New plan for Seattle's booming Uptown neighborhood (Tacoma, Cle Elum: best city, crime)

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by AleeGee

...a very slick marketing campaign to get people to forget it was once a neighborhood for mostly gay men.

When was that? Source?

Any rumors that Queen Anne was named after a "queen" named Anne are utterly spurious. The artist, Don Scott, did live in Lower Queen Anne - maybe we should re-name it Queen Don...

(The term "Queen Anne" supposedly came from the style of architecture of early mansions on the South Slope.)

[pnwguy2]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a low-rise circle around the Space Needle, or in other words, no talls within a certain distance? Obviously, the Center grounds are immune, but even right outside the grounds are there not restrictions?

[CrazyDonkey]

See: http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/cs/groups...s/p2648147.png

http://kuow.org/post/upzone-lower-qu...fordable-homes

Hopefully they won't redevelop the LQA business district with mid-rise, mixed-use, mid-rise monstrosities they've put up on Market.

This:



replaced with this:

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by AleeGee

This whole re-naming "Lower Queen Anne" "Uptown" is ridiculous, and motivated by consumerism, capitalism, and a very slick marketing campaign to get people to forget it was once a neighborhood for mostly gay men. Sorry Charlie, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind wants you to forget you were ever here. There's no money to be made in memories.
I love Lower Queen Anne. Lived there, played there, worked there. I'll bet the people re-naming it, tearing it apart and re-assembing it can't say that.

The "Uptown Theater" was built in the late 1920's. So your reference to "re-naming" goes back that far? Seriously, would like to know.

[mhays25]

That area badly needs infill.

I've lived within 100 yards of that intersection twice, and still go there often. I've gotten hamburgers at Dick's a million times but that place is a huge waste of land along with the parking lot next to it. I'd kill to see a six-story apartment there. Actually I wish zoning allowed highrises.

LQA is kind of odd these days, with density but still too many gaps.

That said, the block of retail you're showing is one of the best. My hope is that the gaps fill in, not that places like that get rebuilt.

I hope the City doesn't screw up the retail. It's the classic problem...they require it everywhere, like on First Ave N where there's been a whole block of empty storefronts for two years. This diffuses it. We should be concentrating it in the existing retail core which is a few blocks mostly on Mercer and QAA with a little bit of First also.

[pnwguy2]

LQA is aka "Uptown". The origins are not clear, but the fact that the late 20's theater was named as such is a good clue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Queen_Anne,_Seattle

https://seattle.curbed.com/2017/10/2...ala-mha-passed

My theory is when Seattle started to boom in the early 20th century, the lower Queen Anne area was nicknamed "Uptown" for one simple reason, it was north of the original downtown, so it was "up". There is no reason to get rid of this historical reference today.

[Flightoficarus87]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

See: http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/cs/groups...s/p2648147.png

Upzone in lower Queen Anne expected to produce 600 affordable homes | KUOW News and Information

Hopefully they won't redevelop the LQA business district with mid-rise, mixed-use, mid-rise monstrosities they've put up on Market.

This:



replaced with this:

If that's the "vision" that the city/developers have for the future of LQA's main business strip, I might have to pay a few visits to some of my favorite spots there before they get pushed out .

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by Flightoficarus87

If that's the "vision" that the city/developers have for the future of LQA's main business strip, I might have to pay a few visits to some of my favorite spots there before they get pushed out .

In that area (around Mercer/QA Ave), they're proposing to raise the height's from 40' to 65'. The CVS Pharmacy building has already gone in on the SW corner, at the current height restriction, but which is completely out of character with the rest of the area. At least six businesses replaced by one, with two floors of housing plopped on top. And now they could go two stories higher.


Couldn't be uglier if they tried. Owned now by Chinese speculators, by the way.

Is Bad Publicity Enough to Change Crappy Developments in Wallingford, Queen Anne, and West Seattle? - Slog - The Stranger

The Junction, another "funky" lowrise business district, is slated for the same treatment.

[Flightoficarus87]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

In that area (around Mercer/QA Ave), they're proposing to raise the height's from 40' to 65'. The CVS Pharmacy building has already gone in on the SW corner, at the current height restriction, but which is completely out of character with the rest of the area. At least six businesses replaced by one, with two floors of housing plopped on top. And now they could go two stories higher.


Couldn't be uglier if they tried. Owned now by Chinese speculators, by the way.

Is Bad Publicity Enough to Change Crappy Developments in Wallingford, Queen Anne, and West Seattle? - Slog - The Stranger

The Junction, another "funky" lowrise business district, is slated for the same treatment.

I used to live in LQA while that corner was being redeveloped - I hate to sound "anti-development", but I must agree with you that it sticks out like a sore thumb/isn't very aesthetically pleasing, and the neighborhood certainly didn't need another drugstore/pharmacy, with a Bartells one block away.

I'm actually over near the Junction nowadays - for the time being, it does feel like one of the last bastions of "funkiness" in town.

[fnh]

Wait, there's a CVS in Seattle??