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11th Avenue is doing much better ever since the redesign of the Bobby Morris Playfield. Far fewer creepy people hanging around at night, and the park is truly stunning with an arty wading pool/waterfall thing for during the summer. 11th also has the best Value Village in Seattle if you need some new clothes for cheap. The Hugo House is also there, which is a really cool writer’s collective that holds readings and performances for free all the time. Down south, 11th gets more residential with many new condo buildings popping up in the last ten years.

I’m kind of afraid to drive on East Union Street, which is kind of a problem because it connects downtown to Capitol Hill if you’re going through the Virginia Mason Medical Center. It just seems that everyone who drives here is crazy, and the pedestrians are worse. It’s even poorer than the cobblestone side streets it crosses like Summit Avenue because it has more twists and turns. The street is residential and the houses are nice, but I wouldn’t want to live here because of the driving safety issue.

The east section of John Street is mostly taken up by the Seattle Times building. It’s also where you can find the long-standing 13 Coins, the restaurant famous for its 24/7 operating hours and gigantic portions. Once you head west, John becomes one of the principal sites of the South Lake Union gentrification project. There’s a bunch of nice looking new apartment buildings surrounded by few amenities that are difficult to drive to. Still, living next to Denny Park would be nice, even with the crazy homeless people that sometimes hang out there.

Get a few blocks away from the bustle of Seattle Center and you’ve got West Mercer Street. They’ve got the best Thai restaurant in town, just ask anyone. Tip Tum Thai can get very crowded on the weekends, so be prepared to order out. West Mercer also has a couple of dive bars left over from Lower Queen Anne’s more dangerous days. I don’t recommend going into any of them. There are also outlets for most major banks (Bank of America, WaMu, and a couple of others) in addition to a KFC for those with no will power and a love of chicken. Great place to live.

West Republican Street is less than ten blocks long, but it’s one of the busiest streets in the Lower Queen Anne area. For starters, it has the only Dick’s with indoor seating, which means it’s totally mobbed before events at Key Arena. The area’s only post office is on Republican as well, and the lines there always seem to be pretty short. There used to be a QFC here, but now it’s a car dealership. The west part of the street is great for parking for Seattle Center. There aren’t any signs telling you how long you can park and no meters. Amazing.

This street is essentially a thoroughfare for event set-up and people looking for parking at Seattle Center. The Seattle Rep stage door is on this street, so camp out and you might see a big name actor going to work. Warren has a couple of warehouses for the Intiman and a couple other places at the Center before becoming residential and going up the hill, where it becomes a nice place to live. There’s a great natural foods grocery store just off of Warren that replaced the closed Larry’s a year or two ago.

Wallingford is strange. You’ll be driving block after block past beautiful old houses and then come along a pocket of restaurants, bars, and shops seemingly out of nowhere. North 55th follows this phenomenon to a t. West of Green Lake, it’s a terrific place to live. East of Green Lake, it’s also a terrific place to live but with amazing Thai food, a nice beer bar, and even vegan donuts of all things. Plus, easy access to the freeway. Why don’t I live here?

East Roy Street is one of the few streets that still has Broadway’s old charm. Joe Bar is my favorite coffee place in the city. The tiny upstairs space always makes me feel fancy and they have really cool local artists on display. The Harvard Exit Theatre, a standby for Seattle’s indie film community, is across the street. There’s also a funeral home nearby, so traffic can get complicated on the already winding road. Parking is nearly impossible here as the remaining part of Roy Street is residential, but keep looking and you’ll find somewhere.

Boat Street is home to Seattle’s best Mexican restaurant, Agua Verde. I don’t make a statement like best Mexican restaurant casually. Try it, it’s amazing. (Cactus tacos are a must.) Parking can be difficult, but there’s reserved spaces in the marina lot next to the restaurant for diners. Boat Street is also great if you just want to drive along the water. There are some really beautiful views, and it’s far enough removed from the UW campus that you don’t need to keep stopping for pedestrians.

I love this street! It’s like the less crowded and more charming version of 15th Avenue East. It doesn’t quite have the same amenities, but there’s enough to get by. The Little Theater is here. It used to be an independent movie theatre but a bunch of drama grads from the UW took it over and now they do really weird but accessible theatre for cheap there several times a year. There’s also a Tully’s, easy access to Volunteer Park, and a couple of great restaurants. Best of all, there’s always somewhere to park! Where else on Capitol Hill can you say that?

Hart Street is almost entirely residential, save for a bodega or two. I find the people here are very friendly, and always like to talk to you as you walk by. At the western end is where the Bed-Stuy Home Depot is, which is very convenient. There’s also a nightclub across the street which often attracts the cops, but nothing serious ever happens.

New York Avenue is where I always start to get a little nervous about how safe I am, even when I just driving through it in my car. Someone spit on my truck once for no reason, and another time a homeless guy tried to do my windows and ended up trying to open the door when I didn’t give him any money. This is an extension of Marcy Avenue below Atlantic Avenue. Some restaurants and shops, mostly Caribbean.

This is one of my favorite streets in the city. Why? Because there’s a pita bakery here and it smells like fresh baked bread for blocks pretty much all the time. You couldn’t ask for better atmosphere. 25th Street also is the closest subway stop to the west side of Greenwood Cemetery, which is really beautiful to explore if you can get over the fact that it’s full of dead people. It is a little weird to see funeral processions all the time though, especially when it smells like bread.

Cadman Plaza East is probably best known as the place where almost all the buses in Brooklyn begin and end. All the major crosstown lines stem from here, which makes it easy to get to City Hall and all the shops on Court Street. No one really lives here though, and the wide open spaces often attract homeless people at night in addition to the usual Fulton Mall crazies.

Front Street is the gateway to Dumbo for people who get lost walking from the A/C stop. It tends to mostly be the backs of buildings, but they’re very nice, newly constructed buildings and the area is safe except for the lack of well marked crosswalks. It’s the only Starbucks in the area as well, which is a perk.

This is the cross street to where I live. Marcy is a bit quieter than all the other big Bed-Stuy Avenues. For some reason it was never built up commercially as much as its neighbors. It provides the other border for Tompkins Park. Usually during the summer there’s a permanent ice cream truck parked there. More apartment are being built on Marcy by the Myrtle-Willoughby stop on the G, so more people will be moving in soon. A quick road to drive on too.

Tompkins Avenue is the last relatively safe Avenue in Bed-Stuy. Throop gets dangerous and Marcy is fine, but do know that is straddles these two divides. The street gives Tompkins Park its namesake. The beautiful public park is an amazing place to hang around during the summer with an amphitheatre, a dog park, a youth center, picnic areas, and more. The bus runs along Tompkins to Fulton Street.

Monroe Street is home to the brand new refurbished Bed-Stuy YMCA. The building is stunning, and a wonderful addition to the health and future prosperity of the community. That said, the rest of the street is kind of a dirty mess. Located halfway between the A/C line and the G line, it’s also difficult to get to, although the bus gets fairly close.

I question the people being unfriendly, but there’s definitely a lot of them around all the time. There’s a big school on this street and it always seems to be attracting shady teenagers who skulk around all the time. Cobble Hill Cinema is on one end of Baltic. Their movie tickets are only $6.50, which is awesome. There’s also a great Thai fusion restaurant two blocks over for after the movies.

Union Avenue is fast replacing Metropolitan Avenue as the 2nd best bar crawl in Williamsburg. The nightlife is terrific, but that often means loud and annoying drunk people making noise on the street at all hours of the night and a lot of homeless people. Still, there’s a terrific 24-hour grocery store that has natural food and Asian products. It’s also where the G and L train meet, making it easy to get anywhere.

Nestled between the big thoroughfares of De Kalb and Lafayette Avenues, Kosciuszko is a relatively quiet, mostly residential street that runs the length of the northern part of Bed-Stuy. There’s a terrific new café on its West starting point, and the J train is available on the East end. Kosciuszko is sometimes spelled without the z. It is also the site of the gigantic public pool enjoyed by many during the summer.