The neighborhoods with the most eastward commuters are among the city’s densest.
Last December, when Kristian St. Clair accepted a project-manager position at Microsoft, there was one thing he didn’t look forward to: the commute between his home in Seattle’s Central District (CD) and Redmond.
But as rough as the Highway 520 bridge traffic can be, the thought of moving to the Eastside never crossed his mind.
“I just love Seattle — nothing against the Eastside — but I appreciate the vibe here more, especially being so centrally located,” he says.
St. Clair is not alone in prioritizing an urban lifestyle over a shorter commute time. Recent data shows that Seattle’s Eastside commuters gravitate toward the city’s densest, liveliest neighborhoods.
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I found this out by analyzing data from the Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies to see where, exactly, Seattleites who work on the Eastside live. I ranked all the census tracts in Seattle by the number of workers they send across the lake.
Among the 10 tracts with the most Eastside commuters, nine are located in neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Belltown, Queen Anne, Westlake, South Lake Union, Fremont and Ballard. Taken as a whole, the Top 10 tracts have a population density of 16,000 people per square mile — more than double the citywide average.
It’s tempting to speculate that when these folks leave their Eastside jobs, they want to get as far from a suburban environment as they can.
The No. 1 tract is located in Belltown. It sends 792 of its residents across the lake — that’s 45 percent of all workers who live here.
But Seattle’s highest concentration of Eastside workers is on Capitol Hill. Three of the Top 10 tracts are in the Pike/Pine and Broadway sections of the neighborhood.
Among the top-ranking tracts, only one — in the Bryant and Windermere neighborhoods — is primarily made up of single-family homes.
The data seem to illustrate two concomitant socio-economic trends under way in many U.S. cities, including Seattle.
On the one hand, there is the rise in suburban-job growth, drawing people from cities. The Eastside, with more than 350,000 jobs, is a perfect example.
But at the same time, cities are experiencing a renaissance. More and more, young professionals are rejecting the car-dependent suburban lifestyle in favor of walkable, urban neighborhoods.
Walkability is a top priority for St. Clair and his wife, Wendy Harris — they are close to scores of restaurants and favorite destinations like the Central Cinema and Elliott Bay Bookstore. And the couple like raising their two children in the CD. “It’s a great neighborhood with lots of kids that also feels like you’re in the heart of the city,” he says.