downtown seattle

Not only is gas a ridiculous and expensive luxury item, but parking can really be a bitch downtown. So, I sold my Lincoln a couple months ago and bought a long board. Today, while waiting for the bus to take me uphill, an older lady approached me and asked me if my board was in fact a long board. It was the first time I had someone older than my peer group compliment me for skating. She then told me about an article in the Seattle Times about a guy who commuted to work on his.

DAMN IT (lol/more like a chuckle). That guy got all the recognition.

Anyhow, the sweet old lady approached me right after I watched some jerk drive by in his Hummer (probably someone who complained about the crazy weather we had today). As he drove by, I imagined myself running around town with a switchblade, can a spray paint and stack of insulting bumper stickers for those who still haven’t made a change in the way they commute. I don’t like to think of myself as a tree hugger, but people need to come around and quit embarrassing themselves. Maybe I’m just fortunate to have a position and home where I don’t need a vehicle. Maybe I shouldn’t be such a hypocrite and recycle more of my beer cans.

However, I will guarantee that those Hummer drivers will take a hit in the pocket book when nobody wants to buy it. It took me 3 months to find a buyer for my car, and I had to take a loss at a much higher percentage than those who had to drop the price on the sale of their condo this year.

If you can’t see it already, here’s some things I’ve noticed in making the sacrifice and reading local papers:

• Gas prices are high and they’re not going down.
• Public transportation (metro) is starting to get overcrowded
• Taxi drivers are pulling over if they see you raise your hand to scratch an itch
• Old ladies admire skateboarders

So, if you’d like me to help you buy a condo, sorry, but we’ll be on foot. Unless you got a board too.

Matt Goyer at Redfin posted an awesome post about the 1 Hotel penthouse the other day asking the questions, who’s going to buy it?

Some highlights…

10,350 interior square feet, 3,340 exterior square feet, 3 kitchens, 1 elevator, a koi pond.

With a unit currently listed over $9 million, the price per square foot is $1,615. If the listing price of the penthouse is the same price per square foot, we’re looking at a record for a downtown condo at $22,109,350.

I find it repulsive! How many lives can be saved for that amount? Granted, I think the place looks really cool, but whoever buys it better have a positive record or I’ll find myself getting sick every time I pass the place. This makes me sound like somewhat of a hypocrite since a comment I left on Matt’s blog praised 1 Hotel for following their mission of being environmentally conscious, but the afterthought…

Rain City Guide posted some fun questions regarding a new episode for Date My House.

“As a buyer, would you appreciate an owner inviting you to hang out at their home for a long period of time? Would you appreciate the opportunity to have a party there for your friends to get their opinion? Have a sleepover? Spend a week maybe? Or would you view that as an act of desperation and say, I don’t want to buy a house where the owner is that desperate. Does a car salesman offer you a test drive in the hope you won’t want to get out from behind the wheel and back into your beat up Chevy? Would you be afraid to spend the night at a home for sale for fear that going back home afterward would be such a let down, that you would be tempted to buy the house?”

I think it’s a great idea!!! I think it would be strange for someone to not be excited about sharing the home their looking to sell. Especially considering the assumed ownership of the buyer when making the offer. Being a Realtor in the downtown area, I think it would be especially beneficially to everybody since a purchase in the city is more of a lifestyle experiencing everything around you rather than what activities you can come up with in a limited amount of space. I’m just an assistant, but I’m going to bring up the idea with my partner (i hate saying “boss”).

If anyone would be interested in staying in a Belltown studio or downtown luxury 1 bedroom with view (current furnished/vacant listings), I’m sure we’d be willing to negotiate with our sellers.

However, knowing the mindset of experienced Realtors, I know the fear of a lawsuit would be in order. If I didn’t have a license on the line, I’d consider making a living off of staying at people’s places for free (I’m sure it would better than my studio apt. in Capitol Hill). How would you get around liability with that one? A completed purchase and sale (and earnest) under the condition of being able to spend the night?

Another thing Ardell mentions is that she was disappointed that the show is centered around “poor desperate sellers” trying to seller their house. I haven’t seen the show, but if that’s the case I would be disappointed by watching an interesting TLC program that wasn’t created out of entertainment.

If you’re in Seattle right now, you should know there’s a flu bug going around. And, if it hasn’t hit you yet, look out! I tossed in turned in bed with a nasty fever for days. In fact, I had a hard time getting up to put anything together for another blog that I work on almost daily and look what happened to our traffic:

ouch!

Most of it seems to be from the loss of search engine placement. I never expected serps to be so critical. From now on I’m making sure I always have back up content from here on out in case I need a day off for a death in the family or a day spent in jail for that old seat belt ticket.

I’ve been looking for this guy at Pike Place Market for awhile now and finally found him yesterday. For $50 he’ll customize a ball cap with your name, movie character, city scape or whatever you like with graffiti style art. For $25, he’ll paint your converse shoe. If you haven’t seen him yet, check out his myspace page for 100’s of examples of his art. I’m going down to get mine today.

Last night I watched the Southpark episode titled: Night of the Living Homeless last night and couldn’t help but to relate. I live in Capitol Hill, right off Broadway, and there are times that I only walk a blocks distance to be harassed for change 2 or 3 times. I can also recall 2 confrontations I’ve had with homeless people because I couldn’t stand it anymore.

The first time was in front of Dick’s. My girlfriend and I were walking down the street and a guy snaps at me telling me to give him a cigarette even though I wasn’t smoking. I told him I didn’t smoke and continued on with my stride. I had an eerie feeling behind me, so I looked over my shoulder to see the guy following us and only within a foots distance. I turned around and told him to back off only to excite him. He started blurting out how he was just walking down the street like everybody else, yada da. So, my girl and turned around and walked the other way. From then on, I’ve decided that if I’m to go out to lunch on Broadway, I’ll dress down. Shitty shoes and raggedy shirt.

The last confrontation I had was actually at Myrtle Edwards and was actually quite humored. I was out taking some video of the park for a listing we have at the Bellora. For company, I invited a friend of mine to come down and skate on my new long-board that I brought back from Honolulu while I took the video. As I chuckled to myself about the lack of skateboarding skills my friend had while coming down the path, I saw that he was stopped by a guy who did a good job at initiating conversation. I saw my friend laugh and point at me. So, the guy came towards me and started complimenting me on my skateboard and told a joke or two. Afterwards, he got a somber look on his face and said, “Hey man, you think you could help me out with some spare change.”

I said, “Are you asking me for free money?”

“No! I like to think of it as karma,” he replied.

LOL

“I’m not buying it,” I told him.

The good bums will make you feel guilty by saying, “God bless you” even if (especially if) you don’t give them any change. Or, ask you for more when you do give it to them. Or!, don’t even say thank you.

From there, I got the veteran speech. Why he deserves to get my spare change (which I didn’t have) and plus some insults on how I probably wouldn’t make it in the service. I told him he was probably right and he continued on his way. But, before he got too far away, he looked back at me and shouted, “Hey, just don’t waste my time man!”

Granted, I understand that there are those who cannot help themselves and I used to appreciate the efforts of the Real Change program. However, it’s only been another way for the homeless to stand on the corner and ask for money. Only this time they can give a crappy paper to you in exchange for your change ($1). Seattle needs a program that gets the homeless off the streets and begging for money. I don’t understand how putting them on the streets begging for money is supposed to get them off the streets begging for money.