But now she's thinking of moving herself and her 13-year-old son to another neighborhood.
She hasn't found a new neighborhood to move to yet. She hasn't seriously looked lately. At one point earlier this year, she'd explored the possibility of moving closer to her current boyfriend in Kirkland. But she finally decided against it, because it would entail:
* Moving her son out of his familiar school setting;
* Making the 520 bridge commute every day, harsh considering current gas prices;
* Juggling work, motherhood and school (she's a University of Washington grad student in information sciences) from a more-remote home base; and
* Living in a place where finding "any culture," as she put it, seemed difficult.
So she's staying put for the time being.
But she still fantasizes about what she calls "the cute vintage apartment like I have on Capitol Hill but in Ballard or another well-developed urban neighborhood, in a solid older building, as big as my current apartment but $100 cheaper."
Ballard, of course, has had its own rental-housing inflation. But Morales says she still might like a change of scene.
"It's mostly because Capitol Hill still has a lot of what I will call, I don't know, just social problems related to drugs and transient youth."
Morales recalls one particularly unsavory incident on the Hill, without her son present:
"I was standing at a bus stop when this guy started asking for directions-then he exposed himself while he was talking to me."
On the
other hand
But the Hill also has its advantages, Morales notes.
"My current location is convenient for everything one needs, the basic amenities being near places to go, things to do, people to watch and grocery stores, a park and stuff. I like going to the local coffee shop and having spontaneous conversations with the people you know, that you wouldn't have at a drive-up Starbucks in Kirkland for instance."
Still, Morales finds being a Capitol Hill parent to have its peculiarities. Among them: "Being a Gen Xer attending parties where you're the only one who has brought a kid and people don't appreciate having him there even though some of the party goers are only five years older than your son."
She mentions one house party "where there were 18-19-year -olds off in a bedroom playing XBox." Her son joined in, "and totally beat them."
A Hill
for kids?
Morales goes on:
"In general, because Seattle has such a relatively low population of children, that the culture is not that accommodating of parents with children. That is, I think, more so on Capitol Hill than other places I've lived.
"It's historically been very difficult, because there's such a small apparent percentage of people in the neighborhood with children. But that's changing as the population gets older. I've noticed a lot of young couples pushing baby strollers....
"The guys who used to be all hipstered-out with dreadlocks and the girls who had tattoos, or vice versa, are now having babies. It's kind of cute seeing them knitting little booties and scarves and hats for their friends."
With more families, she hopes, will come more family services.
"A Boys & Girls Club or a youth center would be great. The closest one is over on 19th Avenue, which isn't very close for people who live on the west slope of the Hill," she said.
Another
such tale
One of Morales's fellow Capitol Hill moms is her friend Chrystal Woods. Woods and her daughter had lived near Broadway and Republican.
"We liked it there," Woods recalls. "But there were certainly more dogs than kids. Maybe it was more difficult to find other kids to play with; but we never had problems with safety."
Eventually, Woods needed a larger space for her growing kid. She recently tried the suburban-exile life in Federal Way before moving back to the Central District.
As the Hill's new crop of kids gets older, their own parents may face the same dilemma, whether to stay close to the vibrant heart of the urban community or seek something more affordable.
But by then, will there be any affordable working-family housing anywhere in town?
Clark Humphrey's column appears monthly in the Capitol Hill Times. His long-running website on local popular culture is www.miscmedia.com. He can be reached at editor@capitolhilltimes.com.[[In-content Ad]]