Ride Free

It's official. My brain has morphed itself. I'm a downtowner now.

Today, I had a job interview in my old hood, Ballard. (Irony, hello!) I was walking up the hill to the library to meet Scott, and a bus pulled up right next to me as I passed a bus stop. My first thought was, hey! I can jump on that bus and be on the top of the hill in no time!

Then, I remembered. I wasn't in the Ride Free Area anymore. I'd have to pay $1.50 to ride three blocks. Ug.

Downtown, you can get pretty much anywhere else downtown, on the bus, for FREE. I have to pay bus fare to get to my favorite grocery stores, but I can get to several unfavorite grocery stores (plus the Pike Place Market!), the central library, several drug stores, department stores, even a yarn store. All in the Ride Free area, so all for free. I can get to the International District for free, and I can get to Belltown for free. I used to be able to get to work for free... if I got off the bus one stop early. I can ride the bus up the hill for free, just because I don't feel like walking.

I've only been living downtown for about 6 months. But I'm spoiled by the awesome buses and the closeness of so many things already.

At the same time, though, I'm walking more. I walk to the bus stop, yeah, but also to the little, slightly scary grocery store a few blocks away. I walk to the post office without even thinking about the fact that it's almost a mile away, because downtown such distances seem so close. Downtown distances are deceiving. Three blocks uphill can seem like three miles. Ten blocks can seem like just a block or two.

Do I miss living in Ballard? Hell, yes. I do. I miss my favorite coffee shop, Nervous Nellie's and my favorite bar, People's Pub. I miss the lack of crack dealers. I miss the jumbled cacophony of birds in the morning. I miss living closer to my mom and the parks where you can just sit and the outdoors seating that doesn't come with a free dose of soot from the traffic.

But a lot of that is made up for the coolness of being able to take the bus uphill three blocks. For FREE.