How to best describe a few neighborhoods (Seattle, Bellevue: renting, crime)

[Trigiani]

Hi Everyone!

I am moving to Seattle next month and have been poring over all your posts, getting great tips.

Still, I am trying to find consensus (or a least a more succinct idea) on what the key neighborhood descriptors are.

So, if anyone is willing to play, I'd love to hear what your one sentence on each of the following neighborhoods is:

Belltown

Capitol Hill

Queen Anne

Bellevue*

*Is living in Bellevue and working downtown going to make me insane, commute-wise?

Thanks in advance!

[texastrigirl]

Belltown - Google Belltown Crime Statistics and decide if you like what you see. Great location, lots of great restaurants and also a great place to get mugged, buy drugs, etc.

Capitol Hill - A little more charm than Belltown, though it's the city and I expect you know that crimewise, it's still up there, though I don't perceive it to be as dangerous as Belltown after dark. That could be my naiveity of only working down there sometimes and in the daylight hours. But compared to Belltown, it feels a little more quaint and neighborhoody, as compared to sketchy with nightclubs.

Queen Anne - Upper Queen Anne is one of my all time favorite neighborhoods in Seattle if you can afford it. It has it all in terms of view, charm, restaurants, and address. My father in law loved telling the single ladies he lived in Queen Anne.

Bellevue - a safe, clean, upscale option. The commute is reasonable for a city the size of Seattle.

My two cents but I live in Sammamish, so what do I know?

[Inkpoe]

Belltown -- Urban party central; very covenient if you work in downtown.

Capitol Hill-- Pike/Pine corridor, gay and counterculture central; East CH very quiet and lots of old homes.

Queen Anne-- Upper QA old blueblood type of neighborhood; Lower QA fun but just a tad mellower and more mature than CH and Belltown.

Originally Posted by Trigiani

Bellevue*

*Is living in Bellevue and working downtown going to make me insane, commute-wise?

Thanks in advance!

No? Kinda hard to gauge without knowing your baseline. If you're coming from the big cities in CA, TX, et. c then no. From small town, probably.

Bellevue DT area is posh. The rest of the area is a sleepy suburb.

[Trigiani]

Thanks Texastrigirl and Inkpoe...

My baseline for traffic is DC/NY so I suppose my tolerance for traffic AND crime is somewhat high but, still, DT Bellevue seems to have a good mix of what I'm looking for.

Thanks again! I really appreciate your answers.

[Ira500]

Belltown- feels the most like big city. Big split between the folks with money, who live in buildings with secured parking garages, and street people/folks a little rough around the edges, criminals.
Capitol Hill- A big mix. The Pike Pine corridor is the epicenter of Seattle style hipness. Further east is mellower.
Queen Anne- Lower QA is pretty urban, but lacking the quirkiness and charm of Capitol Hill. Top of Queen Anne is gorgeous and expensive.
Bellevue- DT Bellevue has lots of shiny new buildings. Glitzy. Outside of DT Bellevue has some really cool 1950's houses.

[seattlenextyear]

Belltown: Close to downtown, hoppin with bars and restaurants. But,I wouldn't feel safe walking around there at night as young female. So yeah, sketchy.

Capitol Hill: Williamsburg NYC. Hipster capitol of Seattle. Gay-friendly, lots of bars.

Queen Anne: Wealthy suburban feel on top of the hill: great if you can afford it. Great restaurants. Closer to downtown: a little grungier, but not bad.

Bellevue: A large suburb. Downtown Bellevue is yuppie central: "ultra lounges", chain restaurants, lots of shopping. The rest of Bellevue is more tolerable. House prices inflated because the school district is one of the best.

*Is living in Bellevue and working downtown going to make me insane, commute-wise?
No, its not bad at all. Husband goes further and can do it in 30 min if he leaves before 7:30am. Buses are an option.

[Kayela]

Belletown - All of my new neighbors for the past 2 years have been people getting the heck out of Belletown, and they all cite crime and noise in that order as their reasons for leaving. Make sure wherever you live has garage parking.

Capitol Hill - I've never seen so many people put so much effort into dressing 'down'. Everyone is 'unique' - just like everybody else. (and I live here and love it, but it can be a little much ;-) ). Also make sure you have a parking spot because there are 2 free spots in the whole area and it's worth your firstborn to get one of them.

Upper Queen Anne Hill - I still call it the 'magical neighborhood' because it's so darn pretty. I used to live on the top (1.5 yrs) and quite frankly it was lovely but also kinda boring. Lots of gorgeous houses and cute shops. Everyone loves to come visit. Definitely easier parking-wise than the rest of the westside neighborhoods you've mentioned.

Lower Queen Anne - just north of Belltown but not as seedy. Lots of young, urban professionals. Image-concious, but without their own 'show'. Parking not as bad as CH and Belletown, but still pretty tight.

Bellevue - There is lots of 'new money' here, and Bellevue has an interesting dichotomy of aging post-WWII residents and a new, young, high tech population. Some of the best schools in the country and probably the most bang for your buck in terms of square footage and amenities if you're ok with the commute. If you're a night owl, it gets pretty boring after 8:00 but it seems to be getting more lively. Definitely the safest of the neighborhoods you've brought up. Upper QA would be a close second though. (lived here 8 years)

To me Cap Hill and Bellevue have been by far the best locations for actually fighting your way out of your neighborhood and going anywhere else. Bellevue was planned for cars, so access in and out is pretty good (not saying it's great, but traffic is much better than Seattle and parking is plentiful and usually free in all but the DT core) and Cap Hill is just fantastically, centrally located to just about anything.

Honestly, the only one I wouldn't live in is Belletown. The rest are all lovely and interesting in their own way. I've personally had a lot of fun renting and living in several of them.

[Beat02]

Originally Posted by texastrigirl

Belltown - Google Belltown Crime Statistics and decide if you like what you see. Great location, lots of great restaurants and also a great place to get mugged, buy drugs, etc.

Lol, seriously? Sure, certain street corners at late hours may be some of the more sketchy areas of the down-town area, but making it out to be a dangerous, terrible neighborhood is laughable. Seattle in general is very safe and there are really no areas of town that I've found that put me on edge. Even late at night.... Although, I am a dude.

[tobester]

Originally Posted by Beat02

Lol, seriously? Sure, certain street corners at late hours may be some of the more sketchy areas of the down-town area, but making it out to be a dangerous, terrible neighborhood is laughable. Seattle in general is very safe and there are really no areas of town that I've found that put me on edge. Even late at night.... Although, I am a dude.

I so agree!! You are safe anywhere in Seattle, unless you're looking for trouble like buying drugs or other illegal activities. Gangsters shoot gangsters, druggies fight with druggies.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by tobester

I so agree!! You are safe anywhere in Seattle, unless you're looking for trouble like buying drugs or other illegal activities. Gangsters shoot gangsters, druggies fight with druggies.

On the other hand, I had a neighbor who was walking with his girlfriend in Lower Queen Anne about 10 years ago and got hit with a stray bullet in his spine. He's in a wheelchair now as a result.
I don't think Belltown is dangerous the way some big city neighborhoods are dangerous- the likelihood is that nothing bad will happen. But Belltown does have an element that some people aren't comfortable around: Street people, homeless, drug dealing, etc. They probably won't shoot you or have any interaction with you whatsoever, but some people don't even want to be around it.