trying to move back to the seattle area, but questions.. (Bellevue: how much, townhomes)

[exseattlite]

so after 10 years in the south, i'm looking in to moving the family up to the northwest for some milder weather, better edumacation for the kids to get learned good, and bit less of the social history that keeps various groups from socializing down here.. but as it's been 10 years, and really like 7 since i've even visited, two main questions are coming to mind:

1) how much have the suburbs really changed demographic wise in the last 10 years? or have they all pretty much stayed constant, just more expensive

2) are there any good maps/indicators of where broadband is deployed and by who? when i was there last you pretty much had to be in a new area or in seattle proper to even get dsl (hell, i grew up about a mile from msft and my parents couldn't even get digital cable still by the time they left the area in 2003) ... as i work from home, it's critical to my job to have decent speeds and little screwing with the data stream by the ISP (i'm looking at you comcast) ... i've tried looking around, but haven't found anything overly informational yet ...

realistically we'd be looking eastside, possibly north depending on the schools too..

[MaikeerinWA]

We're paying for 12Mb/s from Comcast, and seem to be getting pretty much that, at least according to this benchmark.

We're just south of Seattle.

[Ira500]

About the demographics of the Seattle northern and eastern suburbs now as opposed to 10 years ago?

Bellevue has become a lot larger. It had some big buildings 10 years ago, but it has a real skyline now and a lot of sleek new tall buildings. The population of Bellevue is also quite a bit higher than it was ten years ago, and is now more ethnically diverse.
I'm not fond of the sleek new buildings. They're kind of cold. And I miss the pleasant little suburb that Bellevue used to be.Dairy Queen. The John Danz Theatre. But the schools are still top notch, and unlike the Bellevue of the past, there are now a bunch of good places to eat and shop and get entertained.
Other eastern and northern Seattle suburbs have also become more dense. They tore out some perfectly nice wooded hillsides to build ugly*** townhomes all over the Seattle area.
It's not everywhere...a lot of the area is still very nice, it's not like they took out ALL the trees. Just a few too many for my taste.

[exseattlite]

is comcast pretty much the only game in the suburbs when it comes to internet? i remember in seattle proper there was at least the choice of dsl (i'd pay a premium to not have to deal with comcast )

[MaikeerinWA]

Qwest is widely available for DSL in the area, although the fastest speeds aren't offered everywhere.

Qwest: Official Website - High Speed Internet

Other options include Clear (WiMAX) and Verizon (in some areas).

In Seattle proper, the recent Google news is kinda intriguing, for the future.

Google's uberfast plan bound to include fine print | Seattle Times

[nikdahl]

Verizon FIOS is impressive if you are in a coverage area.

[MaikeerinWA]

I wish FiOS were available in my neighborhood.

Verizon FiOS Internet | Check Availability

[dacx]

Originally Posted by Ira500

About the demographics of the Seattle northern and eastern suburbs now as opposed to 10 years ago?

Bellevue has become a lot larger. It had some big buildings 10 years ago, but it has a real skyline now and a lot of sleek new tall buildings. The population of Bellevue is also quite a bit higher than it was ten years ago, and is now more ethnically diverse.
I'm not fond of the sleek new buildings. They're kind of cold. And I miss the pleasant little suburb that Bellevue used to be.Dairy Queen. The John Danz Theatre. But the schools are still top notch, and unlike the Bellevue of the past, there are now a bunch of good places to eat and shop and get entertained.
Other eastern and northern Seattle suburbs have also become more dense. They tore out some perfectly nice wooded hillsides to build ugly*** townhomes all over the Seattle area.
It's not everywhere...a lot of the area is still very nice, it's not like they took out ALL the trees. Just a few too many for my taste.

Someone else remembers the John Danz theatre. How about the old Bellevue bowling alley? Sorry, getting off track here.

Yes, the suburbs all over the Seattle area has changed quite a bit over the past 10 years. I'm not fond of it at all.

Woodinville hasn't changed too much yet and Redmond is now just starting to go through their transformation but it looks like it's going to be a big one.