The crappy, rundown, undesired places to live in Seattle, where are they? (White Center: transplants, cheap apartments)

[ThomChase]

I am looking to become one of the many transplants of Seattle, but unlike most people who are looking to move and are in search of cheap, affordable, nice, and decent places to live in or close to the city, I could care less...

Albeit I am looking for something cheap and affordable just not decent or nice. That is not my prerogative. So, to be helpful would be to list the trashy or undesirable places in Seattle, and never mind things like good schools, crime, etc.

All I am looking for is an apartment for myself to live in that is cheap. I am overlooking things like stains on the carpet, homeless people, someone murdered down the street, and ugly people... In fact I actually relish it. My only real preference is that it be in the city or at least not too far out so it doesn't lose its big city feel.

Thanks.

[motor80]

classifieds - craigslist

[DgoNative]

Georgetown

[Ira500]

If you're looking for places that have the perception of being run down and dangerous, here are a few in no particular order:

Pioneer Square: Yeah, there are some expensive apartments/condos/lofts in Pioneer Square, but it's still pretty rough, especially at night.

Chinatown/International District: Some great places for food and shopping, but also a rough edge, with accompanying cheap smelly wino bars.

Broadway: More panhandlers, more homeless, and more vacant stores than they've seen in years, though the north and south ends of Broadway are quieter.

First Hill:
Not really a "bad" neighborhood but densely populated and diverse. The area around Harborview Hospital is where you're most likely to find crazy and drunk people screaming at the top of their lungs.
At one point around 12th and Jackson going north you hit where First Hill and the International district converge. The Yesler Terrace Housing project is right around there, and it's not too bad, but the immediate neighborhood outside of Yesler Terrace is a little rough and tumble, having been perceived as a "bad" neighborhood for many years.

Belltown:

Trendy as all get go, with chic shops and expensive waterview housing. But it wasn't all that long ago that it was mostly drunken sailors , a collection of motley bars that just reeked, and cheap flophouses. Still, there's gang activity around and Belltown just seems to have a criminal element that stays in the neighborhood through thick and thin.

[azoria]

Zip code 98168. At the end of the Seatac landing runway, unincorporated King county. Trailers, little houses, no sidewalks, real country looking. Uber cheap and rundown.

[Ira500]

Likewise, some of the 98178 zip code, namely Skyway, just southeast of the Seattle City limits, and also unincorporated. Seems that whenever a violent crime is reported, the news media often claims it happened in Skyway. I live not far from Skyway, and the "retail district" has a few open stores and restaurants, but a couple of boarded up supermarkets, some other boarded up stores, some sleazy bars, cheap apartments, casinos, a check cashing store.
Some of the lowest rents around.

[Ira500]

Continuing along the same vein, also consider White Center and South Park. White Center is partly in Seattle and partly unincorporated...has the nickname "Rat City."
White Center actually has a lot of vitality but it's one of those neighborhoods people will tell you to stay away from.
South Park is also at the border of the city of Seattle, it has a very large landfill( the dump) and is industrial/residential and some of the best cheap Mexican food in the Seattle area. On the polluted Duwamish River.

[eskercurve]

The University District. Shops and diversity, but also shootings, drunken college kids, noisy neighbors, police and ambulance sirens at all hours, bums, druggies, graffitti, Ave Rats (a collection of young homeless kids who typically ask for money to buy pot or prophylactics), some really awesome bars but also ones where people get shot/stabbed/assaulted at occassionally. Run down, cheap student living abounds there. But be careful because there's also expensive places. Asian slumlords are also there. North of the U on Roosevelt there's nice shops and stuff and there used to be a hookah bar too. More sleazy and smelly bars. There's one bar I never went into that looks like it'd be a perfect biker haven and a place where Hell's Angels likes to go. No windows, only chicken wire on the outside.

[caravan]

I was in the Roosevelt area today, and I walked a bit eastward on NE 65th street. Just after 12th ave, it gets suddenly sketchy with boarded up places and decrepit houses.

[Ira500]

I really love this thread. Don't get an opportunity to talk about these kind of neighborhoods much, people always want to know about quiet neighborhoods with nice houses and good schools, and it's nice to be able to talk about neighborhoods that are considered less desirable.
Into west Seattle, it all ain't Alki.
West Seattle has the Delridge area, and the area right behind the Bethlehem Steel plant, and Highland Park, just north of White Center. Highland Park has a big park in it called Westcrest Park. For years, the park was used as a male sex pickup place, drinker haven, and drug dealing spot. It's also been used by the Society for Creative Anachronism, where you see dudes with renaissance costumes and swords running around in the woods.
Some of the park is now an offleash dog area ( one of my faves), and in renovating the park they built a playground where some of the less savory activity took place. The less savory activity still takes place, but now they've got playground equipment. No kids ever use it.