24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Decent coverage, but problematic, September 24, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Relocating to Seattle and Surrounding Areas: Everything You Need to Know Before You Move and After You Get There! (Paperback)
On the whole, Guy Steele's book about relocating to Seattle is a very well organized and written book. It's just that it has a few problems.
There's a point of view problem with the book, partly because of the fact that he's a former Los Angelino land developer turned writer. He has lots of nice things to say about high-road developed areas, such as Medina and Mercer Island, but he has very little to say about low-road areas where things grew as they needed to grow. He has lots of nice ways to make sprawl sound good (his description of Issaquah is a good example), but he doesn't have much to say about where it hasn't been able to take root (or where infilling will come later and at a substantial cost, such as in the International District).
His take on West Seattle was, as a result, fairly predictable (he hates it, almost going to the extent of ignoring it) but he nails down the core issues fairly well (it's isolated from the rest of Seattle and its crime is up). From my perspective, it compares favorably with similar areas in Atlanta, such as the Morningside/Virginia-Highland area near Emory, despite the problem with its location. It doesn't appear to suffer from too much attention from land developers and perhaps because of its relative isolation, it is a fairly comfortable and affordable area, which may appeal to some people moving to Seattle. It was apparent that because of his point of view, he spent less time researching this one area than he should have.
What's more disturbing than the problems with point of view are the problems with omissions and errors. The map insets often don't match the enlarged areas and there are some notable areas of Seattle, such as Ballard, which have been left out entirely. Maybe it's because it's easy for him to ignore Ballard, but I find this and other similar omissions annoying. Sure, maybe you don't want to live in the sound footprint of Sea-Tac and for that reason alone, you too would ignore Rainier Beach and Skyway, but it would have been nice to have known they existed as well.
As a result of these problems, this is an incomplete book. It's worth the money, but I really hope these problems are fixed in the next edition.
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31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
blah, March 30, 2001
This review is from: Relocating to Seattle and Surrounding Areas: Everything You Need to Know Before You Move and After You Get There! (Paperback)
I don't like this book. The neighborhood reviews are too short and too opinionated. The author clearly thinks that owning a big pink house in the suburbs is paradise. As a result, his descriptions of the city neighborhoods are all scorn and no detail. Also, a big chunk of the book is boilerplate info from monstermoving.com that has no particular relavence to Seattle.
I also got the Newcommers Handbook for Seattle, and I am much more impressed with it.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent guide for a Seattle neophyte!, September 27, 2001
This review is from: Relocating to Seattle and Surrounding Areas: Everything You Need to Know Before You Move and After You Get There! (Paperback)
Having decided recently to look into making the big move cross-country, I checked out this book and found it to be a much better than average moving guide. After reading it, I felt like I lived there - maybe not quite a native, but not a newbie either! The author is clearly very familiar with his city, and his stories contain just the right blend of humor and insight. All in all, I thought it was a very enjoyable read...and I just might move to Seattle!
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