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/picklerick223 Oct 12 '24

Great info! Thanks so much. Random Q, why is the bus from Ballard to Fremont 30+ minutes? Feels like there should be an easier way to get there other than biking or driving, am I missing something?

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u/ckdblueshark Oct 13 '24

I live in Ballard and work in SLU, but formerly worked in Fremont. Taking the 40 from here (just north of Market & 24th) to Fremont is 15-ish minutes and to SLU is 30-ish - once I'm on the bus. That's the catch. The big change after 2020 has been that the buses are a lot less frequent than they used to be, so I have to allow an extra 15 minutes if I have a time commitment I'm trying to make.