The Emerald City: Seattle

[volguus zildrohar]

Queen Ane Hill. I'll remember that.

Nice collection!

[alex1u]

Very nice city. But.... I Spent 6 mth there than I paid a visit to Toronto, were I was shocked to see what a city realy means. Streets full of people, from early in the morning till after midnight. After one week Montreal. Same thing. Plenty of life in the streets. It is hard to believe why such nice and scenic cities (except Manhattan) cannot bring people in the streets (except festivals). Seatle after 6 pm is deserted!!!

[mSeattle]

Originally Posted by alex1u

Very nice city. But.... I Spent 6 mth there than I paid a visit to Toronto, were I was shocked to see what a city realy means. Streets full of people, from early in the morning till after midnight. After one week Montreal. Same thing. Plenty of life in the streets. It is hard to believe why such nice and scenic cities (except Manhattan) cannot bring people in the streets (except festivals). Seatle after 6 pm is deserted!!!

I wouldn't say 6PM, more like 8PM in downtown. That's because Seattle is mostly single family homes away from the downtown core with lots of parking for car commuters working in the office towers and shoppers/tourists in cars. It's changing slowly.

The U District, Capitol Hill and increasingly Ballard, Columbia City (I haven't been to West Seattle in a while) have growing entertainment/residential corridors and people on the street very late. People are probably too tired after hill-climbing and biking, kayaking, sailing, skiing, and diving... to play off of 80s/90s hype articles.

[alex1u]

MSeattle Appreciated your answer. Makes sense. Hopefully time (development), will adjust the city to real city living. Regards, Alex

[mhays]

(I had a response typed and the god damn "database error" plague happened again...infuriating.)

Anyway, Seattle has a long way to go to be on the level of the second tier cities like Boston, SF, Toronto, etc., in terms of density, transit, etc. However it's moving steadily in that direction, with a disproportionate share of metro growth being infill in core districts. It'll take a while before large areas feel urban in a true big city sense but it's fun to watch things happen...

[seaJ]

Seattle lives mainly in its surrounding neighborhoods. If tourists bothered to walk 10 minutes east they would find a bustling, dense, walkable and crowded Capitol Hill that is vibrant with street life well into the wee hours. Unfortunately, most stay downtown which is more of a business and retail center but as Mhays pointed out is steadily becoming a place that is alive past the hours of operation of most downtown businesses. Some cities have the opposite problem where everything is centered downtown and the surrounding hoods are quiet.

[Complex01]

I love it. Still one of my favorite city's always. Thanks for sharing...

[Saturnfromboise]

Oh how i miss Dick's. They have the best burger,fries and shakes mmmmmm!

[pablosan]

A great looking city. Thanks.

[Dylan Leblanc]

great look at the city. thanks!

[destroycreate]

What a lovely thread. I really enjoy the neighborhoods of Seattle a lot more than the downtown. They seem a lot more lively, colorful, and full of character than the DT, which comes across as a bit bleak when the sun is not out.

[Twitch2]

Great pictures!! I remember seeing this thread from last year, still just as good.

[bunt_q]

What a great thread!

Originally Posted by seaJ

Seattle lives mainly in its surrounding neighborhoods. If tourists bothered to walk 10 minutes east they would find a bustling, dense, walkab

Gotta keep working on those intra-city transit links, that'll get tourists out of downtown!

[Centropolis]

epic

[pwright1]

I really enjoyed this set. Seattle is such a fun city to live in. I'm so glad I had the opportuniy to live there.