Neighborhoods

Seattle Neighborhoods and Suburbs By the Numbers

Fri, 18 May 2012 05:00:00 -0700

Behind the Numbers

Market Values

Median prices and foreclosure counts of homes and condominiums in King County were supplied by the King County Assessor’s office and calculated by the King County GIS Center. Median prices of homes and condominiums in Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties were provided by the Northwest Multiple Listings Service. Foreclosure totals outside of King County were analyzed and supplied by Washington Property Solutions.

Demographics

The geographical research and mapping software firm ESRI calculated the demographic data using the 2010 U.S. census, including estimates of population by age and race; percentage of owner-occupied, renter-occupied, and vacant homes; and median household incomes.

Lifestyle

ESRI also calculated indexes to show how Seattleites compare to national averages. A value of 100 represents the national average. Any value above 100 means that Seattleites rank higher than the national average, and values below 100 means Seattleites rank lower than average. The Health Index is based on household gym and yoga memberships and average household spending for outdoor gear. More detailed information on ESRI’s sources and methodologies can be found at esri.com/data/esri_data/.

Average Walk Scores for Seattle neighborhoods and citywide Walk Scores for all other municipalities were taken from walkscore.com. Miles of bike lanes were provided by the King County GIS Center and, where available, by county and municipal records offices. Crime figures reflect the most recent time span for which a complete set of data was available. For Seattle, crime statistics come from the Seattle Police Department website and span January through December 2010. Crime figures for outlying areas were taken from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs’ 2010 report. Driving times were calculated using Google Maps.

NA marks areas where data was unavailable.

Click here for the downloadable pdf

One Woman’s Quest to Solarize Magnolia

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:00:00 -0800

Image: Chi Birmingham

PAM LEWIS IS NOT ONE TO SIT BACK and wait. And as the chair of Sustainable Magnolia, she’s also more than a bit of a greenie. So when the 24-year resident of Magnolia heard in winter 2010 that a group of Queen Anne homeowners were getting a bulk-rate discount on solar panel installations, she started to work on landing a similar deal for her neighbors. Or, as she puts it, “I started scheming.”

As details trickled west to the bluff, Lewis discovered that Queen Anne was the pilot project for Solarize Seattle, a project cooked up by the environmental advocacy nonprofit Northwest Seed. And the idea was simple: Northwest Seed would recruit a resident-run committee—responsible for building buzz in the neighborhood, hosting informational workshops, and finding homeowners who wanted to go green—and then help it negotiate a price with an electrical contractor that specialized in solar installations. “The concept actually started in Portland,” says Alexandra Sawyer, the project coordinator. “They came up with this group-buy structure that really took off.”

Lewis sent her husband to one of the Queen Anne workshops to gather more intel, and then about this time last year she started hanging Solarize Magnolia posters around the ’hood. Not only had installations not begun in Queen Anne, but Northwest Seed had yet to even consider bringing the project to Magnolia. Lewis couldn’t help herself. Decades ago her husband had given her a book on passive solar building design that flipped a switch in her brain: She had to turn their home into a sun-powered generator. Over the years, other interests—tending to her P-patch, raising a daughter who would go on to do environmental mediation work for Boeing—pushed those plans aside. But now she could finally follow through on them.

By summer 2011, Lewis, along with other members of Sustainable Magnolia, had rounded up 16 fellow sun worshippers. Thanks in large part to her work, Northwest Seed announced in June that Magnolia would be the site of its next Solarize campaign. The discount was a selling point for her neighbors—Queen Anne’s contractor offered 20 percent off; Magnolia’s promised slightly less—and so was the money they’d save over the long term. Pamela Burton, an owner of Puget Sound Solar, the contractor on the Magnolia project, says a typical solar setup on a house in Seattle can cut a home’s annual utility bill in half. On top of that, homeowners who buy systems manufactured in Washington State earn 54 cents for every kilowatt-hour produced by their array, paid out at the end of the year in a check from Seattle City Light. In most cases that bonus is more than enough to cover the cost of the electricity the homeowner had to buy in cloudy months.

The Queen Anne project wrapped last summer, and in January Northwest Seed launched another in northeast Seattle. (The registration deadline for that one is April 23.) Lewis and the Magnolians she recruited—the number had increased to 22 by December—should have their systems installed by the time you read this. And when that happens, she’ll be ready to take a break. “I’m exhausted,” she says. “I just hope we haven’t missed anybody that really wanted to do it.”

Pioneer Square on the Rise

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:00:00 -0700

Image: Joel Kimmel

THE CLINCHER WAS the night of February 27, 2001. Mardi Gras.

More than one Pioneer Square booster will tell you that’s the moment those who love every red brick of Seattle’s oldest quarter are now fighting to overcome.

The riot made the more infamous WTO uprisings 15 months earlier look like a Shriners parade. Video footage of the Fat Tuesday celebration that spiraled into pandemonium shows men punching women repeatedly in the face, slamming their skulls against metal Dumpsters. A roving band of rioters overturned a car. Bullets whizzed through the crowd, wounding two people. By the time the police tear gas clouds cleared, multiple women had been sexually assaulted—and a man bludgeoned to death.

A decade later, Steve Johnson, director of the city’s Office of Economic Development, speeds past that part of the conversation, a quick transition between talk of early Jimi Hendrix performances and the waterfront streetcar.

Yes, the Mardi Gras riot reinforced the perception that Pioneer Square was a dangerous place, and it hurt an area already struggling to compete economically with the downtown retail core. The neighborhood founded by the Denny Party in 1852 maintains much of its original Romanesque Revival and Victorian architecture, yet dozens of empty storefronts leave the regal buildings looking like toothless smiles. But you’d be hard-pressed to call Pioneer Square dead, Johnson insists. And he’s got the numbers to prove it.

From 2003 to 2008, the neighborhood’s gross receipts grew 126 percent. To compare, Capitol Hill’s grew only 57 percent during the same period. The problem, says Johnson, is perception.

Most of those receipts came from businesses not likely to be found at street level, such as accountants, architects, attorney’s offices, and consultants. Above the empty storefronts, clicking away at keyboards, yammering about stock prices, thinking through the next iPhone app, is one of the most advanced workforces in the city: ING, the world’s largest banking firm; Zynga, creators of the Facebook game FarmVille; Nuance Communications, which built the Dragon mobile-dictation app; and—lured by the announcement that Comcast would be laying down high-speed broadband in the nabe—OneHub, a file-sharing developer from Bellevue.

Fueling all that brainpower is the city’s most buzzed-about sandwich district. Salumi, Delicatus, BuiltBurger, gyro impresario the Berliner, and Tat’s, a philly cheesesteak joint so popular the owners installed a webcam so office dwellers could monitor the length of the line, which, come lunchtime, wraps around the corner of Second and Yesler.

The trick is to keep that crowd around after 6pm, says Jen Kelly, who maintains the New Pioneer Square blog (thenewpioneersquare.com). See, the area bounded by Cherry Street to the north and the stadiums to the south, between Second Ave and the waterfront is hardly residential. Of the only 2,000 inhabitants in Pioneer Square, 80 percent live in homeless missions or subsidized housing. And a new condo development breaking ground this month on the north end of the parking lot of CenturyLink stadium (formerly Qwest Field) will bring a scant 700 additional living spaces.

So Kelly and the Alliance for Pioneer Square—which includes former Seattle Mayor Charles Royer—are pushing to turn weeknights into Pioneer Square nights, capitalizing on the abundant art galleries. They moved a failing Saturday outdoor market to Thursdays, to coincide with the city’s First Thursday art stroll. And they’ve helped reclaim alleys, long the domain of public drug users, and transformed them into public party spaces, with live music and movies projected onto walls.

“Far from being a commercial district in its last gasp, Pioneer Square is a commercial district of both relative economic health and extraordinary economic opportunity,” said Donovan Rypkema, a DC-based economist who specializes in historic preservation districts, in a report commissioned by the city of Seattle. But, added Rypkema, all the stakeholders need to be on board.

That could be yet another challenge. Says Kelly: “There is a guy who owns two condo units, one for him and one for his son. They don’t even live there! It’s just for the parking space on game day and to wait out traffic afterwards. That’s not the kind of ‘resident’ who’s going to be a valuable stakeholder.”

Beacon Hill Unplugged

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:00:00 -0700

Image: David Senior

WANNA MAKE SOMEONE from Beacon Hill spontaneously combust? Ask about their Internet service. “Oh, I’m pissed,” says Sebastian Kohlmeier, a Microsoft employee who moved into the neighborhood in 2008.

He’s all but given up trying to conduct online conference calls from home because he regularly clocks download speeds south of two megabytes per second, even though he pays for 15—and that’s when he actually has a connection. Last August, he lost service for three and a half weeks. “I would have thought twice about moving here if I’d known what it was going to be like.”

Most web surfers and boob tubers in the city of Seattle can get their cable TV and broadband Internet from the Philadelphia media goliath Comcast—unless, that is, they live in parts of Beacon Hill and the Central District. That hatchet-shaped chunk of the city is what’s called the Central Cable Television Franchise District, an Internet hinterland served by tiny St. Louis–based Broadstripe—which, by the way, filed for bankruptcy in 2009. To hear its customers tell it, Broadstripe’s wires might as well be made out of Silly Putty: The connection goes down when it gets too hot outside. The connection goes down when it gets too cold. The connection goes down when the wind blows too hard.

A group of the incensed Internet users formed UPTUN—Upping Technology for Underserved Neighbors—in early 2009 to goose the city, Broadstripe, and other service providers to beef up broadband in the neighborhoods. And after two and a half years of having their complaints disappear into the Ethernet, they hope to schedule some face time with Mayor McGinn in late May to hash out their ideas for improvement. But they may be able to dig the waterfront tunnel by hand before anyone grants them their wish for wider web access.

For starters, the city can’t force Broadstripe to unclog its Google tubes because the Telecommunications Act of 1996 places all matters Internet under the FCC’s jurisdiction. Then there’s UPTUN’s proposal that the city build out its own municipal fiber-optic network, starting in South Seattle. But that would cost more than $240 million. “That’s not a near-term solution, especially given the current status of city finances,” says Bill Schrier, Seattle’s chief technology officer. And Comcast could, of course, buy out Broadstripe and start rebuilding its dated Internet infrastructure, but a source at the company who isn’t authorized to discuss acquisitions says it may just wait to see if Broadstripe’s financial footing worsens and its price drops. In the meantime, Broadstripe has voluntarily agreed to replace every drop—the length of cable that runs from the utility pole to a customer’s home—in its service area. “We’ve made a lot of progress,” says John Bjorn, Broadstripe’s executive VP of regional operations. “But we have a lot of progress to make.”

The bigger issue, though, may be how any part of Seattle—the home of Amazon and Microsoft—could fall so woefully behind in the broadband-access arms race. And the answer has as much to do with socioeconomic forces as it does with technological savvy. Because its residents were historically lower income, the Central Cable Television Franchise District didn’t attract its first provider—locally owned Vanhu—until 1980. It folded three years later, and for the next two decades a series of second-tier providers tried to serve the area but didn’t make enough money to maintain their cables and connectors. So while the digitally rich got richer, the poor got stuck with the equivalent of crank-powered Internet service. “It’s hard when you hear things like, ‘We’re making investments,’ because you don’t know what they’re investing in,” says Kohlmeier the ’Softie. “I can only laugh about it now.”

5 Places to Live Next: Where You’ll Want to Be In 2016

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 05:00:00 -0700

Image: Thomas Northcut

Sammamish
Chosen by Dr. Stan Humphries,  chief economist of Zillow

While Sammamish is technically a suburb, developers are planning to create a city center by placing a town hall, retail, and small-unit homes around a European-inspired centralized plaza to make it a walkable neighborhood void of those impersonal suburban strip malls. By welcoming people who are unwilling to trade commuting time for home price, this midrange to upper-end neighborhood already known for its good schools and easy access to 520 and I-90 is set to become a community perfect for the stroller brigade. “People are looking for that communal sense of neighborhood,” Humphries says, “and Sammamish is creating what people will want in the future.”

Central District
Chosen by Glenn Kelman,  president of Redfin

The Central District is the Little Neighborhood That Could. “Two or three years ago, it had a shot at the title for Seattle’s hot new spot, as artists and gay men gentrified the area,” says Kelman. The CD lost its footing when the real estate bubble burst, but people are beginning to eye the southern edge of Capitol Hill once more. It’s a natural option for young families who want a bigger house and a bigger yard without having to sacrifice access to nightlife, and its proximity to I-5, I-90, and downtown Seattle make this an up-and-comer worth betting on. As soon as the school system improves, nothing will stop the flow of transplants into this ultraconvenient nabe.

South Lake Union
Chosen by Christopher Tanaka,  broker at John L. Scott

For a city to thrive, it needs a dense epicenter with an eclectic and vibrant population. Thanks to Amazon’s recent relocation to South Lake Union, the neighborhood—already an enclave of young professionals—will draw many of the web goliath’s creative task force, spurring development of even more condos and restaurants. As the area fills up, the younger demographic may spill over into Belltown and Capitol Hill, but SLU will remain the focal point for change. “For the most part, you’re going to see families and executives try to stay in SLU,” Tanaka says. “It’s going to be pretty dense down there.”

Columbia City
Chosen by Matthew Gardner,  economist of real estate advisory firm Gardner Economics

Artists helped revitalize Columbia City—now home to a flourishing retail scene reminiscent of an early Ballard—and the light rail has cut commute times from downtown to this South Seattle neighborhood. “Mass transit, which has been woefully inadequate in the past, is improving dramatically,” Gardner says. “This will give young professionals and older people wanting to downsize access to downtown.” Already treated to perks like enticing bakeries, trendy restaurants, and the indie music venue Columbia City Theater, residents have it all (including proximity to Seward Park, Genesee Park, and Rainier Playfield) without having to pay the prices commanded in nearby nabes like Beacon Hill, Seward Park, and Mount Baker.

Hilman City
Chosen by Jennifer Nelson,  broker at Windermere Real Estate

Hillman City—Columbia City’s under-the-radar little brother—is guaranteed to profit as its grown-up sibling’s success begins to spill over. Restaurants and shops are popping up in the diverse neighborhood where the Night Out in Hillman City block party attracts residents from dozens of ethnicities. Seward Park, Genesee Park, and Lake Washington fulfill an outdoor lover’s needs. “You can launch your boat and be cruising around Lake Washington in 20 minutes, easy,” Nelson says. And there are more owners than renters, solidifying the community and making it a first-time buyer’s dream.

Best Places to Live 2011

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 05:00:00 -0700

Image: Thomas Northcut

Balancing Act

• Beacon Hill •

In Beacon Hill, it’s not uncommon for doctors and lawyers to live side by side with neighbors who are receiving subsidies from the city to make improvements to their homes. Economic diversity may be the defining characteristic of the South Seattle neighborhood, and it’s the one that residents are desperate to hold on to. “It’s one of my favorite parts about this place,” says Dylan Ahearn, an environmental consultant who lives in North Beacon Hill. “We’re all out in the street playing together all day long.”

It’s also the characteristic that might be the most endangered. In the slender strip of land just east of I-5, character-rich homes are still affordable—by Seattle standards—the views of the Olympics and the Cascades are virtually unmatched, and commute times to downtown are remarkably manageable even by bike. But now that the area near the new light rail station north of Jefferson Park is attracting commercial developers, it’s just a matter of time before more urban professionals discover what Beacon Hill has to offer—and what it could have in the future.

So now locals are wrestling with how to keep improving their ’hood without destroying its everyone-knows-everyone vibe. “You have to balance new development with trying to keep the character of the community,” Ahearn says. “It’s nice to have more services, but you don’t want to change the neighborhood so much that you drive people out and turn it into just another neighborhood in Seattle.”

Love  Beyond Borders

• Phinney Ridge  and Greenwood •

In case you haven’t heard, Phinney and Greenwood like each other. Like, they like each other. They started blowing kisses at each other years ago. Then they hooked up in July 2008 when Dale Steinke and Doree Armstrong launched the phinneywood.com neighborhood blog. And this summer, well, they want to get hitched.

No really. Members of the Phinney Neighborhood Association and the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce are kicking around the idea of having the communities tie the knot August 12, as their third annual joint street party mobs Greenwood Avenue North. If it happens, it would be a mock civil ceremony to join the platonically involved neighbors; the city doesn’t have any plans to officially merge them. But the sentiment is real. “Our neighborhoods are too small to be promoted by themselves,” says Sheri Hauser, owner of the year-old Phinney-based art gallery and collectible store Tasty. “It would be a real shame not to unite and have a bigger voice.”

The union wouldn’t just be about promoting local businesses, though. It’s a planned public acknowledgment of what residents have felt for years. “If you go from Phinney down into Ballard, you’re leaving a core business area, driving through residential streets, and then hitting another business area,” says Lee Harper, the executive director of the Phinney Neighborhood Association. “But you don’t really feel that when you move from Phinney to Greenwood.” Instead, one business district along Greenwood Avenue blends into the next, flanked on both sides by tree-lined residential streets.

They’ve got their differences—Phinney’s older and more established, and Greenwood’s more affordable and culturally diverse. And they’ve got their issues—specifically encouraging the transient younger population that lives in both neighborhoods’ multifamily housing to feel a part of the community. But if there’s anything a stable couple should be able to weather, it’s the occasional spat and kids.

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Image: Thomas Northcut

Rural by Choice

• Vashon •

Occasionally visitors to Vashon will wander into the Hardware Store restaurant in the heart of the town’s modest commercial center, scratch their heads, and ask owner Melinda Sontgerath what exactly there is to do on the island. “Well,” she’ll reply with a polite, slightly mischievous smile, “you’re doing it.” Vashon, she enjoys telling them, isn’t a bustling burg of diversions and activities. It’s a refuge from city life, the kind of place where your shoulders relax the minute you step off of the ferry. “It’s a quiet, more thoughtful type of tourist who really understands the benefit of coming over to the island,” Sontgerath says.

So rather than sweat the pressures of staying hip and luring more outsiders willing to spend their travel dollars, the native islanders are doing their best to maintain the status quo. In fact, the only truly modern concept they’ve embraced of late is sustainability—and that’s had as much to do with embracing isolation as it has with protecting the environment. They want locally grown food (and there are plenty of farms to provide it), but they want local jobs as well. “Moving to an island is a very conscious decision,” Sontgerath says. “You don’t do it lightly.”

All Quiet on the Western Shore

• Magnolia •

It’s hard to think of Magnolia as a best-kept secret, what with its name recognition, proximity to downtown, and stately homes. But that’s just how its residents think of it—and they like it that way. “It keeps us from being overrun,” says Julie Szmania, co-owner of the eponymous eatery in Magnolia Village.

Magnolians have watched fickle Seattleites hop from one hot neighborhood to another while their own little corner of the city has remained relatively unchanged. And that steady-as-she-goes status has helped the community built on wide streets and anchored by Discovery Park maintain a close-knit, family-friendly feel. Some even jokingly call it Mayberry R.F.D. “I wouldn’t quite go that far,” says Loree Schoonover, editor of the Magnolia Voice blog. “But it  really is a charming small-town atmosphere five minutes from the city.”

The only drawback to all that quiet: It’s almost lulled portions of the commercial core—located on West McGraw Street—to sleep. Stubborn landlords are reluctant to pony up development dough to improve vacant storefronts, and skittish entrepreneurs won’t set up shop in the isolated enclave. The lack of retail action peeves people like Szmania, but not enough to sour them on Magnolia. “We may not be the most exciting neighborhood in town,” she says, “but we have great views, big yards, and it’s safe.”

A Place to Park It

• Mount Baker •

For being a relatively slim sliver of South Seattle, Mount Baker has an impressive amount of park space. There’s Colman Park, Mount Baker Park, and Lake Washington Boulevard, all in one cluster along the water. And that’s not even counting Genesee Park, which lies just outside the southeastern edge of the neighborhood. It’s the kind of place where people can slow down, walk their residential streets—or even walk downtown if they want—and shoot the breeze with their neighbors. “You know everyone and say hi to them on the street,” says 26-year resident Joyce Moty. “It’s not like people drive home from work and into their garage and you never see them.”

Which makes Mount Baker’s business district all the more confounding. Located at the busy intersection of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, it hardly has the walkable vibe you’ll find elsewhere in the community. “That’s what I think is holding us back,” Moty says. “It’s more car oriented.”

Change—or at least suggestions for change—may be on the way, though. How to improve the area surrounding Mount Baker’s new light rail station was the subject of a recent national design competition by the Urban Land Institute. Last winter, teams of graduate students from across the country were challenged to design a more pedestrian-friendly center, and the winner was scheduled to be announced in March. “Who knows,” Moty says. “Maybe the kids have some good ideas that we’ll be able to borrow.”

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Image: Thomas Northcut

Still Funky After All These Years

• Fremont •

“We’re a quirky little lot.”

That’s Jessica Vets, executive director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, reinforcing what you thought you knew about the nabe’s notoriously funky folks. Except she’s not referring to nude bicyclists or guerrilla artists or people who dress up like a gorilla for kicks. She’s talking about the vein of creativity and diversity that runs through the population and the business district. In the last six months alone, Fremont has welcomed a new pie shop (creatively named Pie), a salsa dance studio (Salsa con Todo), and an upscale salon (Adele). Add that to an existing collection of tech titans (Adobe and Google) and creative types (Fremont Fine Arts Foundry), shake it up with a shot of booze (the forthcoming Fremont Mischief Distillery), and you’ve got a potent mix of uniquely Fremontian flavors.

Fans of Fremont’s commercial and artistic eclecticism (this is, after all, the home of the annual Solstice Parade) are so ardently supportive of the community’s current momentum, they’re coming from outside its borders to get involved. “There are a lot of people who call Fremont their home even though they don’t live here or work here,” Vets says. Maybe they’d like to live and work there but can’t afford to; rents and home prices remain high in the desirable section of Seattle just north of the ship canal. But whether they live there or not, they all seem to have the same goal: keeping Fremont weird.

Happily Hidden

• Maple Leaf •

It’s easy to overlook Maple Leaf. Wedged into the upper reaches of North Seattle and bordered to the south by destination nabes like Greenlake and Roosevelt, it tends to fade into the background. Not that that bothers the people who live there; businesses along Roosevelt Way Northeast like Reckless Video and Cloud City Coffee are little gems that regulars would just as soon keep to themselves.

Once the ongoing development of Maple Leaf Park (which includes burying the Maple Leaf Reservoir and adding an off-leash area) wraps up in the next few years, though, it’s only a matter of time before dog walkers and stroller pushers weary of the shoulder-to-shoulder congestion along Green Lake begin to venture north.

Unexpected Diversity

• Laurelhurst •

Laurelhurst has a reputation for being a ritzy, exclusive little burg in Northeast Seattle, and with good reason. The southern tip is all waterfront, and home prices are appropriately high. Many of those homes are, in the words of Laurelhurst Community Club president Jeannie Hale, “majestic and beautiful.” Bill Gates used to live there, and his dad still does, for crying out loud.

But once you’re there, you’re family—even if you aren’t a millionaire. Neighbors look out for each other (they’ve invested in a private security service to patrol the streets), and they’ve consistently supported ballot measures for low-income housing. “I think the perception is that everybody is very wealthy, which is far from the truth,” Hale says. “There’s a much broader mix of people, a broader diversity than many would think.”

Kids Are All Right

• North Admiral •

A message from the residents of North Admiral to the rest of Seattle: We’re not as old and white as you think we are. “When I moved to West Seattle six years ago, people would raise an eyebrow and say, ‘Oh you live in North Admiral,’ says Katy Walum, president of the Admiral Neighborhood Association. “And I’d say, ‘Yeah, but my house is at the more proletariat end of the street.’ There are all kinds of people who live here.”

Walum and the association’s members are trying to blow up the city’s perception of the neighborhood as a stuffy, elitist community, and they launched a free summer concert series three years ago to help get the word out. It’s working: Last summer, local acts like Pearl Django and Caspar Babypants (Chris Ballew of the Presidents of the United States of America) drew crowds from all over the city.

And dispelling the “North Admiral is old” myth has as much to do with promoting the nabe’s kid friendliness as it does with claiming it’s hip. “There are so many families here now,” Walum says. “We’ve got kids coming out of the woodwork.”

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Image: Thomas Northcut

Unity Near the U

• Ravenna •

Even for the people who reside in Ravenna, it’s hard to quantify exactly what makes it such a great place to  live. “It’s just my home,” says 25-year resident Susan Gregory.

Some love the tree-lined residential  streets and their proximity to the University District. Some appreciate the lack of a bustling business center that might congest their otherwise quiet streets. And some are energized by the community involvement; 15-year Ravennan Patti Colescott says residents’ efforts to clean up a rash of graffiti five years ago brought the once-sleepy neighborhood to life. “We had one of those red wagon groups, where the city gives you red wagons and supplies, and then it’s up to the neighborhood to make it happen,” she says. “So once a month, we would meet at Bagel Oasis, and then we would all head out in different directions to work.”

The graffiti disappeared, but that sense of unity remained: Now Ravenna’s fiercely protective community members are gearing up for a fight against a high-rise development tentatively planned for the western edge of the ’hood. They’re worried it might add the wrong “flavor” to the area, Colescott says, but more important, it’s just too big. They like things just the way they are in Ravenna, thank you very much.

A Small Town No Longer

• Kirkland •

A lot of midsize communities like to claim they sport a small-town feel, but Kirkland backs up its big talk. Two years ago, the city canceled its annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Plunge in Lake Washington, citing budget constraints. Instead of letting the seven-year-old tradition die, though, fans of the frigid event staged a (metaphorically) stripped-down version without the city’s involvement. “We thought, ‘It’s a public park. As long as we don’t accept liability, why can’t we tell everyone to meet down at the park and do our own polar plunge?’ ” says Kirkland Weblog founder Janis Rabuchin. “We got the word out, and more than 100 people showed up.”

The question the Eastside waterfront enclave faces now, though, is whether it will be able to hold on to its self-proclaimed small-town designation much longer. This June the long-discussed annexation of the Finn Hill, Kingsgate, and North Juanita neighborhoods becomes official; adding those portions of unincorporated King County will boost Kirkland’s population by 33,000. The city’s design review board approved a controversial redevelopment of the Kirkland Parkplace shopping center in December. And developer Stuart McLeod, who opened Milagro Cantina in downtown Kirkland last winter, plans to expand Hector’s, his bar and grill on Lake Street. “There’s lots of things in the pipeline,” Rabuchin says. “It will be fun to see what we look like 10 years from now.”

Waterfront Destination

• Madison Park •

East Madison used to be the dividing line between wealthy Madison Park and working-class Madison Park; you had your pricey homes to the south and your modest beach houses to the north. But most of those little homes are gone, torn down and replaced by stately manors. “As a result, a lot of areas on the north side of Madison have become like the south side,” says nine-year resident Bryan Tagas. “There’s not that much difference anymore between the two.”

The two sides have a lot more in common than tony homes, though. For one thing, Madison Parkers are a welcoming—and liberal—bunch. (“It’s a very friendly neighborhood to walk around in,” Tagas says.) And for another, they love their comprehensive collection of retail amenities—so much so that it’s hard to pry them out of their perch between the Arboretum and Lake Washington. It’s a destination neighborhood, and one that tends to ensnare anyone who moves there. “I always say that we have everything but a bookstore and a liquor store,” Tagas says with a laugh. “I’m not even kidding when I say that you could live here and never have to leave the neighborhood.”

Driven to Survive

• Montlake •

For being a decidedly quiet residential neighborhood, Montlake is on the verge of a traffic uproar. Parking has always been a problem—particularly during football games at nearby Husky Stadium and the massive annual Greek festival at St. Demetrios Church on Boyer Avenue East. But congestion is what’s on residents’ minds now, as the Washington Department of Transportation ramps up plans to rebuild the 520 bridge to the Eastside. “Everybody’s worried about the bridge and what’s going to happen when cement trucks are rolling through the neighborhood every 10 minutes,” says Julee Neuhart, longtime Montlaker and chair of the local welcoming committee.

Montlake residents have expressed concern about construction at the north end of the neighborhood, where the DOT is also considering building a second bridge that would connect to the University District. But they’re also bracing for the inevitable onslaught of drivers from Madison Park and Madison Valley who will lose direct access to 520 when the Lake Washington Boulevard ramp closes as part of the rebuild. “They’re worried that 24th Avenue, which is a pretty quiet little business district, is going to look more like Aurora,” Neuhart says.

The locals’ outcry over the roadwork will no doubt strengthen their reputation for being shrill nimbyists, but they’ve got good reason to complain. Virtually surrounded by parks and water, Montlake is a little slice of nature in an urban setting. “If you’re a city person,” Neuhart says, “I can’t think of any other neighborhood that beats it.”

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Image: Thomas Northcut

A Tale of Two Communities

• Ballard •

For years, Ballard has maintained multiple personalities. There’s old Ballard, with a rich history of fishing and Scandinavian culture, and new Ballard, with its onslaught of condos and hip restaurants and retail. There’s industrial Ballard, which welcomed creative types in search of affordable living spaces and blue collar workers in search of living-wage jobs, and there’s residential Ballard, which has embraced upper-middle-class outsiders intent on rehabbing its character-rich homes. Progress—and, let’s face it, gentrification—has inevitably favored modern ideals, but even the new generation of Ballardites worry about losing a piece of what used to be. “My grandma grew up here, so I used to hear stories about the old parts of Ballard,” says Kate Bergman, cofounder of the neighborhood blog -myballard.com. “It’s sad to see those things disappear, but on the other hand, it’s great to see Ballard thriving.”

It’s definitely thriving. Groups like Sustainable Ballard and Groundswell NW are focusing their efforts on preserving the community’s resources and parks. And yes, there’s the commercial aspect, too. “With more restaurants opening and more condos being built,” Bergman says, “it’s bringing more people, more money, and more energy to the neighborhood.”

Living Life Out Loud

• Pike/Pine •

The tiny triangle in the southwest corner of Capitol Hill bounded by Broadway, East Madison Street, and East Pine Street—and known as Pike/Pine—is home to 35 restaurants and more than 20 bars. And then there are the 30-odd retail stores, 10 coffee shops, half a dozen grocery and convenience stores and…. In other words, it’s dense. It’s dynamic. And it’s loud. “It’s definitely not a quiet neighborhood,” says longtime Capitol Hill resident and president of the neighborhood’s community council, Norma Straw. “There are parts of Capitol Hill that are quiet, but Pike/Pine is not one of them.”

Like most people who have moved to the area in the last five years, Straw was happy to trade peace for possibilities. Because for every obnoxious burst of noise at 3am, locals have dozens of options for living an active, urban lifestyle. “There are weeks when I go out every single night,” Straw says. “You have the spontaneity of saying, ‘Let’s go bowling at the Garage ,’ or, ‘Let’s go do karaoke at the Rock Box,’ or, ‘Let’s catch a performance at Velocity Dance Center.’ ”

Given that Pike/Pine is the place to live for restless revelers, the shadow of gentrification looms over the nabe. (For its part, Capitol Hill Housing is trying to provide affordable alternatives for lower-income residents.) But for now, the party is still hopping. “You can walk into any bar at happy hour and likely run into someone you know,” says Jason Lajeunesse, a co-owner of music venue Neumos. “It’s like a grown-up Sesame Street.”

Working Together to Live Diversely

• Madrona •

Madrona has a rich history of neighborhood involvement. In the ’70s, concerned parents banded together to save Madrona Elementary from closure. Then in the late ’90s, a new generation of volunteers worked together to rebuild Madrona Playfield, the park that sits next to the school. “The whole thing was run down,” says 18-year resident Marie Doyle. “The school secretaries didn’t even dare walk through it to get to work.” And that spirit of engagement is still energizing Madronans today, as yet another generation of parents continues to put in work at the school, which now serves kindergartners through eighth graders. “They want to be a community,” Doyle says of her neighbors. “They want to get together and build things.”

But more than anything, they want to preserve the racial diversity of the neighborhood that was once home to the Seattle chapter of the Black Panthers. “A lot of people who have moved to Madrona came here because they like the diversity,” Doyle says. “They don’t want to live a homogenized life.”

How We Got That Shot

Last month the weather forecasts were light on sun and full of rain and snow. There were weekdays that seemed to be showing off every season: 9am, winter; 11am, spring; 2pm, winter; 4pm, summer; 8pm, winter…like we need to remind you. So as far as shooting the best neighborhoods in all their glory, we had to be creative.

Three years ago to the month, photographer Thomas Northcut took to the sky. On assignment with Getty, he had been looking for an opportunity to shoot from above the city. “Any chance I can get in a helicopter with no door, I’m on it,” said Northcut. He tried a few different lenses, and what you see on the cover is the result of a tilt-shift lens taken to the extreme. The selective focus produces an optical effect, miniaturizing houses and cars. It’s a charming way to take in your city—like you could pick it up and hold it right your hand.

—André Mora, acting art director

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Crunchy – But in a Good Way

• Wallingford •

When Jordan Schwartz moved to Wallingford from the East Coast in 1993, he found a neighborhood overrun by felines. “You couldn’t walk down the street without seeing cats,” he says. “They were all over.” Nearly 20 years later, he still feels outnumbered by animals, but the predominant species has changed. “What I see now are chickens,” he says with a laugh. “There are like two chicken coops per block.”

You could chalk up the fowl frenzy to the fact that Wallingford is home to the sustainable-gardening nonprofit Seattle Tilth. But it may also say something about the brand of progressive, civic-minded, earth-friendly people who live there. “There’s something very Main Street and homey about Wallingford,” Schwartz says. “There are people out in their front-yard gardens talking to neighbors as they walk by. You’ve got the crunchiness of Fremont without quite the acid twist.”

Falling in Love with Itself All Over Again

• Burien •

Ten years ago, you couldn’t walk a block in Burien without hearing someone mutter, “We need more restaurants. I’m tired of driving to Seattle to eat.” It’s not that West Seattle’s southern neighbors had an aversion to the big city; most would have told you that they loved how easy it was to hop on State Route 509 and scoot down to the Pike Place Market. No, the problem was that they saw potential in their own sleepy downtown and pined for an excuse to stick close to home.

Well, a lot has happened in the last decade, not the least of which was a mini explosion of restaurant and nightlife options along Southwest 152nd Street, Burien’s main drag. Now, instead of trucking up to Seattle because they don’t have a choice, the locals head downtown to take a break from the activity in their own backyard. “The city has fallen back in love with itself,” says Debra George, Discover Burien’s event coordinator.

And in just the last two years, that love affair has been heating up. With the completion of a new mixed-use city center that includes a town hall, a library, and space for a bustling farmers market, B-Town’s residents are feeling downright bullish about their city’s future. “We’re four minutes from the airport, but we don’t hear the planes,” George says. “We have great water views. We have private parks. It’s like this hidden little secret.”

Urban Living in the Heart of Suburbia

• Issaquah Highlands •

You don’t move to the Issaquah Highlands to spread out. You practically need a shoehorn to shimmy between houses, and most lots are the size of a postage stamp. “No one moves there to be isolated,” says five-year resident and Issaquah City Councilmember Mark Mullet. “They move there because they want to interact with their community and they like to have a lot of shared park space instead of big backyards.”

Building a dense, walkable, retail-rich community was developer Port Blakely Communities’ objective when it broke ground on the New Urbanist enclave nearly 15 years ago. And although two recessions have slowed the commercial component of that plan—restaurants and coffee shops have only just begun popping up in the last couple years—buyers searching for an intimate relationship with their neighbors got exactly what they wanted. “Because of the proximity of our homes to each other and the centralized parks, people are encouraged to get out and get to know each other,” says Erick Zimmerman, who moved to the Highlands in 2000 with his wife, Renee.

And when they do get out and interact, it’s at a kidcentric function. Within a month of opening a Zeeks Pizza location in the neighborhood last year, Mullet scrapped Monday karaoke nights in favor of a kids-eat-free promotion. “That’s been like 10 times more successful,” he says with a laugh. “It’s like a breeding colony out here.”

What You Can  Get For…$525,000

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:00:00 -0800

$529,000 /  West Seattle

Details 5236 36th Ave SW; 2,100 sq ft, 5 BR, 2 baths, built 1925
Selling Points Recently remodeled, this Craftsman is a wedge shot away from the West Seattle Golf Course.
Listed By Michael Zuppe,  Coldwell Banker Danforth

$525,000 / Ravenna

Details 7515 18th Ave NE; 2,460 sq ft, 3 BR, 1½ baths, built 1927
Selling Points This pre-WWII Tudor blends the old (the original tiled fireplace) with the new (an updated kitchen).
Listed By Shannon Laskey,  Windermere

$525,000 /  West Seattle

Details 4415 SW Stevens St; 2,150 sq ft, 5 BR, 2½ baths, built 1929
Selling Points Tucked into the Admiral nabe, this recently remodeled Tudor has a lower level fit for your mother-in-law.
Listed By Deborah Greer  and Karen Berge, Coldwell Banker Bain

All photos courtesy the real estate companies.

What You Can  Get For…$525,000

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 04:00:00 -0800

$525,000 / Redmond

Details 18316 NE 21st St; 1,800 sq ft, 3 BR, 2 baths, built 1969
Selling Points This rambler has an updated kitchen and sits just blocks from Lake Sammamish and the Tam-O-Shanter Country Club.
Listed By Gary Stapp, Horizon Real Estate

$515,000 / Redmond

Details 6115 189th Pl NE; 1,863 sq ft, 2 BR, 2½ baths, built 2002
Selling Points Freshly painted on the outside, eco-friendly on the inside: The floors are hardwood, cork, and Marmoleum.
Listed By Carla Marsh, Re/Max Eastside Brokers

$514,000 / Bellevue

Details 15620 SE 42nd Ct; 3,120 sq ft, 5 BR, 2¾ baths, built 1967
Selling Points Need a mother-in-law unit? This home has two bedrooms, two living spaces, and a spot for a kitchen downstairs.
Listed By David Hodgson, Coldwell Banker Danforth

All photos courtesy the real estate companies.

Hot ’Hoods: Capitol Hill

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 05:00:00 -0700

$850,000

Details 2505 E Ward St; 2,609 sq ft, 4 BR, 2½ baths, built 2010
Selling Points With an open floor plan, bamboo flooring, and a media room wired for surround sound, this new-construction contemporary offers modern luxury in a quiet setting.
Listed By Larry Wilcynski, Windermere

$559,950

Details 1222 25th Ave E; 2,230 sq ft, 2 BR, 1¾ baths, built 1929
Selling Points It’s just a chip shot to the Broadmoor Golf Club from this 1920s Tudor, which offers a view of the UW arboretum’s greenery from a second-story balcony.
Listed By Matt Baebler, John L. Scott

$437,000

Details 1807 E Howell St; 1,740 sq ft, 3 BR, 1½ baths, built 1904
Selling Points This Victorian-inspired abode is just blocks from Cal Anderson Park and sports meticulously cared-for interior details, from the molding and trim to the gleaming hardwood floors.
Listed By Mark Potvin, Gerrard Beattie and Knapp

All photos courtesy the real estate agencies.

Hot ’Hoods: Queen Anne

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 05:00:00 -0700

$1,725,000
Details 1937 Fifth Ave W; 4,050 sq ft, 4 BR, 3½ baths, built 2010
Selling Points The floors are poured concrete, but that doesn’t mean they’re cold. In-floor radiant heat is just one of the high-end custom upgrades in this ultramodern manse.
Listed By Heidi Ward, Coldwell Banker Bain

$1,395,000
Details 1722 Bigelow Ave N; 3,430 sq ft, 5 BR, 3 baths, built 1993
Selling Points Three decks—one on each floor—offer views of Lake Union, Capitol Hill, and the Cascades. Not enough? There’s another one off the bedroom that looks out over downtown.
Listed By Kathleen Farrar,  Windermere

$1,195,000
Details 1525 10th Ave W; 3,700 sq ft, 5 BR, 3½ baths, built 2009
Selling Points That’s right: five bedrooms. The fifth is in a lower-level guest suite that includes a full bath. The main living areas ain’t bad either, thanks to a souped-up kitchen and a media room wired for surround sound.
Listed By Steve Kennedy,  Re/Max Metro Realty

All photos courtesy the real estate agencies.

Neighborhoods

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Behind the Numbers

One Woman’s Quest to Solarize Magnolia

Pioneer Square on the Rise

Beacon Hill Unplugged

5 Places to Live Next: Where You’ll Want to Be In 2016

Best Places to Live 2011

• Beacon Hill •

Neighborhood Stats

Love Beyond Borders • Phinney Ridge and Greenwood •

• Vashon •

• Magnolia •

• Mount Baker •

Neighborhood Stats

• Fremont •

• Maple Leaf •

• Laurelhurst •

• North Admiral •

Neighborhood Stats

• Ravenna •

• Kirkland •

• Madison Park •

• Montlake •

Neighborhood Stats

• Ballard •

• Pike/Pine •

Neighborhood Stats

• Madrona •

How We Got That Shot

• Wallingford •

• Burien •

• Issaquah Highlands •

Neighborhood Stats

What You Can Get For…$525,000

$529,000 / West Seattle

$525,000 / Ravenna

$525,000 / West Seattle

What You Can Get For…$525,000

$525,000 / Redmond

$515,000 / Redmond

$514,000 / Bellevue

Hot ’Hoods: Capitol Hill

$850,000

$559,950

$437,000

Hot ’Hoods: Queen Anne

Love  Beyond Borders

• Phinney Ridge  and Greenwood •

What You Can  Get For…$525,000

$529,000 /  West Seattle

$525,000 /  West Seattle

What You Can  Get For…$525,000