Aww heck!

[BenWA]

Without going into a big monologue, I'll just say I'm disabled and low income (as I may have previously mentioned in another thread) and so where I live depends on where I can get subsidized housing.

Now I may be moving and selling my Vibe because an apartment opened up in Seattle where there is long term NOOOOOOOOOOO parking except for $300+/mo private parking. I got a letter from the Seattle Housing today saying my name has come up but that the appointment will be within the next 6 months (?!) and that it might take longer or shorter than I think. Could they be more vague if they tried?

Initially I wanted to live there but then this nice apt opened up and I sold my camper van and got the car since it seemed I was going to be here for a long time. So much for that!

On the one hand, I love my car and I like where I live right now; but on the other hand, socializing wise I'd be better off in Seattle... even if I am avoidant of it and suck at it when I do. I need more practice... and lots more patience.

I wouldn't need a car hardly with the massive amount of transit there (along with my discounted disabled rate bus fare). Plus everything is so crammed in close. I mean, it's right in Downtown Seattle. I can always go with ZipCar for a few hours use, or a traditional rental car (for weekend getaways). I'll have $87/mo more off the bat (no monthly car insurance) to use toward a $36 monthly bus pass, plus ZipCar rentals if I so desire. Plus biking since everything is pretty close, and you can legally ride a bike on the sidewalk.

The building they have sent me forms for is very close to the Space Needle! How cool is that? Depending which way the apt is facing, I may get a view of the water or the space needle. Course, it might be of nothing too if it's a lower floor. Not like I stare out the window a lot anyway.

On the plus side regarding the Vibe I know I can safely leave it curb parked around here for free and move it weekly to avoid tickets if I move but can't sell the car for weeks or a month or more. Long term though, it wouldn't make any sense to pay $87/mo insurance on a car 35 miles away I'm not driving, so I'd have to sell it. On the plus side, they sell for about or a little more than I have in it so I won't lose much or any money.

I have to get the form back to them within 2 weeks of today. I guess I will go ahead and send it in and see how long it actually takes. It could be a month, it could be 6 months. I'm in no hurry to sell the car since I know I can park it free around here for a while after I move, but yeah... dang!!!

[ImUrOBGYN]

Good luck with your decision!

[BenWA]

Good luck with your decision!

It's a tough one, for sure. I was up late last night stewing over this. I resolved when I was finally laying down trying to get to sleep that I'd stay here. Of course when I woke up this morning, I'm in doubt again.

I did find out that you can get away with parking a motorcycle in a "restricted parking zone" (their name for the permit parking zones) for up to 72 hours. The building is a few blocks JUST outside of an RPZ, so I could keep my scooter and park it over there. Long term, I'd get a trike again. I had this several years ago.



A trike kit is awesome since you can't fall over. I bought the kit used before and had to have it repaired, and it kind of ate up the 8" trailer tires it uses but then I finally got it to where it was aligned right and not doing it anymore, but then I sold almost everything I had and moved out of state in the camper van. In a heavy congested city with a lot of steep hills, horrible traffic and lots of rain, not falling over can be challenge on two wheels.

The bad thing is... one of those kits NEW is $2400 or so.

I'd have to make sure I don't forget to move it every 2-3 days to avoid tickets. Seattle is real militant about that stuff. I would be better off sticking with ZipCar and buses, probably.

What I need to do is take the bus up to that area several days a week and walk around the neighborhood and see how I like it. I've been around there before 2 or 3 times before but I was just walking through. It did seem nice enough though. Much better than Capital Hill, in my opinion. (Seattle tried to be the State Capital at one time but lost out to Olympia, but the name stuck in that neighborhood). Cap Hill is the kind of hippy area. Although from what I have read, Belltown is more the weekend frat party area.

I take a lot of negative comments about places with a grain of salt. People from around Seattle look down on Tacoma. If the social scene was better here, there's no way I'd consider leaving. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough. Hm.

[ImUrOBGYN]

No use in me giving you advice. Whenever anyone asks me if they should move, I just say yes. lol I am a nomad in every facet of my being. No matter how hard I've tried to settle down in my life, I've found it impossible. Moving to a new place gets me all fuzzy and excited.

[BenWA]

Yeah, I'm very much the same. The novelty wears off after a while at being at a new place however. That's my biggest concern. On the other hand, there's more stuff around to do.

I got the $4 (disabled rate) day pass yesterday, which I used like crazy, actually zig-zagging around downtown Seattle because I forgot to do something on one end so I had to go back, etc. Local buses there are so frequent and 2 or more routes on the same path in downtown Seattle that if you miss a bus or get refused entry due to it being full, another is 5-10 minutes behind it.

For example I got had to step back off Bus 3, but a few minutes later, Bus 4 came to the same stop and took me to the same spot that bus 3 would have taken me to. Later on, I had a similar situation where I could pick from bus 2 or 13.

Compare that to Tacoma where the most frequent bus is about 15-20 minutes, but mostly 30 minutes, with some as much as 60! Plus it's a suburban sprawled city so you have little choice but to own a car to get around to more than a few places within a few hours, simply due to the often long waits for the bus at every stop. To go to 3 or 4 stores that are fairly close together, it ends up taking all afternoon. Having been carless in Tacoma, I know how crappy it is.

You pretty much have to have a smart phone for Google maps (or a similar map system with the bus routes built in) to get around Seattle . It doesn't help that their bus time tables are in individual little paper pamphlets, due to the cost of producing actual books for so many routes, and if one time changes they can simply replace one little pamphlet vs an entire book, like how Pierce county (Tacoma) does.

Seattle has a BIKE sharing system too, but I'd rather just haul out my own since I have one (only 7 speed, but I can load it on a bus to go up steep hills) that has metal fenders to contain water splashing up if the ground is wet, plus it has a big sturdy rack on the rear for my big water resistant pannier bags. The Bike sharing bikes are valued at $1500 (?!??) so I'd be worried something might happen to it and I'd get blamed for it, and have to pay for replacement.

Electric bikes are also an option, but then you have to use the street, can't use sidewalks. A good one costs a ton, though I did spot a clearance one at REI for about $1500, marked down over $1000. You can get bike insurance in Seattle though, since bike theft is a fairly big problem. I'd be worried about owning a bike worth more than $250.

The Schwinn bike I have right now was about $120 on clearance at Kmart. I'd be upset if it got stolen or parts stripped from it, but at least it's only $120 and not $1500+
http://www.kmart.com/schwinn-men-s-700c ... 201960001P

$1500 would pay for over 3 years of unlimited bus rides, to put things in perspective.