Comments

1
Ballard is the Capitol Hill for north Seattle suburban homeowners. It will be more than fine, those people control the world $$$$.
2
I don't think this person is aware of the fact that Ballard is not in an enclosure, and thus is not required to be a self-sustaining economy of its own.

If this model didn't work, San Francisco would have died out a decade ago.
3
Old Ballard (c1990) thinks that New Ballard has ruined everything, but Old Old Ballard (c.1950) thinks that Old Ballard already wrecked everything decent, while Old Old Old Ballard (c.1880) felt the same way about Old Old Ballard fifty years ago but are all dead now so can't complain.
4
If the apartment and condo units that are currently under construction and recently completed, are filled, there won't be a restaurant glut. Add 4k-5k population - many of them part of the tech industry - and commensurate services will follow.
5
As long as I can do the following in 20 years, it'll be fine:

1. Get a cup of coffee at Ballard Coffee Works
2. Wander around, maybe down to the locks
3. Hit up the record stores
4. Eat dinner at either the Lockspot OR Than Brothers
5. Either see a movie at Majestic Bay OR a show at the Tractor Tavern

Everything else is functionally irrelevant according to this binding comment by me.
6
I don't care about the restaurants, but while all the mega-apartment building going up are mostly hideous, I'm hopeful that a lot of people will choose to live there and bring real density to the neighborhood, which will bring better transportation options, common retail (more than one grocery store near the main drag, for example), and increased walkability. Density will weed out the weaker restaurants and bars in favor of things that people need on a daily basis.
7
The earth someday will crash into the sun. Ballard will change well before that. That said, here's the nuance:

1. The Monorail almost happened. Ballard got excited and planned to grow.
2. The Monorail failed. Ballard grew anyway, based on vague transit promises.
3. Rapid Ride turned out to be a joke. Ballard kept growing.
4. At some point in there, fancypantsness happened. At some point I drove to the area several times and took my family or extended family to dinner.
5. There's currently enough street parking to support nice restaurants based on people driving in, plus the few oddballs that take RapidRide from other neighborhoods, plus the local density that all of that building created.
6. At some point in the future, actual transit will come to Ballard. Then they'll be able to grow even more. And they'll probably need more fancypants restaurants.
8
As trends go, I wouldn't count on #3 in twenty years, Joe.

I'd love to be wrong, though.
9
what I don't understand is how banks keep funding all those restaurant startups. they can't possibly all pay off. what's the scam?
10
@5 what's a record store?

There's nothing Scandinavian left about Ballard but the museum and trotting out a (dying) parade for Syttende de Mai. Ballard, you're dead to me.

There's Ballard Brothers at street fairs, and the restaurant, so... Maybe I got time for that.
11
I don't understand why it matters. Fancypants restaurant goes out of business? Great - now there's cheaper rent for a regular restaurant. Regular restaurant goes out of business? Great - now there's cheaper rent for a cheap taco place.

There is no down side.
12
Some of the new shit I've seen in Ballard isn't perfect, but it's an improvement. The Ballard I remember from the 80's–90's was, save for a handful of nice spots, mostly a bit depressing.

@9 - I can't speak for the banks—I'll assume the lending rates are adjusted to match the perceived risk—but I think more often than not people bring partners as a way to raise capital. There seems to be an endless supply of wealthy Tech Dudes who see "restauranteur" as their ticket (finally!) to the spoils of nightlife.

Also, I literally never generalize.
13
I don't really care. San Francisco feels closer to me than Ballard does. I never go there.
14
The hotel will be fine. There isn't another hotel west of the U-district.

In fact, if the hotel made itself uglier (say, by matching the standards of the unfinished Burke Gilman trail link, complete with some industrial waste and cyclist corpses to match a gravel sidewalk) and would still make for great business.

Ballard's got huge problems of beauty, accessibility, pedestrian friendliness, and pollution. It's called Shitshole. Er, Shilshole? The hotel isn't the problem, and the hotel isn't threatened.
15
Stoneburner is fake and Hattie's/The Smoke Shop are real? The whole premis of that comment is flawed and absurd. What does that even mean? Why are the owners of Stoneburner greedy and the owners of Hattie's are not? We aren't talking about an invasion of multi-national coroporate chains (I could maybe see calling them "fake"). Even though they are expensive, these new places are the types of businesses that you want, local ties and an emphasis on local products.
16
Greed is good.
17
@ 5
1. Nope
2. Yup
3. Nope
4. Fuck Than Bros., go Big Bowl
5. Yup
18
Complaining about "them" is the classic hipster ploy to try to get themselves grandfathered into the 'hood. If you think Ballard is being "destroyed" by greed or tacky buildings or yuppies or what the fuck ever, then don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Go home, hipster. Go home.
19
Saw a bumper sticker yesterday in Beacon that read "Fled Ballard" - sounds appropriate. No more Free Ballard supporters out there, unless you can afford to purchase a home.
20
@3 - correct. The housing and business property stock has been created. There will be gluts, micro-gluts, restaurant gluts, condo gluts, followed by price drops (relative to inflation) in each category, repopulations based on affordability, and gluts again. New Ballard will continue to wreck Old Ballard in perpetuity until the sun explodes. Otherwise rich white people wouldn't have anything to complain about.
21
It has all been a downhill slide since the City of Seattle forcibly annexed the City of Ballard in the early twentieth century.
22
Gentrification is a normal and relatively well-understood part of city life. Why does it upset people anew every with every step taken along the way? (Hint: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die." - Mel Brooks) I only hope that Ballard manages to steer their evolution more towards Capitol Hill and less like Belltown.
23
It'd be nice if you could find a nice new trendy restaurant in say... Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Lake City, Northgate, Broadview, Sandpoint, Maple Leaf, Wedgewood, Crown Hill, etc.

What's the compulsion to cluster in Fremont or Ballard?
24
It's a goddam drinking town, as long as developers keep that in mind, it's going to be fine.
25

VOOOOOOOO-larrrrre!

VO-OO-OO-LAR-re!
26
cry bitches, who gives a fuck...snoose yunction died long ago. go beavers!
27
@13: How sad to be so jaded that you have no motivation to explore the city you live in.
28
How to determine if Ballard is being "destroyed"?
Does Ballard have more, or fewer residents than fifteen years ago?

Does Ballard have more, or fewer businesses than fifteen years ago?

Is the overall tax base larger or smaller than it was fifteen years ago?

Is the tax income (property and sales tax) higher or lower per capita when adjusted by inflation from fifteen years ago.

Okay: Ballard is booming furiously.
29
No more histrionics, please. Ballard is doing just fine, kitsch-n-caboodle included. Ballard IS booming - and continues to be a GREAT place to live.
30
I was having a nice conversation with an "Old Ballard" guy and when I mentioned in passing that I had only owned my home for a little over a decade, the conversation came to a complete. dead. stop. Then he turned around and walked away.
Up until that point I thought the whole "Old Ballard" thing was just another another fun little legend of the area.
31
Is raku @1 right? Is there actually money in North Seattle now? Because it was tweakerville when I called it home, and it still looked that way the last time I visited.
32
Matt- Outside of Aurora, Lake City, and the U District it's pretty wealthy.

http://i.imgur.com/SPqJcWA.jpg
33
@7, You must have great parking karma because the last time I was in Ballard on a Friday evening in the fall of last year, I had to go to a pay lot due to pretty much all the street parking getting taken up. It was only a few years ago that I could find a spot on one of the side streets off the main drags with minimal difficulty.

Yes it has grown tremendously in the past few years with a lot of new apartments going up. Good Restaurants, music clubs, and just a place where young white people feel like they can hang out together in a yuppie cocoon and feel comfortable. I think a few restaurants will drop off, however there are enough young professionals with $$$ that can support the fancypants to keep most of them afloat.

@31, yeah there's money in North Seattle--nowadays, you would be hard pressed to find a single family home for less than 500K north of the ship canal.
34
I live in Ballard. Go ahead and doom it for awhile.
35
it's pretty wealthy."

$103K a year makes a family wealthy? I guess I better vote against the income tax. Oh wait, I already did, because I know you assholes will tax anyone who isn't a bum, baby mama or dope fiend.

Ballard has a long way until it's fully gentrified. Still plenty of pockets of shitty-ness I'm waiting to be pushed out. Already doubled my money on my single family home. Some of the best schools in the district, great restaurants, cafes, best cinema in the city. Shit, even our hobos are upping their game, saw one drinking Cote du Rhone the other day, using a cup no less.
36
The hotel is WAY better than the shitty OAC parking garage that it replaced. It was useless. Fuck driving to the gym, join a gym close enough to walk, bike, or bus to.

We recently stayed at the hotel on our wedding night and it was fantastic. It's nice to have a new building w/I bedbugs, mold, gross hallways, etc. we didn't eat at Stoneburners, but I like Bastille, and the other hotel up the street, owned by the same people (The Ballard Inn) is cute, and half the price for people looking to save money and stay in an old building.

As for the other retrofits, some of ballard's buildings are near collapse from neglect. It's fantastic they're seeing some love now. If the bubble pops (doubtful), at least they'll be able to sit unoccupied with collapse for another 20+ years.

37
I lost interest in Ballard when they tore down the thrift store that used to be where the Safeway is now. And when they demolished the Denny's, that sealed the deal. Just no reason to go there.
38
Ballard makes Capitol Hill look old
39
The hotel is great. The height is reasonable, it interacts well with the street (not overwhelming, not hiding behind a green plaza), and it adds to an existing urban core instead of detracting from that core.

Everything else is subjective.
40
The hotel is great.

And this is why historic-district preservation is a job for historians, not for random opiners on the street.
41
You want a blonde ho who was giving head in Oslo last week, just come on over.
42
@ 32/33, I would consider North Seattle to be restricted to the neighborhoods along Aurora and north of 85th. Lake City is Lake City, Wedgwood is Wedgwood, Crown Hill is Crown Hill, etc. I technically resided in Greenwood, but was practically across the street from Larry's Market.

But yeah, there's money in Wedgwood and Crown Hill. That was true 10-15 years ago.
43
37: So, Denny's is really that important?
44
I can't help to think that a lot of these dismissals of Ballard are based on neighborhood jealousy. Ballard, Belltown, Queen Anne and even South Lake Union are pulling the spotlight away from Capitol Hill. Sure, Ballard is having a bubble right now (half the breweries alone are doomed), but that's how cities work. Neighborhoods that don't grow and change over time die, they become depressing shells. Urban renewal is how cities survive and thrive. Gentrification has obvious negative effects on existing residents, but that's a question of rent control or other price controls, not the changing of businesses (these drive up perceived value, something that can be checked with other levers the City refuses to use). I've lost some of my favorite "Old Ballard" places (the Viking, The Copper Gate, etc.), and I suspect I'm going to lose my favorite holdover, The People's Pub, eventually. That will be sad, but that's how cities change over time. If there's a real city-destroying bubble looming, it's housing again.
45
@37: You have to go through Ballard to get to the locks, fish ladder, and then onto Shilshoe and Golden Gardens. So yes, there is a reason to go to Ballard.

@42 - Unfortunately Larry's Market went out of business. A real shame.
46
Raindrop dear, why would I want to go the locks, fish ladder, Shilshoe or Golden Gardens? I am not a boater (although Mr. Vel-DuRay is) I am not a fish, The string of restaurants at Shilshoe aren't anything you can get anywhere else, and Golden Gardens is just Lincoln Park with train tracks.

However, if I did feel a need to go there, I could always take the back way down from 85th.
47
How short sighted and narrow minded.
Ballard has been in existence for over 100 years and only discovered by most people in the last 5 years.
We do need to do something about stopping some examples of poor architecture like the AVIA and the 48 ft. tall monstrosity proposed in the vacant lot on Ballard Ave across from Bastille. But, Hotel Ballard isn't bad. My friends and I stayed their last week after catching a concert across the street at the Tractor. It was killer!
Ballard Ave was here before all of us were born and it will be here long after we are all dead.

48
@46 We took an out of town visitor (European now living in urban Calif.) to the locks last night. Between the weir swarming with Chinook salmon, the smolt slides and the story of all the re-engineering of the rivers of King County done to support the maritime industry, he loved it.

And 85th between Aurora and 15th is annoying.
49
I beg your pardon Scrawny dear, but 85th is the gateway to Olympic Manor - the only neighborhood on the north end I would agree to live in. Unfortunately, no one has given me that kind of money to do so.

50
@49, You'd want to live in a suburban sprawl with nothing, really nothing, within walking distance? There are far better neighborhoods north of the ship canal that have nice houses and something to walk to. Driving around the north end, and really all of Seattle is getting bad and only going to get worse. Best to get a foothold in a walkable neighborhood now before you really get priced out.
51
Nope. Olympic Manor or nothing.
52
@1 "Ballard is the Capitol Hill for north Seattle suburban homeowners. It will be more than fine, those people control the world $$$$."

Give me a break. Ballard is not the suburbs. Shoreline and Lynnwood are. Capitol Hill is not center of the fucking universe you little hipster shitheads.
54
@53 has more cogent accurate things to say about Ballard and it's history than 3/4 of the people commenting on this post.

Ballard was always destined to be about what it is. Fremont is seriously disappointing. Chase? The gateway face of Fremont is a Chase bank? Whow.
55
It's Capitol Hill.

1 restaurant folds and another opens.

Everyone says "Aww that place was awesome" and then promptly selects one of dozens of other restaurants they "frequent" once every 3 months. CHS comment section declares there was something wrong with the business model or location.

The bank gets their money from loans. They issue more loans on some chef's dreams...

Rinse.

Repeat.

Please wait...

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