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exploring the south end with m'boy
Jul. 27th, 2016 11:23 amSince Ex is out of town for 10 days, I promised her I'd check up occasionally on m'boy, who's staying at her place in the south end; in typical Ex fashion she asked me to walk the dog with him. No sweat: take the light rail to Othello station and walk the dozen or so blocks west through Brighton or take the 50. I walked.
I saw lots of bars on doors & windows, and lots of houses where residents didn't have the time, money, inclination, or maybe health to devote to keeping them up as they do almost without exception in my neighborhood. And judging from the people I saw from the sidewalk, my neighborhood is a lot whiter. (Surprise!) It's worth noting, though, that the proportion of families with younger kids seems to be similar between Brighton and at least the houses on the lower slopes of Phinney. Only geezers have enough cash for the top of the ridge, and I hardly ever see them.
Ex's block is where it starts to look moregentrified prosperous, and if you go one block west of that you're within the sphere of influence of Lake Washington. There's a small minority of arts & crafts houses, quite a few from the '50s, and now a fair number of newly built ones. The Wendling was under the impression that cubism was an architectural movement, and it's easy to see where he got that idea.
M'boy took Bigpuppy and me to Martha Washington Park, the route to which goes down a crazy steep brick street and offers stunning views of the lake and Mt. Rainier. Says my son, it used to be the site of a school* for orphaned & abandoned girls, who used to sneak out at night and shout obscenities at passers-by. I'm tempted to ask who let you freaks out, but the school closed in 1957. All the buildings have been demolished.
Should I take the 50 next time? Maybe. That's a long walk through a place where it's a good idea for a trans woman not to be seen.
*My son, or maybe his sources in the neighborhood, said it was a mental institution. The city's web site says otherwise.
I saw lots of bars on doors & windows, and lots of houses where residents didn't have the time, money, inclination, or maybe health to devote to keeping them up as they do almost without exception in my neighborhood. And judging from the people I saw from the sidewalk, my neighborhood is a lot whiter. (Surprise!) It's worth noting, though, that the proportion of families with younger kids seems to be similar between Brighton and at least the houses on the lower slopes of Phinney. Only geezers have enough cash for the top of the ridge, and I hardly ever see them.
Ex's block is where it starts to look more
M'boy took Bigpuppy and me to Martha Washington Park, the route to which goes down a crazy steep brick street and offers stunning views of the lake and Mt. Rainier. Says my son, it used to be the site of a school* for orphaned & abandoned girls, who used to sneak out at night and shout obscenities at passers-by. I'm tempted to ask who let you freaks out, but the school closed in 1957. All the buildings have been demolished.
Should I take the 50 next time? Maybe. That's a long walk through a place where it's a good idea for a trans woman not to be seen.
*My son, or maybe his sources in the neighborhood, said it was a mental institution. The city's web site says otherwise.
