Comments on: Where’s Green Lake?

By: SeattleAlan

SeattleAlan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:58:03 +0000

Yep, you got it Lauren.
Honeybear was great!
“Meridian” was a little different back then.
It was a different area. It was like a weird little town unto itself.
It is still a weird little town unto itself.
An old tavern. A new tavern. A grocery story.
A donut shop. A coffee shop. A dessert shop.
The stylist, too. Even lawyers around the corner.
It’s missing the pharmacy now – Brigg’s was great back then. Bill Brigg’s was a great guy and a terrific asset to that weird little town. Lamont, too.
It is a neat, weird little town.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:42:06 +0000

Jen, I was just thinking about this last night. When the Honey Bear was there, no way, no how would anyone say that it was in Greenlake. It was a Wallingford institution.

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:31:56 +0000

I liked it when tangletown was “near the Honeybear.” I miss the Honeybear…

By: SeattleAlan

SeattleAlan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:26:38 +0000

Sure, and my house is listed as platted in the “University Hills” sub division, wherever that is.
And there is a house on 57th & Wallingford that is listed as in the “WALLINGFORDS DIV OF GREEN LAKE ADDITION”, so maybe we’re all a little more communal than we might believe. You can look any property up at:
http://www5.metrokc.gov/parcelviewer/Viewer/KingCounty/Viewer.asp
…. See you at Mighty-O in the Meridian neighborhood….(cjk)

By: GLJro

GLJro — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:31:31 +0000

I live on NE 57th Street between the aforementioned alley-ways of I-5 and Aurora. Paraphrasing the deed on my house:

“…in the Green Lake subdivision…”

My house was built in 1907, though I’m unsure when the boundary lines were drawn and named.

So, p’shaw on all the i-feel-this-is-the-boundary discussion. I have documentation!

By: SeattleAlan

SeattleAlan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:31:56 +0000

Hey, ckj, you may have it. As the seemingly historical person in this conversation, I can live with Meridian neighborhood. “Tangletown” just sounds too much like someone turned my childhood neighborhood into a %#*@!! Roger Rabbit cartoon…….

By: cjk

cjk — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:45:30 +0000

As a “Tangletown” resident and, I only have this to say… I reject both of you Wallingford and Green Lake. I live in the Meridian neighborhood!

By: Courtney

Courtney — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:55:47 +0000

Then there is always the Phinney Ridge that gets named Green Lake as well:) This is cute, though – I love it!

By: SeattleAlan

SeattleAlan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:42:42 +0000

Tangletown, smangletown.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Could just easily be called Lenyville – Leny’s has been there longer than anything else in the area. I think it is the only business that’s still there since the 60′s.
It’s Wallingford………W a l l i n g f o r d….
(Thanks for the love, My Greenlake…… Tell Zoka to move closer to the shoreline. Newbies…..Pffftt)

By: DOUG.

DOUG. — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:29:57 +0000

Why can’t Tangletown just be Tangletown, man? Kashmir too.

By: MyGreenLake

MyGreenLake — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:01:42 +0000

hey hey hey! chilllllllll, wallingford. We don’t want to steal Tangletown. Can’t we share?

And SeattleAlan, sorry for not being clear: the views of folks that lived here pre-dot-com not only count, but are really appreciated….keep ‘em coming.

See y’all at Green Lake Zoka! xox

By: Kerrizor

Kerrizor — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:14:45 +0000

It irks me only in that I’ve seen “Urban Lifestyle Condos in Greenlake!” advertised.. when the condos were south of 50th (!) Its all about selling lifestyle, and there’s a perceived difference between Greenlake (desperate, single 30-somethings trying to act chic and fit running around the lake) and Wallingford (staid, uptight families who don’t say hello to their neighbors and lock their kids in their rooms at night for fear of outsiders)

By: Ffej

Ffej — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:02:12 +0000

Years ago, we attended a talk that Paul Dorpat gave at Hamilton Middle school (perhaps for the Seattle Historical group) re: Wallingford history. As usual, a totally enjoyable presentation, with lots of great photos of Wallingford and it surrounding communities at various stages.

He saved the best for last: a discussion of where the boundaries lie between Wallingford & Fremont, and Wallingford & Greenlake. Showing a slide with various boundary lies in a North Seattle, and with his dry humor firmly intact, Paul talked about the “disputed territories” and “demilitarized zones” between the 3 communities.

I seem to remember that he ended his talk hoping that we would see “peace in our time”.

By: SeattleAlan

SeattleAlan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:35:58 +0000

…and why would anyone trust what a real estate agent/website calls a neighborhood? They’ll call anything “Green Lake” or “Wallingford” if it will justify the bloated prices real estate is going for in our hot neighborhoods…
I’d trust the City of Seattle clerk.

By: SeattleAlan

SeattleAlan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:33:08 +0000

Yep! I went round and round with those Green Lakers over the last couple of days. Heck, I was a Green Lake neighborhood resident for a year!
But, I understand boundaries and I am comfortable with boundaries…..

Here’s my post from “My Green Lake”:
I hope that living in the area since ’64 counts. It seems not to count to all the newbies that have moved in and decided to call any neighborhood whatever they want. Some people couldn’t figure out what neighborhood they moved into (could have just asked someone that lived there longer than 10 years).
The whole “Tangletown” area has been and is a part of Wallingford as long as I have lived here, originally at N. 54th & 1st NE. The Zoka Coffee Shop started a “Tangletown” coffee blend and the Elysian picked it up as a neat name from who-knows-when (I know some newbie will let me know) for their new restaurant. And all the newbies picked it up ’cause there was a big sign on the building. Tangletown is dumb – that area is just a northern part of Wallingford. Refer to the maps of neighborhoods on the City Clerks page in the City of Seattle pages at:
http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/nmaps/nei...
You can call your neighborhood whatever you want, by what you identify with, where you go for coffee or whatever, but it doesn’t change the facts. History has it. In this area (until Lincoln High was closed ’cause the city didn’t have the money to bring it up to code), kids south of 60th went to Lincoln and north of 60th went to Roosevelt.

And a 2nd post to their thanking me as a “back in the day that you (or any other pre-dot-commers)”-type person. Do only residents that got here after the Internet started count??
“I went to elementary school in the Wallingford neighborhood (F. A. McDonald on 54th & Latona), Junior High (not middle school) in the Green Lake neighborhood (John Marshall on Ravenna Blvd) and High School in the Wallingford neighborhood (Lincoln High over on Interlake). We did live in the Green Lake neighborhood for a year, over on 4th just a ½ block from the Green Lake Albertsons (yep, that long ago).
Your reference to Green Lake’s shore going all the way to 54th would have, of course, just covered the soccer and ball fields along Green Lake Way N… not up the hill on 54th & 1st NE where I grew up – you could call the soccer & ball fields Green Lake.
I don’t know why there is a resistance to having actual real boundaries, but if you want to annex a block or two, what the heck, we’re all good enough, we’re smart enough and doggone it, people like us!!”

I’ll try to keep it friendly, like my Stuart Smalley quote says, but let’s not annex too much of each other’s neighborhoods….

Peace, baby!