"I wish they'd stop treating this neighborhood like their weekend toilet. It's just one big frat party with people throwing their shit everywhere for us to clean up."

"Life on Party Mountain is where I want to be.
Live fast on Party Mountain until I D.I.E."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8J7HASw…

I #LOVETHEHILL because it's where people come to live fast, party and die.

Nice to see Mad Rad still has fans like Jeff here. Who know the words and still think about the songs 4 or 5 years later, posting love notes, and still can't get over it. Impressive.

Jeff, what have you done to make the neighborhood better?

I would have to agree that I #LOVETHEHILL because of Dicks strawberry shakes. I wish someone would save Harvard Exit. I appreciate this #LOVETHEHILL. This is an important project. Thanks for putting it out there.

Plz open Planet Schlock in the Kent or Auburn that way the broWoo!girls will decrease their carbon footprint.

Look-this is how gentrification works. Under-priced, desirable areas get bought up by folks willing to pay more for the space. For a long time that space was elsewhere, but now, because of all sorts of policies that The Stranger is generally behind (like density, walk-ability, transit, city living generally), the hill is in high demand. That means folks with fewer resources and businesses that can't support the huge overhead will have to move to cheaper areas. Georgetown, Crown Hill, Lake City, Beacon Hill, CD...all seeing influx and the beginnings of the same process.

"Capitol Hill's evolving. What's the plus side?"
"Smith: I think it's a great opportunity to drive more revenue to this area..."

Between the article and #4, we can see that the entire focus of anything on Capitol Hill, be it gentrification or maintaining the character of the neighborhood, comes down to the ugliest of human tendencies. Greed.

Awesome. Are they working with the NAACP, or the Northwest African American Museum folks? I would assume so, because when I grew up, the neighborhood had very few white people. Those are the folks that "gave it its character". But to be fair, I have no idea what is was like before then, when the Native Americans controlled the area, so maybe they are going back that far.

Or are they are going to focus on the last group of white people to move here, who moved in because they had more money than the black people, but not as much money as the new white people? Sorry, I'm confused. Its been changing for the last fifty years (and I'm only that old) so I'm not sure which demographic they are trying to focus on.

@7 totally.
@6 Hi. Welcome to America, we're capitalist here.

Real question, what is the "bridge and tunnel crowd"? What does that mean?

Ross, are you confusing the Central District with Capitol Hill? Because Capitol Hill was quite strenuously white until the redlining was outlawed.

#8, last I checked this country was founded as a democratic republic, not a corporatist oligarchy. Capitalism does not justify viewing culture itself from a financial point of view.

@10- don't confuse culture with real estate markets. NYC art, music culture has moved around between neighborhoods as that market shifts...it doesn't add or subtract from the culture, it just adds and subtracts from the people who benefit financially off of the people involved. Do you think the folks who own the bars, clubs, cafes, etc. on the hill are running non-profits?

#11, I think very little of NYC culture, and most certainly do not want to see a repeat of it here and now.
I do not think that Cap Hill is driven by non-profits. The person in question promoted using the evolution of a region as an excuse for a rampant money grab. That same person talks about it in terms of an art project dedicated to the history of Cap Hill. This tells me that this individual on some level thinks of Cap Hill's culture in terms of pure monetary consideration.
If most people had said these things, I wouldn't have batted an eye. But a self appointed honorer of Capitol Hill saying this is something that deserves attention and scorn.

Real answer, @8:

The term "bridge and tunnel" is in reference to Manhattan being an island, and dates from a time when all Cultured New Yorkers™ were presumed to reside on that island, in contrast to the Philistines who would drive in from Queens/Jersey/Nassau or wealthy Westchester to get their kicks on the weekend. The term was also applied to cultural events that, while held in Manhattan venues, were presumed to be of interest only to uncouth outsiders.

Now that the implied island epicenter has become more closely associated with obscene wealth in the absence of taste, the shorthand is probably due for an update.

@13

But of course, Capitol Hill is not at all associated with obscene wealth in the absence of taste.

The obscenely wealthy people who can still afford to live on Capitol Hill are very, very tasteful obscenely wealthy white people. And they buy lots and lots of ad space in The Stranger for the very tasteful businesses they own, too.

I totally agree with this perspective. Seattle leadership (business and governmental) sold the soul of Seattle to developers. I've been here 20 years and believe it or not, there once was a time when you could walk at night and not fear for your life, not matter how late - or early in the morning. Hate crimes, murders, burglaries, aggressive pan-handling were rare. Now this town has become pretty much a homogenous shit hole and Cap Hill (probably the most densely populated part of the city except for downtown) is at the swirling center of it. Its the main reason I'm out next year. I found another city, in another state, that isnt populated with over-educated, greedy, self-absorbed members of the species that either take advantage of the working class or make every effort to push them out altogether. A place where wages and the cost of living are realistically comparable and where going out for dinner or buying a bottle of booze doesnt cost you and arm and a leg, half of which goes to taxes. - believe it or not, these places still do exist.

This is what you get for half a century of one party democratic rule in the City of Seattle.

@17

I feel like seattle is way safer than it used to be.

And it's important to remember, government and business don't sell to developers, your neighbors do. Apparently, lots of people who have been invested in cap hill feel cool with all this.

Dp, thanks. I totally get it now. My first thought was "tunnels? What tunnels?"

I just want to point out one thing, because I'm tired of the "all new buildings are made with cheap, crappy materials" trope that people who know nothing of what construction costs like to trot out:

If you want beautiful buildings full of marble cornices, intricate tile work and all that kinda shit, while at the same time having them conform to modern building, energy, and accessibility codes, and having all kinds of special sustainable design features, not to mention maintaining modern worker safety requirements during construction, then you're gonna get buildings that charge $5,000 a month for a small one-bedroom apartment. Metal paneling and fiber cement siding may not be your cup o' tea (and when done poorly they can look horrible), but there's a lot more to the cost of a construction project than the material selections. Being ignorant of this doesn't help your case.

@12- You may not like NYC, but it is the example that best illustrates what I'm saying...that culture and arts and all the things that people think make a place special or whatever are transportable, have been moved in the past and will move again in the future. And the other dimension to this is Time. Olympia was special in the early 90's. Now it is probably more boring than most similar sized college towns. The Haight was special, the Bowery was special, Yorkville was special, etc...and now they are not.

@20
Amen.

@21, You're still missing my point. City culture that is so transportable is not truly culture. It is a pale imitation of city culture, and NYC embodies that empty facade.

I lived in Oly in the 90's. There was nothing special about it. It was always a boring large town.

The Haight is no longer special, I agree. All the more reason to fight this trend rather than embrace it. Everybody else is jumping off the cliff. Why should we, just to stay hip and popular?

The whole 'bro' thing has been mistakenly assigned to douchey straight 20-something guys...as a gay dude who lives on Capitol Hill, I would say that half of my gay buddies would be mistaken for a 'bro' by most people making these classifications - they are young, trendy, in shape, and have great hair...your classic high school quarterback type (well, maybe the hair is slightly better). I'm not saying this is a good or bad thing, just that I don't think every bro you see is necessarily the bro you think you see.

@23- I think you miss the point. SF is vital and amazing and lots of great shit happens there- it just doesn't happen in the Haight- it is in the tenderloin and mission, which used to be just fucking dire. Williamsburg was a wasteland, and now is the place to be in NYC. A city morphs over time. All cities morph over time. Neighborhood characteristics change, makeup changes. It is true in Valletta, Budapest, London, Berlin, Kansas City...Everywhere. I don't understand why you think one neighborhood in one medium sized backwater city is somehow an exception.

I #Love The Hill Because All Of The Poor People Are Being Forced Out.