Capitol Hill
In all my years on the forum everyone has always said that Capitol Hill is Seattle's best urban neighborhood, but I have never gotten a good impression of what it's like despite all the threads here over the years that have included pictures of it.
And so it was a high priority for me to visit. Having done so, I can see why it's hard to understand. East of Broadway Capitol Hill felt like any denser-end bungalow belt neighborhood. West of Broadway it seems to have always had larger buildings, mostly warehouses and small apartment buildings. I assume at one point there were detached houses west of Broadway too, but nearly all have been replaced. I guess what's ultimately odd to me about Capitol Hill west of Broadway is that it's filled with apartments, but at a scale and in a layout that I am unused to seeing.
Beginning with this picture of a weekend farmer's market, the next several all show Broadway, or buildings along Broadway.
Gay-friendly church on Republican Street. lol.
These are east of Broadway.
Cal Anderson Park:
International District:
In any other city it would be called Chinatown. I suppose International District makes more sense, since there are clearly a lot of Japanese too. Two things about the neighborhood struck me, in particular:
1. It's probably a lot like DC's Chinatown was 30 years ago, before gentrification made ours unrecognizable.
2. Everyone spoke English. Clearly a large portion of the Asian population here has been in the US for multiple generations. That was unexpected.
Obligatory arch picture, before seeing the rest. We should have a Chinatown arch thread, because every city has got one.
Nice little square. Don't know its name.
University District
I love a good college ghetto neighborhood, and therefore I love the U District. I also love that its main drag is "University Way" instead of "avenue" or "street". It's more special that way.
Love the walk-up window.
Green Lake and Roosevelt
We stayed near the southeast corner of Green Lake, and walked from there through Roosevelt to get to the 70s series bus line, which is how we traveled downtown and just about everywhere else. Fairly typical bungalow neighborhoods with commercial main streets.
Green Lake and its surrounding park.
Ballard is a neighborhood nearby that I didn't make it to. Apparently it's popular with the bumper sticker crowd.
That's all for now.