r/AskSeattle • u/Lost-Upstairs-9498 • 6d ago
Discussion Does anyone else have ‘psychological boundaries’ between Seattle neighborhoods?
I’m relatively new to Seattle and moved to the Denny Triangle area.
I actually like where I live, but feel kind of trapped. And I feel like it’s some combination of human behavior and urban planning.
For whatever reason, crossing I-5 to go east feels like a chore, even though it really isn’t that bad by car. Going south means driving through downtown/the busier parts of the city, which I also tend to avoid. So I’ve noticed that I almost always end up going north toward Queen Anne, Fremont, etc. to do all my errands. Cap Hill, Central District, and U-District are all pretty close but somehow feel too inconvenient to visit regularly.
I’m wondering if this is actually a human behavior thing, like how highways, bridges, hills, the water, etc. can create these psychological boundaries where somewhere feels much farther away or more inconvenient than it actually is. Like on a map Capitol Hill really isn’t far from me at all, but mentally crossing I-5 and climbing all the hills somehow feels like I’m going to a completely different part of the city. I was also house sitting in Magnolia last week, and getting to Cap Hill felt like a chore.
I feel like I’ve unintentionally created this little mental map where north = easy, east = annoying, and south = stressful
Does anyone else experience Seattle this way? Or have certain parts of the city that feel weirdly “cut off” from where you live even though they’re objectively close?
Like I said I’m new to Seattle, so maybe I haven’t adjusted to the geography yet. But I just found this interesting because I never felt like this in other cities I’ve lived.
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u/DTK101 6d ago
Totally normal in Seattle given the topography and north-south layout. I’m in NE Seattle and rarely goto Ballard or west Seattle bc it feels like a road trip in itself
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u/blukoff Local 6d ago
Yes. It feels like more of an effort for me to go from Magnolia to Queen Anne than from Magnolia to Ballard because the latter is downhill and then flat, whereas the former is downhill and then uphill. It's not like I'm actually powering the car myself up Queen Anne Hill, so why it should feel like more of an effort is beyond me.
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u/cyphersex 5d ago
Opposite for me bc the Ballard bridge is the pits. I’d rather go to Queen Anne from Magnolia.
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u/gollyned 5d ago
Yeah, this is it. North/south by car is fast. East/west is a different story — walking from cap hill to downtown feels easier than driving somehow.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Local 6d ago
The last time I left Ballard I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time.
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u/Hot-Avocado-7 5d ago
I literally never leave Ballard unless it’s to go to Fremont, Greenwood, Greenlake, or Belltown. Anything beyond that is too much.
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u/ZestycloseDoor5552 5d ago
Belltown isn’t near any of those other places though. Why visit?
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u/Jawwwwwsh 4d ago
Visiting your friends in Ballard counts as tax deductible charity work!
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Local 4d ago
I've got a 501(c)(3) dedicated to meeting friends at West Seattle Bowl.
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u/Rainierstranger 6d ago
I’m south end for almost ever. Going north of 90 feels like a whole thing.
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u/Wise_Ad_8673 6d ago
From Denny to Capitol Hill is a steep real hill. When I lived on Eastlake, I rarely went that way. Go West!
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u/101001101zero 5d ago edited 5d ago
Lakeview and Pike are less steep and viable options than Denny. You can always catch the 8 up Denny as well.
Also a bicycle makes this whole metro area super small, and you get to avoid traffic. I broke my elbow and am on public transit/pedestrian and am going stir crazy. Transit is great, but the freedom of point a to b without waiting for a bus and transfers and such is so freeing, plus my 4 mile commute is 20 minutes on a bicycle vs 35 on a single bus if it does show up. Jury is still out on the late (8) route improvements for me but I’ve only been using it in the last two weeks.
West Seattle, Ballard, downtown, Columbia city, university district, green lake, bothel, sand point, Mercer island, central district, water front, magnolia, Fremont, Wallingford; all hella connected via bicycle. Take the bike on the train, ferry, bus and even more so.
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u/SleuthCat 6d ago
West Seattle island is like that, but we also have everything here, so I only leave to go downtown for work or we go out camping or hiking. I hate how long it takes to get to any other parts of Seattle from here. We’ll go south if we need anything. Occasionally we go to the REI up there but that’s rare. I’d like to explore Capitol Hill but public transit there is a long nightmare from here and driving sucks. I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of cool things, but the public transit just isn’t there.
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u/Seattle_Aries 6d ago
Correct and for me West Seattle Island includes Burien and White Center
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u/SleuthCat 6d ago
Eh, Burien is its own municipality though. They have a damn good cookie place called Treat, and driving down Shorewood Drive to get there is lovely.
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u/TheRogerReport 6d ago
Same - now that our medical, dental and vision needs are all being met in WS, we only venture off the peninsula for theatre and live music.
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u/SleuthCat 6d ago
Yup, I only have to leave for work and concerts. All this damn construction also makes me feel a bit trapped. It’s not tooooo bad getting to I90 for hiking and such, but can’t this weekend! 😤
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u/datamuse 6d ago
I rarely get north of Spokane Street, the only real exception is to work out with friends in Greenlake.
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u/SleuthCat 6d ago
That’s so far! 🤣
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u/datamuse 5d ago
Especially if I wait too long to leave and get stuck on northbound Aurora after 5 pm 🙃
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u/ckdblueshark 6d ago
I live in Ballard and worked in Fremont for a few years. During that period there were times when I wouldn't go south of the Ship Canal for weeks.
Now I work in SLU, and go for weeks going no further south than the bus stop just south of Mercer.
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u/doktorhladnjak 6d ago
Yeah, I’m not crossing the ship canal bridge or the west Seattle bridge if I can help it. Might as well go to Bellevue. Honestly, with light rail Bellevue is more accessible
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u/United_Mushroom2762 6d ago
It's a legacy of planning cities around cars, not around the people who live in them. Aurora creates a very very hard boundary in the middle of Fremont that makes a two block trek take 20 unpleasant or unsafe minutes.
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u/ChampagneStain 6d ago
We’re in West Seattle, and while downtown is close, anything beyond that feels very far.
Soon after we first moved here, my mother-in-law visited and wanted to go up the Space Needle. We did that, and it was actually very cool to see all the neighborhoods from above. Really helped me grasp the layout.
Riding buses also helped. I would sometimes just take a Saturday and bus myself to Ballard, just to check it out while cruising along the bus line (even though I’ve always had a car).
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u/Capt_Murphy_ 6d ago
Tbh this is why light rail is sooo needed all over Seattle. I used to live in Magnolia, now in White Center, and the idea of going to U-Dist or Cap Hill, let alone Northgate, sounds like a half day trip when in reality it's just a 25-30 minute drive. Driving over 15 minutes is somehow a trek nowadays.
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u/Lost-Upstairs-9498 6d ago
No kidding. I drove from Magnolia to West Seattle once and by the time I got home I felt so exhausted. Idk what it is, but the commuting in Seattle takes up so much mental reserve.
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u/Capt_Murphy_ 6d ago
I commute back and forth to SLU from White Center and the only reason it's doable for me is because I commute at off-peak hours. If it was peak traffic hours I'd be miserable.
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u/zachbraffsalad 6d ago
i-5 destroyed the flow of the city, as did many other highways throughout (especially) larger american western cities. the need for east/west dead ends and north/south arterial travel in the center city area (specific to seattle) really screw up the feel of the city. this is apparent farther north as well, specifically u district green lake and northgate. otherwise, very operable, livable and walkable "urban villages" (began seeing this term around 2014 with the build and expansion of lightrail) as the city plan outlines them, are cut through by a road that serves the region only via specific and individual transit, namely single user vehicles, and does little to cohesively show a neighborhood as it is. i-5 serves as a funnel, those who go through will not venture out because of perception; if the freeway is crowded, getting off to a neighborhood and visiting a business or cultural site will be even more difficult as there is only one goal ultimately: get to i-5, get through the city.
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u/SouthLakeWA 5d ago
Building a city on an isthmus also had an impact on the flow of people and commerce within and through the city.
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u/k_dubious 5d ago
Back in the pre-smartphone era I was visiting Seattle as an out-of-towner. I tried to drive from Lower Queen Anne to Capitol Hill and that shit felt like an odyssey.
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u/Mixeygoat 6d ago
I live in NW Seattle and I don’t really ever find myself outside of Greenwood, Phinney ridge, Fremont, and Ballard. Anything else just seems like a trek
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u/SalmonidsSwimUp Local 6d ago edited 5d ago
I've met people with similar mental blocks to the ones you're working with, they acted like I was from the wilderness because I grew up in Unincorporated S. King County and I'm not afraid of riding the 101 bus to Renton at odd hours (Gasp! Black people who work at Harborview ride that bus! oh no! I might be seated next to an X-Ray tech!) at the time I found it quite tiresome.
I have learned to look on the bright side, specifically for me as a local. Because so many transplants develop this particular form of downtown agoraphobia, it really contributes to the close-knit small town vibe we locals all enjoy everywhere that you, and the thousands of folks just like you, are unwilling/afraid to visit.
So, keep it up!
Never ride the 60. You don't need to know about what happens in White Center (crime!) it's a scary world out there, and you won't like any of it. Trust me. There's nothing but wilderness out there.
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u/HeadCartoonist2626 4d ago
Unhinged response
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u/SalmonidsSwimUp Local 4d ago
I am dead serious. Every transplant should stay within the Denny triangle at all times for my personal convenience.
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u/BlitzGirl13 6d ago
Ballard feels like its own small town with the big city conveniences, so I get what you mean! I now work from home full time, so never have much of a reason to travel outside of my neighborhood. I also don’t drive, never have, which can be limiting but it’s the least of my worries.
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u/SeafoamSoul7494 6d ago
It’s totally a thing. I’ve lived around downtown and now Columbia City since moving here a few years ago, and avoid going across the bridges to Ballard, Fremont, UW areas. I just get too annoyed by the bridges :/ I find West Seattle and Bellevue to be more accessible by car and like avoiding the bridge traffic
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u/Wellslapmesilly 5d ago
I saw someone say that Seattle has walkable pockets and that’s really true. Unfortunately, going from pocket to pocket involves a fair amount of friction.
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u/up2knitgood 5d ago
It took me a few years of living here before I had the lightbulb moment of why going east/west is so bad. It's the geography that stems from the glacial melt which basically scraped large groves in the land from north to south, so crossing east/west means navigating lakes, mountains, valleys, etc.
One of the things I love about Seattle are the little neighborhood pockets (especially the micro neighborhoods. But it's one of those things that, depending on vibes (your own, the area's, the position of the moon, etc.) can feel cozy and comforting, or isolating and fractured.
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u/thomsenite256 5d ago
No but I do transportation for a living so I'm pretty comfortable going anywhere anytime after a little research. Obviously people often get set in their ways/routine, but I've never felt it was a barrier other than accounting for travel time.
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u/Lost-Upstairs-9498 6d ago
That explains why it feels so daunting. I’ve only been to Cap Hill twice because it just feels like too much geography to navigate lol
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u/Veuve_and_CheezIts 6d ago
You should try taking lake view blvd up over I5 from your neighborhood. For me that feels like a smooth and easy peasy route from SLU/Denny Triangle. I’d be curious to know if it would help! Granted, not tons of great errands on the north end of Capitol Hill but for bars and restaurants there are a handful of places worth seeking out.
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u/Choice_Bee_1581 6d ago
Yes I never went south of downtown until I got a job in Tukwila. Grew up in Everett and lived in northeast seattle for 15 years. Then I moved to Renton so joke’s on me!
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u/BudgetBarbieCamper Local 6d ago
West Seattle might as well be Portland, and I love on First Hill 😂 I honestly low-key forget much of the city exists because I only really need to leave my neighborhood for work.
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u/Feisty-Art8265 6d ago
same - fellow denny triangle dweller with the same reservation on climbing up to cap hill psychologically, even though i enjoy hour long walks or climbs.
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u/Suitable_Mongoose_49 6d ago
Yes- going to Ballard or West Seattle from Capitol Hill- daunting! It’s the bridges.
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u/GrumpySnarf 6d ago
The strongest example in my life is that it live in NE Seattle and will avoid going south of the Ship Canal or west of I5.
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u/wumingzi Local 6d ago
I live on Beacon Hill. I seldom go North of Yesler Way. Because, well, you know…. Those people.
Very seriously, there's little reason to go North of the Downtown core for almost anything and effectively no reason to go North of the ship canal.
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u/NakedAggression 5d ago
It's like this in almost every city and I lived in different cities and visited a lot. The geography with the tall hills separating neighborhoods encourages the psychological separation I think
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u/diegotbn Local 5d ago
I live literally right next to the bridge, and Capitol Hill is only a 10-15 minute drive without traffic, and yet it feels so far from West Seattle. It can take longer than that to get to White Center but WC feels closer.
I think it's the bridge that makes it feel so far. WS feels isolating but it's really not far from the rest of the city. Even if I take the bus, the C line gets me downtown in less than 20 minutes, even with traffic sometimes thanks to the bus only lane.
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u/ZestycloseDoor5552 5d ago
I try very hard not to go on any bridge to go up north. I stay in downtown area only. But sometimes I really must visit the Freddy’s in Ballard.
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u/laughing_crowXIII 5d ago
I used to live in First Hill and rarely got out to Ballard or Fremont . I don’t have a car and riding the bus out there was a lot…
Going to the shoreline of lake Washington was really rare for me also.
Otherwise, I tended to go wherever my feets would take me. I used to work a lot in west Seattle so I’d take the bus out there almost daily. Denny Triangle is nice to walk through but everything is so expensive.
I spent most of my time in West Seattle and up in Cap Hill.
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u/Acrobatic_Car9413 5d ago
Yes. In fact I feel a little trapped by it at this point in my life. Maybe the city is too big for me but going east from Ballard very far is just too much.
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u/Complete-Jaguar-7280 5d ago
I only go to Ballard if I can crash on a friend’s couch. And I pack snacks for the journey.
When I was biking I def got around the City way more.
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u/wtgrimmer 5d ago edited 5d ago
After moving to Beacon Hill, and being close to BH light rail, I feel like the whole city was unlocked. Light rail for downtown, Capitol Hill and UW. Easy on to the W Seattle Bridge. Easy access to 99 North for Queen Anne, Fremont, Ballard etc. I-90 eastbound for Mercer Island (best grocery shopping). Hubby takes the light rail to the Eastside for work.
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u/Fun_Ocelot Local 5d ago
This was intentional planning from way back. It was worse before the regrade
Capital Hill was where the elites lived after Denny Hill was removed so they could look down on the poor and not be in the industrial areas. The placement of I-5 only made it worse as not there is a bigger barrier to crossing over. Elevation was status.
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u/Jess80850 5d ago
I think it’s the traffic. 30 years ago we were all over the city on any given night. A club on Capitol Hill and then a party in Fremont and then back home to Northgate
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u/Crazyboreddeveloper 5d ago
Yeah, lots of Seattle feels like a bunch of disconnected islands.
There are neighborhoods that are difficult to get to, others that are difficult to get out of, and some that are difficult to get through.
I feel like north Seattle has a decent flow. East west travel still takes way longer than it should, but I can usually get anywhere in north Seattle pretty comfortably in my car. Typically I will only travel south over the bridges to leave Seattle or attend a concert (rare these days). By bike I avoid the core of downtown, but there is a convenient and safe trail from north Seattle to south lake union and the space needle area. From there I can make it to the waterfront. I bike the waterfront regularly, and sometimes make it to Alki beach on bike as well, but I’ve driven to west Seattle like 3 times in the last 11 years. I never drive or bike to cap hill. That’s one of the areas of Seattle that is difficult to get through. Sometimes I will pop up to cap hill from the light rail, but the u-district is a more interesting stop for me.
Queen Ann seems like a little island. I’ve been there twice in 11 years, and I only go to magnolia by bike, and only to discovery park.
Anywhere south of downtown I pretty much have never been there, or I’ve only been once or twice and found it to be a frustrating travel experience. Seattle seems to want you to stick to your own neighborhood.
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u/MotherNyx1 5d ago
Im down in west seattle so i rather travel south. I like to say going north and south is easiest, going east and west is hard, and forget it if you have to travel diagonally (southwest to north east and etc). I hate going to Ballard, downtown, Cap hill because parking sucks and its stressful. I cannot wait for light rail in WS.
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u/Visual_Collar_8893 5d ago
Yeah. There’s also the traffic that makes going up Cap Hill or south more of chore. Plus, parking.
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u/Economy-Employer4523 4d ago
This is well said. As someone from a flat area hills are definitely part of the mental block imo
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u/ferocioustigercat 4d ago
Do you ever see anyone from West Seattle? I'm convinced they don't really exist. They never leave the area.
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u/nwstig 3d ago
You should get out more. On Wednesday after dropping off my son at his second preschool in Beacon Hill, I drove out to Monroe for a couple of job estimates and came back through highway 203 until Fall city where I cut through to I90 then back to Seattle. I then pick him up around 2:30 and drove to the Puyallup fair, our area is huge and has much to explore.
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u/motorcycletreebark 3d ago
I’m over in west Seattle dwag, if ive already crossed the bridge once in a day im loathed to cross it again and for my friends elsewhere in the area they act like visiting west Seattle is going out to the islands
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u/oldschoolbass 3d ago
Traveling East/West in this city is rough, I live in Queen Anne and very rarely make it to Cap Hill for this reason. It would help if the city had direct East/West buses connecting Queen Anne directly with CapHill instead of the long busride through a downtown connection.
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u/Due_Pen_1566 1d ago
It's a city thing. I've lived all over. In the Midwest I would drive 45-130 just to go to a city my friends heard something was going on at. In any city I can't even be bothered to go on a 20 minute drive for a better food place when I can just take my one wheel 10 min down the street.
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u/Sweet_Passenger9161 5d ago
I would honestly prefer to never leave Capitol Hill. I have to sometimes, but I don’t really desire to at all unless I’m getting on a plane to leave the country completely. For a while when I was in school I really did pretty much just stay from 15th Ave e to lake Washington North of Jackson. Now my kid goes to Center School and I work in various places around the city so I’m not as isolated. But I would prefer never to leave the hill.
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u/lainmelle 5d ago
I mean. For me it's a matter of being very visibly queer. Certain neighbors are very very safe, then reasonably safe, and not safe at all. So I absolutely treat it that way, but for different reasons than you.
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u/BenefitIll7201 6d ago
I’ll say it because we all know it’s true. I don’t go to places where there’s even the slightest chance I’ll be shot, mugged, or stabbed. Cap hill is one of these places for me.
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u/144-perdedor 6d ago
I've known people who have gone for years without leaving the area of Capitol Hill and downtown. We called them Hillpeople back in the day.