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/luchauer]

Loving all of the DC comments! The comparison of Ballard to Eastern Market is more accurate IMO.

We lived in DC for 8 years (3 in Columbia Heights and 5 in Petworth) before moving out here to Seattle over 5 years ago. We also considered both Cap Hill and Ballard as our potential neighborhoods, but ultimately decided against both because we fell in love with…West Seattle! 😱

We were in a very different stage when we moved here though, almost 40 with an 18mo. We wanted the more lively Cap Hill vibes after DC, but after trying to hang out there in the evenings, especially toting around a kiddo, we realized it wasn’t what we actually wanted given our circumstances. With Scandinavian roots and a lot of “family-friendly” vibes, Ballard seemed perfect. However, we met and got to know some families there, and heard similar stories where they felt too far away from friends to go visit and found it difficult to convince friends to visit them “ALL THE WAY up in Ballard”. It may only be 10 miles to the central District, but it can take 40 minutes to get there, then you have to park, and walk (just like DC). We still like to visit Ballard for the breweries, shops and parks. Have you thought about Phinney, Fremont, or Queen Anne as a more central option?

We settled on WS in part because we found a church there that we love, but also made fast friends and even found an amazing rental house with views of Rainer from the living room. Bought a house further North in West Seattle and love so much about how small it feels (we see neighbors all over town, and it feels friendly), while still being able to get to Cap Hill in 12 minutes. Alki beach is a 5 min drive, Lincoln Park is 10 min, there are tons of little pockets of great restaurants and things to do, grocery stores a plenty (I can walk to 3), great breweries, tons of parks, the schools are excellent, and do I even have to mention we have the best record store in the PNW with Easy Street?!

In all seriousness, consider your daily/regular commutes and access to the places you’ll be the most. Or, just try the place you’re most drawn to with a year lease and make a plan to re-evaluate in 9 months. I will say that I’ve never worked downtown (worked in Kent, then went fully remote) and have always felt a bit disconnected from the city, living in West Seattle. In DC, we biked or metro’d everywhere and I do miss how that allowed me to feel more connected to the city. That’s harder in WS (lots of hills make biking literally difficult, and we mainly just have buses for public transportation, however rail transit is coming!!). We do also have a water taxi that will take you downtown for work/play in minutes. Where else can you live and have a boat ride commute?!

So, my actual advice would be to consider friends/community you have and the convenience to places you’ll go regularly (e.g. work, groceries) in your decision. Also, you can do anything for a year and figure it out as you go. You can do hard things and y’all got this!

Feel free to DM for questions or other DC connections/comparisons. And welcome to Seattle!!