Wow, Jenna’s ode to Seattle livin’ certain stirred up the Eastside pride. It’s good to see all of you Eastsiders out there representing! I think if I can make one definitive statement it is that everyone’s experiences, needs, and preferences vary, and the Puget Sound area sure offers variety.
As such, I can’t sit here and tell you which side to choose … but I will warn future “greater Seattle-area-ites” (does that work?) of this … Yes, there is this bizarro rivalry between the two sides. Yes, you will be branded an “Eastsider” or a “Westsider” … get used to it. Yes, you can still “cross-over” to the other side … although you are usually detectable in alien territory. And no, you shouldn’t expect any heated clashes … although that does conjure a funny image of the Medina girls brawling with the Fremont girls at Nordstrom.
Others have chimed in with their two cents so I’ll share my experience as an Eastsider. I call it “East Eastside Livin … and lovin’ it.”
When I first moved to the area, I didn’t consider living anywhere but close to work, and that’s what Josh and I did for our first year here at Microsoft. In fact, we lived so close that we could walk. It was awesome. (It was also humorous to drink beer on our balcony and watch the traffic in front of the Microsoft sign … tourists taking pictures,
Microsoft Office Standard, media setting up live shots,
Office 2007 Enterprise Key, anti-MS folks, um, relieving themselves. Good times.)
Soon, it was time to buy our own place, and Josh and I gravitated toward Sammamish,
Office Home And Business, a town whose police station and city hall are situated in the strip mall between a Mexican restaurant and Ace Hardware. We call it the “East Eastside” because not only is it east of Lake Washington, but it’s actually east of yet another lake … lovely Lake Sammamish.
I’ll admit it … the traffic sucks. (For Seattle area standards,
Office 2007 Activation, that is.) Most people who live in Seattle face the same commute time as me (about 25-30 minutes in the morning … to go 7 miles), but at least my commute is all along a two-lane lake-side road. It’s really not a bad way to start the day. Getting home is a breeze if I avoid 520.
I like Sammamish because our area still feels relatively rural. Josh and I both grew up in wooded, less populated areas (Josh in New England, me in Tennessee), and Sammamish feels very close to that experience. I need to be secluded. I like to see deer in my front yard. I don’t want to even be able to see my neighbor’s house. And I can’t. That’s something that Seattle living or traditional Eastside suburbia living can’t offer.
Yet the town of Sammamish is just a couple miles away ... We've got restaurants and a grocery store. Josh even has an EB Games. Redmond and Issaquah are just down the road, and well, there’s pretty much anything I want or need in those two towns. And like others mentioned, Seattle is just a 25 minute drive away on the weekends. And we are also closer to the snow in the winter and the hiking in the summer.
Best of all, the coolest dog park in the entire world is just down the road. Sure, Seattle has their dog parks, but nothing compares to Marymoor. It’s the place to be if you have a pooch.
Sammamish is also cool because it is located near the other Microsoft campuses … should one of us ever find ourselves working in another location. Millennium is just north. The Sammamish campus is just south. (Note: the Sammamish campus is not in Sammamish.) And the maybe-someday-Issaquah Highlands campus is just over the hill. Getting to Seattle for work, however,
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus, would not be quite as easy, but luckily, that's not a problem for us. (And I do know plenty of Sammamish residents who work in Seattle - so it's not impossible - just longer than I'd like to drive.)
We probably won’t live in Sammamish forever – mainly because we want our next house to be a fortress of solitude on many acres of land, and well, it’s hard to afford that in Sammamish. So we’ll probably extend our commute a bit and move out east to North Bend or Snoqualmie or maybe up north toward Woodinville or Snohomish County. Who knows.
There are lots of options, whether you choose the Eastside or the Westside. You just need to find the best fit for you.
gretchen
P.S. Other good resources on neighborhoods:
Seattle PI's Guide to Neighborhoods Our College Recruiting page's Seattle neighborhoods and Eastside neighborhoods
Office Home And Business blog eastsiders-are-peopl
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