This much is true: All the new development springing up on Capitol Hill is changing the neighborhood.
Change is inevitable, of course, but many fear it's not for the better as high-priced condos replace cheap rentals and chain stores start to take over spaces once occupied by funky businesses.
A perfect - and painful - example of the trend can be found in the 500 block of East Pine St., where a new six-story, 160-unit condominium with ground-level retail will wipe out four bars, Bimbos Bitchin' Burrito Kitchen and a clothing boutique.
It is places like that stretch of urban landscape that have helped define the neighborhood character, according to Taryn Roy, a longtime bartender at the Kincora Pub, one of the four neighborhood bars slated for demolition on the block.
She finds a certain irony in that.
"They're using that character to sell those condos," Roy railed. And the bartender doesn't see a future in the mix for what she described as a working-class bar like the Kincora. "It's hard to find bars like that around here anymore."
The kinds of residents living on Capitol Hill are also changing, she said. Before, it was mostly artists, students and working-class folks who had jobs in the neighborhood.
Now it seem like more and more residents in new buildings go elsewhere to work, and they aren't the type who would go to her bar, she said. "So many buildings have been torn down since I got here (in 1998)," Roy lamented.
Next door, at Manray, a bartender who spoke on condition of anonymity sees a broader trend at work.
"Honestly, they're tearing down all the gay bars," she complained, a gay bar which looks like it could be a set for a "Miami Vice" episode. "It's turning into Belltown."
Gays and lesbians move into a distressed neighborhood and revive it until the area suddenly becomes hip, the bartender said. "As soon as it becomes the hip place, rich people move in and take it over." She's seen it before when she lived in places like San Francisco and Denver.
Owners and staffers at Manray are especially steamed because the city attached a large Master Use Permit sign to the bar's paneled fence, she said. "I don't understand that being there," the bartender added. "They chose the one gay bar on the block to put it on."
Over at the Bus Stop bar on the same block, bartender Ade Connere sees gentrification at work on Capitol Hill.
"I think that everything that would make it attractive to move to this city will be gone," he lamented.
That includes local residents such as gays, artists, musicians and students, "basically the people that define Capitol Hill," Connere said. "The fact is, they're killing off Capitol Hill."
Asked what she thought of the changes to the neighborhood, Bus Stop patron Jennifer Giutini put it simply. "It sucks," she said. "They're just changing the face of a great area to make money." However, Giutini concedes that development is inevitable. "Yeah, that's what's sad about it," she said. "It's getting out of hand."
Connere said new development is forcing out old businesses. "Of course, other ones will open up; they always do," he said. "But it won't be the same [kind of businesses]."
Joe Arnone, a bartender at the Cha Cha Lounge on the block, will be sad to see his bar and the other three drinking establishments disappear. "It's almost like they're taking out the entertainment district," he said.
Arnone also said that the diverse residents of the neighborhood are being replaced by professionals who are not nearly so colorful. "A lot of the counterculture is getting erased from the city, or at least pushed out," he said.
J.R. Ewing, the owner of the soon-to-be-gone Winners Circle clothing boutique on the block, said rent for his store is reasonable. "It's one of the more happening blocks on Capitol Hill," he said.
But Ewing won't even try to move back into one of the new retail spaces on the block. "I don't think it would work out because rents will be too high," he said.
Ewing also sees the possibility of conspiracy at work, saying he thinks Mayor Greg Nickels is "in cahoots" with developers. "I don't really think he cares about the character of the neighborhood."
Arnone sees gentrification as a reason for part of the changes on Capitol Hill. "But it's more than that; it's greed," he said. "Any old piece of land is worth millions to developers."
Chuck Weinstock, executive director of the Capitol Hill Housing group, agrees. Developers are interested in any and all property in the neighborhood, he said.
Perceptions are also changing, according to Weinstock. The area where the Cha Cha is located used to be referred to as the Pike-Pine Corridor, he noted, adding: "In other words, a place you drive through."
People have always lived in that area, Weinstock said, but now the area is suddenly hip and desirable to new residents who have more money than the old ones,
Marketplace forces have forced both rents and housing prices up, which is eliminating the mix of buildings and people that add vibrancy to Capitol Hill, he added. "It's difficult to see those things lost."
Russ Zabel is a reporter for Pacific Publishing, Inc. newspapers. He can be reached at editor@capitol hilltimes.com.
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