I'm not sure if we've had a similar question recently, but I just took a job in Seattle and I will be moving out there at the end of the month. I need advice on places to go, things to do, and most importantly for right now, how to find an apartment.

I will be working at the University of Seattle and want to find a place within biking if not walking distance, that is affordable (folks who work for college's don't make nearly as much as those who work for dot coms).

I actually listed a lot of my thoughts on my journal at http://davidgrenier.weblogger.com/2000/07/31, but the simple part is just wondering what neighborhoods I should be looking in and where should I be looking (right now I am just looking in the classifieds for The Stranger and The Seattle Times). I'll be looking for a roommate/sublet situation, I can't afford my own place right now.

Thanks for all your help folks.

-- Anonymous, August 07, 2000

Answers

Hi David! I'm in Seattle right now (okay well technically I'm in Redmond but I live in downtown Seattle) so I feel I should help you out :)

Now when you say 'University of Seattle' - I'm going to assume you mean Seattle University, which is in the Central District/First Hill area of Seattle (or so I'm told, I've never even seen it as far as I know, so I asked a friend). If you want to bike to work, let me advise you that unless you're in relatively good shape, the hills are going to kill you. I will also tell you that downtown Seattle has a city bus "Free Zone" - which means that within a certain distance downtown, you can ride the bus for *free*!!! It's pretty damn cool. Also, the buses have two bike rack spots on the front - so you can ride partway and ride another section.

To bike/walk to the First Hill area, you could live right Downtown, and there are some really great deals to be found - we're talking studios for $450 in the heart of the city; but you'd be damn lucky to get one of these. Capital Hill is also a good place to check out - funky little neighbourhood with a really diverse crowd. Queen Anne is a pretty desirable place to live, and you could bike no problem. First Hill is getting... nicer. But as a single white petite female, I've been cautioned about living there. It's not really that nice. Stay out of the International District too - ick ick ick. Fremont is also within reasonable biking distance but Wallingford is a bit far (ignore the map on this point). Oh and stay out of Pioneer Square too. Nothing but winos and frat boys 24/7 and the rent is *insane*.

One thing you might want to try, is to see if the schools have posting boards for people looking for roommates. They won't all necessarily be kids, and you may just find a good situation. And there are *a lot* of roommate things goin' on now, because rent here is *out of control*!!!

And that leads me to this : finding something good to rent in Seattle can be a nightmare. Unless you have a hook up, it can take months. And there are oodles of deposits and waiting lists and tons of other people looking for spots too. I'm thinking of moving next month, and it's getting me kind of depressed because I remember my last apartment hunt. Oh and the average rent for a room is $300-$450, while studios can range anywhere from $450 to $800. Mine is $600. Of course you can also get one bedroom apartments from $600-$1200 and up.

If you're moving here from another city, you might want to think about forking over the cash for a renting agent. I've never tried it (someone hooked me up with my current place) but I did use one of those "pay and get the listings" services, and actually got a few really great leads. Of course with those, you have to be able to show up pretty much that day or the next day and be ready to snap up the apt. if you it suits you.

But it's not all bad! Like I said, good deals abound. You just need to be vigilent and prepared. I also think renting a room (which I've never done here) will probably be much much easier then finding an apartment. The Stranger is a good weekly for that. Oh and if you're looking in the paper, ignore anything that says "Eastside"; that's on the other side of the lake. That includes areas called : Bellevue, Kirkland, and Redmond.

As for Seattle itself - it's a *supercool* city. It has a blue collar heritage with a fresh new veneer of MONEY. It's a strange combination, to say the least. Barney's just opened a store, and yet most bars have a definite "working man" type feel. Lots of cheap beer, pool tables, and woodwork. The whole luxury thing manifests itself in an odd way too - mostly cars and homes. The hotels haven't really caught up with it yet, and the better stores are the indie type places. Seattle folks also seem to be really big on that whole "clean modern" look - or at least the uberhipsters anyway. The polar fleece hiking types still abound, but you know, Seattle is *teeming* with subcultures. And the music scene? Fabulous! Bigger acts have finally started playing shows here, and that combined with the local talent has really created quite the scene.

There's everything from karoake to swing dancing to speed death metal to great hiking to island living to swank cocktail bars. Something for everyone so to speak. Unless of course you're into superclubs and sleek all white spaces. Seattle doesn't have a lot of those.

Where are you moving from? Oh and I'll email you a listing of sites re: Seattle. I assume the email with your question is appropriate for that.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

I'm in Seattle, too (actually Lake Forest Park, which is just north of Seattle on Lake Washington) and I must say Jennifer gave a great overview of Seattle. Looks like I can't really add anything else, except that I found my place in two weeks, after not looking too hard at all. It's $500 for a "mother-in-law" house with lots of privacy. I can bike downtown in an hour on this really flat, wide, paved bike path that goes by my house. Good luck! As long as you know what you want, I'm sure you'll find it easily.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

The path Patrick refers to is the Burke-Gilman trail, and is a great ride. The area is considered extremely bike-friendly; I moved around almost exclusively by bike when I moved here 8 years ago, until I got lazy.

I'd recommend looking on Capitol Hill, First Hill, Downtown, and Belltown. Further away there's Queen Anne, Wallingford, the U-District, and Leschi. There are plenty of online classifieds at www.seattletimes.com/classified/.

As for things to do -- what do you like to do?

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

do please confirm that you meant 'seattle university' and not the 'university of washington,' as that's an entirely different place.

i lived for a year in a duplex on first hill, and moved back to capitol hill this spring. my thoughts on first hill: noticably cheaper than capitol hill, but less convenient and fun. it's not within good walking distance of anything useful, which was a killer for me: i don't own a car and i have a bad knee that keeps me from biking. however, while a mile is a prohibitive distance to walk with heavy groceries, it might be completely acceptable on a bike. on the up side, though first hill looks a little run-down in places, it's not actually any less safe than capitol hill. (you can call the police department and check crime statistics.) in the year i was in that duplex, i had exactly one scary encounter with someone hanging around the house threateningly; the police ran him off. also one night during a thunderstorm a drunk homeless guy climbed into my friend's car. but in my prior apartment on capitol hill, a guy broke into my apartment while i was sleeping and stole money and a vaccuum cleaner, so i wasn't feeling any more safe, really. i walked home a lot after dark in both cases, with no incidents.

i've also used a service called placefinders three times now, with good results every time. about two months ago they were bought out and are now called 'rent tech,' so i can't promise that their service hasn't changed for the worse -- or better. i've never used them for roommate services, however, only for apartment listings, but when you're looking in the neighborhoods near downtown (as i am and you seem to be) the market is tight enough that it's definitely worth the $75. (i've used other roommate services twice now; the first time worked out fine, but the second time was like living in a horror movie. be very very careful. just because she looks like a cheerleader doesn't mean she doesn't keep a loaded gun under her bed. you think i'm making this up, but no ...)

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

oh, and i meant to mention for the record: i'm also a young single white petite female, so if anyone were going to accost someone on the street, they'd pick me. seattle on the whole is a very safe town; if you've ever lived in another big city (e.g. nyc or chicago) you will laugh at what's considered a 'bad part of town' here.

where *are* you moving from?

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

Karawynn points out that you'd laugh at Seattle's "bad part of town" -- she's right. I moved here with my college friend Dominic in '91, and we took a $395 apartment in the Central District at 21st and Yesler. We'd lived there for about two months when someone said, "egad, you live in the worst part of town!" We'd never noticed.

I like it here. A lot. I'm moving out of the city to Kingston, a town across the Sound, but I expect I'll still spend a lot of time in the city.

Incidentally, if your interests run toward beer, I'd be happy to show you around some of my favorite pubs sometime. (That goes for anyone else here who's in or visiting Seattle, too.)

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

Oh, and hey -- are any of you other Seattlites concerned that the fact that the Mariners are a game away from the best record in major league baseball may be a sign of the apocalypse?

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

one-page neighborhood pieces from a local newspaper:

http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/neighbors/

they're pretty darn accurate, at least for the areas i'm familiar with.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

My goodness. I live in Seattle also, on a floating home in Portage Bay for the last 30+ years. I havent looked for an apartment for 35+ years but someone should elect jennifer to the chamber, welcome wagon or what ever. Ive never seen such a clear concise appraisal of our city. Good job jennifer and welcome David.

Go Mariners! I was thinking about buying shared seasons tickets next year but at this rate theyll probably double their prices.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

gee thanks! i thought i'd overdone it *just a little*! :) the best part is i just moved into downtown in february; i was in bothell until then for about 2 1/2 years, driving in on friday/sat nights and learning my way around. i still get lost. my one major complaint - the signage around here *SUX*

and yeah, seattle is *supersafe* but the thing is, here, after like 1am, the streets are deserted. just completely empty - except for the homeless/crackheads. i'm from toronto, where things are buzzing quite late at night, and it's not really ever *empty*. the quiet is what gets me. it's like, if something does happen, there's no one there to hear it - or at least that's what it seems like in my head. i bet if something happened both on the streets of seattle and the streets of toronto, someone would be more likely to help here in seattle- it's just that kind of town - by that i mean, not so huge that everyone feels like a stranger. i swear once you get passed the whole 'clique' thing here and just start talking to people, most people are superfriendly.

oh and i just went to my first *live* baseball game a few months ago at safeco when the mariners kicked some yankee ass and what's his name did that spectacular safe, practically plucking the ball from the stands, and safeco *is* an amazing ball park. it feels like it's straight out of an old movie.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2000

Hey, one last thing -- I run a mailling list for Seattle-area journallers. It's pretty quiet, but if we got a few more people we might reach critical conversational mass. If you care to subscribe, it's at:

http://www.awenet.com/mailman/ listinfo/jet-city-journals.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2000

Wow, thanks for all your help. Sorry it ha taken me so long to reply here, I've been busy trying to move.

After looking at the postings here, talking to some friends in Seattle and trying for a few days to get an apartment through the phone/ classifieds, I've endedup deciding just to fly out there in the beginning of september and couch surf until I can find a permanant spot (and William, I *will* take you up on your pub tour offer).

My friend Greg said the same thing to me that has been said here. He highly recommended I live in Central District, said it was still kinda cheap and definitely my type of place. Then he said, "people think it's a ghetto, but you'll laugh at it."

Thing is, I like ghettos, and felt much more comfortable living in Olneyville ("bad" part of providence) than I do on the East Side (where Brown University is).

I have two pretty good leads from friends on apartments in the U- District. One is a guy I know who works at left bank books, but his roommates really want to find a woman to live in his house to make it more balanced. If they don't find one soon, they'll "open it up" which will hopefully mean I'll get the place.

He also gave me the number of this house called the Punkin House. I called up and said "Hi, my name's Dave Grenier I got your number from Chris at left bank." The guy immediately said "Wow, Dave Grenier who does Retrogression?"

That was funny. anyway, they might have a room open, but he's not sure, so I am waiting to hear back from him.

So that's that.

and yes, I will be working at SeattleU, not UW

-- Anonymous, August 18, 2000

The Central District (CD) will be conveniently near Seattle U. Seattle U itself is conveniently near Bill's Off Broadway (a fine pizza place) and the Egyptian theatre (a movie theatre that has all sorts of interesting movies, but very uncomfortable seats -- bring a pillow).

-- Anonymous, August 19, 2000