Hacker News Reader

Comment by mdorazio | Hacker News Reader

>Of the 89 neighborhoods considered, only nine are “15-minute neighborhoods” walkable for 90% or more of their residents.

I'd love to see the median rent in those nine compared to elsewhere in the city. Can any Seattle residents here provide some insight?

View on HN

It's not about rent so much as density. Seattle has this "urban village" concept where designated areas have zoning that allows apartment buildings and usually has a commercial strip. I'd guess the urban village map [1] overlaps the 15-minute zones pretty closely.

Outside of the urban villages, Seattle is comprised of neighborhoods of single-family homes. Those areas can't all be 15-minute walkable because catchement areas don't have the population needed to support those amenities.

But it's also certainly a class issue. The people walking to the grocery store are mainly the poor, students, and a small core of idealists who go out of their way to live a "city lifestyle". Everybody else drives everywhere. Which has a strange effect that wealthier neighborhoods are less likely to have things like a pharmacy, because the wealthier are in the habit of driving everywhere. I get my prescriptions filled at Costco, five miles from my house, even though the closest pharmacy is one mile.

[1] https://i.pinimg.com/736x/87/cd/9f/87cd9ffd44c33154445747de3...

Madrona probably doesn’t have anywhere to rent, it’s just enormous old houses. 6 of the 9 are downtown+surrounds, all very expensive. Ballard and Green Lake are going to be the cheapest on the list, and I would guess they’re in the most expensive quarter of neighborhoods?

Downtown (CBD): Expensive

International District: Euphemism for Chinatown, not expensive

Pioneer Square: It varies, but fairly expensive despite the rampant homelessness

Pike Place Market: Very expensive

Ballard: Expensive new buildings, more affordable older ones

Capitol Hill: Expensive, generally

South Lake Union: Expensive

Madrona: Expensive

Living in ID is not a choice, but a necessity when other options fail.

Until it gets gentrified like previous neighborhoods.

Other neighborhoods missing:

Fremont

Wallingford

Georgetown

Columbia City

Rainer Beach

Northgate

W. Seattle

Queen Anne

Belltown

Magnolia

S. Seattle

Ravenna

Beacon Hill

South Park

Leschi

Madison Park

Northlake

Greenwood

And a bunch more places that non-transplants know about...

I'm familiar with all of these neighborhoods as a < 5 year transplant, and several are not particularly walkable neighborhoods, certainly not by the definition proposed in the article. This is an odd thing to gatekeep on.

Missing from what? Pretty sure they were all listed in the article.

> Pike Place Market: Very exspensive.

And also extremely on the other side - Market housing can be very low-cost. A number of my friends are paying < $300/month for some nice/decent apartments with a very long wait-list.

Cf: the apartments under the Market and Stewart House.

That’s income restricted senior housing, isn’t it?

> International District: Euphemism for Chinatown, not expensive

It’s not a euphemism. Euphemism refers to a word that conceals something unpleasant or embarrassing. It is anything but. It is working class yes but nothing wrong with that.

The full name (since 1999) is Chinatown-ID. The majority of the inhabitants are Chinese but it encompasses Little Saigon and the less prominent but still existing Japantown (Uwajimaya and several Japanese businesses still have a presence).

You are technically correct, the most socially isolating kind of correct.

If you can think of a word with different, or fewer connotations I'll gladly swap it in. Mea culpa for the hasty pasting, though.

I appreciate the reply and suggest just stating that it is Chinatown-International District with no additional adjectives other than expensive (or not) like you did with the other neighborhoods listed.

I have a connection with the C-ID and it is a neighborhood like any other and is in my opinion one of the more vibrant neighborhoods food-wise in Seattle despite (or due to it?) being working class.

I lived there myself and love it, and wouldn't want to cast aspersions. Fell in love with spicy soups and banh mi. Not all of us were 18 year old college students straight into the 6 figure lifestyle, you know?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com