Discovery Park on the shore of Puget Sound is 534-acre enclave of quiet in a busy city. It began in the early 2oth century as the Fort Lawton Army Base and was used to train soldiers for combat in the Pacific during World War ll. Starting in the 1970s the base was gradually deeded to the city as a park, with a smattering of military housing remaining. Now, to help combat Seattle chronic housing shortage, the city plans to build subsidized and affordable housing on the portions of the land formerly used as military housing, despite the objections of some residents of the adjacent Magnolia neighborhood, which has the highest average incomes and most expensive housing prices in the city.
Seattle’s Capitol Hill is one of Seattle’s oldest and most liberal neighborhoods, where the crosswalks are all painted in rainbow colors to celebrate the large gay population that calls the area home. The hill is full of eclectic murals befitting the free spirited people. Every June the hill is a vibrant celebration for Gay Pride Week, while in the fall many blocks shut down for the annual Block Party, music fair of growing popularity. The Century Ballroom puts on regular dance events, including their annual winter masquerade. Here, as in all of the city, high costs of housing have let to gentrification and as old buildings and houses are replaced by expensive new residences, some resentment among the more established locals surfaces.
