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Fancy that: elegance in Ballard

meshugymeshugy
edited May 2007 in Seattle Real Estate
Fancy that: elegance in Ballard

Like much of the city, Ballard is being transmogrified by yuppie wealth. The shift is especially obvious here.

Comments

  • mike2mike2
    It will certainly be interesting to see what the effect of all the new condos will be on the demographics. Assuming they fill up, that will be about 800 new yuppies all crawling around market street. (And I thought parking was bad now!)

    Granted, I don't think there's any chance these places will be more than 50% occupied in the next 2 years, if their sister projects are any indication of their potential success.

    Something needs to be done about the "look" of the residential areas and main streets. It may take another decade or two before people start fixing up their homes and yards to the same degree as Wallingford and Greenlake. Right now, there are far too many residents that bought there because it was cheap, and have no intention of keeping up appearances for the new yuppies on the block.

    Like much of the city, Ballard is being transmogrified by yuppie debt. The shift is especially obvious here. Fixed that.
  • Denny RetrogradeDenny Retrograde
    There are so many family-owned small businesses there that have few other places to go. I hope they can hang on until things cool off a little.
  • Puget SounderPuget Sounder
    The fact that the new hotels have triple-paned windows to block off the waterfront industry sounds says to me that they don't belong there.

    Seriously, who is going to stay at a hotel in Ballard when they can stay downtown? If one is in town for a business meeting at a firm whose office is downtown, they aren't going to want to take a cab for several miles down 15th when they can stay in the downtown core.
  • LionelLionel
    Be careful what you wish for, Shug. Gentrification isn't all it's cracked up to be. Growing up in West LA in the 70's and 80's, there were many more dives (restaurants and bars) than there are now. Even in the nice beach town I grew up in (Pacific Palisades) there was a low-end Mexican restaurant, a hot dog place, a rundown deli, nothing special, but great when you're a kid with a few bucks in your pocket. Now try going out with the fam and spending less than a $100 for dinner. I stopped at the counrty mart in Brentwood the other day with my little girl; I spent nearly $25 on a brunch for us, then another $25 on pony rides and a petting zoo ($5/pony ride). (Pony rides were for my daughter, just so we're clear.)
  • redmondjpredmondjp
    Lionel,

    Was it a pink pony? :wink:

    (sorry, couldn't resist)
  • deejayohdeejayoh
    I'd give 50/50 odds on that hotel being build.
  • LionelLionel
    Alright, Redmond, thanks for my best laugh of the day. No, the pony wasn't pink, but for $5 it should've been.
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