Jiggers - my family has lived in WS for four generations - since the early 1940's. Although I've only been here for two years, I grew up 5 miles south of here, and frequented it as a kid.
My great grandparents lived here for 40+ years. My grandparents raised their kids here, owned property and started businesses here. My parents opted to raise us in a slightly more suburban setting, and after a few post-college years in Ballard (which is a great place to live when you're in your 20's by the way), I moved here to raise my family.
You're going to have a very hard time telling me that I should go back to Ballard. It sounds more like you should go back to the 1950's instead.
I have never advocated mass destruction of our traditional neighborhoods in favor of monstrous condos and townhouses. In fact, my house is 103 years old. With no plans to be "ballardized".
What I did advocate was a decent burger joint less than 15 minutes away. And a movie theater.
There is a massive amount of vacant real estate in central WS currently. There will never be another car dealership moving into that land. So we might as well advocate for the kind of development that benefits those of us that live here.
If you don't want a movie theater, or other smart uses for the property that benefits the current residents, then you're going to get apartments and condos that make you feel like you live in Ballard.
The real estate is too valuable and too close to downtown to just sit vacant for another 50 years.
We might as well encourage people to start businesses that would benefit us instead of pretenting that we're still in the middle of the baby boom.
Stop fantasizing about yesteryear and start dreaming up things that will make WS better.
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West Seattle Blog
West Seattle Blog
