the 80s for 6 weeks, and any combination of those for the remainder. Unlike the northeast, there is no biting wind in winter and no unbreathable mugginess at any time. Thanks to all that drizzle and to the ancient glaciers passing through, this is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places on Earth, with quick access to ocean, mountains, deserts, islands, lakes, rivers, agriculture, animals, Oregon, and Canada.

[Jennibc]

I used to live in Newport and Providence so made many trips to Boston. Boston seems like a much larger city than Seattle, which is interesting because it actually has a slightly smaller population. I really don't think they are that much alike. Boston has quite a history to it and you don't see the ethnic enclaves here like you do there.