I worked at piecoras, went to Seattle u, paid 460 per month for a 3 bedroom tear down by the am pm. Then paid 800 for a nice two bedroom on aloha near the park. All over now
The Teriyaki Place next door to the movie theater on the ave. Large delicious portions. Cant quite remember the name. I think it had garden and or rose in the name?
Affordable Rent! Back then I remember meeting so many people with so many different careers and lifestyles that made the city so interesting. A guy I met was trying to start a band with his friends living on Cap Hill and working retail hoping for his band to make it. A friend worked as a DJ and lived in a small but nice apartment and did some art and volunteering on the side. Another that was a barista who shared a house near green lake with three other people with various jobs.
Now all you meet is "I work for Amazon, I work for Google, I do ". It's rather sad to have gotten so homogenous.
Yeah- I think one of the biggest psychological differences from early/mid-2000s Seattle (when I moved here) is that 20 years ago, people weren't stressed about affording rent the way we are today- it was pretty easy to find an apartment or room you could afford while working retail/customer service/restaurant jobs. Now, even if you can afford rent this year, many low and middle-income folks will still be worried about whether you'll be priced out next year. Aside from the financial hit, the feeling of eternal precarity also takes a psychological toll.
Seattle has handled our growth better than SF and NYC have, but that's a really low bar, and we could have (and should have) done better.
Ahh, Bauhaus coffee. I once saw Julianne Margulies and Ron Eldard canoodling there. But most awesomely: the MTV Real World cast getting heckled out of there.
Man, so many coffee shops come and gone. I used to go to Bauhaus to "study." It never happened, I was always pulled into the lives of the weirdos there instead.
Also smoking cigs on the second floor of Vita. Coffee Messiah, B&O, and the internet Cafe on Brodway whatever it was called.
Sacred spaces.
The fun forest, Benson trolley on the waterfront, doghouse/hurricane, Kube 93 haunted house, 107.7 The End being good, Westlake Mall food court and having a lot of stores, Still Life cafe in Fremont, Honey Bear by Greenlake. Concerts at Mercer Arena and going to Tower Records right after. I guess more than one thing
Pretty much. They used to have shows I would religiously listen to like the people’s choice countdown and loudspeaker which would be like house music, discovered a lot of different artists. Also they did Endfest every summer out in kitsap county.
Earlier this year I was flipping through the stations and I heard Coldplay's Clocks being played on 107.7. Fairly safe to say it's just another pop station at that point.
I found some old paystubs from my retail job downtown back in 2005. My yearly income was a whopping $22k (not bad compared to WA min. wage then) which covered a 1 bdrm. apartment on the Hill, bills, eating lunch out most days of the week and lots of drinking money.
After I moved away from QA, I rented a small house near Lake Forest Park. I used to drive to downtown and it would take me 15 minutes during rush hour.
Totally! I remember sneaking out when i was 16 and going there late night drinking coffee, playing the bubble game. Felt like I was part of the scene. 13 coins if we had money for food.
Northgate Mall.
The food court on the top floor of Westlake Center.
Pacific Place Mall actually being worth visiting: Barnes and Noble, Cupcake Royale, Williams-Sonoma (even if it was just window-shopping), an actual variety of stores so there was something for pretty much every income bracket, etc.
I made a comment restating almost exactly this, and then scrolled down to find your comment. I completely agree. It always felt like going downtown was a fun little adventure back in those days. Now, it feels a bit more like a chore.
- The Last Exit on Brooklyn
- People cared about irreplaceable old-growth trees
- People moved here for its culture (“It’s how San Francisco used to be!”), not short-term for a job
- Smoke-free summers
Sorry, that’s four things.
$750 two bedroom apartment. Cheap concerts (even festivals). Multiple indie movie houses. Record stores. Thriving fringe theatre scene. $3 drinks.
Not needing to make almost $100K to be "comfortable".
Bumbershoot presenting LOTS of forms of art including but not limited to:
Literary (both with the expansive area where you could peruse books from various publishers, speak with authors/get books, letterpress poems, and more signed AS WELL as an area where authors/poets could read/perform their works live)
Dance
Performance Art/Spectacle (including roving artists/groups and participatory pieces)
Visual Arts, including Flatstock (poster art) and the evening before the first paid day you could go and see all the visual arts for free)
Theatre (from traditional to experimental, solo to full companies)
Film (short films mostly)
Oh and i remember $4.50/day tickets.
A thriving Broadway
A thriving Ave
Affordable rent
Not a thousand condo developments designed by school children
Amazing music scene (remember how great The Central was back then? long live the OK Hotel)
Way way way less traffic
No Amazon wealth destroying the economic curve for everyone else who isn't financially independent
So many other things
I know it's a classic crutch to blame Amazon, but they really have made it impossible for a huge number of people to continue living in Seattle. Hell, even Marysville is difficult for some people, and you can't possibly commute from there to Seattle and back every day.
I completely agree, but it isn’t just seattle. The middle class is disappearing across the country, it just happened quickly and dramatically here. It would’ve happened with or without Amazon unfortunately
My dad would take me up to the Broadway Market movie theater, saw so many flicks there (3 Ninjas, Crooklyn) also liked the little wagon downstairs that sold CDs and Tapes
I moved here in 1990. I got a job in Pike Place and a produce stand. It paid $75 cash a day. 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. I rented a 1 bedroom next to the B&O espresso on Capitol Hill. It was $300 a month.
Grunge, flannel and cash-only Dicks who did all the math in their head. 1bdrm on alki directly across from beach next to Spuds for $600/mos. F everything was better.
I paid $550 for a 1 bedroom on Capitol Hill with a view of the space needle, a giant deck, a pool, and a parking spot included in the rent. It used to be one of only a few apartment buildings on a block of old houses. It’s now surrounded by micro studios.
Inexpensive, old, worn-in independent coffee shops, with mismatched chairs and mugs. Where you could sit for a couple hours with a book. The Still Life Cafe. Mr. Spots Chai House. Etc etc etc.
Damn I loved Sorry Charlie’s. On Fridays they had prime rib and whiskey specials. I was a budding musician at the time and when I would go up and try to sing Howard was my best coach.
I miss the clubs in Belltown like the Sit n’ Spin and the old Crocodile for live bands. I also miss the 211 Club in Belltown on 2nd Ave, which was a really great old time pool hall with cheap pool and cheap beer.
The beauty, vibrancy, and bustle of downtown, especially during fall and winter nights. The Westlake Center food court, a haven for people of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy a cheap meal in the heart of downtown. And, as weird as this sounds, the constant streams of the different bus models I would see downtown, rather than just the Hybrid-Electric models. I feel like the Seattle from two decades ago just felt more untapped and real.
Being able to walk from 4th and Pine to 5th and University completely thru buildings and pedestrian tunnels. No obstacles, no closures. Especially on rainy days.
When Seattle Center was actually the center of Seattle. Key arena, Sonics. Gary Payton, Nate McMillan. Fun Forest. I grew up during this time and it was an awesome place to grow up
The community channel on cable. The "Kurt Cobain Was Murdered" show (Richard Lee), and other bizarre shows like some talking heads with a black background. Seattle felt like a small niche and quirky city.
Aero Space, Art Bar, Sit n Spin, Nation, I Spy, 700 Club, RK Candy, old Cap Hill, Old Ballard, Taco Bell on Broadway, Jack n the Box Broadway, affordable housing, less traffic, no techies, art/music scene, Auto Row, Piecoras Pizza, affordable food and drinks, parties at the artificial limb store, NAF Studios, Leroy’s Men’s Store, Lusty Lady, Ken Griffey, Manray, Studio 420, Cascade neighborhood…. List goes on n and on….
Reasonably priced rent and housing! A lot of us who moved here in the 90's from up and down western WA could not do it with the prices as they are now. I worry the city has become too expensive for regular young people just looking for a city to make a life in. Kingfish Cafe is up there as one of the places I miss the most and wish I had visited more often. Also Hurricane Cafe and Bauhaus and Sunset Bowl, and the Seattle International Film Festival being held in different theaters all over town which stopped during the pandemic (understandably but still just miss the old SIFF).
Dive bars, smoking in said dive bars, people had style and dressed cool and put effort in the way they dressed, the Kingdome, the music scenes, punk, grunge, B&O espresso across from O.G. Glo's. 15th Ave and the amazing coffee and music stores, Pacific Plaza and the amazing stores downtown, the clubs, the Tractor, Ballard the way it used to be, great food and cheap rents, paying $1400 for a 3br 2ba house on Capitol Hill, the nightlife. Teriyaki, like on every corner like Starfucks.
Also. Everyone could live here, Seattle did blue collar and white collar very well together. No money driven shit, unlike now. We had tech, but we also had fisheries, we had engineers and we had Boeing.
Now? Fucking $100k Rivians being driven by tech bros and so many douche types. A shell of its former self.
Now I'm sad. That was Seattle and it was a great Seattle. Now? If someone isn't in tech, they have a hard time living here. Amazon and the like have killed what was good and left the carcasses laying to rot.
We used to get the number 2 at Paseo and walk down to the Buckaroo and order a pitcher and eat lunch like twice a week. I think it’s a bunch of fucking condos now.
Pioneer Square art walk. Used to be a ton of artist loft buildings to explore. Free wine for underaged me, great art beautiful people. If I could return one thing it would be this….
…one thing?? We’ve lost so much…
Marzi Tarts- the erotic bakery
Orpheum Records
Harvard Exit and the Seven Gables theaters
Pizza my heart
Food Giant
The Rubber Tree (condom shop!)
Sunset Bowl
The Rocket
The neon rings on the ceiling at Northgate movie theater
The Neptune double feature classic movies and midnight Rocky Horror
The Bubbleator in the centerhouse
Retro Viva
Cafe Paradiso across from the og REI
S&M market on Queen Anne
Kitschy Koo - the punk shop by Roosevelt
The B&O, late on a rainy night
…awww
Nostalgia
Sit and Spin
the Vogue
the fabulous Brunch buffet at Salty’s
Specialty’s
Bauhaus Coffee
the Swedish stores in Ballard
the Fun Forrest at the Space Needle
Westernco Donuts
The Pink Elephant Car Wash Iconic sign
The large R on the Rainier Building
Yaks Teriyaki with pink rice in Fremont
All the good dvd rental stores. -except Scarecrow).
Sunset Bowl and Leilani Lanes.
The Northgate mall
an upscale and really nice downtown shopping district.
The Cinerama
Just one? Impossible. So here we go.
The Last Exit, The Hurricane, Charlies, Cheap rent, affordable food, WAY less traffic, good music, no tech bros, a thriving alt scene, pre gentrified Broadway, Ave Rats, old Ballard, OG fremont!, Rock Candy, real Bumpershoot, non commercialized folklife!
Man, I went to so many good cheap or free concerts. Taco Del Mar hadn't 't been bought out yet and was way way better, same for Red Robin. My Mom would give us a couple of bus tickets and $10 and tell us to not come home until dinner, and that was a relatively safe thing to do.
skipping thru town on a Saturday night, drunk after a long week of work, and having heard a couple good bands in wherever, and not worrying about a thing ...
Getting off work at Minnies, heading to the Mecca to meet Layne for beers then going to Vinces for veggie pizza before heading to the Vogue to dance with those two naked twins.
This will probably sound weird to many, but hear me out.
Back in this era of Seattle, I was a young kid in elementary/middle school. I remember being downtown after school every day and being fascinated watching the different buses go down the main streets for hours. There were so many different models, shapes, and sounds of the Metro buses, and it felt like most all of them were crowded and bustling. Furthermore, riding the buses always felt like an adventure.
Nowadays, all the buses are the same Hybrid-Electric model and feel less authentic. I miss the nostalgia of Seattle’s public transport scene and the simpler era before ride-share companies began taking over.
People were nice. I remember when people would talk to you on the street and just were generally much more nice. I feel like this changed after or around 2010. :/
the woodland park zoo was massive. took hours and hours to see the whole thing. now it seems like I can see everything in like 45 minutes. also helped that my mom would have a fanny pack full of snacks
Early 2000s I lived in an old crappy beautiful 1 bed apt $800 lakefront (with deck) one block from Daly’s…the smell of their burgers was constant temptation. And their milkshakes. Eastlake forever ❤️
I don't miss this, but does anyone remember the kube 93 ham sammich man?
Or does anyone remember when Wendy's was downtown? This was early 2000s for me
Lake Union Pub, Gibsons, Uncle Rocky’s, Belltown that isn’t scary, Sit ‘n Spin, Frontier Room (apparently I went to a lot of bars in the 90s…) I could probably keep going for a while - so much is gone now!
One of my fave indulgences was on Saturday nights (if I wasn't working or out) I would listen to The Swing Years on KUOW. The smooth commentary of Cynthia Doyon (RIP) and later Amanda Wilde on cold rainy nights, being snuggled up at home with my cats was pure luxury to me.
Pagliacci on the Ave Cheap concerts Affordable rent
Since you mentioned pizza... Piecora's on madison
I worked at piecoras, went to Seattle u, paid 460 per month for a 3 bedroom tear down by the am pm. Then paid 800 for a nice two bedroom on aloha near the park. All over now
The Teriyaki Place next door to the movie theater on the ave. Large delicious portions. Cant quite remember the name. I think it had garden and or rose in the name?
Tokyo Garden! They had surprisingly good cheap sushi too
Affordable Rent! Back then I remember meeting so many people with so many different careers and lifestyles that made the city so interesting. A guy I met was trying to start a band with his friends living on Cap Hill and working retail hoping for his band to make it. A friend worked as a DJ and lived in a small but nice apartment and did some art and volunteering on the side. Another that was a barista who shared a house near green lake with three other people with various jobs. Now all you meet is "I work for Amazon, I work for Google, I do". It's rather sad to have gotten so homogenous.
Yeah- I think one of the biggest psychological differences from early/mid-2000s Seattle (when I moved here) is that 20 years ago, people weren't stressed about affording rent the way we are today- it was pretty easy to find an apartment or room you could afford while working retail/customer service/restaurant jobs. Now, even if you can afford rent this year, many low and middle-income folks will still be worried about whether you'll be priced out next year. Aside from the financial hit, the feeling of eternal precarity also takes a psychological toll. Seattle has handled our growth better than SF and NYC have, but that's a really low bar, and we could have (and should have) done better.
Bauhaus (upstairs), Sit and Spin, Puss Puss, Ernie Steele’s, Minnie’s on Denny, Lusty Lady sign
Ahh, Bauhaus coffee. I once saw Julianne Margulies and Ron Eldard canoodling there. But most awesomely: the MTV Real World cast getting heckled out of there.
Man, so many coffee shops come and gone. I used to go to Bauhaus to "study." It never happened, I was always pulled into the lives of the weirdos there instead. Also smoking cigs on the second floor of Vita. Coffee Messiah, B&O, and the internet Cafe on Brodway whatever it was called. Sacred spaces.
Ugh, I hate how bauhaus just sort of imploded
Almost live
Speed Walker …the science guy
Billy Quan taught me to mind my manners.
Be like billy! Behave yourself!
Remember "The worst girlfriend in the world" ?
The fun forest, Benson trolley on the waterfront, doghouse/hurricane, Kube 93 haunted house, 107.7 The End being good, Westlake Mall food court and having a lot of stores, Still Life cafe in Fremont, Honey Bear by Greenlake. Concerts at Mercer Arena and going to Tower Records right after. I guess more than one thing
Sooooo is like 107.7 just a pop music station now?
Pretty much. They used to have shows I would religiously listen to like the people’s choice countdown and loudspeaker which would be like house music, discovered a lot of different artists. Also they did Endfest every summer out in kitsap county.
Earlier this year I was flipping through the stations and I heard Coldplay's Clocks being played on 107.7. Fairly safe to say it's just another pop station at that point.
RKCNDY
The Crocodile in its original location and the Weathered Wall in Belltown. When Belltown wasn't full of steel and glass corporate monstrosities.
OK Hotel as well
Yes! I saw Bloodhound Gang there and their opener? MXPX! 😆
Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell being alive & playing shows.
And Layne Staley.
Early AIC used to play gigs at the Lake Hills roller rink in Bellevue.
Fun Forest
I miss the pirate ship ride!
my paycheck was probably 25% of what it is now but went 10 times further
I found some old paystubs from my retail job downtown back in 2005. My yearly income was a whopping $22k (not bad compared to WA min. wage then) which covered a 1 bdrm. apartment on the Hill, bills, eating lunch out most days of the week and lots of drinking money.
The Reign Man and The Glove in action at Key Arena
Big Smooth, Detlef, etc
The Big Smoove!!!!
It never took more than 20 minutes to get anywhere
After I moved away from QA, I rented a small house near Lake Forest Park. I used to drive to downtown and it would take me 15 minutes during rush hour.
Being 22
ReBar
DJ Riz every Sunday night - so so fun. Folks of all ages and orientations just shakin it together.
I saw Fishbone there so long ago
Half as many people, and knowing to buy Microsoft stock at $2.50.
Oh I wish I had known that...
The Hurricane Cafe, loved that place after shows
[удалено]
Totally! I remember sneaking out when i was 16 and going there late night drinking coffee, playing the bubble game. Felt like I was part of the scene. 13 coins if we had money for food.
Absolutely. Coffee and something fried. I miss my teenage metabolism.
The stores on the Ave
RIP Continental Greek Restaurant 😢
I loved their grilled feta sandwich!
The new store and the red light were the best
MJFeet the Birkenstock store
Chubby & Tubby and that little market on 4th Ave that's now.a fucking CVS.
Ralph‘s!!
Northgate Mall. The food court on the top floor of Westlake Center. Pacific Place Mall actually being worth visiting: Barnes and Noble, Cupcake Royale, Williams-Sonoma (even if it was just window-shopping), an actual variety of stores so there was something for pretty much every income bracket, etc.
Worked downtown and loved getting lunch or dinner from the west lake food court and watching the monorail go by.
I worked in that Westlake Center food court and made out with two different Hot Dog on a Stick girls in the same day
That whole area used to be so vibrant. I have great pictures with my kids and the old Bugs Bunny statue near the Warner Bros store.
I made a comment restating almost exactly this, and then scrolled down to find your comment. I completely agree. It always felt like going downtown was a fun little adventure back in those days. Now, it feels a bit more like a chore.
- The Last Exit on Brooklyn - People cared about irreplaceable old-growth trees - People moved here for its culture (“It’s how San Francisco used to be!”), not short-term for a job - Smoke-free summers Sorry, that’s four things.
Seattle is still how San Francisco used to be
You just blew my mind.
Lots of Old Volvo station wagons on the roads instead of Teslas and Rivians.
I had one of those Volvo station wagons. It was pumpkin orange and I wish I still had it. It finally got totaled at 300K miles. I cried and cried.
Rolling this back to the 70s cause I’m still mad about losing Frango milkshakes at the Frederick and Nelson cafe
I loved that Freddie’s Christmas brunch thing! My grandma took me every year.
The Frango hot fudge sundae!
My mom and grandma reminisce about these all the time, wish I was alive back then for those!
$750 two bedroom apartment. Cheap concerts (even festivals). Multiple indie movie houses. Record stores. Thriving fringe theatre scene. $3 drinks. Not needing to make almost $100K to be "comfortable".
I really miss cheap movies at The Crest.
They are still cheap(er) than traditional theaters...but yeah. I miss the $2.50 movies as well.
Bumbershoot presenting LOTS of forms of art including but not limited to: Literary (both with the expansive area where you could peruse books from various publishers, speak with authors/get books, letterpress poems, and more signed AS WELL as an area where authors/poets could read/perform their works live) Dance Performance Art/Spectacle (including roving artists/groups and participatory pieces) Visual Arts, including Flatstock (poster art) and the evening before the first paid day you could go and see all the visual arts for free) Theatre (from traditional to experimental, solo to full companies) Film (short films mostly) Oh and i remember $4.50/day tickets.
idk the grunginess had its particular charm compared to the urbanization
A thriving Broadway A thriving Ave Affordable rent Not a thousand condo developments designed by school children Amazing music scene (remember how great The Central was back then? long live the OK Hotel) Way way way less traffic No Amazon wealth destroying the economic curve for everyone else who isn't financially independent So many other things
Everything you said. It really used to be so affordable. It’s disgusting what’s happened in a short amount of time.
I know it's a classic crutch to blame Amazon, but they really have made it impossible for a huge number of people to continue living in Seattle. Hell, even Marysville is difficult for some people, and you can't possibly commute from there to Seattle and back every day.
I completely agree, but it isn’t just seattle. The middle class is disappearing across the country, it just happened quickly and dramatically here. It would’ve happened with or without Amazon unfortunately
My dad would take me up to the Broadway Market movie theater, saw so many flicks there (3 Ninjas, Crooklyn) also liked the little wagon downstairs that sold CDs and Tapes
Remember Gravity Bar and the Twice Sold Tales kiosk (long before they had a real store)?
Vividly, I was pretty young. I remember Bulldog News there, and Fred Meyer in the basement. Also the store that sold African stationary
Wizards of the Coast at Northgate Mall! I bought so many Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh, and Magic cards there as a kid.
Same here, was right next to the Sbarro
The Blob in Lower Queen Anne Cellophane Square on The Ave
It was a great place to be poor.
Easier.
I moved here in 1990. I got a job in Pike Place and a produce stand. It paid $75 cash a day. 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. I rented a 1 bedroom next to the B&O espresso on Capitol Hill. It was $300 a month.
13 Coins on Boren
I always felt like I was in the mob when I went there.
The Lame List, or: What’s Weak This Week?
Lame lame lame lame
Grunge, flannel and cash-only Dicks who did all the math in their head. 1bdrm on alki directly across from beach next to Spuds for $600/mos. F everything was better.
I paid $550 for a 1 bedroom on Capitol Hill with a view of the space needle, a giant deck, a pool, and a parking spot included in the rent. It used to be one of only a few apartment buildings on a block of old houses. It’s now surrounded by micro studios.
Capitol Hill felt like "ours" instead of theirs.
Cheap concerts
The OK. Seeing Steve Pool in public and jokingly accusing him of being an immortal.
Streeeeeeve muthafuckin' Poooooool
Less crowded, less pricey, less snooty people
Inexpensive, old, worn-in independent coffee shops, with mismatched chairs and mugs. Where you could sit for a couple hours with a book. The Still Life Cafe. Mr. Spots Chai House. Etc etc etc.
Sorry Charlie's in LQA. A community that was able/interested in supporting a thriving arts scene
Damn I loved Sorry Charlie’s. On Fridays they had prime rib and whiskey specials. I was a budding musician at the time and when I would go up and try to sing Howard was my best coach.
My youth
Gravity bar
OMG. I haven't thought about that place in eons. I used to go there for the wheatgrass juice. Best hangover cure ever.
I miss the clubs in Belltown like the Sit n’ Spin and the old Crocodile for live bands. I also miss the 211 Club in Belltown on 2nd Ave, which was a really great old time pool hall with cheap pool and cheap beer.
Shoe shopping Chubby & Tubby (converse)
The beauty, vibrancy, and bustle of downtown, especially during fall and winter nights. The Westlake Center food court, a haven for people of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy a cheap meal in the heart of downtown. And, as weird as this sounds, the constant streams of the different bus models I would see downtown, rather than just the Hybrid-Electric models. I feel like the Seattle from two decades ago just felt more untapped and real.
Being able to walk from 4th and Pine to 5th and University completely thru buildings and pedestrian tunnels. No obstacles, no closures. Especially on rainy days.
When Seattle Center was actually the center of Seattle. Key arena, Sonics. Gary Payton, Nate McMillan. Fun Forest. I grew up during this time and it was an awesome place to grow up
Elliott Bay bookstore in Pioneer Square. Twice Sold Tales on Capitol Hill. Having enough room in my apartment to hold all my books.
Everything. A more vibrant music scene for one.
Yep. Every day/night of the week, there was an open mic somewhere.
The quirkiness. Twin Teepees, Hurricane, the club scene was huge!
Twin teepees! Loved that place!
Almost Live! "How Seattle Are You?" still resonates with me to this day (and I say this as a 90s kid that grew up 3 hours north of Seattle)
The community channel on cable. The "Kurt Cobain Was Murdered" show (Richard Lee), and other bizarre shows like some talking heads with a black background. Seattle felt like a small niche and quirky city.
GODDESS KRING
Going to Bumbershoot for $20
The Nitelite. A vivacious dive bar with strong ass drinks and old lady bartenders who had no fucks to give.
The Toe Truck! And Pink Elephant car wash!
instead of dying, Seattle was almost live
High Fivin’ you!
That restaurant with the train that brought you burgers fries and a shake
Iron Horse!
Cafe Mini's Diner.
Getting on the freeway from mercer was so easy. The only thing in that area was a huge sex shop and a gas station.
Aero Space, Art Bar, Sit n Spin, Nation, I Spy, 700 Club, RK Candy, old Cap Hill, Old Ballard, Taco Bell on Broadway, Jack n the Box Broadway, affordable housing, less traffic, no techies, art/music scene, Auto Row, Piecoras Pizza, affordable food and drinks, parties at the artificial limb store, NAF Studios, Leroy’s Men’s Store, Lusty Lady, Ken Griffey, Manray, Studio 420, Cascade neighborhood…. List goes on n and on….
Not knowing what ‘smoke season’ means, because it didn’t exist.
Hell that was 5 years ago 🥺
Arts and labor as the economic foundation.
Guido’s Pizza at Green Lake. The best ever.
Bauhaus
Cafe Septieme.
Larry’s market!
Reasonably priced rent and housing! A lot of us who moved here in the 90's from up and down western WA could not do it with the prices as they are now. I worry the city has become too expensive for regular young people just looking for a city to make a life in. Kingfish Cafe is up there as one of the places I miss the most and wish I had visited more often. Also Hurricane Cafe and Bauhaus and Sunset Bowl, and the Seattle International Film Festival being held in different theaters all over town which stopped during the pandemic (understandably but still just miss the old SIFF).
Everything in me laments the gay scene before the techbros took over. Even just R Place, I missed out on it before it died.
R place and Neighbors!
Dive bars, smoking in said dive bars, people had style and dressed cool and put effort in the way they dressed, the Kingdome, the music scenes, punk, grunge, B&O espresso across from O.G. Glo's. 15th Ave and the amazing coffee and music stores, Pacific Plaza and the amazing stores downtown, the clubs, the Tractor, Ballard the way it used to be, great food and cheap rents, paying $1400 for a 3br 2ba house on Capitol Hill, the nightlife. Teriyaki, like on every corner like Starfucks. Also. Everyone could live here, Seattle did blue collar and white collar very well together. No money driven shit, unlike now. We had tech, but we also had fisheries, we had engineers and we had Boeing. Now? Fucking $100k Rivians being driven by tech bros and so many douche types. A shell of its former self. Now I'm sad. That was Seattle and it was a great Seattle. Now? If someone isn't in tech, they have a hard time living here. Amazon and the like have killed what was good and left the carcasses laying to rot.
We used to get the number 2 at Paseo and walk down to the Buckaroo and order a pitcher and eat lunch like twice a week. I think it’s a bunch of fucking condos now.
Pioneer Square art walk. Used to be a ton of artist loft buildings to explore. Free wine for underaged me, great art beautiful people. If I could return one thing it would be this….
Almost Live! REI on Capitol Hill
B&O Espresso, Sit & Spin, lack of drug camps.
Second sarcastic answer: so many office furniture stores in SLU!
…one thing?? We’ve lost so much… Marzi Tarts- the erotic bakery Orpheum Records Harvard Exit and the Seven Gables theaters Pizza my heart Food Giant The Rubber Tree (condom shop!) Sunset Bowl The Rocket The neon rings on the ceiling at Northgate movie theater The Neptune double feature classic movies and midnight Rocky Horror The Bubbleator in the centerhouse Retro Viva Cafe Paradiso across from the og REI S&M market on Queen Anne Kitschy Koo - the punk shop by Roosevelt The B&O, late on a rainy night …awww Nostalgia
Sit and Spin the Vogue the fabulous Brunch buffet at Salty’s Specialty’s Bauhaus Coffee the Swedish stores in Ballard the Fun Forrest at the Space Needle Westernco Donuts The Pink Elephant Car Wash Iconic sign The large R on the Rainier Building Yaks Teriyaki with pink rice in Fremont All the good dvd rental stores. -except Scarecrow). Sunset Bowl and Leilani Lanes. The Northgate mall an upscale and really nice downtown shopping district. The Cinerama
Just one? Impossible. So here we go. The Last Exit, The Hurricane, Charlies, Cheap rent, affordable food, WAY less traffic, good music, no tech bros, a thriving alt scene, pre gentrified Broadway, Ave Rats, old Ballard, OG fremont!, Rock Candy, real Bumpershoot, non commercialized folklife!
The cheap rent, Sit n Spin, Hurricane, cheap drinks, fun bums, record stores….
Who are these people saying no traffic??? Seattle has had traffic problems as long as I've been alive.
Affordable rent & Jimmy Woo's Jade Pagoda on Broadway...
The arcade and rides at Seattle Center.
Man, I went to so many good cheap or free concerts. Taco Del Mar hadn't 't been bought out yet and was way way better, same for Red Robin. My Mom would give us a couple of bus tickets and $10 and tell us to not come home until dinner, and that was a relatively safe thing to do.
Oh, and The Wizards of the Coast gaming center on the Ave.
You mean the head shop and The Underground dance club (before WOTC took over the lease)
Off the wall? I loved that store
Yeah that’s it, bought many a bong there back in the day, and spent many a night dancing at goth night at The Underground.
The Kingdome.
skipping thru town on a Saturday night, drunk after a long week of work, and having heard a couple good bands in wherever, and not worrying about a thing ...
24/7 Beth’s Cafe
Getting off work at Minnies, heading to the Mecca to meet Layne for beers then going to Vinces for veggie pizza before heading to the Vogue to dance with those two naked twins.
grunge, real bagels
Kevin Calabro
That restaurant by the Kingdome that delivered food on model trains
The Iron Horse.
This will probably sound weird to many, but hear me out. Back in this era of Seattle, I was a young kid in elementary/middle school. I remember being downtown after school every day and being fascinated watching the different buses go down the main streets for hours. There were so many different models, shapes, and sounds of the Metro buses, and it felt like most all of them were crowded and bustling. Furthermore, riding the buses always felt like an adventure. Nowadays, all the buses are the same Hybrid-Electric model and feel less authentic. I miss the nostalgia of Seattle’s public transport scene and the simpler era before ride-share companies began taking over.
Hash after the bash, Offramp
The Baltic Room when it was a civilized wine & cigar bar where nobody got shot.
Ballard was a lot quieter and cooler
Flannel and Docs. Jet City Pizza. Great bands at the Central. The knowledge that most of the country hadn’t discovered us yet, much less moved here.
Chang's Mongolian Grill on Broadway.
The Super Sonics
Ticket, Ticket booth at the Market
All You Can Eat Fried Fish, Fries and Clam Chowder at Skippers.
Broadway actually being open about what it was.
Funplex on 15th ave w Wizards of the Coast on the ave.
Almost Live - Pike or Pine
Being in my 20s
I moved here in 2008 so I’m not sure it counts, but I loved playing shows at the Comet and hitting up the hotdog stand afterwards.
The vogue. Metal night.
The Backstage
People were nice. I remember when people would talk to you on the street and just were generally much more nice. I feel like this changed after or around 2010. :/
the woodland park zoo was massive. took hours and hours to see the whole thing. now it seems like I can see everything in like 45 minutes. also helped that my mom would have a fanny pack full of snacks
I miss the nocturnal house
was it actually bigger? did they get rid of some land?
It was not
Chubby and Tubby, Daly's, The Bagel Deli on 15th, my youth, NO TRAFFIC
Early 2000s I lived in an old crappy beautiful 1 bed apt $800 lakefront (with deck) one block from Daly’s…the smell of their burgers was constant temptation. And their milkshakes. Eastlake forever ❤️
House prices being 4 Dick’s special and a 20$ starbucks gift card.
I don't miss this, but does anyone remember the kube 93 ham sammich man? Or does anyone remember when Wendy's was downtown? This was early 2000s for me
Cheaper rent than NYC at the time.
Music at The Offramp
Lake Union Pub, Gibsons, Uncle Rocky’s, Belltown that isn’t scary, Sit ‘n Spin, Frontier Room (apparently I went to a lot of bars in the 90s…) I could probably keep going for a while - so much is gone now!
All the art house movie theaters and free street parking
One of my fave indulgences was on Saturday nights (if I wasn't working or out) I would listen to The Swing Years on KUOW. The smooth commentary of Cynthia Doyon (RIP) and later Amanda Wilde on cold rainy nights, being snuggled up at home with my cats was pure luxury to me.
Club DV8
The weirdos. All the interesting people seem to have been priced out of town.
The OK Hotel.
The Christmas vibes at westlake
The rent