Amazon ruined our “gayborhood”: Tech-bros are swallowing up Seattle’s Capitol Hill

Salon ^ | July 26, 2015 | By Katie Herzog

[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. . .

[Dilbert San Diego]

How can this be??? Liberals are supposed to be so.tolerant. homosexuals urged us for decades to be tolerant of them. Hate crimes among competing liberal tolerant people??? I am shocked.

[Da Coyote]

“...tall and muscled...(with AIDS)...”

[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.

[FReepaholic]

It’s called evolution. Things change. Liberals worship evolution yet are the very ones that want everything to remain the status quo.

[ontap]

Being it's Seattle one assumes these are two liberal groups who have found out they don't like each other...couldn't happen to a more deserving crowd...to each other. Apologies to any of our conservative friends I Seattle!!!

[shankbear]

Butthurt much?? Poor little creepy flamer is a bigot.

[Lizavetta]

gays and lesbians could find community, safety and affordable housing

You can find that it many other places. I reject their premise that one must live among gays to be safe and have community. Maybe you'd have more people interested in you if your sex life wasn't front and center. We're all sick of it.

[Mrs_Puddleglum]

" in the most liberal neighborhood in one of the most liberal cities in America, hate crimes are on the rise. . ."

Do you think the writer means hate crimes like putting up posters that say "we came here to get away from people like you"? Well, that's just hateful; not a crime. :rolleyes

[SunLakesJeff]

This has been "building" for at least twenty years, and it's among all urban neighborhoods.

The reasonable level-headed will move to Seattle urban/south areas, such as West Seattle and Georgetown.

[BenLurkin]

Uh....better stick to bars where the glasses are washed in scalding hot water...just saying.

[Veggie Todd]

Now they know how we feel.

[SunLakesJeff]

BTTFT

[so_real]

Let me understand this correctly ... the homosexuals are shocked that when you strip an entire neighborhood of morality by morphing it into a haven for sodomy, that other forms of hedonism would quickly take root in that same community? Really. Seems like Captain Obvious needs to make a house call. Homosexuals are not that dumb when portrayed on television ...

[Cicero]

I started my teaching career out in Seattle back in the early 60s, and we lived with our two kids (at that time) on Capitol Hill. It was a pleasant family neighborhood, with lots of kids. There was one gay couple on our block, and that was it. Mostly it was Catholic families. Our babysitter had eleven brothers and sisters.

Then, after we left, the Gays took over. And now they are being outspent and driven out by Amazon, apparently.

So it goes. Tough luck, gays.

[SevenofNine]

I am totally enjoying would that be something like say family of Hobby Lobby put company in Seattle WA

let see how the gays react

[trisham]

He’s tall and muscled, with tattoos covering most of his skin and blue eyes that stand out against the gloomy Seattle sky.

***************************

Katie, I think you're barking up the wrong tree here.

[DoughtyOne]

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.

Anyone else spot the problem here? LOL

Homosexuals don't like bars and dancing? Really?

What they don't like is that the bars and dancing is heterosexual in nature. Can't have them people in OUR side of town. They'll ruin the place.

[Hulka]

Wonder how these elitists will react when The Messiah and his ‘sons’ and ‘daughter’ grab their Section 8 vouchers and move in. . .

[SevenofNine]

There is always Ballad Washington

OH wait a minute NO I don’t think gays couldn’t handle Noreweigan American fishing families LOL!