I don't know if it's the new Pioneer Square, but it certainly is an unpleasant place. I used to adore Capitol Hill, but if it weren't for our offices and a handful of critical music venues, I probably would never go to the Hill. I have no idea why people still romanticize it. If and when the Comet sale is finalized, I think that might be the nail in the coffin.

Hannah I don't think so-- the hill is great because you can see a million awesome places and things within walking distance. As the densest neighborhood in town, it is the most pleasant place to be out and about. You can see friends at one awesome bar, then meet other friends for dinner at an excellent, fair priced restaraunt, then go and have sexy fun at another bar. Also, because it's where "everyone's at", it's always easy to meet up with dozens of people on a single weeknight. I'm too old to enjoy living there anymore, but when I did I loved that it was a vital neighborhood with an interesting "center" full of amenities, close to downtown and transit and the freeway.

In my opinion, it is Seattle's diamond neighborhood. Indeed though, it seems to be becoming a paradise for thugs and druggies. I mean, it always kind of has been, but lately it seems to be getting worse.

For example, I was at Kincora last night and near closing time I was astounded by the scene on the street. Does anyone know what the hell all the cops were doing there anyway? Two weeks ago some friends and I were accosted by an aggressive homeless guy who tried to follow us back into RPlace. Later, we walked past an ambulatory scene featuring him convulsing on the ground outside of Manray.

Even with all of that, it is STILL more fun to hang in Capitol Hill than in Ballard (which I also adore and where I now live). I just hope "someone does something" before the unpleasantness runs everybody to lower queen anne.

Hannah, come check out the lower Queen Anne. Great dj nights, comedy, etc at the Mirabeau, the city's best punk venue at the Funhouse, one of the City's best dive diners The Mecca, amazing food at a ton of good mid priced restaraunts or cheap eat places like Dick's, shoot pool at old time dives like the the Streamline (or even better, go up the hill a bit to Targie's), see a film at Uptown, buy records at Easy Street, books at Twice Sold Tales, and little to no violence, druggies, etc. And almost no police as a result. There's lots of great places to live, and really convenient bus service. We also have this nice little park called Seattle Center. And we're close to Ballard and downtown. Try it out. It's nice over here.

Dave Meinert is poisoning the hearts and minds of Seattle residents

Beacon Hill's nice, but we have no entertainment or restaurants, and planes fly directly overhead every two minutes. Pretty scumbag-free, though.

ISLCH,

Don't worry, I still love the hill. Just not the bridge and tunnel invasion happening on the weekends, the escalating violence, or bad drugs. Neumo's and Chop Suey, Baltic Room and War Room, Tribenali (sp?), Vita, Cha Cha, Edie's, Bus Stop, Honey Hole, Egyptian, Dick's, etc, are great places not found anywhere else in such close proximety. But lower queen anne is becoming an option. And with some new indpendent music and film venues opening up there later this year, it will be a an even better place. Especially as the trend in the Pine and Pike corridor is going to be more upscale bars that will be more like 1st Ave in Belltown than the old Cap Hill we all love.

What are some upscale "Belltown" style bars on Capitol Hill? I'm wracking my brain...

just wait.

Bill's Off Broadway? It's sooo chi-chi.

Mooks, bums, aggressive drunks, gauche B&T'ers? No wonder I'm beginning to feel at home.

meinert, last time i waited for the bus outside the mirabeau, a homeless guy pooped his pants and attempted to board the bus in front of me. i'll take the neighborhood with the public toilet, thanks.

The sky keeps falling in Capitol Hill. Because it will never again be what it was at the height of its totally artificial, overinflated, late 1990s, dot com boom when vacancy rates were less than 1 percent and microsoft millionaires were retiring left and right to start vanity boutiques and hip new shops. If that inspires people to long for Queen Anne, or University Village, or Belltown, then Capitol Hill's transformation into something unpalatable will be a self-fulfilling prophecy and an indictment of its supposed creativity. That and its anti-homelessness.

I suspect you're new to town, WF. You probably moved here from New England or Southern California. At any rate, the height of Capitol Hill's awesomeness actually occurred in the early to mid nineties, in a time before the dot com boom could have even realistically been imagined.

Regarding Pioneer Square, I just found out today that PAPER CAT is closing as well!

Following up what Artichoke said, Capital Hill ain't what it used to be. The closure of the broadway market theater with its good selection of indie films followed by the conversion of the broadway market mall into a QFC destroyed a valuable nerve center in the neighborhood. Plus you can't really afford the area unless you can drop 300, 400K for a condo or you can pay 700 bucks for a small crappy studio.

I'm not new to town, as much as I'm just mouthing the rhetoric of the people who promote the sky is falling rhetoric in city hall: business owners like the owner of the deluxe.

You're right, though, that some hipsters deploy a sky is falling rhetoric of a different sort, with a different timeline. Theirs is more often a language of exodus-- to Ballard, Georgetown, Bremerton, out of the area or out of the state. The local business types who stick around more often push for neighborhood style safety ambassadors and look toward corporate-led renewal and more high priced housing (made somehow populist by invoking the god of density).

It's not all bad, though, and I find the sky is falling stuff exaggerated: because some can afford to pay higher rents by relying less on a car in Cap Hill (close to downtown transit), the neighborhood remains a better place to live for low to moderate income renters than most other Seattle suburbs-- er, neighborhoods.

MAPLE LEAF REPRAZENT!

All of you guys are denying the inevitable trendiness of nurseries and vaccum repair shops! MAPLE LEAF is the future SOHO of SEATTLE!