I live in the Highpoint neighborhood. But I am one of those annoying neighbors that are not covered by the restrictive anal Home owners association rules since we have lived here since 91 and are not part of the SHA redev.
The stepdaughter lives in one of the new duplexes though and I can tell you what to look out for.
Off the top of my head is the greenwashing of the developers. 500w halogen lights and every damn light fixture being a rare and difficult to find type of bulb which cannot be used with cfl is one. Some are also unreachable by normal humans and require research to figure out how to open and replace them.
The developers all contribute massive dollars to republican anti environmental legislation is another.
And in the just plain annoying category, nearly all of the garage doors will not open the full height of the door and often are not even big enough for a full size pickup or SUV to get into.
Design issues also cause a lot of the doors to not close enough to seal the garage off from air leaks and ducting impinges on headroom.
The contractors "warranty" people are actual morons. (This may have changed or may vary by developer but I have first hand experience)
Also note. Your house will come with a tiny tiny lot compared to the greater neighborhood and the tax valuation might actually exceed the current sales value on some of them due to factors too bizarre to get into here.
Your mail box and trash pickup could be a hundred feet or more from your unit and the streets are artificially narrowed to limit traffic to one way at a time.
Other than that it is a great neighborhood. :)
The surrounding voting precincts average 80%+ Democratic and the precinct that is the actual highpoint redevelopment area is now one of the largest in the county and will probably be divided into two at the next census.
The greatest dangers in the neighborhood are speeding junkers and speeding SUV's both with cell phone appendages engaged.
The plus side is fairly obvious. The location is 10 min from downtown, there is a bike route, some of the best parks and greenspaces including camp long and the Longfellow creek trail, it has reasonable bus service and is very walkable throughout.
I like the diversity of the neighborhood and if your vision is as bad as mine, you can sit on your porch and watch the ninjas, elves, druids and dwarfs caper among the landscaped swales in the afternoon. :)
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West Seattle Blog
