The wall the surrounds the U-district

Seattle, like many larger cities, is composed of smaller districts with distinct cultures familiar to locals and sometimes even well known to visitors. These districts are frequently defined by types of houses in neighborhoods like Queen Anne, natural or manmade water ways like Green Lake, and of course nightlife like Belltown. However, most Seattle residents tend not to be labeled by where they live and can be found enjoying various activities in various neighborhoods. For example, a resident in the Northgate neighborhood will work in Southlake Union, grab a bit to eat on Eastlake, take a bike ride to Gasworks in Wallingford, take the dog to Magnuson Park in Sandpoint, grocery shop at Pike’s Place downtown and eat Dim Sum in the International district. And while these different neighborhoods are unique, almost everyone is a Seattleite with common culture characteristics.
The U-district however stands out from the rest of Seattle in many ways. Bound by I-5 in the west, 25th Ave and Lake Washington on the east, Lake Washington ship canal in the south and NE Ravenna Boulevard in the north, there is a natural border that surrounds the residents. Few students seem to venture outwards from the area, first years never do. Residents of the U-district are diverse, ambitious young people from all over the northwest or beyond tied together by the common purpose of receiving an education from the University of Washington. Surrounding the campus are un-kept apartments, Greek mansions that look impressive from the outside but reek of cheap beer on the inside and 8-9-10 bedroom houses to stuff in as many bodies as possible. Landlords take advantage of the need for housing and jack up the rates on dark smelly basement rooms because most students are stuck starring at some kind of monitor 24-7. College students don’t seem to mind the broken windows, mildew kitchens and stained carpets because it masks their own uncleanliness and after party messes. Landlords don’t care for the crappy state of their estate because renters don’t care. The living conditions are dirty and crowded, the neighborhoods are filled with petty crimes, but the food is amazing and serves the tastes of many diverse nationalities.
But I’m sure it’s not just the food that keeps residents in, even though from personal experience, the food keeps people coming back. So what is it that keeps people of the U-district strictly within the boundaries of their neighborhood? I have resided in the U-district, and know while there are no physical walls that keep me caged inside; there are barriers that limit my transgression over the imaginary border. I think it comes down to a few things, lack of time, lack of transportation, lack of money, and even to some, a lack of interest.
Students must live very close to their location of study. It is absolutely necessary to be able to roll out of bed and be in class 10 minutes later; this maximizes sleep and correlates with higher grades. At least for my crowd of friends, mostly scientists and engineers, there is never time to waste and spending hours on transpiration through heavy traffic’ed Seattle to and from class is just not an option unless you can be productive on the shaky noisy bus. This leaves any residential neighborhoods outside of the U-district unrealistic.
Speaking of bussing, residents of the U-district mostly do not own cars. And if they do, the lack of parking available on campus, not to mention all of Seattle and the high gas prices restrict their usage. Some buy into the Seattle culture craze of being eco friendly, and have resorted to biking, which gets you efficiently to the store and back. And this becomes a natural limitation to the spilling of U-district residents over to the rest of Seattle neighborhoods.
As students, we make little money and dump thousands each quarter into the education system. There are industries that pray on vulnerable students by selling overpriced content-less textbooks, with new editions each year that change only the orders of chapters. As a result, students are cheap, Belltown nights are rare and six-packs from Safeway and guitar hero at a friend’s apartment while playing guitar hero becomes the preferred Friday night activity.



U-district is a temporary home for most residents. Most who dwell here will move on to conquer the world, most likely not from a Seattle home. Time in the u-district is short, and sometimes people don’t care to explore.
I was once boxed in the imaginary borders of the U-district. When I lived there, the closest I’ve gotten on my bike to I-5 was 7th, never crossed 25th except to Nordheim, gone as far as kayaked on the Lake Washington Canal, and always stopped short from going over Ravenna Boulevard. These silent borders match the Wikipedia definition of the U-district border. So while informal and never really defined, the borders of the U-district have emerged from common usage and common perception of its residents. However, as my friends have graduated and left eh U-district, I have also followed. Since last year, I have ventured out and found a home in Lake City, and it has drastically changed my views of Seattle. Though occasionally I swing by the U-district for Aladdin Gyros and Thai Tom’s, I keep my stay in the U-district limited to class hours. Emerging through the imaginary wall and migrating north, I feel like I have almost entered the real world. I say almost because I am still a student, and still believe the cure the cancer is only a research project away and live with ambitious thoughts of what I want to be when I grow up. But the rest is far more real than the dumpster living situation that is the U-district. I have a back yard not filled with used furniture and garbage, quiet neighbors with pretty gardens, and lots of parking on my driveway. With the help of the car, I now roam Seattle.
Sometimes though, I still have to consider my U-district friends when I arrange for get together locations. There is definitely an unspoken tension about making events locations away from the U-district, and if I want high turnouts, it’s still safer to keep it inside the border of the U-district, where U-district residents feel most comfortable.