Moving To Seattle (Bellevue, Federal Way, Kent: job, house, crime)

[mattm93]

Im thinking of moving to Seattle and wanted to know were the safe areas are because i have no idea.

[Rooter48]

Seattle Police > Crime Statistics

[allforcats]

Perhaps you could help us understand what you mean. Are you talking about "safe" for toddlers and babies? For children? For teenagers? For animals? For adults? For a woman alone? For a man alone?

Where are you considering? -- within the city of Seattle? A suburb city? Somewhere else?

Where do you plan to work, because commuting times here can be very, very long 10 times a week for people who live far from work, so we often advise people to live near their job and perhaps play elsewhere. So where you will be working is part of the plan.

In general, western Washington is calmer and safer than many or most large cities in the U.S.

[daneurysm]

Seattle is not an especially a dangerous city. I could count the areas I would be fearful of walking through alone at night on my hands, with fingers to spare.

These areas are all within the city limits:

Areas I might avoid: Anywhere close to 23rd & south of E. Union st (the armpit of the central area), White Center (probably the worst of the lot), Delridge area (west seattle), Skyway, South Park, Anywhere close to Aurora ave-North of 70th st, and Lake City (not really dangerous, just ugly). Capitol Hill near broadway is more obnoxious and noisy. U-dist can be sketchy. 3rd Ave downtown is pretty much a gutter all the way from Belltown to Pioneer Square. The backside of pioneer square is quite sketchy, although I've never had any problems myself when I've had to go there.

Good areas: Queen Anne, Ballard, Phinney, Greenwood (south of 85th), West Seattle (with the exception of the aformentioned delridge), Wallingford (avoid 45th, horrible traffic, noisy), E Capitol Hill, Montlake, Eastlake, E Greenlake, Ravenna, E Capitol Hill, Madison Park, Madrona, Leschi, wedgewood, bryant, laurelhurst, and Sand Point.

Outside of the city limits:

Federal Way, Kent, Burien, and Des Moines have a lot of rough spots, particularly close to Pacific HWY South. Renton isn't too bad, but kind of ugly near 405. It's very nice in the hills though. Traffic can be real nasty out there. The East Side (kirkland, redmond, bellevue) is very nice, but commuting can be a nightmare if you work in Seattle. Shoreline kinda varies between all walks of life in parts. Lake Forest Park looks like something out of a John Hughes film (I grew up there). Mercer Island is Beautiful if you can afford it and very safe. If I had to pick a place to raise kids around here and could afford a house there, it would be a done deal. Only drawback: there isn't a damn thing to do on mercer island (no nightlife to speak of, not even a movie theater). Only a small handful of restaurants, but Bellevue and downtown seattle are a short drive away (about 10 minutes in either direction)