No doubt about it. Seattle is booming. The city bird should be the construction crane. Despite the astonishing number of buildings being erected, contractors can barely keep up with the housing demand.
Because of this, landlords know they can basically charge whatever they like in rent. According to Rent Jungle, as of May 2015, the average apartment rent within 10 miles of Seattle was $1853. One bedroom apartments rent for $1501 on average, and two bedroom apartment rents average $2015 per month.
This, to me, is obscene, but it gets worse. Since it obviously is quite profitable to own apartment buildings in this town, they’re cropping up like mushrooms overnight. And they’re being built as cheaply as possible, with little or no regard for aesthetics.
There’s an architectural trend in this city that I like to call “Shipping Container Chic” because these buildings look like your basic metal shipping containers, stacked one on top of the other, and the apartments themselves have about that much charm. And half the time no allowances are being made for parking, which is adding to Seattle’s gridlock.
The proliferation of this style means that this city is getting uglier by the minute, but apparently that’s okay, because, by God, it’s profitable. If this keeps up, the whole area will harken back to Communist era housing, with a little bit of colored paint thrown in as an afterthought. What ever happened to style and variety? Ugh.
The View from a Drawbridge 
dang slum lords…
I like the looks of these bldgs, but I wonder about the practicality. And a person should be able to afford a place to lay their head, with choices of what it looks like.
They’re actually not bad looking individually. But when you multiply them by hundreds, it gets rather depressing.
As tempting as you’ve made living in Seattle seem in previous posts, I promise I won’t move in and contribute to your housing issues. Overall repetitious patterns that damage beneficial diversity reduce us to a choice of the lesser of two evils and greed breeds this kind of repetition. Perhaps this sounds extreme, but without diversity life, at best, stagnates. Maybe I’m overly sensitive due to my artistic nature but I need variety to thrive.
So do I, which is why this trend worries me. Seattle is still a beautiful place, but is becoming less so every day.
Tried to respond to ‘Community Supported Agriculture’ post but couldn’t. You can enjoy that produce now. Share with a needy stranger, or donate, to a homeless shelter, the portion you can’t eat. Preparing and eating those vegiges won’t seem such a chore if you know you are also nourishing a malnourished soul. It actually enhances the flavor too.
What a delightful idea. I wonder why it wouldn’t let you comment on that post, but your input is appreciated nonetheless. 🙂