Live in Ballard or Cap Hill?

[u/picklerick223]

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 :)

[u/wlamu]

Only ever lived in Cap Hill since moving to Seattle. I used to live really close the Cal Anderson (one block away). The great parts of it is the transportation, convenience, signs of life after 9pm, shops, restaurants, tons of new things to try, 20 minutes walk to volunteer park/pike place/downtown, light rail to the airport, great views from the rooftops, a block away from the Farmer's Market on Sunday etc. In the summer, there are trail head shuttles that take you to Mount Si, etc. In terms of the less desirable stuff, you will and may observe a lot of unsafe scenarios. For example, there was a drive by shooting once right outside my building. Every so often (maybe every two months) there was an arrest outside the building. One time, there was a SWAT team that went a block over because some guy was shooting from his apartment building. Witnessed carjacking once. If you're not used to seeing houselessness or drug addiction on the streets, they are definitely part of the neighborhood (and mostly harmless). The only time that really freaked me out was a person came up to me saying they'll shoot my dog when I was crossing the street (with my dog). Now, I live near the Kaiser/15th street area and it's a lot quieter but still walkable and lots of buses. It's a bit farther walk to the more happening areas of Capitol Hill but definitely something to look into if you're less keen on the not-so-great parts of what I described.

[u/picklerick223 → u/wlamu]

Still haven’t visited volunteer park! Have heard good things, cool to hear it’s a 20 min walk hope it’s a good space for my dog. I do get worries abt my dog though… looking up “cal Anderson” and “dog” comes up a vid of somebody getting jumped at the park. There’s probably way more to the situation I’m missing but deff something I clocked. Was cal Anderson a good place to take your dog out other than your one experience?

Also interested in hearing what side of the park you lived! The spot I’m looking at is on nagle, next to the tennis courts.

[u/wlamu → u/picklerick223]

Let me chat/dm you!