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• joe
  maybe the same people who painted "condos suck" on the abandoned building at 15th and market? certainly a juvenile way to protest.
• GM
  Without New Ballard, Old Ballard wouldn't survive.
• gooner
  old ballard used to be new ballard.
• GB
  I'm telling you, graffiti fines MUST become more of a penalty. Obviously, the current fines for graffiti aren't severe enough. This is really becoming a huge problem now a days. I don't know what needs to be done to tell the city and county about this, but something needs to be done sooner rather than later.
• old ballard
  gm - that is one of the more ignorant things said on this blog. if surviving is $5 beers, $200 jeans, and $500k one bedroom condos, then you might be right, we are dead. but there are still blue collar jobs out there and ballard could still be the place where those employees live.
  
  i blame all of this on "john in the morning" for making ballard seem cool......i am joking.
• dorian gray
  These little kids should really just focus on updating their myspace page and leave the urban economics to the pros. They could also read Vonnegut player piano that would be a start.
• gooner
  i had a $3.75 beer at the dray the other day and then drove home to my 2 bedroom $250k condo that i bought last year.
• old ballard
  there is actually alot less graffiti in ballard these day. it was really bad in the mid 90's. aaaand, back then it was all gang related stuff.
• old ballard
  gooner - 2 things...
  
  1. i think the point i was trying to make is that old ballard could indeed survive. and people with modest tastes such as yourself are the reason it could.
  
  2. how did you find such a cheap condo?! i could almost afford that.
• Joel Niemeyer
  What a bunch of morons. Whoever is doing that crap has not idea what "Old Ballard" even means. And what's more is, what kind of lowbrow mouthbreather doesn't like Sushi????
• 50intheclip
  To dorian- the urban pros are making ballard and everywhere else a condo nation. They tower over everythng around them and are way overpriced plus you are basically paying a half a million dollars to live in an apartment. hellllla smart doood. ps already updated my myspace page jerk. If they are pros the job they are doing does not reflect that. and im out halfa blunt hangin out my mouth. CONDOS BLOW!
• jm
  Is this the same silver paint used at the MacDonalds in Greenwood? More silver spray can be found on the mural near Green Lake. Also, new SNIDE tag on the overpass over Aurora. It's everywhere and an eyesore. Try to keep your kids home at night.
• 50intheclip
  where is the graffitti freewall? If it is an eyesore give them a place to paint that isnt! The real eyesore is the 15 floor condos popping up everywhere!
• dork
  kids will be kids. they are going to have sex, so give them condoms. they are going to tag, so give them legal walls. some of the pieces are incredibly crafted and i think anyone could respect them as art (and the kids as artist).
  
  there are other solutions to problems besides the american standard of medicate or incarcerate.
• Sheila
  God, not the condos are evil speech again. Just don't buy one and change your focus to doing something constructive instead of whinging all the time.
  
  Joel - I hate sushi, but I'm not taking offense..:)
• dork
  ha! 50, i hadnt even read yours yet. who remembers when the tunnel at golden gardens was a legal wall. there was amazing stuff there! they would even paint santa claus during christmas. these kids just want to be heard, but no one listens.
• gooner
  it ain't anything fancy.... i guess i just got lucky.
  
  and i know, your point is taken. was just playing devils advocate
• old ballard
  hey everyone, do you see how gooner and i exchanged thoughts peacefully.... even with some sarcasm. suthii where you at? spaghetti, are you going to kick 50intheclips teeth in?
• Spaghettio
  Sure dude. Bring it on. I am sorry you are still caught up in all that drama...cheers!
• kim
  the middle east does a fine job of taking care of taggers....it's a little bit more permanent tho but it gets the point across!
• dorian gray
  50 if they're overpriced why do people live in them? I get it. Your poor. Sucks to be you. But your poorness in no way enables you to prevent landowners from realizing their H&BU. Take some econ finance and sociology courses and you'll eventually understand something for the first time in your life.
  
  There are plenty more so maybe you should move to the plains states where there are no buildings. The Seattle PMSA is no place for someone scared of buildings.
  
  Here is a free hint
  http://www.rri.wvu.edu/WebBook/Giarratani/fig6-...
  
  p.s. myle cyrus sucks
• MonkeyPilot
  Sorry, I don't buy the argument that we should "give the kids a wall to spray paint, so they don't tag elsewhere." That's BS. Particularly in light of the vandalism shown above. This was NOT somebody's idea of artistic expression. Nor is tagging every vertical surface for blocks. It's one or several immature hoodlums getting cheap thrills by seeing their initials everywhere.
  
  Want a freewall? use your living room. If your parents don't want to see it, why would we?
• MaryW
  Sheila, if only it were as easy as "don't like condos? don't buy one." That didn't work for smokers and it sure isn't working for us--working class long-time ballard people. The problem, of course, is that the condo canyons are ugly and are bringing in the wrong kind of people--trendy, upscale snobs, our community was destroyed to make room for the hideous condo and townhouse infestation that has disfigured our neighborhood, and we, who have made this our home for generations can no longer afford to live here. The condo/townhouse people are no more than wealthy transients in our community. I'll take grafitti over condos and townhouses any day. (Easier to clean up.)
• Evan
  Argh! Why does every other days post have to be about new/old ballard! I'm going to start a new "moderate" wing of the party - Middle Aged Ballard.
  
  Us "MABs" (as they call us) have OTHER things to worry about all day than:
  
  1. Old Ballard: "Complaining all day about change and that new neighborhood smell (eww - gross, my property values just skyrocketed!)"
  
  OR
  
  2. New Ballard: "Tear everything down, torch the Leif Erickson Hall, and while you're at it - shouldn't there be more sushi and maybe a Target on Ballard Ave?"
  
  our community is not destroyed!
• boardbrown
  I certainly admire the art of graffitti, but "Fuck new Ballard" and "condos suck" is not art you 'tards.
  
  And then there's the issue of property. Hell, if Picaso rose from the dead and painted a mural on my new wood fence, I'd still be f-ing pissed.
• MaryW
  People buying these condos are not the cream of the intellecual crop--paying half a million dollars for a future tenament built with cheap fixtures and materials? These people came into easy money and the developers are laughing all the way to the bank because they're such suckers. Our neighborhoods are merely the collateral damage of their stupidity.
• jason
  @MaryW
  
  "The problem, of course, is that the condo canyons are ugly and are bringing in the wrong kind of people–trendy, upscale snobs, our community was destroyed to make room for the hideous condo and townhouse infestation..."
  
  yes, because it's been shown that affluent people cause land values to go DOWN. damn yuppie scum and their ability to increase property values!
  
  oh, and "...we, who have made this our home for generations can no longer afford to live here."? whom do you think sold their land to the developers in the first place? seems to me it was greedy old ballard residents who took as much money as they could from condo developers with deep pockets. i'm sure that nobody is coming into your house and forcing you out at gun point. so go play the pity card somewhere else.
• Joel Niemeyer
  heh heh Sheila. I didn't mean it that way, but I think you know that. :-) Got a little caught up there in the moment. I guess what I really was trying to say was, a sushi place? They tag *sushi place*??
  
  "No Way"?? That's the contribution these people have the ability to make? Oh, brother.
• eM
  old ballard: when having lunch at senor moose : the next table is inhabited by half drunk fisherman telling big fish stories with extra loud voices and sending a round of beers to our table
  
  new ballard; while waiting for a table for dinner at senor moose, I am sitting at the counter next to a lovely yet solo twenty-something boy - complete with obligatory earring and whatever it is they call that bit o' hair on the chin - he is reading "electronic gaming monthly" magazine and blushes mightily when our arms brush
  
  give me old ballard anyday
  I don't live there (decided against it when i got wind of canal station), and I go there rarely these days.
• The Raven
  Y'know, if you folks don't get some moderation here, pretty soon, this blog's comments are going to turns septic, and I'd hate to see that.
• Joel Niemeyer
  Actually eM, that lunch at SM sounds pretty damn appealing to me! What a wonderful mix of different types of folks are little neighborhood is becoming!
  
  But I'm gonna give up on trying to convince the extremists (either way) that its not about the people- I've bored people enough with those entries. The point of this comment really was that I'll be going to Senor Moose soon.
• Joel Niemeyer
  are=our
• kim
  the raven doesn't visit here often.
• jm
  Ballard has been evolving for over a 100 years. If you live in a city, you have to get used to a few small minded idiots that make a mess. Their message is pretty stupid isn't it? Taggers, if you want to live in a run down area, move to a different county.
• mo
  Old world: the town crier would verbally deliver the news on the streets, which were flooded with sewage and rife with disease.
  
  New World: we can sit on a toilet while reading news on My Ballard
  
  Do you really expect world progress to stop on your account? Perhaps you should learn how to contribute, adapt and change with the world rather than fighting it.
• patyh
  Well said, mo.
  
  You know, every time I come to My Ballard to check out the "hot topics" of the day, it becomes abundantly clear to me how sheltered Ballard (and it's residents) seems to have been from the outside world. Don't get me wrong, it's one of the things I like best about this area.
  
  But, come on people, you live in a city.
  Cities have many diverse, cross-sections of people that live it them. Some express themselves through art, dress, some through blogs like this, some through independent papers, some by standing on a corner shouting at the top of their lungs, and some by spraying it on the side of a building.
  
  Though some methods are more acceptable than others, it's life in the city. Learn to adapt or move to the boonies.
  
  Oh, and be happy that it's only graffiti they are using to protest the new condos and businesses.
  
  In San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district a few years back, they tried to build a Thrifty Drug Store, and the neighborhood burnt it and several buildings to the ground - talk about radical!
  
  Here's my solution:
  Go buy a bucket, a brush, and some paint thinner and do a little scrubbing, then go have an $8 margarita at the Matador.
• Judy
  New Ballard: sushi
  Old Ballard: bait
• Bella
  Actually, a few years back, someone burned one of the (at the time) new concept condos on Phinney Ridge down. The ones that house Fresh Flours in their retail space now. Because people in the neighborhood hated the idea of condos being there just that much. Of course, this did not in the least deter any of the developers who came after from building even more condos, half of which are still sitting empty (hello, fini!)
• SPG
  The condo building on Phinney that was burned was part of a string of arsons suspected to be the work of a single arsonist. There wasn't any political motivation behind the targets.
  The burning of the townhouses on 8th near the crazy fence painting guy are a little more suspicious.
• Sheila
  I don't get people saying that they can't afford to live in Ballard any longer. I've lived in the same apartment in Fremont for 14 years. Yes, the rent went up when Fremont was one of the 'It' neighborhoods, but it never got to be so much that I felt I had to leave. Please explain, I'm not trying to be difficult, really.
• Angelatini
  Sheila...I find the difference to be vast in the rent. I am currently looking to leave my 1 bedroom in Ballard for a 2 bedroom. (getting married...need more space!) Everything I am finding in Ballard is about $450 - $500 more per month than I am currently paying. The influx of monied people into Ballard, and it therefore becoming trendy, is driving the prices up on the rentals as well. I've lived in this area for more than half my life...I'd like to continue to do so, but with all the people moving here, it hardly seems likely.
  
  angelatini
  
  p.s. the apartment building (not condos) that went up behind my building is actually asking $1500 per month for a two bedroom. Seriously? Since when did we become downtown?? At least you get a view there! haha
• Sheila
  Angelatini, I would think that you could work with your current landlord on this. Usually, they prefer tennants that they already know who pay their rents and don't cause trouble.
  
  Going to a brand new building is going to cost much more because it cost them more to purchase the land and build the building.
  
  Try a building that has been around for a while if you can't work with your current landlord or they don't have 2 bedrooms available.
• ballard gossip girl
  I would like to point out that at least the owner of MoshiMoshi lives in Ballard and grew up in Magnolia. It's about as new Ballard as you f'ing yuppie ass wipes who post on this unregulated blog all the time.
• RevivalKiss
  @dorian gray
  
  Here's a free hint for you:
  http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolera...
  
  Actually not free... $13! Sounds like you can afford that.
• jm
  Bella, it's wrong to accuse people on Phinney Ridge of burning down the Roycroft condo building. You are spreading a total lie.
• kim
  bgg-
  
  i missed your point? wha???
• Nicole
  Wow, ballard gossip girl.... bitter much??
• Marco
  Devil's advocate: If "old ballard" is so precious and so special, why was it left to fall into such a state of disrepair, and in many cases in need of demolition? When considering this, I can see how somebody would be attracted to something new instead of buying an old house that has a bunch of problems and will cost gobs of money just to fix it up.
  
  Also, if so many of us hate the these kinds of structures in Seattle this much, why are we letting the City issue permits for this kind of construction? As well, can we be that mad when it's Seattle-area companies that are sponsoring and building these structures? To me, it doesn't really seem fair to blame the people who are moving into these vacant homes that are for sale.
  
  And on that note (as a person who is saving to buy a house), consider that new home prices are always going up. Just because people have to unfortunately super-pay a high price to obtain a new home now days doesn't necessarily mean they are a "snob" or "yuppie". After all, some people have money because they have lived frugal lives, instead of ones with $12 mixed drinks and $150 T-shirts.
  
  We need to realize that we aren't the only city that this is happening in and that this has gone on in. And, especially, we need to open our eyes to the fact that we aren't a small town anymore. I don't understand us sometimes. On the one hand we love to tout how "urban" we are, yet when any kind of continued urban growth happens we freak out and feel violated. The same thing goes with our opinion of the people who move here. We are proud that we are a "melting pot", yet we demonize the people who move into our neighborhoods from another place and call them "snobs" or "jerks" or whatever.
  
  Just some thoughts...
  
  Thanks all! :)
• linus
  I am not a fan of any kind of graffiti, but I did not mind so much the anti-was kind, or such. At LEAST this is somewhat political.
  
  My beef is with the tremendously bland use of spray paint by unimaginative youth (sorry, I am guessing the demographic to be mainly under 30?) which diverts taxpayer funds away from fun and useful things. If anyone would like to spend a few hours soon with the correct solvents and paint erasing this crap from street signs some upcoming day, send me a message. The experts all say that expediency is the key with these folks. The faster and more consistently this is painted out or erased, the less likely they are to return.