Earlier this week I was up in the old ‘hood. I went by the corner that once housed my favorite coffee shop, Four Angels. It’s a testimony to how long you’ve lived in Seattle if you remember it – it’s been gone for a long time. Instead of the low rise turn of the century brick building that used to stand on that site, there was a dirt lot full of heavy equipment and the usual land use sign describing the project.
I didn’t stop to look, but I imagine it’s six story mixed use, condos or apartments up, retail at street level, and some barely adequate nod towards parking. Recently the block that housed Bimbo’s Bitchin’ Burrito Kitchen got razed – I wasn’t quite as sentimental about that though I will miss the shocking pink and green painted brick facades. I moan out loud every time I’ve been by the B&O in the last year or so, when that building goes, taking with it many fond memories of carrot cake, big coffee, and gossip with friends, my heart will lurch a little. If it’s already down, please don’t tell me, let me find out on my own next time I’m there.
My flight from Capitol Hill wasn’t from the slick new exteriors or the next generation of nattily dressed Hillsters in pointy shoes, it was from the price of real estate. We landed here in peaceful Gatewood on the south end of West Seattle, neatly perched above Lincoln Park, because we could afford a house here, not because I was seeking suburban exile. I loved Capitol Hill, I just didn’t love it enough to maintain my work at home lifestyle in an 800 square foot home where I could hear my beloved breathing while I was working. “Hey, quit that breathing! I’m trying to get this outline written!”
Luckily, here in West Seattle we have the C&P, so if I am feeling the need to imbibe some indy coffee and sit in a well used arm chair, that desire is easily met. I’ve got my thrift stores, my righteous breakfast, my excellent treats, my gorgeous scenery, all the things I loved about the hill – save my very best friends – are right here in West Seattle and then some. But I’ve also noticed the change here – it almost feels as though they accelerated the “teardowns to townhomes” and mega-complex development as soon as we’d settled in and unpacked the last box. (Who am I kidding. We still have unpacked boxes in our basement.) I don’t have the long attachment to Gatewood that I had to Capitol Hill – after all, I lived there for 12? 13? years before folding up the tent and heading west. I do feel a certain proprietary attitude towards my new home after only a year here, especially as I watch the cranes pop up around the West Seattle Junction.
I’m not against urban density. I think the development on the Hill is (mostly) smart and (mostly) appropriate. I get it. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel a sort of teary nostalgia when I see the dust of my favorite coffee house. I am heartened by the amazing activism of my new West Seattle neighbors about managing the change that’s happening here in our new hood. And while I don’t love everything that’s coming into the Junction, I do love the fact that new businesses are coming. I’m optimistic that the growth here will benefit us as much as the growth on Cap Hill did, though I’m equally aware that right now, there’s someone up that the Junction voicing the kind of pain I felt on our departure from Cap Hill as they’re pushed out in search of something more affordable.
If you’d told me, a little over a year ago, that I would be happy living out on the West Edge, that we would have a backyard big enough to have you over for BBQ but not so big that it’s unmanageable, that we would have a basement, an actual basement and a garage and a workshop too, that we could afford those things, that my neighbors would be friendly and charming (though no replacement, of course, for you) and that we’d find living in a quiet West Seattle neighborhood just about perfect (except for the distance from you) I’d have said you were full of crap. Respectfully. I would have been completely, utterly wrong.
Last year, I had a huge and wonderful birthday party at the Alki Bathhouse. Three months later, we moved to West Seattle.
Related:
On Leaving Capitol Hill, Feb 27, 2007
This is Where We Used to Live, Nov 27, 2005
500 East Pine on Seattle Metblogs
[tags]Capitol Hill, West Seattle, 98136[/tags]
Congrats on the houseiversary. We are about a month and a half away from our 15th houseiversary in our house not so far from yours. Did you know there used to be a B&O in West Seattle, right about where Zatz Bagels/Royal India is? I can’t recall any more precisely which storefront, but it was that block. The one on Cap Hill isn’t gone yet BTW, at least as of a meeting we had with someone there about six weeks ago.
A basement – oh, for a basement! You can’t dig three feet here without hitting water. We couldn’t even bury our cat. At some point it seemed that everyone I knew moved from overpriced places smack in the middle of everything we loved to places further afield that have grown on us. Speaking of growing, how the heck did you get that big bush so perfectly round?
Wow, it’s been a year already?? Glad to hear you’re liking the ‘new’ ‘hood.
How time flies. You seem so happy and settled where you are now. We’re sure looking forward to checking out your manageable backyard this summer if things go as planned.
May 1st will mark our 13th anniversary in this ol’ house. Egads.