Best Neighborhood: Ballard
By Seattle Mag November 20, 2024
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2024 issue of Seattle magazine.
We asked. You answered. Our annual Readers’ Choice awards highlights the best of the city in numerous categories. From neighborhoods to restaurants and all in-between, these are your picks about what makes the city tick.
Ballard was a separate city before Seattle annexed it in 1907, and you can still see the old city street names carved into sidewalks across the neighborhood. The Historic District along Ballard Avenue features beautiful, preserved buildings more than a century old, and the Ballard Locks and Golden Gardens Park are major attractions. The year-round Sunday Ballard Farmers Market is among the largest and most vibrant in a city with 17 of them.
Hot Tip
The neighborhood is very pedestrian-friendly. If you’re driving, be prepared for unique pedestrian walkways and heavy traffic. Parking can be a challenge. The Ballard Bridge can get crowded, especially because of all the recent construction.
Staff Pick
Wallingford boasts tree-lined streets, charming bungalows, a quick walk to Green Lake and Gas Works Park, plus sushi, ramen, pizza, Dick’s, ice cream, swanky bars, old-school dives, and even a sock shop. — Sarah Stackhouse, assistant digital editor
About Readers Choice 2024
Every year, our annual Readers’ Choice Awards round up Seattle’s best — from standout burger joints to the city’s most scenic spots. Whether you’re after fresh seafood, cocktails with a view, or a place to unwind, these are the places to be.
Follow Us
A New Climate Fund Starts With Indigenous Leadership
The $5.5 million investment will support seven Tribal governments and Indigenous-led organizations working on climate projects across Greater Seattle and Puget Sound.
As we head into another summer of hotter days, drought, stress on waterways and habitat, and the now-familiar arrival of wildfire smoke, the First Peoples Climate Fund puts city and philanthropic money behind Native communities already doing the work of responding to these pressures, many of them closest to the impacts and with long-held knowledge…
Washington’s Gender Wage Gap is Widening, Study Finds
Women earned $18,545 less than men in 2024, one of the widest disparities in the country.
The wage gap between men and women in Washington is the second widest in the country. An analysis released in March from the National Partnership for Women and Families found that women in Washington earned a median income $18,545 less than their male counterparts, the largest gap in the country second only to Utah. For…
A Letter to the Community
For more than a decade, our competitor Seattle Met has been a meaningful and vibrant voice in our city’s media landscape. Its journalists, editors, and contributors have told important stories, celebrated our culture here, and helped define what it means to live in Seattle during a period of extraordinary growth and change. News that folks…
More Than a Watch Party
At the Museum of Flight, Seattle celebrated Artemis II with real ties to the mission.
A moon mission lifted off in Florida on Wednesday, but one of the most interesting places to see it was Seattle. On April 1, the Museum of Flight hosted a free public watch party for Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed mission around the moon in more than 50 years. The event included a live broadcast,…