There are lots of ways to rank Seattle neighborhoods against each other depending upon your preferred metric. Seattle Times does a good job of breaking down the results of the 2010 US Census for King County. There’s WalkScore, which is a great way to see how walkable your house or neighborhood is given its proximity to businesses and transit. And there’s Zillow, which summarizes the demographics and median home value information for Seattle neighborhoods. And then there’s NabeWise, which in part uses information gathered by actual residents of each neighborhood to rank them in numerous categories (click HERE to review Wedgwood now!). Given these reviews, the reputation for Wedgwood includes “Woodsy,” “walkable,” “community-oriented,” and “super friendly” amongst other adjectives.
According to NabeWise, here are some of the highlights for Wedgwood (rankings based out of 149 neighborhoods):
- Wedgwood ranks 2nd is public schools
- We rank 3rd in public safety
- We’re 4th in religious
- We’re the 6th best neighborhood for seniors, and
- 6th best neighborhood to find parking (I assume this is a good thing?).
Now for the lowlights:
- Wedgwood is 64th in Dining (this must be due to the number of options as opposed to the quality of our establishments)
- we have the 65th highest rent for a 2BR rental
- 67th in income (it’s not clear if we’re the 67th highest or lowest, but I presume lowest)
- 91st worst neighborhood in available public transportation options
- and 116th worst neighborhood for parks.
For those familiar with the WCC, you likely know that we are actively working to build upon many of the highlights and improve several of these lowlights. For instance, we are working on bringing pedestrian improvements to Wedgwood to further improve pubic safety. We are looking at ways to work cooperatively with adjacent neighborhoods to improve traffic flow through Wedgwood and increase transit options within our community. Building upon the Vision Plan, the Land Use Committee is working with the reforming Chamber of Commerce to encourage wise investment in Wedgwood and greater retail space for greater dining options. And last, but definitely not least, the Parks Committee is working with the Seattle Parks Department and Seattle City Light on the transfer of the Morningside Substation for a new park to serve north Wedgwood. Not to mention the public/private partnership that we’re developing with the Hunter Family given the new Gathering Place grant.
These are just a few of the things that the WCC is doing on behalf of the Wedgwood community. While these efforts are largely done through volunteer commitments with important sponsorships from Wedgwood businesses for various events, the foundation of the WCC is your membership donations. To learn more about donating to the WCC, including joining or donating using PayPal, click HERE.