Moving to Washington

[semiautomagic]

I'm moving to Seattle for work from Arizona, and I'll be living in Burien. Originally I was planning on bringing all my tacticool gear and part of my collection, SCAR 17s, AR, Glock 17, P2000sk.

However, I heard that Burien is a ghetto and the crime rate, especially the burglary rate is through the roof. I already have my Washington CPL, and now I'm thinking of only bringing the AR and P2000sk, and have my parents bring the SCAR and glock when I switch apartments later on. I'm not worried about being mugged, mainly worried about having all my stuff stolen when I'm away.

I'll be living a couple blocks from Burien city center in an apartment complex. How safe is this place really. How worried should I be about the crime in Burien? I'll probably be installing a door devil, and a motion sensor alarm. Would you guys risk storing expensive stuff in an apartment a few blocks from Burien city center? Any help is appreciated.

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[Joe13]

I'm moving to Seattle for work from Arizona, and I'll be living in Burien. Originally I was planning on bringing all my tacticool gear and part of my collection, SCAR 17s, AR, Glock 17, P2000sk.

However, I heard that Burien is a ghetto and the crime rate, especially the burglary rate is through the roof. I already have my Washington CPL, and now I'm thinking of only bringing the AR and P2000sk, and have my parents bring the SCAR and glock when I switch apartments later on. I'm not worried about being mugged, mainly worried about having all my stuff stolen when I'm away.

I'll be living a couple blocks from Burien city center in an apartment complex. How safe is this place really. How worried should I be about the crime in Burien? I'll probably be installing a door devil, and a motion sensor alarm. Would you guys risk storing expensive stuff in an apartment a few blocks from Burien city center? Any help is appreciated.

Buy a good safe regardless of your perceived safety.

 

[IronMonster]

I'm moving to Seattle for work from Arizona, and I'll be living in Burien. Originally I was planning on bringing all my tacticool gear and part of my collection, SCAR 17s, AR, Glock 17, P2000sk.

However, I heard that Burien is a ghetto and the crime rate, especially the burglary rate is through the roof. I already have my Washington CPL, and now I'm thinking of only bringing the AR and P2000sk, and have my parents bring the SCAR and glock when I switch apartments later on. I'm not worried about being mugged, mainly worried about having all my stuff stolen when I'm away.

I'll be living a couple blocks from Burien city center in an apartment complex. How safe is this place really. How worried should I be about the crime in Burien? I'll probably be installing a door devil, and a motion sensor alarm. Would you guys risk storing expensive stuff in an apartment a few blocks from Burien city center? Any help is appreciated.

Burien is not the ghetto, not by a long shot. Its not the highest end suburb of Seattle but its respectable and not at all a bad place. I live just a few miles from there, we go to dinner in Burien and shop there frequently.

Granted all Seattle suburbs are going to have more crime than you will find in a small podunk country town but it sounds to me like someone was laying it on pretty thick.

There are some pretty nice developments around "old town" and city center. If you are in a nice complex I would bring the lot. (Id still have a safe and an alarm no matter where you are)

There are always risks, but Burien is not the Central District or Rainer valley.... THAT is the ghetto...

 

[IronMonster]

This is Burien town square, Not the ghetto

 

[decklin]

Burien is fine. Like any city stay out of dumb places at bad times.
I go there from time to time. I think it's a nice area. Mostly upper middle class.
Where in AZ are you from? The wife and I may be moving to San Tan Valley in the next couple years. Just wondering if you're from the Phoenix area and could give me some non biased insight. My best friend is from Mesa and according to him AZ is paradise.

 

[decklin]

Buy a good safe regardless of your perceived safety.

And bolt it down. The best safe is useless if they can tip it over. Totally changes the game at that point.

 

[Joe13]

Paradise during the winter

 

[slimmer13]

Burien seems ok as far as Seattle area goes. As others said, buy a safe.

If you like old school italian, Angelos is pretty good.

 

[mjbskwim]

I heard that Burien is a ghetto

Just because the next neighbor"hood" is called RAT CITY,don't be skeered
It's not quite a getto but is close to gettos. The POS' don't have to travel very far to get there
I wouldn't move a safe in except at night. Or transport guns to or from the house in the open. Maybe park the vehicle you take shooting in the garage to load them.
There are enough bad guys around that you don't want to leave anything nice laying around,like your car.
I lived around that area enough . They may clean up parts here and there but it's still not some place I would live. Now in the past I looked at places but had crappy cars.
Packing a gun is a smart thing to do. You can get a washington non resident carry permit fairly easy....still? no?

 

[mjbskwim]

I was working in Tacoma and this kid had just got a job with the city.He was of mexican heritage.
He said he had just move into a house by east Mckinley
I said,well you'll be OK being mexican but be careful what colors you wear. He just kinda looked at me wide eyed
There had just been a rash of shooting before that

 

[IronMonster]

I've lived in Seatac for 11 years, arguably worse than Burien, I have never had any real issues, (car prowling is about it) never seen any actual crime first hand in these parts. It's not the ghetto. If you have never lived in a large city suburb you might mistake some of the less desirable neighborhoods for ghettos, until you visit the actual ghetto.

If you slum it I'm sure you can find the ugly parts of town, but as far as suburban life goes it's as good as a middle class guy can afford (average house in Burien is probably $250-350k)

 

[rdb241]

There are always risks, but Burien is not the Central District or Rainer valley.... THAT is the ghetto...

IronMonster, I tend to agree with you for the most part. I grew up until I was a young teen in Burien. I went to Sunnydale Elementry School from K-6 and Sunset Junior High School and would Have went to Highline High School before the airport bought us out and had to move. We lived on the very Northwest side of the airport and actually lived there when Sea-Tac was a single runway and the old terminal. After they expanded to two runways, our back porch door was 33 1/2' from the airport fence. I know you shop is in Auburn so I know you are not to far away from Burien. I have seen Burien go through alot of changes through the years. The one thing I have noticed. The farther north you go and cross the city limits to White Center. There is a lot of all kinds of crime there. Go the other direction to Normandy Park in the south of Burien and that is a real nice area. The Normandy Police Chief was just on the news bragging about there very low crime rate. So Burien in my opinion is in the cross roads. But everybody else is right also. You can have crime in any nieghborhood. Even Bellvue has it's share of crime. I do not live there now and have not for many years. The airport bought our house and we moved to Federal Way before that town went down hill. Now I live even farther south in Puyallup. But Burein is not even half as bad as the east hill of Kent.

 

[IronMonster]

You can walk the streets at night in Burien, to me that's the ghetto test.

You won't catch me out for a pleasure stroll in Rainer Valley or the CD after dark

 

[rdb241]

You can walk the streets at night in Burien, to me that's the ghetto test.

You won't catch me out for a pleasure stroll in Rainer Valley or the CD after dark

Yes there was a time where you had better be in by dusk. Maybe late 70's early 80's. I don't really know about today. I honestly have not been to downtown Burien in maybe 20 years. I had some friends that lived on north 1st ave real close to White Center and I would not want to live there myself.

 

[WAYNO]

Burien. Part of Seattle. Sorry you had to move there. Don't fool yourself into thinking there are better or worse places. They are all just places, and the bad element gets around. Take care of yourself and know you are a target even if you think you're in a better neighborhood.

WAYNO.

 

[IronMonster]

It's a better place than it was 20 years ago, it's a nicer place to live than Federal Way in my opinion

 

[IronMonster]

The reality is that this day and age hipsters are more of a reason not to live in Burien then gangbangers

 

[revjen45]

Moving here from AZ you may find a problem unrelated to physical security, i.e. the weather. You may go for weeks at a time without seeing the sun and it really does rain all of the time. This is not a joke. You don't realize how important sunlight is to your mental well being until you experience weeks of gray overcast without enough sun to cast a shadow. There is a form of depression endemic to Western WA called Seasonal Affective Disorder which is caused by this. It is alleviated by leaving for sunny climes for at least a few days. This isn't what you asked about, but I thought I would let you know so you realize why you may feel "down" after the onset of Fall. WA is actually 2 different places - East of the Cascades it is like the rest of the American West with 4 seasons. West of the Cascades is Wetland with 2 seasons - 6 to 8 weeks of nice weather from mid-July thru Mid Sept. with the rest being as described. When you can't stand it any more head east over the mts for a sunlight transfusion.
My wife and I ive in a semi-rural area east of Everett - not a hotbed of violence and affray but I still pack 24/7, if for no reason other than because I can.
Welcome to to WA. You will need an umbrella.

 

[semiautomagic]

Burien is fine. Like any city stay out of dumb places at bad times.
I go there from time to time. I think it's a nice area. Mostly upper middle class.
Where in AZ are you from? The wife and I may be moving to San Tan Valley in the next couple years. Just wondering if you're from the Phoenix area and could give me some non biased insight. My best friend is from Mesa and according to him AZ is paradise.

In terms of gun laws AZ is as good as it gets, constitutional carry, no background checks at FFL with ccw, CLEO must sign off on NFA items (if you don't have a trust), firearms freedom act, carry anything you want anyway you want.

There's tons of BLM land to get lost in, huge gun culture, etc...

Things people tend to don't like about the Phoenix area, the heat in the summer, the entire area consisting of nothing but strip malls (except Tempe near Tempe town lake), the traffic and the drivers. The San Tan Valley is kinda far from everything though, so expect long commutes to everywhere (except Queen Valley which is a beautiful shooting/atving spot).

That said, I'll be living in an apartment complex a few blocks south of the Burien library. I lived there over the summer and remember hearing a lot of people ND, a lot more than I hear in Chandler anyways. Normally, when there are gunshots and no sirens, are those just NDs or actual thuggery?

 

[Certaindeaf]

Just because the next neighbor"hood" is called RAT CITY,don't be skeered
It's not quite a getto but is close to gettos. The POS' don't have to travel very far to get there
I wouldn't move a safe in except at night. Or transport guns to or from the house in the open. Maybe park the vehicle you take shooting in the garage to load them.
There are enough bad guys around that you don't want to leave anything nice laying around,like your car.
I lived around that area enough . They may clean up parts here and there but it's still not some place I would live. Now in the past I looked at places but had crappy cars.
Packing a gun is a smart thing to do. You can get a washington non resident carry permit fairly easy....still? no?

I agree about being low-profile.. pretty much anywhere though. I'd move any sort of long safe or guns in at night like 0200 dark and be as discrete as possible while doing so. Might be hard to do if it's a freaking monster though.