Moving Seattle Washington

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Anyone here live in Seattle I am seriously considering moving there from Iowa in about a year or two. Any advice personal experiences with the city good and bad. How's the weather? Where is a good neighborhood to live, I am a straight edge sort of person and wonder how to meet others like that. I have heard there is a big straight edge micro culture there. how easy is it for people like ourselves to find jobs and friends and so forth in the city

I live in Seattle; Wallingford to be exact. Its on district (15 min by foot) away from the University District of Seattle. Wallingford is pretty affluent, as is Ravenna ...and of course Bellvue. There are a lot of subcultures and different ethnic cultures in this city -it makes for a very interesting conglomerate culture setting. What kind of work do you do for a living?

Well Im a senior at the university of iowa and I am looking to go to graduate school for library science at the university of Washington its my top pick. Even if I don't get in I would like to move to Seattle anyway because I hear it has good public transport and a straight edge scene. I guess i should mention i might be on a bit of budget, so i would like to live somewhere in an apartment/studio in a good but affordable area near the university. if you don't know what straight edge is refer to Wikipedia its a bit in depth too much for what i want to type on a post. My main concern really is the weather I hear its very dreary there for a good portion of the year. and what is the crime like?
I have lived in a relatively small sheltered town with not much experience with dealing with crime or living in a big city such as Seattle. its smaller than the capital city des moines.

of course there is a severe shortage of affordable [to average wage-earners] housing in all of king county, and forget about affordable [unless you are a 6-figure man] anywhere in seattle. that is why I5 is so jammed most of the time, with commuters who work in the city but can't afford to live there. and parking is very dear. the tow trucks are always busy. even if you can afford real estate or rent in seattle, the cost of living [food, taxes et al] is notably steeper than nearby tacoma. i comparison-shopped and noticed that groceries on average were about 30-50% more expensive in seattle than tacoma. the seattle traffic is maddening, also.

The last thing I think of when I hear WA is straight edge. especially Seattle. Seattle is somewhat known for the large amount of hippies, ravers, stoners, and everything in between living there . There is a HXC "hardcore music" scene though, that is straight edge or they are for the most part.

Some of the bands in Seattle are pretty good. To wit:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fnezdn6Diw[/youtube]
I think they have an excellent guitarist!

Anyway, I guess Seattle is what you make it. Yes, you need a little money here to enjoy yourself as the plethora of restaurants can set you back a bit. Some attractions (SAM, Space Needle) are a little dear but SAM does have a freebie Thursday. Lots of nightclubs, too. Folk, country, punk, indie. Around the corner from me is Q Café. Like others, they don't serve alcohol and have poetry readings and live bands. The tony neighbourhoods include Wallingford, Ballard, Columbia City, University District, Capitol Hill, Belltown, Greenlake and the Ventral District. Capitol Hill, Belltown and the Central District have crime issues but they're working on it.

the average schoolteacher can barely afford to live in seattle, whereas in tacoma they can live quite comfortably on their middle-class salary.

Luckily, Mitrovah, Seattle has apartment buildings set aside for low income on Capitol Hill and Belltown. The link to the renters is attached for your convenience.
Capitol Hill Housing

Chinatown also has a few buildings that are low income. They charge about $450/$500 month rent. My apartment costs $850/month but I don't live in Chinatown.

Go for it!

You can actually rent a room pretty cheaply in the University District, which if you've been living with room mates might not be too bad of an option for you. Our public transportation is excellent, the crime, even in the lower income areas is pretty low (the whole city averages around 20 murders a year), and there are a lot of different scenes around town. The weather might be a dealbreaker for you, as though we don't actually get all that much rain in terms of total water volume, what we do get is spread out over most of the year, with a goodly portion of the year consisting of solid grey skies. I'll be honest, that can really get to you after a while, especially if you're sensitive to weird light conditions. Also, there's this thing called the Seattle Freeze, which makes it notably hard to make friends in this town if you weren't born here. It's not like people will shun you on the street or anything, it's more like everyone is a total flake who will enthusiastically swap contact info and claim to want to do things, and then never contact you or return you calls ever. Basically, if you want a social life here, you're going to have to do most of the heavy lifting yourself. If you're a library science major, which I'm going out on a limb here and assuming means you enjoy reading and indoor pastimes, then the cruddy weather and cold shoulders might not be too much of an issue for you, but you should be aware of them before making the jump to moving here. On a personal note, I happen to run a largish (450+ members) Autism meetup group in the area, the Square Pegs, which if you do end up out here might be helpful for meeting other Aspies in the area.