Up and coming suburb to live (Seattle, Bellevue: to rent, buying a house, employment)

[boson]

Hi,

I am a Software Engineer and my wife is an Optometrist. We are planning to move to Seattle area to settle down. We are looking for an up and coming neighborhood that is close enough commute to the hi-tech areas/Seattle downtown for my job and still has good schools (even though our baby will not need one for few more years). My wife will open her business so a town which does not have too many optometrists is a plus. We are flying down for a weekend in couple of weeks to visit some places. I am looking for some help in narrowing down our choices. We want to rent for few months before buying a house in the same general vicinity. Appreciate your feedback.

Thanks
Ik.

[Ira500]

I think that the up and coming areas tend to be a little further away from the high tech employment areas like Bellevue or Redmond. There are some really nice areas within commuting distance, but the up and coming areas tend to be south of downtown Seattle.
Nearer Bellevue/Redmond: Issaquah, Newcastle and Kirkland are nice, but could not really be described as up and coming. Lynnwood is north and improving.
South of downtown Seattle, Renton is up and coming, though the schools have a way to go before they could really be considered good, although some of them are good.
Burien is also south and has a kind of charming and artsy downtown known as Old Burien, nice parks, great views...

[VeronikaW]

Originally Posted by Ira500

I think that the up and coming areas tend to be a little further away from the high tech employment areas like Bellevue or Redmond. There are some really nice areas within commuting distance, but the up and coming areas tend to be south of downtown Seattle.
Nearer Bellevue/Redmond: Issaquah, Newcastle and Kirkland are nice, but could not really be described as up and coming. Lynnwood is north and improving.
South of downtown Seattle, Renton is up and coming, though the schools have a way to go before they could really be considered good, although some of them are good.
Burien is also south and has a kind of charming and artsy downtown known as Old Burien, nice parks, great views...

Unfortunately the schools in Burien are not good at all.

[Ira500]

In a place like Detroit or Clevelamd, there are block after block of dangerous neighborhoods, and all of the schools have problems. In a place like Redmond or Bellevue, you'd be hard pressed to find a bad neighborhood at all, and all the schools are good.
In places like Renton or Burien, there are some great neighborhoods and also less than desirable neighborhoods, though nothing on the order of Detroit, and there are some schools with problems, but there are also some great ones. I think of Renton and Burien as up and coming, and it's not an instant process. The first step in the evolution seems to be the discovery of the places by childless artists and hipsters. We're there now. By the same token both of these school districts have had a few schools that have been very good for a long time. Marvista and Des Moines elementary in the Highline ( Burien) district, and Hazelwood, among others, in Renton are examples of schools that have maintained consistent quality.

[LongDawson]

is the optometry business best where there are old people? If so, you might try the areas all around the University of Washington. Just seems like that is a place with a lot of hospitals, people around for medical care, and high population of young and old. The Arboretum area, head out Madison Ave, a few miles (or less) east of Broadway. Optometrist Heaven?

[boson]

Ira500 - Thanks for your feedback. If I forget about the up and coming portion, what are some good places to check out in couple of days? Even though I am in Hi tech, my target companies are Financial Companies which are typically concentrated in downtown areas. Is that the same case in Seattle as well or does Bellevue/Redmond area has lot of them as well? How is commute from Kirkland, NewCastle and Issaqquah to Seattle downtown and to Bellevue/Redmond areas? On the map Issaqquah looks too far from downtown. Other than driving are there otherr commute options available from those areas (preferably trains).

Long Dawson - Not sure about the demographics but since folks in Seattle are highly educated I am assuming they generally have good diets with lot of fish and fresh produce resulting in healthy population. On the other hand high tech industry may be causing lot of eye sight problems. But it will be interesting to know that kind of information. Are there any local websites that provide the percapita number of hospitals, medical professionals etc in each town/area?

Appreciate your feedback.

[Ira500]

Issaquah might be a little further in miles but it's a straight shot on I-90, and has excellent bus service to both downtown Seattle and to Bellevue. Downtown Bellevue as well as downtown Seattle have financial companies and are the biggest employmemt centers outside of Boeing and Microsoft.
Kirkland and Issaquah aren't bad commutes to either Seattle or Bellevue. Newcastle is a little more difficult to get to downtown Seattle, easier to Belllevue. The only trains to downtown Seattle are from the north and the south. If you work in downtown Seattle, you can take a lovely and fairly quick train ride on the Sounder commuter train from Edmonds, a very nice place. There's no train service to Bellevue, but there is express bus service.