New to Fort Lewis, Looking for a Place to live (Tacoma: rent, neighborhoods)

[JMar01]

Hello all,


I've been stationed in Fort Lewis and I will be relocating there next month. In the meantime, I've been researching some places to live and could use some information from Washington natives.

A little about myself: I'm a single male originally from Chicago and love the night life. I see myself living somewhere relatively close to a city since I enjoy going to the bars on the weekends. I'm also a snowboarder and would like to take advantage of any good resorts in the area.

I want to live about 15-30 minutes from the base and would be open to just about anywhere that have a city-like feel to it.


Any and all information is much appreciated!

[Sandy Nelson]

It sounds like you should try to find a place to live in Tacoma. It's the nearest big city to Fort Lewis.

[MJ5150]

The cities just to the north of Ft. Lewis cater to folks like yourself. You'll have no problem finding a place starting in Lakewood.

-Mike

[JMar01]

I'll definitely look into it. Is the traffic bad in those areas?

[skrude1]

Traffic sucks at peak times anywhere between ft lewis and seattle. If you get off work at 4 pm, then expect to wait 15 min in traffic to get to the freeway. The on ramp coming on to the freeway from fort lewis does not get its own lane, but merges into traffic causing huge back ups that extend past the front gate. I used to work on base for AAFES.

Tacoma is a fairly large city. Rent prices vary a lot. You get waht you pay for in terms of neighborhoods. There is a small town called tillicum literally across the street from ft lewis and it is kinda shady, but it's 5 minutes to any just about every gate from there. Rent is cheap, but beware of suspicious characters roaming the streets and the homeless constantly asking for change and cigs.

Lakewood is a decent area. There is the lakewood town center, lots of grocery stores, a tech school, and other places of interest. Those are also available in tacoma but distanced apart much further from each other.

Nearest big-city like chicago is seattle. Which is about 45min to an hour away. There are buses that will take you up there as well. Tacoma is more like a big city on a diet. It does have a downtown area with an active night life as well. Can be kind of a sausage fest at times though. Best of luck.

PS: Buy a raincoat.