One of the highlights of last night’s CHS happy hour was meeting a fellow CHSer who used to be an intra-apartment neighbor. We actually became aware of this through a post on CHS! This led to a conversation about how we meet our apartment neighbors. I know that Seattleites have a bad reputation for avoiding eye contact, but we CHSers are a friendly bunch*, so I assume most of us have met at least a few neighbors.
For me, the ice breaker has been having a newspaper subscription. At both of my last 2 apartments, the first people I met were fellow newspaper subscribers. Since so few of us remain, we must stick together.
*As we discovered at happy hour, the majority of CHS readers/writers have roots in the Midwest and, thus, have amazing small-talk capabilities.
I get nods and conversation starters whenever I take my dog or bike through the lobby.
I’ve lived in The Kahala on 14th and John for two years, and I don’t know any of my neighbors.
I second that, except I don’t live in the Kahala. I prefer to make up my neighbors’ life stories behind their backs, and also give them my own secret nickname. Although, I am from New York. One of the things I love about Seattle is that it’s okay that I keep to myself… I’m not really *expected* to say hi to people I don’t know on the street.
Call me cold. Whatevs.
I live in Parc on Summit and I’ve only met a few neighbors in the hallway. We haven’t progressed beyond greetings. I’d love to meet more of them though.
We’re 2 blocks apart neighbors. Howdy!
Meg, we have nicknames for everyone on our street – even the people we do know by name – it’s much more fun to refer to Mr. Clean’s house (the dude looked like Mr. Clean and and has since moved away 3 years ago) than the blue house on the corner! Or else we know people by their dog’s name. We have some neighbors we’ve been friendly with for 7 years and we still only know their dog’s name…
And I’m one of those token locals….
Our 11-month-old facilitates many meetings for us. That helps.
It’s also about where you live on the Hill. In an area with a more deeply rooted population (over here in Fancy Pants, for example), you’re more likely to meet because you all live in the same place for longer period. God help you transient apartment dwelling youth of Capitol Hill. You have to turn to lustlab to make a buddy.
If I have any high-falutin hopes for a site like CHS, it’s that it accelerates some of the natural processes of life that we don’t all have time for. But maybe that would mean everybody gets sick of each other faster too. Dunno.
I do know that there are also plenty of reasons to only ‘know’ your neighbor up to a certain point. It’s the bus stop buddy rule — be careful about befriending somebody at the bus stop or even talking to them really because you will see them every morning for the rest of your life. Or at least until you move to San Francisco.
If that’s really true that most CHSers are from the Midwest… is anyone else a little disappointed that it’s not mostly locals? I think this warrants a poll…
I don’t think most CHSers are DIRECTLY from the Midwest, but it sure did seem like a lot of folks had substantial links (e.g., parents, grandparents) to the Midwest. That said, I’m super curious about where everyone is “from”!
warrants a poll about doing the poll
Sorry, all the Capitol Hill natives moved to Portland. Only Iowans are left. Shucks.
yes! I agree! I refer to dog’s owners as “sparky’s mom” or “sparky’s dad”. Sadly, one of my neighbors just moved out who I always called “Slinky” due to his awkward nature and his horrible posture. I never thought I would miss him, but now “Sorority Chick” has moved into his spot and she is way less interesting. Bummer.
POLL!POLL!POLL!
If you do a poll “are you local?” then you get into definitions/debates and variations for “local.”
There is the “born local” – someone born here (CH, Seattle, PNW, etc) and may have never left or left and has returned to stay.
Then there are the “locals based on longevity” – people who have lived here for X number of years who some might call locals.
And then there are people here who may not have lived here for years and years but consider Seattle/CH/PNW home and “feel like they are a local.”
I’d suggest a two part poll…
1) where are you originally from, probably by region (Seattle, Midwest, Northeast, South, Northwest (not including Seattle), etc.
2) how long have you lived in Seattle?
I’d do it myself but I have no idea how to make a poll, and I’m supposed to be working right now.
Slinky is a great nickname!
And then we also have nicknames for neighbors’ dogs and cats when we don’t know the pet’s name. Our alternate world never stops…
Growing up in Seattle does not equal growing up in Bellevue, Redmond, Everett, Marysville
That’s true. And I say this as a person who grew up in Bellevue. (Though I did spend significant time in the Midwest, lending credence to that theory…)
However, I consider myself a local. I am steeped in PNW culture and I certainly didn’t just move here five years ago, you know? When someone asks where I’m from, I say Seattle, Washington, unless that person is also a local, in which case I say I grew up on the Eastside and in the North End with a miserable hiatus in Minnesota.
Maybe it’s time for me to break out my CHS census idea. Some variants of ‘where were you born/did you grow up’ could be part of the question set. Probably do state for easier processing.
jonglix, any recommendations for easy ways to map respondent data by state?
I grew up in Eugene, OR but have lived here going on 12 years, so thus consider myself local.
Probably true to some degree, Galen, but we are all Patches Pals…
I don’t have any special skills with interactive maps but if we have people give their exact town and state we could create a big google map of that and look for the clusters.
for the record, I consider myself a local because I know how to get around on the bus better than most people born here
I used to know every single person in my building, but then all of these straight people moved in and they aren’t that friendly. Poor straight people… so unhappy and scared.
Little Big Noise has definitely precipitated us meeting a lot of our neighbors. We’re in a house on a block with houses so we know ALL the neighbors with kids.
I agree with you, J, that it depends on how deeply rooted a ‘hood is. Our block doesn’t have a ton of turnover, so we’re definitely well on the way to knowing the whole block.
(BTW – I thought you were going to remove the login requirement for comments?)
You don’t need to be logged in. But you can be if you want to be.
Things can get tricky, though: I spent 18 years in Montana, 11 in various midwestern states . . . how did Tom Waits put it? “Home I’ll never be.”
Great post, final!
I’d lived in older buildings my whole time in Seattle and always knew several neighbors but now live in a newer building and everyone seems opposed to even making eye contact or small talk in the elevator. I can’t help but blame it on the starbuck-y aesthetic of our building but probably it just varies from bldg to bldg by some reasoning I can’t fathom.
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had a cigarette (if nicotine gum is good enough for Obama, it’s good enough for me), but I never met more neighbors than when I stood outside smoking with them.
Reason to start up? Probably not, but worth mentioning.