Can I get by without a car as a UW student in Seattle?

yellowbear

I will be a grad student. I've heard traffic is terrible in Seattle, and it seems like every apartment charges at least an extra $50 a month to park a car (which is unheard of where I'm from!). Ideally, I'd love to live in a city like NY with great public transportation. I will have free bus passes while I'm a student. Are the buses around UW fast and reliable? How far are major grocery stores from UW campus? The only issue is when I graduate, no longer have a free bus pass, and need to get to a job, which will most likely be downtown. Thoughts? P.S. my bf and I may share one car...I am just hesitant selling my own car.

Answer
Yes there are grocery stores in the U district - whether they are convenient will depend on where on the UW campus you end up. There's a Trader Joe's on Roosevelt just north of 45th, a Safeway on Brooklyn at about 50th and a QFC down in University Village. For anything in the south campus area those are a bit of a walk.

The bus system in the U district is OK - the U district is one of the better served hubs outside of downtown. Getting into downtown for a job is easy - and it's cheaper to get a pass than to park downtown.

That said, when I was a UW student I shared a car with my roommate, and that worked well, especially for grocery shopping. Once I graduated I still lived in the U district and bought my own car.

Another option would be to buy a membership to Zipcar to do things like run errands. There are several zipcar lots with cars available in the U district and you can pay as you go for the hours that you need a car. More info here:

http://www.zipcar.com/seattle/check-rates

Does Occidental College create an atmosphere that's reminiscent of Los Angeles?

Zachary

I know, odd question. I'm just really trying to find an educational environment that fits what I'm looking for. Are downtown and other metro areas easily accessible from campus? Feel free to chime in any way that you can! Thanks!

Answer
I love the Oxy campus, it's in Eagle Rock (LA 90041). It's a little hilly, like much of LA, so you'll get a work out depending on where your dorm is, but it has a really nice vibe, beautiful buildings, about 2000 undergrads. Occidental (Oxy) is in Eagle Rock, and most of Eagle Rock is pleasant, it's a very artsy community. It borders one of the upscale areas of Pasadena. It also borders Highland Park, which has good neighborhoods, and some sorta rough (welcome to LA). Eagle Rock is definitely LA, it's very diverse, it has lots of cool places to eat, many cute neighborhoods, some full of little cottages, some with very grand homes/mansions. I know cops and asst DA's that live in ER.

Oxy info http://collegeprowler.com/occidental-college/rankings/rankings-list/

Eagle Rock info http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/neighborhoods/neighborhood/eagle-rock/

Cafe Beaujolais, Pete's Blue Chip, Oinkster, Senor Fish and Casa Bianca Pizza are some of the local ER favorite eateries.

Downtown is good to visit once in awhile, places like Olvera Street, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, MOCA, etc. There are a couple of buses that go from bus stops near Oxy to downtown, and you can also take a bus to one of the nearby Gold Line (light rail, nice) stops in Highland Park to downtown. From Oxy you have easy access (for LA) by public transportation to Pasadena (Old Town), Glendale, etc. LA doesn't have great public transportation, but it's OK in ER. Oxy has zipcar, a reasonable car rental option that, including for 18 year olds with ok driving records.

Downtown LA, all of these places are in walking distance of one another.
Chinatown http://www.chinatownla.com
Olvera Street http://www.calleolvera.com
Little Tokyo http://www.visitlittletokyo.com
Disney Hall http://www.laphil.com
Our Lady of the Angeles http://www.olacathedral.org
Grand Park http://grandparkla.org
MOCA Museum http://moca.org (2 downtown)
Philippe Home of the French Dip Sandwich www.philippes.com

Good luck!

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how is living in or near st.louis, missouri?

zipcar info image

yaw

i am thinking about moving there in a few years. i know the cost of living isn't that high and that's attractive. but i need to know more:
-good/safe areas to live in that are also exciting
-how an asian girl might be treated...
-availability of jobs
-hows public transportation?
-zipcar?
-good music? :/

anythign else that you want to add would be verry helpful too

Answer
St Louis is a pretty affordable town to find housing. I would recommend the St. Louis Hills area of south city, Maplewood or University City if you are looking to rent and needing public transportation. Our buses and Metrolink trains arent the most convenient. While the areas of South County are by far nicer (and a little more expensive) it would be difficult to get around without a car.
Zipcars are available through Enterprise Leasing and a lot of the students at Washington Univ use them.
There is a large Asian population both in the South Grand neighborhood and also on Olive Blvd close to University City. Both neighborhoods are safe and have lots of interesting things to do. St. Louis is a very diverse city so you will certainly feel at home.
There are several large companies who call St.Louis their headquarters but jobs would depend on what you have experience or training in. We have quite a few large hospitals but we are also home to Boeing Aircraft, Ralston Purina, Anheuser Busch and other industries.
Hope this information is helpful. You can always check out http://www.explorestlouis.com for more info.

Zipcar or Rental Car?

JR

How exactly does a zipcar process work? Is it actually a better option than renting a car because they actually sound the same? It does sound like renting a zipcar may cost more than a rental. Does anyone have any info. on this?

Answer
well zipcar is more like sharing plus gas, insurance, maintenance is included
not so with car rentals
plus you can only reserve it for as long as you need like a hour or two
rental usually are least 24 hours

heres some info [from wikpedia]
Zipcar is an American membership-based carsharing company providing automobile reservations to its members, billable by the hour or day. Zipcar was founded in 2000 by Cambridge, Massachusetts residents Antje Danielson and Robin Chase, and is now led by Scott Griffith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

As of December 2010, the company offers a fleet of over 9,000 vehicles in urban areas throughout 28 North American states and provinces, as well as in the United Kingdom.[2] As of September 2011, it has 650,000 members which the company refers to as "Zipsters".[3] Zipcar offers more than 30 makes and models of self-service vehicles by the hour or day. Zipcar has major operations in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, London, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Washington D.C. and Vancouver. The company also has presence on over 230 college campuses.[4]

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