One Year, One Neighborhood

Nobody knows what cities will look like on the other side of the Covid crisis. Will there be an exodus to the suburbs? Who’s going to ride public transit again? Will independent retailers survive? Will people gather to share a drink, dine out, or dance to their favorite music? For the next year, we’re going to be following businesses along the Pike/Pine corridor in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood to find out.   

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. 

The area also displays some of the incredible wealth—and big disparities—created during our country’s most recent economic boom. Dilapidated brick buildings became multimillion-dollar properties as developers transformed what was once Seattle’s Auto Row into some of the most sought-after retail real estate in the city. Commercial leases soared beyond the reach of many businesses. What was long a neighborhood with an indie vibe started to feel, well, more corporate. There’s a Warby Parker eyeglass shop and a Blu Dot furniture store. Starbucks opened its first Reserve Roastery on Pike Street in 2014. And Amazon unveiled a cashier-less Go grocery store in February, just in time for the era of social distancing. 

Cheap rents once made it a place where the city’s LGBTQ and artist communities flocked. But the neighborhood has gone upscale with Seattle’s tech boom. In the past decade, several glossy apartment buildings have gone up to house the city’s new “creative class.”

How will the pandemic change Pike and Pine? To find out, we’ll be reporting from the neighborhood for as long as a year. Today we’re introducing you to seven members of the community. We hope you’ll check back in regularly to see how they’re faring and to meet more of the neighbors.