But the invasion of condos, condo denizens, cocktail bars and cryptically named boutiques, coupled with the disappearance of most of the street parking, has inspired a slight modification of the slogan.
Spotted today on a Subaru outside Cash and Carry:
FANTASTIC!
ReplyDeleteSad, but FANTASTIC!
great photo! you gotta wonder, if it's that dire, why hasn't that driver moved already?
ReplyDeleteThe driver probably hasn't moved for the same reason I haven't: There's no where like the old Ballard to go! Increasingly the choice is either soul-less suburbs with no town center (just strip malls beside high-speed roadways) or city neighborhoods increasingly given over to skinny houses and high-rise apartments and condos. The few true city neighborhoods yet unaffected by condos are impossibly expensive (the northeast end of Capitol Hill, or Madison Park, for instance). MIddle-class people who though they could have a house, a yard, and a reasonably quiet existence are stuck. Ironically, I took that picture of the car after parking four blocks away from Cash and Carry at 11 a.m. on a weekday -- Why? Because the Mars Hill Church members were going somewhere on a field trip in buses and a few hundred (!) of them were using all the available street parking for the day.
ReplyDeleteThe Mars Hlil church may get a taste of their own medicine when the new building across the street is completed, and they have to start duking it out for parking with its patrons. :-)
ReplyDelete