friends of what - with assault rifles - friends of dementia

I think their choice of symbol is representative of their no growth attitude.

considering the horrible shooting on the back side of Capital Hill last year, the choice of the symbol is a little unsettling....

I just think both the symbology and the NIMBY quality are wrong.

Look, we in Seattle are merely accepting the growth we used to push out on the less efficient, more environmentally destructive, suburban residential growth that absorbed all the forests and farm lands that used to be there.

Get over yourself. Find ways to make growth fun and funky.

You want more scarce, expensive housing? Fight vertical growth. Supply and demand.

Defend capitol hill?

Well for starters God needs to clean house and take the trash out more often. Maybe then we can battle the evil condo devolopers.

If we are about to be overrun, we can all retreat to the water tower at Volunteer Park. That will be our citadel, our Alamo! Vive Capitol Hill!

@Patrick #5: You are right, it is better to have lots of expensive housing on Capital Hill instead. I am all for density: as long as the city pushes for a mix of affordable rental properties with the high priced condos as well as low income housing units. But Seattle has totally ignored the concept of affordable rental units for people who do not qualify for low income housing.

I'd be more sympathetic to their "cause", I'm all for retaining the old face of an old neighborhood... but chances are they're just a bunch of entitled pricks worried about their precious street parking.

The site is in favor of development, just not the way they're doing it right now. As their platform they refer to Barnett's piece about the death of Pike/Pine.

You know if the new buildings and units weren't so cheap and ugly I'd be all for as many of them as they want to build. More people is fine, more junky streetscapes isn't exactly what any neighborhood needs. Does CH want more development? Sure? Does it want to be filled with more $800,000 5 story tool sheds with 12 inch decks in front of sliding doors? Hell no.

@6 - I think you meant recycling. The goal is 60 percent is recylcing, 40 percent trash - I get about 80-90 percent most of the time.

Thanks to gosh I live in the richy rich part of Capitol Hill which has always been about soaring real estate values. And Volunteer Park is a bad place to make your last stand -- we'll sell you out in a minute flat.

Good marketing plan, though:
To get the circular stickers, you must patronize the establishments in the neighborhood.

I second the "cheap and ugly" comment. This is the major offense in my mind - if Ikea sold condos, they'd look like these places. (Although perhaps they'd then be affordable to folks not pulling in six figures, at least.)

I'd be more sympathic if the design had stick figures of hipsters knee-dropping old rich people out of Hot Mama's pizza.

[OBLIGATORY "IT'S SARCASM :D" DISCLAIMER FOR COMMENTERS WHO WILL SURELY ACCUSE ME OF DISLIKING OLD PEOPLE]

Is this anti-condo fever the Capitol Hill version of being a Luddite? You might as well try to fight the tide. Yes, Capitol Hill will transform into something it's not now. I'll miss the Capitol Hill of old, but I'll go to the new neighborhood that fulfills its role elsewhere in the city.

Quit bitching. If you're sad that your favorite bar is closing, get together with your friends and some investors, and take some piece of shit bar here in the CD and make it into everything you want in a bar. Chocolate City is losing its license. It's already set up to be a bar. Bring in some fucking drag queens and do karaoke. If you're sad that the Cha-Cha Lounge is dying (I, for one, am not) gather an assload of our filthy, hipster friends together, snort half your usual amount of coke and make it live again. Open a pizza place that's open late night. Just quit your bitching already. If neighborhoods didn't change, Capitol Hill would still just be a bad, dangerous neighborhood with too many junkies.

I thought the Stranger liked condos. I thought the Stranger liked density. What's with the NIMBY revival?

While I certainly am growing weary of these cookie-cutter monstrosities as many others and think it is awful that the Pine/Pike corridor is going to be remade into condos, I find it amazing that people only start caring about this shit when it starts affecting mostly folks on Capitol Hill. As a person of color, I've noticed the same redevelopment shit/gentrification happening all over this town for years in neighborhoods like the CD, Columbia City, Rainier and Madison Valley, with next to no outcry. Perhaps that's because those places are where the hipsters move when they get priced out of Capitol Hill?

@16,18 - yup, it's time to just wake up and smell the literal DOUBLING of Seattle's population.

That means YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD - where ever it might be.

Deal. Don't squeal.

It's not about how many condos or where they are. It's about the quality. If old buildings were being torn down and replaced with buildings meant to last a hundred years, there'd be no problem. Instead, these new buildings are designed to squeeze every buck for the developer. These half-assed constructions are a detriment to our city, and they will become a liability just like the concrete monstrosities of the 60s and 70s have become. A city full of shoddy construction and criminal design is not a city to be proud of. Portland's Pearl district is an example of how developers can step up to the plate and create a city beautiful.

Not a big fan of the guns. Here are some other ideas

Shit happens, money talks...with out it your suck! Remeber what happend to the CD?

I don't mind growth or density or even condos. i do mind being priced out of neighborhoods, as #8 pointed out, and that the building I live in just got sold and the new owners set around a letter saying they're adding a conference room and fitness center. Cripes, what do you think is next?

ugh. this sticker reaks of i want another benefit shoooooowwww!

ugh. this sticker reaks of i want another benefit shoooooowwww! i'll only go if michael jackson shows up.

Just for the record Condos ARE APARTMENTS!!! If it attached to someone else`s living space IT IS AN APARTMENT. IF their condo catches on fire so will yours BECAUSE YOU LIVE IN AN OVERPRICED APARTMENT.Maybe if these people stopped pissing away all this money ON APARTMENTS! the developers would be forced to lower their prices and maybe we would have a housing and rental market that was good for all instead of good for 10%

I love how all the complaints are either nimby's, no to cheap buildings or about being overrun.


To the nimby's: everyone one I hear bitching about capitol hill changing, DOESN'T OWN ANYTHING IN CAP HILL, no stores, shops, houses or condos. So aside from being a renter wheres your entitlement from?

To the cheap building complaints: serious, if you can't afford it at what gets built now, what do you think historic brick facades, and modern vaulted ceilings cost? Serious where are you going with this line of reasoning?

And boo hoo to the people who don't to be overrun, by I guess homeowners, sorry you can have your elite status of being a hipster rat in a shitty neighborhood with a shortage of cheap apartments. I guess you will have to make up some other reason to live.

@17. You're dead on. More expensive building materials would equate to more expensive units. More supply only helps rents in the long run if they're being built on a parking lot.

A couple straightforward development regs re: limits on max retail sizes would help, as would more participation from the public at design review meetings, but its much easier to just throw up some stickers and bitch about change from afar

go to the Design Review meetings. they're public. they're posted. you get to see what the developers are planning to build. you get to hear the architect pitch it. you get to hear the Design Review committee respond & request changes. you get to comment.

you don't get to stop it. change is inevitable. "affordable" is a farce in seattle. if you can't handle it, you're going to have to leave america. as much as i don't like it, private property is here to stay.

If you don't like what's happening around you, stop your whining and take action, like Max says in #29. You may not be able to stop the development, but you CAN influence the process.

You have a voice, USE IT!!

Want to do something about promoting good development on Capitol Hill?

POWHat* Neighborhood Association

Presentation and Public Comment Party
on the proposed development at Pine St. between Summit and Belmont (home to Kincora's, Bus Stop, Man Ray, Cha Cha, & more)
Presentation of Master Use Plan

Discussion of Design Review and Public Comment Process
Review of development trends in Seattle and Capitol Hill

TUESDAY, March 13
7-8:15 PM

Location: Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church

(corner of Harvard Ave and Howell St)

*POWHat: Pine-Olive Way- Harvard area triangle.
Want to stay in the loop? Sign up for the POWHat news group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/POWHat-news