Seattle: Tell me about it...

...please! I am visiting there shortly. I am going to see if I want to take a job there for the next three years. So! Anybody that lives or lived in Seattle that can tell me about their experience in the city would be on my top-list of people that I appreciate for telling me about Seattle.

... nobody lives there?

What do ya want to know about?

Seattle is awesome, though I've never lived there. There is way too much cool shit to list.

What do you like about it? What do you not like about it? How is the mass transit? How is the music scene? Are there better places to live than others? My job would be in "West Seattle" (?) how is that area? Where would you suggest I live so that I can be near "interesting" places to waste time? (ie. a main market kind of area, or row of bars?) What should I be considering money-wise for a decent apartment? What's the cost of living up there? Are things typically more or less expensive?

I was born there, and from what I remember its awesome, but I dont know anything about transit or things to do really. Sorry!

It's a great city. Decent night life, great theatre community, lots of really good restaurants (unless you're looking for mexican food), really good area for various geeky pursuits.

There's no good mexican food? sometimes the weather can get a little depressing. Occasionally you'll run into a massive string of people who are "polite" in the most passive-aggressive ways possible.

Not great. It's pretty much an underfunded bus system, with the city being deadlocked for the last decade on adding some kind of light rail or similar project.

I haven't been keeping up for the last few years, but it was pretty good a few years ago, as long as you weren't under 21.

Yes, but it depends on what you're looking for.

It's fine. There are run-down areas and gentrified areas. It tends to be a bit cheaper to live over there, I think.

I've always liked Capitol Hill and the U-District.

What qualifies as a decent apartment? I think the $700 range is about where the one-bedrooms start being nice.

Things definitely tend to be cheaper than just about anywhere in CA. To a kind of ridiculous degree.

Awesome! Thank you SO much! Oh, and I'd be moving up there so I can start work for the company that did the all of the property acquisition and relocation for the new lightrail. We are going to be working on the same light rail project, but from downtown to the University of Washington (?).

It's very green. Seriously, coming from LA it's the biggest difference and the first thing you notice.

I'm so helpful!

Yeah, that.

I used to live in SoCal and, after living in WA for a few years, visits back just made me realize how much I love the greenery.

Seriously, California is...not pretty in comparison.

Sorry for the delay.

1. It is always green and full of mountains, My house is almost at the base of the mountains and is a lot like living in a snow ski community during the winter. You can snowboard during the winter and wakeboard during the summer.

2.Mass transit is shit, but if your within the city zones you should have no probs, great in the city, shit traffic everywhere outside of.

3. I am not a young buck anymore so I am not into the downtown music scene, but the NW has a hugh music scene. From the local winers hosting concerts, a number/number/number of downtown clubs sporting all kinds of music to the two outdoor natural theaters in eastern WA and new one that just hosted Ozzy Fest south between Tacoma and Seattle.

4. Housing. really depends, the NW real estate is exteremly high, specifically inside Seattle and Eastside (Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Issaguah) For an 1600 sqft home you can expect a cost of from the high 400K to the mid 500K. As a young buck you would be best finding some room mates and take some time to scope the area out for the first year. I live on the Eastside, my home is almost 1700sqft and will sell for 460K and the market is growning at about 5-20% annually.

5. Apartment I can not give you much advice on, it's been about 4 years since renting. I would suggest looking into renting a house in the Greenlake area with a few roomates. It would be perfect for a single guy in the mid 20's. Close to the UW so it's a young crowed, you have Greenlake which hosts all kinds of events for your age group, and a great place around the lake to meet other singles. Your also a quick taxy ride to downtown bars.

6. Almost the best beer in the world, between the NW & OR you have a hugh number of Micro-brews, just keep in mind our beer up here is at about 7% vs. most of the US is the piss beer at 5% less. You only need a few before you high the floor. my fav is Alaskan Amber.

7. Food, I travel here & there with work and I can say since we are an international import/export port it brings in a whole mix of cultures which bring in any kind of foods you can think of. Your select of food in the NW is awsome. I love the fact one night I can have fresh Sushi and the next a mexi dinner.

8. the only draw back is the weather does get a little wet at times. We are right now in the hot season and when we have sun the only item missing is blue water and palms trees. We use to get more rain but over the last 3/4 yeras our weather has been getting less wet and more balanced. Must be that Global warming thing that is going to f'up the world in about another 10/15 years.

Feel free to ask more Q, just ask them on my Blog so I don't delay as long

i'm in seattle 11-14th

staying near uni of wash

I live on Vancouver Island, which is close enough to Seattle that I wander down there for shows every now and again. The music scene in Seattle has been great for me, and the city itself always friendly and comfortable. I would love to move down there someday in the future, if my dice came up right.

Weather-wise, living in this neck of the woods is amazing, if you don't mind a bit of rain.

Rain seems to be the only complaint. I think I could cope.... I think.

Figured I would give this one more bump

SimSeattle (TM).

(Hot tub girls not included.)

traffic sucks. artistic. growing. hot women. in the northwest corner of the country. not the capitol of washington. kurt cobain was not from here.

Its super fun to hang out there, usually always something fun to do up there.
Its a beautiful city, everyone is usually very friendly dispite differences.
The music scene is totally awesome too.

Traffic blows up around seattle. Your from L.A. and heard its just as shitty down there too, but still.
Seattle (actually, King County in general), everything is really over taxed, so shit is way more expensive up there.
Theres a lot of homeless people, I cant walk down the street with out getting pestered.

Like I said eariler, shitty.

There are two big music scenes in washington state.
You have the Tacoma music scene and the seattle music scene.
Studio 7 (located kinda south seattle in the business districts by Safeco field and quest field) is an awesome venue. El Corizone (located downtown seattle (sort of close to captial hill) is also pretty cool.

Seattle has a lot of Metal (thrash and death metal usually), a lot of Indie stuff.
Tacoma is more Hardcore and screamo.

I perfer the seattle scene a lot better.

Seattle is pretty pricey. A run down, shitty apartment up there is on average $800/$900.

I'd recommend living in another town south of seattle and driving to seattle, like in Federal way or auburn. Its a bit of a drive, but its way cheaper.

Pretty much keep in mind, the further south you go, the cheaper it gets.

U District is totally awesome! Captiol hill is cool, but keep in mind, all the bars in capital hill are gay or lesbian bars.

My room mate learned that the hard way after getting sloshed in several bars up there and yelling "WHERE ARE ALL THE CHICKS MAN!!"

But I think if your looking for markets and bars, Downtown seattle is your best bet.

I hope I was helpful

I'd like to thank EVERYONE again for giving me some stuff to think about and to look into when I go there to visit.

I would like to give special thanks to papawheelie for introducing not 1 but 6! boobs into the thread.

this is all brilliant and accurate advice. i just moved to the seattle are about 3 weeks ago and this is about all i HAVE gathered.

also, i wanted to add that i'm from LA too and i really am loving it here.

as far as the scene.. that is one thing i checked into right away. th decemberists are playing a show, at the seattle zoo oddly enough, later this month. i think the french kicks are playing soon as well. if you are still around on the 1-2 of sept.you could drive down to portland for an indie music festival. its like 4 hours away. i know i'll be there. :]

wow you people are so helpful! here's my go at it:

it is not the best if you live way out there, but if you live in a central area and are going to another central area it is great. not always on time, but i think that is how busses are everywhere. i didn't have a car for like 5 years, and i did just fine. only bad thing is most busses stop at midnight or 1, so if you wanna stay out until bars close you'll have to take a taxi home.

i guess it depends on what you like. if you like rap, hip-hop or country you might be out of luck. i think it's great. there are a lot of good venues, good local bands, good radio (kexp). most bands stop here when they're on tour.

obviously. i love capitol hill, ballard and west seattle. i hate u-district, international district and anywhere more then 10 minutes from downtown.

love it. closeish to downtown, but it kind of has it's own little city thing going. just neighborhoodie enough to be quiet, but not the suburbs. there are some good resturaunts and an easy street records. there's alki beech too. stay towards the north end, south (white center) gets a little sketchy. there are not that many busses, but they are frequent and always on time, because it's at the beginning of the route.

capitol hill is the place to be to party and go to concerts and bars and be able to walk to everything. ballard, fremont west seattle have their own stuff also.

depends on where you live. capitol hill is probably $800-900 for a good one bedroom. west seattle, ballard, greenlake, fremont, beacon hill, georgetown are probably more in the $700+. if you go a little further out you might be able to get something cheeper, but it might not be worth it. if you have a roommate, 2 bedrooms are usually not much more, so you can get deal.

more of less expensive then what? probably more then most places (except california and new york), but you get paid more, so it evens out.

i see your hot tub girls, and raise you a:

maybe I'm on glue... but wasn't that in pdx?

glue it is. that was in strongmad's backyard. in west seattle even!

though i am quite sure portland has its own version.