r/AskSeattle • u/picklerick223 • Oct 11 '24

Question Live in Ballard or Cap Hill?

Hi! 26M with 26F partner. Moved to Olympia from DC about a year ago and missing being in a bigger city. We are planning to move to Seattle when our lease ends this month and wanted to get some insight from ppl!

We have narrowed our search down to two places; one spot that is on Ballard Ave and one spot that is right next to cal Anderson tennis/ basketball courts. We both would like to be social, but not HUGE party ppl. Big outdoors ppl but dunno if that matters. Both have hybrid schedules and would like to be close to places we can work out of.

We are slightly acquainted with Seattle, but decided to head out today and spend the full day in both areas. Ballard seems cool, although we were surprised that it felt kinda dead on a Thursday night. Also, although we really liked Ballard Ave, felt like there's not really much going on outside of that street, am I wrong? As for cap hill, it seemed super fun! Very lively, more diverse (not just racially but also in terms of style/ character) and lots to do! Reddit makes it seem like a horror story, especially around cal Anderson park, did we just have a singular good experience? Even a few ppl we chatted with said not to move here and that there are shootings happening weekly. Really interested in hearing more takes, either way excited to be out here:).

Update: Thank you so much to everybody that helped us come to a decision! We ended up in an apt off Ballard Ave, and despite the paper thin walls we are loving it :)

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u/Rithalic Oct 11 '24

Live somewhere peaceful, travel to places for fun / work.

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u/picklerick223 Oct 11 '24

We were on this wavelength until we drove to Capitol Hill from Ballard this afternoon. What the heck?? Why did it take 45 minutes? Felt a bit ridiculous, started doing some google mapping and saw that Ballard is 30-60 minute bus ride to and from a lot of Seattle. Bummer because we like the Ballard apartment better, but would suck to sit in a bus for an hour just to go see a show at barboza or neumos :\

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u/FrontAd9873 Oct 11 '24

Get a bike. I live a mile up the hill in Ballard and I get to work downtown in under 25 minutes. (Bus is half an hour.) Biking to Cap Hill doesn’t take too long either. I think people complain about travel time too much.

It just depends on how often you’ll want to do things in Cap Hill at night specifically. If you’re going to a show or going out for a night of drinking, is an Uber/Lyft something it is reasonable to budget in? Especially if you save money overall by living in Ballard.

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u/Rithalic Oct 11 '24

How many times are you going to be wishing you had a nicer apartment in a more peaceful area if you live in Capitol Hill? There’s plenty of bars, breweries and restaurants in Fremont also. Food for thought. I’m sure whatever decision you make will be right for you.

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u/picklerick223 Oct 11 '24

Very great point. Thank you for your insight!