XP: Help me find a place to live!

LauraT25

I posted this on the Seattle ProBoard, but I hate the formatting over there and I will probably forget to check back, so I figured I'd try here too.

 My husband and I are moving to Seattle this summer and we are trying to find a place to live. From visiting, we know we like the city in general but we have no clue about individual neighborhoods. We were looking at Magnolia and Queen Anne, and the neighborhoods to the East of Lake Union (Montlake, Madison Park, Broadmoor), because they would all be easy commutes for my husband and we had heard good things about these areas. There are two places we are strongly considering but we have no idea about the neighborhood, so I was hoping that someone here might be able to give us some insight.

I am crossing my fingers and hoping it's not completely idiotic to post this info on a public forum, but I am getting sort of desperate. The two houses are:

A) On Martin Luther King Junior Way, on the border of the neighborhoods Madrona and Madison Valley

In the North College Park neighborhood, near Licton Springs Park

Any information you could give us about whether the areas are nice/sketchy/whatever, accessibility to shopping/restaurants/grocery stores, what the commute to Fred Hutch would be like, or anything else would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!