February 2008
Our Neighborhoods: Capitol Hill
It might be the area’s best-kept secret: Capitol Hill isn’t just terrific for gays and young singles. It’s also great for children and their parents. Where else in the Puget Sound region can you live within a child’s walking distance of big parks, child-friendly restaurants, grocery stores and well-regarded public schools, not to mention a brief bus ride to downtown and Seattle Center? It’s one of the few places in the area where a family could possibly do without a car.
When Alle Hall and Cliff Meyer were shopping for a house in which to raise their children, they didn’t at first think of Capitol Hill. But they discovered a house that fit all their requirements and soon found the neighborhood did, too. They love that they go through many days without getting in the car, and when they do make a trip beyond walking distance, it’s often by bus, which their son considers a treat. “It’s got a real parent-friendly feel without the boring suburban feel,” Meyer says.
In the summer, the family of four walks from their home on the north end of the neighborhood to Volunteer Park for its playground, wading pool and free outdoor theater events. In the wetter months, they walk to the kid-friendly Volunteer Park Café. Capitol Hill is also home to Vios Café and Marketplace, famed among Seattle parents for its friendliness and large children’s play area in the back of the eating space. The four-year-old expanded Capitol Hill Library at 425 Harvard Ave. E. has Wednesday morning children’s story times as well as book groups and teen programs.
Meyer and Hall also go regularly to Cal Anderson Park, farther south, whose newly remodeled playground is packed with families on a typical weekend and well-used any time it isn’t raining. In summer, the park’s shallow water feature doubles as a splashing pool.
Parents can feel they’re still tapped into the Broadway hipster scene by stepping just around the corner from Cal Anderson into Seattle’s coffee institution Vivace. The hip vibe continues with nearby Bootyland, which sells new and used children’s supplies from cloth diapers to baby anarchy T-shirts. Izilla Toys, just south of the park on 12th Avenue, has just added books to its collection of imaginative, nonviolent toys and games.
Meyer says there’s lot of bonding among Capitol Hill parents from their children’s earliest ages. Meyer, who serves on the board of the Program for Early Parenting Support, notes that Capitol Hill has the city’s highest density of parents participating in PEPS groups, which bring together parents of newborns.
The neighborhood includes Lowell Elementary School, a city-wide public magnet school, as well as TOPS, the Seattle School District’s alternative K-8 program. Just south of Capitol Hill, in the Central District, is Garfield High School, whose music program is highly regarded. Private schools in the neighborhood include Seattle Preparatory High School, the Bertschi School (Pre-K-fifth grade), Bright Water, a Waldorf school for preschool through eighth grade, and The Northwest School, a college preparatory school for grades six to 12. Some of the city’s oldest Catholic schools, including St. Joseph (K-8) and Holy Names Academy, a college preparatory high school for girls, are also located on the Hill.
“There is nothing that doesn’t make the neighborhood good for kids, except an excess of privilege,” Hall quips. The north end of the neighborhood, where Hall and her family live, is indeed very wealthy. The 98112 zip code, which includes north Capitol Hill as well as Madison Park, Washington Park and Madrona, is the only Seattle neighborhood to make the list of the top 20 richest zip codes in Puget Sound, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. But 98122 and 98102, which embrace the rest of Capitol Hill, don’t make it anywhere near the list.
The $484,000 median price for a home in the Capitol Hill area masks the great differences between the relatively modest condos available in the southern end and the million-dollar mansions on the north end. In the north end, large single-family homes on tree-lined streets predominate, while farther south condos, apartments and small houses are intermingled.
Capitol Hill is simply unaffordable for many families. Estimates from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development put the median income for a family of four in Seattle at $74,300, enough to buy a $280,000 house – far less than that median price of $484,000 for a Capitol Hill home. Renters, too, have been squeezed in recent years by rising rental prices and a miniscule vacancy rate. On Capitol Hill, the wave of condo conversions and new condo construction is reducing the number of affordable apartments, according to Tamara Brown, program manager of Solid Ground’s Journey Home project, which helps homeless families find housing. Capitol Hill’s median price for condominiums – $317,000 for existing construction, $349,000 for new – is somewhat lower than the citywide median, but many of the neighborhood’s condominiums are too small to house families.
So Capitol Hill draws many who don’t actually live in the neighborhood. Perhaps because of its combination of wealth and density, north Capitol Hill has become a Mecca for trick-or-treaters at Halloween, drawing children from all over the city. Residents report typically receiving hundreds of trick-or-treaters. Volumes were even higher last year after a story about Halloween in Capitol Hill ran in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a blogger posted a tongue-in-cheek map of the best blocks for trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, as predicted by income levels.
Suzanna Westhagen, a parent of two young children, says her block sponsors the annual Easter egg hunt in Volunteer Park and hosts a block party every 4th of July. She raves about the community feel of the neighborhood. “Our kids play together in our backyards and meet up in the alley,” she says. “We plan to never move out of Capitol Hill.”
Carolyn McConnell is a writer who lives in Seattle with her toddler and partner – she doesn't live on Capitol Hill, but poaches on its kid-friendly amenities all the time. She's working on a book about the politics of motherhood and blogs at www.rockthecradleblog.com.
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