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Amazon ruined our “gayborhood”: Tech-bros are swallowing up Seattle’s Capitol Hill
Salon ^ | July 26, 2015 | By Katie Herzog

Posted on 07/26/2015 3:05:17 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee

SEATTLE--“They’ve taken an area that was formerly a home for gay people, for queer people, for artists,” says John Criscitello while showing me around Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, “and they’ve turned it into a destination drinking spot.”

Criscitello, an artist who lives and works on Capitol Hill, is 48 years old but looks a decade younger. He’s tall and muscled, with tattoos covering most of his skin and blue eyes that stand out against the gloomy Seattle sky. He hasn’t been in the city long — he moved from New York just four years ago — but in that short time, he’s seen the neighborhood change immensely. His guerrilla posters, wheat-pasted to buildings and telephone poles, say things like “Welcome rich kids” and “We came here to get away from you.”

For the last half-century, Capitol Hill has been Seattle’s Castro, its Boystown, its Gayborhood. Well before they could get married in Washington or any other state, gays and lesbians could find community, safety and affordable housing on the Hill. But Capitol Hill has moved from a place that was a little gritty, a little divey and very queer to a party zone for straight people. Weekends on the Hill feel like Mardi Gras, and bars that were once reliably safe for the queer populace are filled with the neighborhood’s new residents — heterosexual tech workers and their girlfriends. The two cultures — the old queer folks, the new tech workers — sometimes clash, and in the most liberal neighborhood in one of the most liberal cities in America, hate crimes are on the rise. . .

(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: 2percent; amazon; butthurtfags; capitolhill; gayborhood; gaystapo; homosexualagenda; seattle
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To: Anoreth

Sorry, I meant “new job.”


61 posted on 07/26/2015 4:19:35 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("All the time live the truth with love in your heart." ~Fr. Ho Lung)
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To: DoughtyOne
I’m not sure what you mean. They frequent establishments to protect territory?

I exaggerated slightly, D1. Larger point was how militant/defensive Seattle's GLBTQWhatever is active, politically. My apologies if I offended.

Seattle Pacific 1989.
62 posted on 07/26/2015 4:19:37 PM PDT by SunLakesJeff (Life)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Sense scotus says your one of us, why do you need your own neighborhood? Oh, you wanted Jim Crow? Separate but equal? Hypocrites!


63 posted on 07/26/2015 4:21:29 PM PDT by GrouchoTex (...and ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free....)
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To: DoughtyOne
Some of Criscitello's art. Admittedly, it made me laugh:


64 posted on 07/26/2015 4:22:51 PM PDT by oblomov
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To: SunLakesJeff

You didn’t offend me at all. I was just trying to understand exactly what you meant. No problem.

I don’t want to see people mistreated, but when communities trend away from homosexuals, I’m all for it.

Imagine the reverse. Your communities establishments all of a sudden go homosexual.

Yikes, all your old haunts suddenly places you never want to go again.


65 posted on 07/26/2015 4:26:32 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Now home to liars too. And we'll support them. Yea... GOPe)
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To: SevenofNine

The same thing is happening in Ballard.


66 posted on 07/26/2015 4:29:17 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: USNBandit

Turned out to be a to be a metal sleeve.......from a vertical drilling attempt......that was used to collect soil samples.......for the Alaskan Way project.

Seattle was hell-bent on that silly World's Fair in 1962. Sell off Seattle Center, including the Space Needle. Give everyone an electric car ;-)

However, that silly World's Fair debuted the Touch Tone telephone. Bow accordingly...
67 posted on 07/26/2015 4:30:23 PM PDT by SunLakesJeff (Life)
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To: DoughtyOne

Yikes, all your old haunts suddenly places you never want to go again.

Moved to Arizona in 2008, barely ahead of the Housing Crash. Still have a huge Seattle soft spot.

68 posted on 07/26/2015 4:45:46 PM PDT by SunLakesJeff (Life)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

OOPS Bad idea

Okay never mind ROFL


69 posted on 07/26/2015 4:57:27 PM PDT by SevenofNine (We are Freepers, all your media bases belong to us ,resistance is futile)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

NIMBY trumps diversity.


70 posted on 07/26/2015 5:05:19 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

“Criscitello, an artist who lives and works on Capitol Hill, is 48 years old but looks a decade younger. He’s tall and muscled, with tattoos covering most of his skin and blue eyes that stand out against the gloomy Seattle sky.”

Sounds like the author was as queer as a 3 dollar bill. He was in love with “the artist.” because he could make his “thing” look like a pretzel.


71 posted on 07/26/2015 5:05:51 PM PDT by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: DH

LOL #LGBT #LOVEWINS # OBAMASAMERICA


72 posted on 07/26/2015 5:07:01 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: Brad from Tennessee

John Criscitello

73 posted on 07/26/2015 5:45:02 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: 9YearLurker
Don’t they realize that means it’s time for them to move on and gentrify a new neighborhood? I mean, there’s an order and cycle to these things.

Exactly so. It has been this way for a long, long time.

74 posted on 07/26/2015 5:55:18 PM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: All

Oh, Chornaya
(Crimea River)

But not to worry Homos...

0bama’s new HUD rules etc. will soon fill your neighborhood with Black Panthers, La Razas and Welfare Moms.


75 posted on 07/26/2015 6:50:31 PM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: SunLakesJeff

It’s very tough to let go.

I left Joplin, Missouri in 1969. Forty-six years later I still feel like I left a few months ago, and I miss it very much.

All your old haunts, that period in your life, it hangs there in limbo.

The best you can do is develop new friends and replace it as best you can.

I live in Glendale, California now. I was born here and spent my whole adult life here. It has changed so much, I should leave. I doubt I ever will.


76 posted on 07/26/2015 8:19:31 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Now home to liars too. And we'll support them. Yea... GOPe)
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To: dfwgator
The Castro in San Francisco used to be a working-class Irish neighborhood.

Neighborhoods constantly change, they don't stay fixed to the same demographics for long. This article points out that gays have been leaving San Francisco in droves, many have been displaced by incoming heterosexual straight tech couples (and they have kids). Yet a bunch of people on FR keep spreading the false message that SF is all gay. Far from it, as the tiny percentage is shrinking. As you say, the Castro used to be an Irish neighborhood. Same for other districts, like the Mission that used to be all white Irish/German/Italian until recently when hispanics came in. Those same hispanics are now complaining because white tech workers are taking over the "historically" hispanic Mission District ("historically" for a few decades). The white tech workers (including asian tech workers) are cleaning up the city and displacing the trash.

77 posted on 07/26/2015 11:54:24 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Yep. Except its the old Norwegian/Icelandic fishing families that are being driven out too.


78 posted on 07/27/2015 1:09:39 AM PDT by bjorn14 (Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Isaiah 5:20)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

“We came here to get away from you.”
.......
Where’s the tolerance and diversity?


79 posted on 07/27/2015 5:34:51 AM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
and in the most liberal neighborhood in one of the most liberal cities in America, hate crimes are on the rise.

The hate crimes aren't being committed by Amazon tech workers.

80 posted on 07/27/2015 5:46:48 AM PDT by Drew68
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