What is it with Columbia City?
http://www.columbiacityseattle.com/
My personal experiences with Columbia City are very different from this website's rosy description. About two months ago, my girlfriend and I drove down to get dinner at La Medusa (first time having ever been there). I'll never go back again.
Why? My car (which is a used Japanese wagon, completely nondescript in Seattle) with nothing of value visible, got ransacked in broad daylight one block off CC's main drag, Rainier Avenue.
The only really valuable thing the thieves stole was my portable GPS unit. They took a 6 year old North Face backpack I got for $20 at an REI sale and a stereo faceplate (didn't take the stereo!).
However, ALL this stuff was hidden. Which means that the thieves broke into my car just to see if anything was hidden in it.
And I wouldn't be writing this if Columbia City wasn't trying to market itself as the next Ballard. Columbia City is NOT Ballard, Fremont or Wallingford. It is a high crime neighborhood with a few pockets of gentrification.
Sure, artsy little homes and stylish townhouses are cheap there, but do I feel like being robbed at gunpoint? No. Moreover, I always complained about the lack of hipness of the Eastside until this episode. Now, I'm thankful for the efficiency of the Bellevue & Kirkland PDs in keeping both cities clean. You don't see drugged-out gangsters walking through downtown Bellevue or Kirkland.
"With an authenticity that's hard to match, Columbia City is the commercial center for the surrounding neighborhoods of Mount Baker, Lakewood-Seward Park, and the rest of the Rainier Valley."
WHAT authenticity? Authentically dangerous and full of people looking for their next fix on authentic drugs? Shameless.
Some more good hyperbole about CC here.
http://www.realestategals.com/community ... php?hood=5
My personal experiences with Columbia City are very different from this website's rosy description. About two months ago, my girlfriend and I drove down to get dinner at La Medusa (first time having ever been there). I'll never go back again.
Why? My car (which is a used Japanese wagon, completely nondescript in Seattle) with nothing of value visible, got ransacked in broad daylight one block off CC's main drag, Rainier Avenue.
The only really valuable thing the thieves stole was my portable GPS unit. They took a 6 year old North Face backpack I got for $20 at an REI sale and a stereo faceplate (didn't take the stereo!).
However, ALL this stuff was hidden. Which means that the thieves broke into my car just to see if anything was hidden in it.
And I wouldn't be writing this if Columbia City wasn't trying to market itself as the next Ballard. Columbia City is NOT Ballard, Fremont or Wallingford. It is a high crime neighborhood with a few pockets of gentrification.
Sure, artsy little homes and stylish townhouses are cheap there, but do I feel like being robbed at gunpoint? No. Moreover, I always complained about the lack of hipness of the Eastside until this episode. Now, I'm thankful for the efficiency of the Bellevue & Kirkland PDs in keeping both cities clean. You don't see drugged-out gangsters walking through downtown Bellevue or Kirkland.
"With an authenticity that's hard to match, Columbia City is the commercial center for the surrounding neighborhoods of Mount Baker, Lakewood-Seward Park, and the rest of the Rainier Valley."
WHAT authenticity? Authentically dangerous and full of people looking for their next fix on authentic drugs? Shameless.
Some more good hyperbole about CC here.
http://www.realestategals.com/community ... php?hood=5
Comments
Saturday, Sept. 1: A woman left her vehicle unlocked and her purse was stolen while she was golfing at Willows Run Golf Course.
Monday, Sept. 3: A suspect smashed a window of a vehicle parked in the 6600 block of 138th Avenue Northeast and stole stereo equipment.
We've got our share of crooks over here too (as well as stupid people)!
I feel your pain though--15 years ago I drove over to Seattle from the Tri-Cities with my parents in my '71 LTD for a choir performance near Seattle U where my brother attended, and somebody smashed out my rear window and stole my old, worn-out coat--left the stereo and other valuables in the car. Wasn't fun driving back to eastern WA with black plastic and duct tape over the window opening!
All these parts of town that seem to be in a little revival are going to be doing a LOT of backsliding when the recession gets set in deep.
Don't believe it.
I have been thinking the exact same thing for a while now. In fact, a couple years ago, I vaguely remember posting on SeattleBubble the very same question that you asked, and I got lambasted by people (who probably re-gentrified into a former crack house) who spit out pretty much the same hype people have now associated Columbia City with. For God's sake, I can't ever remember it being called "Columbia City." The Southside was the Southside, simple as that. Now we've got all these neighborhoods with names down there, as if Seattle was split into the 5 boroughs or something. When the hell did they ever start calling it Columbia City? Sheesh. You get mass media, you drive out the Blacks, Asians and Mexicans, you get a Starbucks, white college kids walking on the 2 blocks that make up the "commercial center" and Blam! Your neighborhood finally gets a name.
Same thing happened in Portland. I don't ever remember the "Pearle District" being called the "Pearle District." From what I remember, there was 23rd Ave, and the place was called Old Town.
With all due respect to the old-timers that have lived in these areas...it's just that I'm surprised at how hype can make anything hip, and I feel that the hype wasn't created for the benefit of the immediate community.
This hype is built up by the REIC. They have to make a less desirable place seem gentrified and eventually hip as affordability goes in the toilet. It's stock market psychology - everybody wants to think they have the Next Big Thing, so the REIC has to sell to that, and they do.
So no, these south end neighborhoods do have quite a bit of history associated with them. Seward park, besides being in disrepair is actually a pretty nice park. I agree that these south end neighborhoods have a ways to go gentrification wise, but so did capitol hill in the 70s-80s. It's not going to be an easy process and I fully expect that there will be some backsliding during the next recession.
The biggest problems seem to be high concentrations of public housing and insufficient police presence. The process of moving the lowlifes out to tukwila and south kent has been working so far, but it's nowhere near complete.
Gentrification may eventually make the neighborhood safe, but I doubt it will happen overnight. We're talking decades.
Interesting note: there are lots new townhomes under construction off MLK and Rainier in CC. Can you say "ripe targets for thievery"? No bars on the windows and downstairs living rooms (which will probably have Playstations & plasma sets) protected by only a sliding glass door.
Great link, courtesy of the Seattle Times. Mount Baker is north of Columbia City in a "safer" area (but still same general South Seattle area).
"Residents were told that the Police Department was overwhelmed with 911 calls and that officers were focused on stemming a surge in violent crimes, such as armed robbery, in other neighborhoods in Rainier Valley, MacCarthy said."
In fact...even reading the NYTimes and other newspapers...one would think that a bad neighborhood in the U.S. was non-existant and that Katrina washed away the last of them.
And what are the most dangerous parts of Seattle
Reading these boards I was really surprised to find that 3rd and Pine is that safe a place (relativly speaking) as it's located pretty much adjacent to Macy's. It seems strange to me that a city would allow something like that.
That's also the best place to drink, btw.
Yes, I know. Columbia City is a lovely place, it has, does and hopefully always will have a rich, diverse culture. Seward park is great. The light rail is going to be extra cool.
However, no matter what you say, I still don't think it justifies $350,000 for a 2 bed townhouse there, much less $500,000 for a house. No way.
I've NEVER had my car broken into in less than 60 minutes in broad daylight in any neighborhood in Seattle except Columbia City (and I've hung out on Capitol Hill a good amout with friends at night, which isn't exactly the safest neighborhood in the city, and never had anything stolen from my car, which was usually parked on a street a few blocks from the Pike-Pine corridor) .
Siddha, CC has many positives. However, the negatives (as experienced by me) far outweigh them. I am happy living on the Eastside, as it is where my employment is and light rail to downtown Seattle doesn't help me there. For "culture", I'll be a lot more careful when visiting Seattle from now on.
I am glad you like it there. I also agree with your take on the positives. Your statement about crime trends is absolutely false though. 2005-2006 YOY stats show that crime is growing at an alarming pace in your neighborhood. I do hope you and your community can work to change this trend.
Seriously, I've lived the neighborhood for years at a time. No one ever broke into my car or home. Everybody knew me and I knew everybody's business. You could see some one break into places or cars as a fact of life. There is no calling the police so you don't. You can yell at people to stop this or that but you take a risk. More times than not you talk to some one's mother about keeping the kids in line.
Crack cocaine and gangs have changed that dynamic. These criminal enterprises tend to be in select locations that you avoid. You need to know the rules before you just go walk or park someplace.
If the Mad-Max Beyond Peak-Oil scenario comes to pass, as advocated by the Peak Oil fanatics, the Rainier Valley neighborhoods ain't gonna be too neighborly.
I agree. Let's keep it civil. Please support your statements with facts.
Also, everyone that drives faster than me is an idiot and anyone that drives slower than me is a moron.
Jeeez...
Nope, just someone who sees some serious flaws in the selection of facts and the logic behind Hubbert's theory and sees the nighttime underutilization of the U.S. power grid as a very important tool to energy independence. (read: plug-in hybrids) By the way, what does Bill O'Reilly have to do with this thread? I don't get my news from the boob-tube, so perhaps you can fill me in.