Welcome to I-5 Shores!
A project underway for this year’s Seattle Design Festival is right up CHS’s alley.
The “Name That Neighborhood” project is crowdsourcing the hyperlocal knowledge of Seattleites to define — and name — neighborhood boundaries across the city.
“We are gaining feedback on Seattle City Clerk’s Official Neighborhood Map from Seattleites to see if they agree or disagree with the neighborhood the City has them in,” designer — and onetime mayoral candidate — Andrew Grant Houston tells CHS about the project.
“I think this is particularly poignant given the different neighborhoods the City currently divides Capitol Hill into and could be a way to answer the question: what do we call the area around 15th?”
Houston’s House Cosmopolitan design firm is working with Yes Segura’s urban planning firm Smash The Box to collect the wisdom of the crowd of Seattle neighbors and present the data.
The collection is underway through Monday, September 1st at smashthebox.org/namethatneighborhood.
Seattle’s present day neighborhood names are the result of the weird mix of community, history, and real estate that shaped the city. CHS last wrote about how Capitol Hill ended up “Capitol Hill” a few years back. Stop by 20th and Prospect sometime to mark the strange quirks of the area’s history.
The granular neighborhood names of specific areas of Capitol Hill, meanwhile, have been a long-running theme from the earliest days of CHS as new identities emerged for these growing and changing areas of the central city.
Pike/Pine didn’t used to be called. I-5 Shores — our loving joke for the area above the crashing waves of traffic on the freeway that splits the city — somehow does not appear on real estate agent flyers — yet.
CHS’s Neighborhood Naming Project From a Few Years Back
The “Name That Neighborhood” project embraces that spirit of change and individuality. The neighborhood names you submit can be one street long or the entirety of the city east of I-5.
Houston says the goal, as better transit, walking, and riding connections are made across and through it, is to show Seattle by the parts that make it up and complete it.
“With this information we are hoping to better inform the future of Seattle as it aims to become a ’15-Minute City,'” Houston says, “a place where all of your daily needs are within a 15 minute walk/bike/roll of where you are located.”
Add your part of the city and Capitol Hill here through September 1st.
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I do refer to the neighborhood as I-5 Shores somewhat in jest.
Cap Hill though, makes me cringe. Yep, i’m am old timer now 🤣
The area above 1-5? West Capitol Hill. The neighborhood aroubd 15th? North Capitol Hill.
That’s what we call it – cardinal directions work just fine! No cap hill, ever lol
To the map makers: That five sided polygon is not transparent and means you can’t click on any of the polygons underneath
On a lark, let’s call it Little France.
We used to have “Little Paris” in Madison Valley if that’s what you’re referring to. Most of the French places have closed though.
https://seattlemag.com/food-and-culture/madison-valley-seattles-little-paris/
“a place where all of your daily needs are within a 15 minute walk/bike/roll of where you are located.”
If you don’t get hit on the way. ER time can add to your walk.
Or fall down on the crumby sidewalks
let’s embrace our anarcho history and name the pink part “CHOP”
I like the idea of just “West Hill” for that area! However, I did pull up an old real estate atlas from 1905 that seems to reference the area as “Fairview” which also sounds lovely.
That’s on the other side of I-5, Fairview ave is still there. I’m sure we would all love to see a 1905 map just east of this one if you have the map wizardry at your fingertips
Ah! The lack of I-5 threw me off more than I anticipated. This should be closer to the right area, but here’s a link to the map if you’d like to peak around! (Thank you Seattle Public Library!!)
How about Hates Small Businesses for Broadway, Pike/Pine can be The Halfway House or Sex Offender Central or maybe just The Registry. Good start.
Reddit is down the hall to the left
wrong Washington- you’re thinking of the other Capitol Hill…
Living in this part for 20 years in 2 different places…honestly never thought much about it. I just say ‘few blocks west of broadway’ and most get it.
I think the neighborhood “divisions” are granular enough as-is. Capitol Hill is diverse. Get used to it.
IKR?
But but but…Waddabout the MCHGA crowd? Yunno…Take it back to the Worlds Fair.
I use “the Shores of I-5” — with a smirk — all the time when asked where I live on the Hill. “You know North Broadway? Downhill from there to I-5.”
Not everyone gets the “shores” part though.
I’ll stick with the Slummit Slope. Thank you.
I just submitted a chunk of the area North of Madison as “NoMad”
People are still listening to Andrew Grant Houston.”Ace.”? Amazing!