The Trulia real estate service has an interesting new feature called Hindsight that shows neighborhood development trends over time. Here’s the Hindsight map for our part of Capitol Hill. Each dot represents a property entering the public record — the colors correspond to the year in which the property first existed with green representing the earliest properties, purple, the latest. The maps “play” across time so you can watch the dots emerge for each year in the timeline.

You can see that most homes in our neighborhood came into existence prior to 1930 with a big spike in 1906 — that’s the same year as the legendary San Francisco earthquake, of course, so it seems like Seattle may have benefited from the destruction to the south. It’s also interesting to note where most of the area development has occurred post-1950 — you only find the more-recent blue and purple dots down the hill off Madison for the most part with a few scattered here and there between this part of the hill and Broadway.

The old houses in this area are survivors and up against a sea of “purple dots” — check out Bellevue, for example. We’re lucky to have so many “green dots.”

–j/k

We got lazy with our CHS recruitment program and haven’t posted a home since mid-April. And we never really ventured into “reviewing” the neighborhood homes we featured — but the NWMLS’s old-timey hand slap of Redfin (Redfin’s side of things, here) makes us want to do more real-estate related posts. Wish we had more time to visit the homes so we could review them (take that NWMLS!) but maybe some of you can provide eyewitness accounts.

Anybody been inside 506 17th Ave E? For under $1M, you get 4,800 sqft of Capitol Hill charm and quality. Here’s the agent description:

This charming triplex, in the heart of Capitol Hill, is perfect for the savvy investor, an owner-occupant, or a single-family with simple conversion. A just-completed remodel includes brand new electrical panel, new double-paned vinyl windows, new exterior paint, new common area carpet and paint, and more. It boasts a 2-year old comp. roof, extensive landscaping and new light fixtures. 3-car gar. is being worked on now; it is vacant and ready to provide rental income. A great opportunity!

It’s a triplex — find two friends and you’re in.

–j/k

15th Ave’s Bagel Deli has been knocked a few times in comments on CHS but Citizen Rain claims the Deli’s bagels are the best in the city.

BTW, The Bagel Deli currently stands at #17 on the 15th/19th neighborhood business rankings so others apparently agree with Citizen Rain.

–j/k

This came into our tip post last night — could be a nice way to spend a mellow Saturday.

Join Sustainable Capital [sic!] Hill for its first event – a FREE Backyard Herb Walk on Saturday, June 2 at 11:00am beginning at 1614 E. Mercer St. Seattle, 98112.

Discover over 20 native medicinal species that grow all around us! Class is great for beginners and anyone wanting to learn more about natural medicine. Come share your ideas about sustainability and community vitality!

Please RSVP to [email protected] for this event or to get involved!

Added bonus of being able to check out your neighbors’ backyards.

–j/k

You don’t need to find a beach book for our suddenly-summer weather — here is a real-life international mystery with some sort of connection to Capitol Hill Seattle.

We recently noticed a connection to our site from this blog — SEA to BKK. From what we can piece together, the site involves:
a) somebody who has (we assume) moved from Seattle to Bangkok
b) a recent book
and
c) a soon-to-be-release independent movie.

So far, there are only two posts. Here is part of the first:

I recently finished reading the book and was, frankly, surprised that I enjoyed it so much. Aside from a few typos, an historical inaccuracy that would have been easily corrected with even a small amount of fact checking, and a few geographical impossibilities able to be spotted only by a past or current resident of the Seattle area, it is a fairly engaging read for someone who lived through the era that the book covers. Whether it would hold any interest for anyone who did not live in Seattle from the mid 1990s to the early 2000s, I don’t know.
Aside from the missteps noted above, my only other complaints about the book are more based on personal vanity than anything else. To wit: I just wasn’t in it enough, and a couple of the finer points — to my mind — were omitted from the text. Well, that’s to be expected, I suppose. It wasn’t my story, after all. That’s why I’m documenting my version now, before early-onset Alzheimer’s and the debilitating effects of copious amounts of alcohol obliterate them from my mind.

The second post is a seemingly innocuous entry about dogs. Not sure what we stumbled upon but hopefully it continues to be interesting to watch play out. Is it real? Marketing? The link to CHS got our attention but we’re looking forward to the rest of the story.

–j/k

You might recall that we started this month by offering to donate money j was given for participating in a UW blogging symposium to the two nonprofits that received the most comment/votes on this post — Support your favorite neighborhood nonprofit, CHS comment drive

Here are the results — each tick represents a vote comment left for the nonprofit.

In Reno, you can walk down any sidewalk at any time while drinking beer. In Seattle, we have rules. You’ll need to visit one of these fine neighborhood joints to enjoy a brew on the sidewalk.

19th Ave
1) Monsoon — 3 or so outside tables, a selection of uppercrusty imbibes, a view of Fuel Coffee and the theater and a mysterious neverending leaky pipe/water feature
2) Vios — The yummy Greek family spot has 5 or 6 tables for your Mythos fix and a view of St. Joe’s

15th Ave
3) Chutneys — Suddenly, 15th’s Indian food purveyor has outdoor seating. And beer!
4) Samui — Why have two Thai joints on the same street? Because one has an outdoor patio. Yes, this one.
5) Liberty — Can’t really call it legit outdoor seating, but the bold could certainly ‘accidentally’ take their beers with them while making a ‘phone call.’
6) Olympia Pizza — Four tables and the only option other than Samui on the eastern side of the street. Bring your shades.
7) Hopvine — On any evening with a temperature above 60 degrees fahrenheit, the most coveted tables on 15th Ave.
8) 22 Doors — You’re outside but you’re in a courtyard, not on the sidewalk. Good beer, though, no?

What did we forget? QFC parking lot with paper bag-covered 40 does not count.

–j/k

Neighbor john leaves the following tip:

So Capitol Hill: the guy often playing violin for change on 15th (and on Broadway), is to my completely untrained ear, a virtuoso. I asked him if he “used to play in a symphony or whatever.” He said he played for the L.A. and N.Y. philharmonics. “And now you’re on the streets of Seattle?,” I asked. His response: “I’ve got an attitude.” I say give this guy a dollar.

Sounds like our own version of Josh Bell.

–j/k

Like most things we start here on CHS, the Rainbow space prediction poll has taken on a life of its own. It is now some combination Dan Savage inspired protest vote (gay bar a.k.a “a place where men can drink and sing showtunes“), wishful thinking (City People’s Mercantile) and our original intent — to see what the conventional wisdom on the street was regarding the future of the former home of Rainbow Grocery.

Here are the results so far — we’re still having to hand-compile because the polling service isn’t showing results without a manual export.

Click here to vote

From our POV, the conventional wisdom seems to point at the likelihood we’ll end up with a large retailer. Perhaps the next game to play is Guess the Retailer. And, yes, GC, you were right about the poll structure, as usual. About the rest? We’ve heard Savage’s voice for years and have been Sava-taged before so it’s easier to relax and enjoy the fun. We’re still not sure what you’re all about.

–j/k

The 15th at Highland crossing situation has a happy new development — a reader sends us these pictures of new safety flags that have appeared at the street crossing next to Volunteer Park.

The handmade sign reveals this to be a thoroughly grassroots effort. Hopefully the flags don’t disappear and the added visibility helps make the crossing a little safer. Thanks much to the flag-providing neighbor.

–j/k