'Hood shopping in Seattle this weekend

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Ballard? He said they want to be near downtown.

Actually, he said: "being able to bike to work would be HUGE plus." He said nothing about how "near downtown" he needed to be.

There are bike paths, through Interbay and Myrtle Edwards Park, that cover much of the distance from Ballard and the Waterfront (about 30 minutes or so travel time).

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/32ND...d47.614713!3e1

http://www.pedalanywhere.com/bikesite/?page_id=251

[RotseCherut]

Originally Posted by GuitarArt1980

Hoping Seattle is the sarcasm mecca I expect it to be...

Hope you are not disappointed.. I find people in Seattle a little to serious and dry for my tastes on many occasions. It takes a lot of work to get a laugh out of these people who otherwise seem to act in a very formal and robotic like manner. This is quite a contrast from people in Idaho who seem to host more of a unique personality and will speak their mind to you more openly.

Originally Posted by GuitarArt1980

• 34-year old male, 32-year old female, married, no kids, 2 small dogs, and hail from the land of Caucasia
• I'm a part-time musician - mainly an acoustic playing coffeeshop guy with a humble home studio setup
• I would work downtown (Pier 70), wife works from home - being able to bike to work would be HUGE plus
• We're both big on walking/biking vs driving
• Neither of us are in a hurry to have kids and are tired of the child-pushing Dallas "culture"
• We would rent for a year or 2, with a budget of around $2000/mo with an eye on buying in same neighborhood with a budget around $350-400k
  
  

• I don't mean to bring any disappointment to your venture, as I understand the excitement of coming to a new place and get a new start. However, do you realize how expensive it is here? When you say a budget of $2000/mo, do you mean a rental for $2000 a month where you can bike to downtown? In Seattle, you will be lucky to get a decent 2 bedroom apartment in the downtown area that is considered nice to live in. If you live in farther out neighborhoods it would be more doable. If $2000/mo is excluding utilities , you will be better off, but if that includes, utilities and the dozens of other costs you will incur, be ready to up that budget more. I think you will see with the outrageous living costs compared to wages, that it's a lot easier to have kids in Dallas than Seattle, so you probably won't be wanting them anyway if you are going to try to live the inner city life and buy a little condo for $400k. Yeah, you won't be buying a nice house that close to downtown Seattle, unless you want to live in , as you say , the "Hood". Of course, Seattle's hoods are not as bad as Dallas, but then you wouldn't want to be biking and walking around those areas, so scratch that off.
  
  

  Originally Posted by GuitarArt1980

  She's into yoga, and also the outdoors

  She may not fit in in Seattle then.. Just kidding.
  
  

  Originally Posted by GuitarArt1980

  I love coffee, it is my crack, it is my heroin, my meth..

  Seattle's coffee scene is overrated. There are a few decent coffee roasters in the area, but a lot of the coffee is over-roasted and over-hyped or too acidic and poorly processed. Of course, being from Dallas, you may not know the difference between good or bad coffee, you just want to get high. Seattle is pretty famous for its espresso drinks and you will find every kind of mocha, latte, cappucino, frappucino, crappicuno stand you can imagine here. However, if you are a coffee connoisseur like myself, you will end up drinking coffee from one of the better roasters, which include Herkimer, Ladro, Zoka (only their high end stuff), Kuma or Seattle Coffee WOrks (again hit or miss).
  
  

  Originally Posted by GuitarArt1980

  We both like live music and would love to be in walking distance of some cool bars

  We're a down-to-earth couple (literally and figuratively) and are tired of the status-centric posturing of Dallas "culture"

  Neither of us are religious and are tired of the church-pushing Dallas "culture"

Seattle is quite religious in its atheism. You may find this a plus or minus, but people here are, in my opinon, as fanatical with atheism as people in Texas are probably with their fundamentalist, King James Bible Christianity. If you are TRULY down-to-earth, some of the radicalism you may encounter in those "hip" neighborhoods you are seeking out, like Capitol Hill, may be a bit extreme or in your face. I find that most Texans, I meet, even liberal ones, somehow feel a bit out of place in Seattle, due to a combination of the reserve nature of the people mixed with the ultra radicalism. This is not a Live-And-Let Live place as you may be deceived in thinking.

Originally Posted by GuitarArt1980

Any insight to where we should spend our time neighborhood shopping?

Well, obviously, you want the cool, hip, great music scene, bikeable to downtown neighborhood, so you will be looking at Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, Fremont, Wallingsford, Eastlake, etc or one of the other inner neighborhoods. Be prepared to pay a good chunk of money. If you can push $2000 for your rent, you probably can pull off a 2 bedroom apartment in most these areas. You have pets? Good luck with that.

If you can live without biking to downtown or open to driving or taking buses, perhaps you may like West Seattle, Greenwood, Ravenna, U-District or Green Lake which have a lot of the things you are looking for, but will require a bit more of a commute. Considering you are from Dallas, you may be surprised that these commutes are not as bad as anything you could imagine in the Metro-Plex.


I hope your move works out. I love the trees, mountains, water and beauty here.

[GuitarArt1980]

Thanks all for your responses so far. We visited several areas that were mentioned over the weekend. We've zeroed in on a few areas: Greenwood, Ballard, Fremont, Queen Anne and West Seattle. Though, West Seattle is standing out to us as a more affordable option while staying close to shops/restaurants (one thing we loved about Seattle is that the neighborhoods are so much closer together than in Dallas).

About West Seattle, how does it's music scene compare to the rest of Seattle? And does anyone here commute from West Seattle to downtown? I'm thinking the bus will be the way to go for me.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by GuitarArt1980

Thanks all for your responses so far. We visited several areas that were mentioned over the weekend. We've zeroed in on a few areas: Greenwood, Ballard, Fremont, Queen Anne and West Seattle. Though, West Seattle is standing out to us as a more affordable option while staying close to shops/restaurants (one thing we loved about Seattle is that the neighborhoods are so much closer together than in Dallas).

About West Seattle, how does it's music scene compare to the rest of Seattle? And does anyone here commute from West Seattle to downtown? I'm thinking the bus will be the way to go for me.

I have an employee that commutes from West Seattle to the office near the Olympic Sculpture Park on the waterfront. He used to ride his bike but with the seawall replacement project and then a rider getting killed by a truck he decided to stick to the bus. The Metro Rapidride C bus takes him to 3rd & Pike, then he walks from there (about a mile) or catches the 99 if he happens to catch it (only runs every 20-40 minutes). His bus trip is about 30 minutes plus 15 to walk.