The deal with Seattle? Please change my mind
polycounter lvl 17
I know quite a few of you on these boards are from the Seattle area, so I am hoping that you guys can help me out.
I've been looking at Seattle for a while now as somewhere to move to get started working in games. Ive asked around a lot and Ive had tons of people tell me it's a great place to live. Since I kind of want to avoid LA and have friends up in the NW, Seattle was my 1st choice.
So just recently I visited the city to get a vibe of the place so i would know what to expect. The city came across as a pretty worn down and depressing place. It has a lot of ameneties but it seems to be missing the vibrance of places like Austin and San Fran, and seemed to be a much older town, insofar as the avarage age is concerned.
Of course this was just my very personal, very subjective impression of the place. I only had a day to check it out, and for all i know it could have simply been the wrong time of day to see it or something.
Im also sure there is MUCH more to the town than just downtown and the west side (which is mostly what i saw).
So are there any of you that have impressions of the place, or have lived there and can give me a little bit of a better impression of what it's like to live there? I am a little unsure of what to make of it at the moment.
Thanks a bunch
I've been looking at Seattle for a while now as somewhere to move to get started working in games. Ive asked around a lot and Ive had tons of people tell me it's a great place to live. Since I kind of want to avoid LA and have friends up in the NW, Seattle was my 1st choice.
So just recently I visited the city to get a vibe of the place so i would know what to expect. The city came across as a pretty worn down and depressing place. It has a lot of ameneties but it seems to be missing the vibrance of places like Austin and San Fran, and seemed to be a much older town, insofar as the avarage age is concerned.
Of course this was just my very personal, very subjective impression of the place. I only had a day to check it out, and for all i know it could have simply been the wrong time of day to see it or something.
Im also sure there is MUCH more to the town than just downtown and the west side (which is mostly what i saw).
So are there any of you that have impressions of the place, or have lived there and can give me a little bit of a better impression of what it's like to live there? I am a little unsure of what to make of it at the moment.
Thanks a bunch
Replies
If you want to do nothing but get drunk, laid and party your ass off, then yeah - downtown Seattle probably isn't the best place for you.
If you want a nice enjoyable city with a great atmosphere, then Seattle is good.
I'm in Reno Nevada, and it's perfect for me. Everything I need is here, but it's not large enough to be obnoxious like San Francisco or Salinas.
Im not looking for a place to drink and party, there are tons crap cities that let you do plenty of that. But I sure as hell dont prescribe to the idea that I going to a place so i can work and thats it. I think it's important that you can find some inspiration from your environment, so things like good art galleries, architecture, design, fashion, interesting subcultures and music scenes, multiculturalism, etc are all pretty high on my list.
Seattle certainly has some of that, maybe it's just not as centrally located? I dunno, thats what im trying to figure out.
I know for sure that Seattle has a great music scene, but only saw maybe one or two venues that looked like anything was going on, so im thinking they must be located in a district outside of downtown.
What im not looking for necessarily is a "nice place to raise kids" or what have you, id like a place i can experience. Of course by that I dont mean I want to go live in Compton, standard of living is important too. It's cool if the place is a little outrageous though, all the more for me to draw inspiration from. For example, Austin is full of tattoo'd indie kids and punk rockers. I'm neither of those but i sure as hell love using them to get character ideas.
oh yeah, and I'm afraid i have to mention this...where are all the beautiful women? I drove 3 hours north to Vancouver and they were everywhere, but i think the ones in Seattle must have been in hiding
So, just to clarify, i am NOT trying to piss on Seattle. I am sincerely considering making it my home, but I want to be very sure it's the right match. Thanks
If you want cleaner, sleek and the well-to-do neighborhoods you need to go east over 520/I-90 to Redmond, Bellevue, Newcastle and Kirkland where most of the Microsoft, Nintendo and other software places are and where most of the richer, well paid people live.
Bellevue is pretty clean and nice, Redmond proper still has that 'small town' charm, but alot of posh resturants and such have sprung up, making it one of the nicest areas around.
West seattle is seriously shitty as is the area directly south of seattle (Soho, Rainier, Renton, Burien and White center). Capital Hill is also very shitty and run down.
Also avoid the "U-district" and it's neighboring areas of Ballard, Lake City and Sand Point. Its nothing but a slum-style college area full of bums and students. This area is essentially just north of DT seattle.
You just need to go east to find the nicer areas.
Thanks for the info, man.
I'm planning on heading back there around Sept to use that last strike of mine.
Aesir, yeah thats true, but i have several reasons. Its expensive, and living cheap there usually pushes you far out enough that you have to get on the freeways, which sucks. I personally love SoCal but i feel like going there entry level would prevent you from getting the most out of it since everythings so pricey. The fact that so many people are there trying to break into the biz kinda turns me off too. I think ill save LA for later.
Plus Seattle is 3 hours away from Vancouver which is my new favorite city due to the french canadian girl i met there last week and the dirt cheap and amazingly good sushi
Its nothing but a slum-style college area full of bums and students.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hey! I'm one of those students!
I live east as well, closer to Redmond than Bellevue, but have been known to apply to jobs in the Bellevue area... Areas near Lake Washington (aka Kirkland) are very very cool for things like art galleries (and some cute girls, as well as hott cars). Bellevue as well.
As stated:
Higher standard of living = East
Centers for Inspiration = A trip to Down Town on a rainy day.
Try to stay away from living in the U-district, but there's some pretty funky things (that i personally find inspirational) on The Ave, or in the U-district.
Bellevue (where I live) and redmond are crapholes unless you're a late-twenties or early-30s young couple looking to start a family and find yourself a nice little suburban america mold to fit into. Yuck. Judging from his opinions of various parts of the city, I'd say slayerjerman is one of these.
I get most of my inspiration from nature so the Cascade mountains (which are extremely close) and the peninsula, and the general PNW scene, really inspire me. Check out Mt Ranier if you're really into that stuff, it's beautiful, and only a couple hours' drive. I've found that if you're friendly and cool you can have a great time with anyone anywhere in seattle (people are pretty friendly), but it's easy to get all pooty-poot about certain areas if that's something you like to do. IMO it's more fun to just check out all the diverse, interesting parts of seattle for their own unique qualities.
that's the young PNW native hippy artist angle on things, at least
Honestly I have lived here most of my life (on the eastside), Bothell, Woodenville, Kirkland. I lived in other states Ca, Mn, Az even out of country in AU and NZ. With the exception of NZ there is no other place I would rather live. Most out of staters complain about the lack of sun. Its not that we don't get sun it just gets filtered thru some light clouds. Without the clouds it would be a lot hotter in the summer and colder in the winter. Not to mention the state would be as brown as southern Cali. I really really love all the trees and greenery around the state. It breaks my heart to see so much of it laid to waste so some j-hole can put up another strip mall that sits empty.
You visited downtown seattle the westside? as a place to live? So you're homeless or you like living in a industrual wasteland? Seattle is a place you take your grandparents to when they come to visit. The nice places to live, hang out, eat, ect... are on the eastside.
Lets be real, if you are moving from out of state, you're going to be stuck in a crappy part of whatever town move to. Chances are that the cost of housing/rent is much higher than what you are currently paying. unless you happen to be sitting on a barrel of cash, you'll need to move here, and bite the bullet for a few years while you pine about moving to a nice little town. By the time you can afford to live there, it will have turned into slumville and you will be forced to look for the new hot spot to live. So far Kirkland seems to be bucking the trend and keeping up its image, but so are the prices.
You can go a wee bit north or south to avoid a little of the price gouging but so is everyone else so traffic to the working centers of xyz town from the living centers is normally a nightmare. Which if you are lucky and land a job with flexible hours you can skip bad traffic. Or you can "try" to reverse the flow of your commute so when everyone is going south in the morning you go north, and vice versa in the evening. This is a horrible plan and almost never works as both sides of whatever freeway gets clogged at peak times.
So yes its a good place to live, if you can afford it, and if you are not one of those people who needs the direct sun light to recharge thier sense of well being every morning.
First, the Seattle Metropolitan Area is a LARGE area, argueably with something for everyone. You CANNOT see it all in one day. I've lived around here for the last twenty years (I'm 37) and I still discover new and interesting places.
Second, realize that most- like 95% of the game industry jobs are on the Eastside. So if you don't want a 'shitty' commute you might consider living there. I personally feel like the Eastside 'culture' is somewhat lacking, however, and for reasons already mentioned by Ferg prefer not living there. Put simply, it's a suburban strip mall yuppie utopia- the antithesis of 'hip'. Give me shitty and gritty any day. I consider myself one of the fortunate ones, able to work in Seattle proper.
Three, the closer to Seattle, the higher the price. There are exceptions, but it's rare. I have friends in outlying areas- Fremont, Ballard (Slayer probably hasn't been there recently- it's really quite nice), Columbia City, West Seattle, Burien (improving...), Shoreline, Edmonds... many of my coworkers rent on Queene Anne and Capitol Hill (but they'll never buy there). I live in Des Moines and I LOVE IT.
Four- some thoughts on NW lifestyle. We're very laid back here. When I was younger it seemed like there was more of a hippy element, but this is almost gone. Money changes everything. People who choose to live here often site the natural beauty. I appreciate this daily. Admitedly, I don't go hiking or camping often, I still enjoy the views when I'm driving around. As for scoping out the fine babes... be realistic. It's cloudy nine months out of the year. We are a pale people. In July and August we start to see some skin, but for the most part... let's just say, there are plenty of beautiful women here, but they don't look like the 'beautiful' women in other parts of the country. If you found it in Vancouver then you can find it here- you just weren't looking at the right places on that ONE day.
I think that about covers it for me. You might want to check out Portland, too.
Downtown Seattle is not an accurate portrait of what Seattle living is like. It's a typical mid-sized city downtown, with some restaurants, clubs, shopping, and bums. Coming from California originally, it reminds me a lot of San Francisco's downtown, but a bit smaller.
Seattle is unique in that many of the neighborhoods are pretty much self-contained. There is neighborhood shopping, parks, and nightlife to the extent that you nearly don't have to leave your neighborhood for anything except maybe work. Within these neighborhoods, you don't even need a car. (My wife and I can walk to shopping, restaurants, and 27 odd pubs.) Each of these little neighborhood hubs have their own flavor, and there's something for everyone.
The Capitol Hill neighborhood's hub is Broadway Ave., which is home to many punk rockers, street people, and a large portion of the local gay community. West Seattle is fairly laid-back and quiet, and is a bit dull for my tastes. Lower Queen Anne has tons of good Thai restaurants, and is at a junction between upscale upper Queen Anne and downtown/Belltown. This makes for an interesting mix of people in this pub/resaurant district.
North of Queen Anne is Ballard, which was formerly the older Scandinavian fishing neighborhood, but has transitioned into a younger family/single area and has an incredible amount of pubs and restaurants. It still has an interesting mix of working fishermen/industrial folk, and more affluent 20-30 somethings. Just east of that is Freemont, formerly the hippy neighborhood, but now known for it's upscale clubs, bars, shops and restaurants. Wallingford is east of that, and then there's the University district. The U district has tons of college bars, street kids with dreadlocks, and good cheap restaurants. The college itself is quite pretty, being one of the oldest Universities on the west coast.
What I enjoy about Seattle is that there are real neighborhoods that have their own personality. Sure, you can do the whole downtown city thing if you want. But you don't have to. Nature is everywhere, we have a wonderful park system. Some of our city parks are miles across, with hiking trails, and more greenery than I'd ever seen, having come from California. Oh, and I love the pub culture here. Some of the best beer in the world is brewed in Seattle.
I really can't agree with people's recommendations of the eastside for anything other than working convenience. To me, it is all one big soulless strip mall. There is no sense of community, and you can't walk to anything. If you like chain restaurants, Bed Bath and Beyond, and bleached blond 40 year olds with fake boobs driving SUVs, then maybe you'll enjoy the eastside better than me.
Luckily, game companies in Seattle proper have been popping up more and more. So it might be possible to live and work and Seattle for more game artists in the future.
The different perspectives are very helpful.
I'm going to make plans to head there in Sept. with the specific purpose of checking out the city more thoroughly, so if you guys have recommendations for bars/galleries/coffee shops/areas/weirdness thats somewhat off the beaten track and are worth checking out, id love to hear about them.
Once again, I really appreciate the comments. It always impresses me how willing people are to help out on these boards. cheers!
Capitol Hill is alright, the main areas of it seem a bit too cramped for me, but I know quite a few people living there. It's nice if you like socializing a lot I'm sure.
Personally I swear by living in Magnolia, I live on the side facing ballard/Queen Anne, and it's great. Drive over into the little bowl and you'll encounter a nice little town atmosphere and community. Scattered pubs, restaurants, and are on the whole a bit more welcoming than similar places down town. It's also pretty quiet at night, you can walk around, I love to jog at night and rarely encounter anyone. The one thing that keeps the apartment costs down is that it'll take about ten minutes to get to a freeway normally. It's pretty hilly so you're likely to get a place with a top notch view. And if you want to go downtown, thats about 5 minutes away.
I recommend Ballard, Greenlake, Queen Anne, Magnolia or perhaps Fremont as a place to live, all of which are maybe 5-10 minutes from downtown. They are the more laid back nicer areas of Seattle, with nicer apartment pricing and more spacious places for the price.
When it comes to game companies, as mentioned, more are on the eastside, particularly kirkland/redmond. So it'll benefit you more to live there.
1: Dieing music scene
2: Terrible traffic
3: Not much to do other then go up north for out doors stuff
4: Tons of homeless people
5: Tons of hippies
6: Woaman are very unattractive compared to other cities
7: The people are generally cold and unfriendly
Hey if you like rain all the time and you love coffee this is the place for you . If you want a young hip vibrent city Seattle is at the very opposite side of what you are looking for .
Well, yeah- it's not for everyone. And we certainly don't need another car on the road. Yeah. Good advice. Steer clear.
I did my time on Cap. Hill, International Dist, U-dist and seattle proper...ect and while I agree some might like these places, their 'local flavor', they were too 'slumly' for me and hectic.
That and the apartments were all way too small, filthy, overpriced and parking anywhere is shitty.
Not that the eastside is any cheaper
oh btw: avoid Pioneer Square (aka. booze, bums and guns square). It has many pubs and near the stadium so you get alot of rowdy folks in that area and the bums pretty much live in the parks there and near Pike Place Market.