In the wake of last week’s City Council microhousing forum, the Seattle Times is looking at the aPodment phenomenon. Their data-centered writer makes the case that microhousing might be the only way to “stem the tide” of a demographic shift on the Hill that shows, according to the uber consumer data collector Experian, the extinction of 20-somethings living on the Hill:
(Source: Experian via the Seattle Times)
Against this landscape of rapid gentrification on Capitol Hill, micro-apartments are helping keep people in the neighborhood who would otherwise be pushed out. Certainly some of the concerns of property owners who oppose these developments are valid and need to be addressed. But ultimately Seattle has to decide, as a city, if it wants to maintain diversity — in both age and income — in its urban core.
On Capitol Hill, that diversity is vanishing. Micro-housing is one of the only things helping to stem the tide.
Now we just need to do the math on how many microhousing buildings we need on Capitol Hill to better balance things out.
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