Much of Seattle is, admittedly, just Seattle: street after street lined with Craftsman bungalow after Craftsman bungalow and boxy condo after boxy condo. Our city only gets interesting when it goes tall or when it is seen from a distance. Once inside the city, many places look exactly the same. This is why trees are so important: Their leaves and trunks help to hide this monotony from us, make it bearable. A street without trees just kills the hope in you. It's not like Barcelona, where you have magical alleys with exposed but beautifully worn and constantly changing buildings. Here, we would be driven mad if the variation of arboreal shadows and shade did not play on the ho-hum beat of bungalows and boxes.
Nevertheless, there are a few places in Seattle that rupture this repetition. They are easy to find, usually cover a very small area, and have about them the insubstantiality of a hologram.
The Experience: A southern European city
The Seattle Equivalent: Post Alley
The only place in this city that really feels like a southern European city (Bologna, Madrid, Lisbon) is the stretch of Post Alley between Pike Street and the Harbor Steps. Even the light in this brick alley feels European. When you stand by the entry of the Alibi Room and look down at the stretch of cobblestones, it feels like part of a network of little roads in an old city.
Now recall that moment in the novel Remembrance of Things Past when Marcel (the narrator) describes the apse of the church at Combray and remarks that the only comparable thing to it he found was in a little street that he chanced upon in "some country town." "I came upon three alley-ways that converged, and facing them an old wall, rubbed, worn, crumbling, and unusually high; with windows pierced in it far overhead and the same asymmetrical appearance as the apse of Combray." Whenever one enters this part of Post Alley, one feels like they may encounter this old wall with windows pierced in it and instinctively exclaim: "Proust's church!" The only bad thing about this alley is that disgusting bubble-gum wall.
The Experience: A capital in Africa, Asia, or South America
The Seattle Equivalent: The row of shops on the west side of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South at Othello Station
Anyone who has lived in a country that the World Bank classifies as underdeveloped or developing will instantly recognize the row of small businesses between 5 Star Laundry and Hoang Lan restaurant on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. This is not Seattle, a generally rich city whose citizens generally like to spend lots of money in pristine and cozy places. The businesses here are not pristine or cozy. They are often crammed with cheap goods, offer a wild variety of services, and are decorated in a manner that can be fairly described as improvised.
These small shops have about them an informality that is so convincing that one suspects the chamber of commerce has no idea of their existence—they are completely under the radar. One of the businesses repairs the smashed screens of smartphones; another is able to generate what has to be a micro amount of business from the remaining VCRs around town; another sells carpets, halal meat, and espresso. All that's needed is for one of these shops to put speakers on the sidewalk and blast some vocoder-heavy Global South pop and you will be right back in an African/Asian/South American capital, looking for an internet cafe.
The Experience: Miami Beach
The Seattle Equivalent: Alki Beach
Seattle's version of Miami Beach is the half-mile stretch of beachfront on the north side of West Seattle. There are lots of "funky" little cafes and bars with outdoor seating for those who enjoy people-watching. Rollerblading is still popular here. Men and women (some even in spandex) glide up and down the path that runs along the beach. On certain days, you will find people playing the most un-Seattle of sports: beach volleyball. The players leap about, slap the ball, and fall into the sand. Sometimes one feels they are making too loud a show of how much they are enjoying this silly sport.
The architecture of the buildings in the area is not as flamboyant or colorful or festive as what you find in Miami Beach, but it is distinct from the rest of Seattle, with its beach cottages, bistros, and waterfront condos. There is, however, one building that transports you to Miami Beach: 1374 Alki Avenue. Unlike the other rather drabbish condos, it is an aqua blue with mouthwash-green balconies. Here is the kind of place you can picture yourself wearing a racy swimsuit, doing a bit of blow, and baking your skin as you look out at the sea. 
