hey dude,

i work for the lazy B as well but in the Kent area. Grew up close to the renton plant.

Places to avoid: Skyway, Tukwilla, Seatac, anything in the valley of kent. you will hear about the "east hill" of kent and the west hill (boarder between demoines, seatac and kent) and the hills are fine but in the valley there are some super loud trains. on the west side of the valley you get a lot of airplane noise as they takeoff to the south.

Seatac is the friggin hood. wanna get staired down? sure go live there. at this point i should note i live in seatac (technically...seatac address but im on the kent side of the hill on the west side of the valley).

Places i considered living were kent on the east side of the valley, there's some nice places/houses for rent. I haven't had good luck with apartments over there because you want a new apartment but an older home. they just aren't built as well as they used to be. garages were the car touches the door and the wall at the same time...no thanks.

Also think about the renton highlands. Its not bad and its starting to develop alot. the east part of the highlands has some low income housing, not that its a bad thing its just something to know about the area.

rental prices for a good house, roughly 1500 is the break. anything above 1500 you get a really nice place with a 2 car + garage, yard, nicer neighborhood etc. anything under and you start seeing not so nice places. for a time i was looking into renting a house vs the condo im in now.

also if you are willing to commute a bit, newcastle is a nice, quieter area. lots of families, a little bit removed form the big city (15 mins on the freeway) and not a lot of crime. Case in point, theres alot of grand parents and people just starting families in that area. not a whole lot of 40somethings. more 30somethings in that area.

 

oh the plate....its hit and miss. ive never had one since the day i got my s2k in 07. i dont even know where the hell the plate is. its somewhere in mny house but i'll be damned if i were ever asked to find it.

no tickets, no pull overs. I find that its bellevue cops that are the worst about this. never heard of a ticket being issued but plenty of "warnings".

Thanks bellevue PD, cant go find a murderer/real criminal but you can stop me for a meaningless plate. nice.

 

Having been written a $124 ticket for no front plate I just run with them on now. No point in any additional unwanted interaction with the gendarmes.

Over drinks at Tacos we'll joke about a potential racial component of who gets written up for no front plates.

 

Thanks Street_ruler! That helps out a lot! It sounds like I should be looking northeast, east, and southeast of Renton, and avoid the Kent/SeaTac/Tukwilla area.

Boeing wants me there at the end of September so that's probably when I'll make it out there

My max rent+utilties budget is going to be around ~1,400, so I don't think I can get away with renting a house. At least not right off the bat.

 

Welcome spets


Since I've been on the forum, there's been a lot of helpful stuff from these guys, but don't believe everything you hear or read, sometimes it's just

I say find out for yourself on the cities living conditions.

As for house rentals, I'm sure you'll find something, some are decently priced (if you have room-mates that helps too)

 

hey one other thing to help you find some places, if you are using craigslist.

search criteria that really helped me were things like "southcenter" "renton garage" " (city) Garage" (fairwood, renton, newcastle, des moines, kennydale)

i mentioned that kent kind of sucks, but the city limits of kent do stretch a bit and there are nicer parts, just make sure you drive like a 10 block radius when you go look at the place.

note: 167 south in the afternoon sucks since everyone is leaving the city, 405 south (into renton) is tough in the afternoon, 405 north gets tough in the afternoon around bothell as people are going home.

rule of thumb. if you live north of the renton plant you are gonna be fine. you will be somewhat against traffic. theres traffic in both directions but im my exp. its been lighter heading north than south.

 

btw lig, that was a hilarius comment. it made me think about it. Im Korean. wonder why i dont get tickets anymore. bet i get arrested for "fitting the description" on the way home tonight.

 

Renton itself isn't horrible (in my opinion) and the commute to the Boeing plant is stellar. Avoid Bryn Mawr and Skyway if possible. For $1000/mo you should be able to find a smaller 2br with "secure" parking. Finding something with a private garage will put you probably north of $1400/mo almost regardless of neighborhood. I say "secure" because it's a false sense of security.

Where you live will probably come down to your tolerance of commuting. South of Renton will involve 167 (parking lot), East/north involves 405 (parking lot), downtown involves 5 (parking lot)...


I've gotten a front plate ticket (and I'm white!) by the po-po that runs radar about once a month on West Marginal Way... so I just leave it on now. But I don't have one on my track car (which is loud and obnoxious) and haven't been bothered... so, who knows. But it is $124 and it is a primary offense.


Come to tacos when you move here, we can talk track days...

 

lol... DWA - driving while asian.

El Jefe - perhaps the popo know you hang out with some asians...

 

Pretty sure he was struggling with his quota that day... he also gave me a warning for tailgating after the car in front of me (who was going about 5 UNDER the speed limit) slammed on his brakes.