So, as a Seattle resident myself, I have a bit of an odder definition of "downtown" that the OA might be sharing. To me, downtown stretches from Belltown to Chinatown: the Space Needle marks one edge whereas Uwajimaya might mark another. On the eastern side, the WSCC might mark the boundary, making First Hill somewhat of a gray area.

That's a much, much larger area than the central/financial/business district and it might be what the author actually means: especially with how Belltown has changed.

I also live in Seattle... yeah, I don't know that I'd characterize the Central Business District ("downtown") as interesting or active after 5, save for a few high-end restaurants. Belltown, sure. Capitol Hill, sure. Pioneer Square has a functional bar district. The big City Center area in Downtown - Westlake Park - is well known to be sketchy, and the black market is about 3 blocks north of that last I saw. Tons of tourists, but not an inhabitable place.

There are no schools downtown, there aren't affordable apartments with enough space for kids, which essentially siphons the entire kid-oriented group out of downtown for their condos/houses. The high end stuff downtown is high end, so you get an entire coterie of very rich traveling place to place in their cars from the parking garages, as near as I can tell.

Pike Place is cool, but largely a tourist trap.

So I think maybe the author of the essay should roll down the CBD about 7pm on a Tuesday night and think about his piece.... :-) might have a few corrections.

> In fact, most people think it's weird that I live downtown. It's definitely not a common choice around here.

That's a good thing, it keeps prices down.

I live on 1st & Union.

Everything is next door:

  - the market, Target, Kress, dry cleaners, all downtown stores

  - all the bus lines stop on 3rd, 4th or 5th

  - the light rail station is 2 blocks away

  - numerous bars and restaurants in a 3 blocks radius

  - Belltown is 5 min away

  - Capitol Hill is 15 min away

  - Pioneer Square is 10 min away

  - the waterfront is 2 min away

I have a room, with view on the Puget Sound, with my own bathroom in a 2 bedrooms apartment (1200+ sqft) with a parking spot. The building has a doorman and all utilities, even internet are included. I pay $1,250 / month.

It is a bargain compared to other neighborhoods.

That's the price of a nice _bedroom_ in a shared house (including bills) in zones 1-3 in London.

Wow. That is a great price. I didn't know those amenities existed downtown for that cost.

Wow that was $1800+ pre-recession.

As someone who's been to Seattle a grand total of once 6 years ago, I still thought it was weird when their downtown was described as "lively".

After my trip I told people that Seattle seemed to have a "fake downtown" to me. This was mostly because of how dead it seemed to me. I stayed in a downtown hotel and walked around the city for a few days and my overwhelming feeling was nothingness (other than Pike Place market).

I've lived in downtown Seattle for the past six years and I agree with everything you've said, but it's also slowly changing. There are tons of apartments and condos going up right now in downtown, not the neighborhoods. But as you mentioned, there are still no schools, and these condos are intended primarily for 20-something Amazon employees who will get married and move to the neighborhoods (or farther) when they have kids.

Since we've moved from no one living in downtown to lots of 20-somethings living in downtown, I hope eventually that will eventually turn into people living and staying in downtown.

Yeah, in San Francisco the cool neighborhoods for techies with tons of money are SOMA and the Mission, not downtown.

SOMA is a relatively new phenomena. Live/work developments will follow Twitter's invasion of the Civic Center / OMA area.

Even in America's largest city, 'downtown' isn't a terribly attractive area. How many people really want to live in midtown Manhattan? Most of the action is a bit further out, and you'll find a more lively nightlife somewhere like Williamsburg (I imagine Cap Hill in Seattle is similar).

Lower East Side/Chelsea had way more lively nightlife to me than Williamsburg. The burg just gets all of the hipster press and attention but it wasn't all that of a lively hotspot when I was there.

Eh?

> 'downtown' isn't a terribly attractive area.

> midtown

Midtown is not downtown: Hence the name midtown - it's about midway between downtown and uptown.

Most people would consider the villages as the start of downtown.

Downtown Seattle's geography didn't allow for the sheer number of parking lots Denver's earlier buildout phases did, but...

We call them infills here. Watch for residential development popping up around you. Seattle is ripe.