Business Week has selected the Pike/Pine neighborhood for a “One Year, One Neighborhood” special report that hopes to track “one commercial district in Seattle, the first coronavirus hot spot in the U.S.” to “tell us about the future of cities” as the COVID-19 crisis carries on:

Why Pike and Pine streets? On some level, the area is a model of what city living is all about: a vibrant-at-all-hours place to shop, eat, drink, and experience the arts. A neighborhood where it’s more convenient to Uber than own a car, where people are constantly interacting in creative and profitable ways, where density—before we were all required to stand at least 6 feet apart—was a selling point.

Reporter Noah Buhayar talked with CHS about the project as he pulled the concept together and was seeking out the most emblematic area for today’s Capitol Hill. Pike/Pine is almost too obvious: a mix of some of Capitol HIll’s oldest and newest businesses, a flashpoint in the growth and preservation of the communities, cultures, and economies of Capitol Hill, a mess, a lot of fun, and, now, during the COVID-19 crisis, both hard hit and thriving all at the same time. Home to both a new-fangled Amazon grocery store and three sex shops, the zone should give Buhayar plenty to write about.

Also, thanks to the many thoughtful folks like @jseattle @timothykeck @glennkelman @Richard_Florida & @lauraclise who bounced around ideas for this project. I’m not done bugging you.

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— Noah Buhayar (@NBuhayar) May 28, 2020

Meanwhile, CHS will continue to have its eyes and ears open along Pike and Pine, as well as the rest of the Hill from Broadway to E Olive Way to 12th Ave to 15th Ave E and 19th Ave E as well as the Central District.

Recent CHS Pike/Pine coverage:

• 5/25/20: COVID-19 updates: the ’10 new cases per 100,000 residents’ threshold, Seattle anti-Asian hate assaults, signs of Capitol Hill normalcy Vita edition
• 5/21/20: Adana joins Capitol Hill’s still thankfully short list of permanent COVID-19 closures
• 5/19/20: Capitol Hill’s COVID-19 ‘Phase 1’ takeout cocktails
• 5/17/20: Founders have deal to rescue Rudy’s Barbershop from bankruptcy
• All CHS PIke/Pine posts

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