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Comment by zacs | Hacker News Reader

Just a friendly mention that if your would-be neighborhood is Belltown or SLU, you may want to investigate some other options (unless of course you already have, in which case please ignore me!). Belltown has become worse and worse for crime (unless Phoenix Jones happens by to save you from being mugged). SLU, while nice and pristine and new, is now very overpriced due to Amazon's recent relocation there. Both neighborhoods absolutely have their positives as well, but I wouldn't move to them just for CondoInternet. :)

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[citation needed] re: Belltown crime.

SLU is a former industrial neighborhood now filled with Amazon offices and cookie-cutter apartments. Basically the positive there is that you're close to work, the neighborhood itself is severely lacking in culture.

Belltown is "dangerous" only for people who have never lived in a city with a real dangerous neighborhood. I have never so much as felt even uncomfortable walking around Belltown alone at night. I can't say the same about most downtowns of other cities I've been in, let alone sketchier neighborhoods.

Maybe I've just been desensitized, but I really feel like there is no cause for alarm in Belltown.

I just moved from SOMA in SF to Belltown. Feels like Disneyland.

It's relative -- among Seattle hoods, I would (anecdotally and out of my ass, of course) say there is more violent crime there than in others. I'm also a fairly big guy and I've felt uncomfortable plenty of times there at night when the streets are semi-abandoned.

In the past year I've seen ambulances taking away normal citizens who've been beat down (twice) and I've had a stabbing perp run by me as he was chased by the cops. And this is with me almost never going to Belltown. I've never seen anything remotely like that while I lived in First or Capitol Hill (although I've definitely seen plenty of car break-ins).

I have worked in or around Belltown for years. My feelings are...mixed. There is a lot of minor urban annoyances. Panhandlers, junkies, drug deals, public urination, etc. I don't feel unsafe (in daylight hours) but it does feel sort of bleak and depressing.

I respect that other people have different tolerances for urban annoyances.

The problem with Belltown isn't so much with crime as its antiseptic feel. Endless highrises with nothing interesting for retail underneath. No supermarket. The coffee shops have no character. On a Sunday morning the streets are barren of people, and even the lone park is cold and uninviting. It's just a classless hunk of neighborhood where bridge and tunnelers drink, and boring people live. I would far prefer to live in Capitol Hill or even Ballard.

"Belltown has become worse and worse for crime"

It really hasn't. I'd be more worried about living in the U-District than Belltown or even the International District.

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