page_title: Ballard, Seattle
section_title: Modern history
hierarchical_section_title: Ballard, Seattle / History / Modern history
caption_attribution_description: English: Steamcleaning in a yard on Ballard Avenue (historic district), Ballard, Seattle, Washington. The lower part of the avenue is still part of the working port.
context_page_description: Ballard is a neighborhood in the northwestern area of Seattle, Washington, United States. Formerly an independent city, the City of Seattle's official boundaries define it as bounded to the north by Crown Hill, to the east by Greenwood, Phinney Ridge and Fremont, to the south by the Lake Washington Ship Canal, and to the west by Puget Sound's Shilshole Bay. Other neighborhood or district boundaries existed in the past; these are recognized by various Seattle City Departments, commercial or social organizations, and other Federal, State, and local government agencies.
  Landmarks of Ballard include the Ballard Locks, the Nordic Museum, the Shilshole Bay Marina, and Golden Gardens Park. The neighborhood's main thoroughfares running north–south are Seaview, 32nd, 24th, Leary, 15th, and 8th Avenues N.W. East–west traffic is carried by N.W. Leary Way and N.W. 85th, 80th, 65th, and Market Streets. The Ballard Bridge carries 15th Avenue over Salmon Bay to the Interbay neighborhood, and the Salmon Bay Bridge carries the BNSF Railway tracks across the bay, west of the Ballard Locks.
context_section_description: At the end of the 20th century Ballard began to experience a real-estate boom. By early 2007, nearly 20 major apartment/retail projects were under construction or had just been completed within a five-block radius of downtown Ballard. The new developments will add as many as 2500 new households to the neighborhood. This growth in urban density is the result of the neighborhood plan created by former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice. Mayor Rice's plan aimed to reduce suburban sprawl by targeting certain Seattle areas, including Ballard, for high-density development.
  Transit and growth remain the two most contentious issues in the greater Seattle area. Sustainable Ballard, a group formed in 2004, is exploring many of these challenges on a community level.  The group has adopted the slogan "A Blueprint for EveryTown USA." This fast growing community-wide effort is working on many projects, including "Undriving Ballard," a transportation campaign to reduce traffic in the neighborhood, and "Get Carbon Neutral," working toward Ballard becoming the first carbon neutral community in the nation, a goal inspired by Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Gore lauded Ballard's efforts in an address at the NYU Law School on September 18, 2006.
  In recent times Ballard has added venues for live music, including bars, restaurants and coffee shops, such as Conor Byrne, Egan's Jam House, Fu Kun Wu @ Thaiku, Kiss Cafe, La Isla, Molly Maguire's, Old Pequliar, Sunset Tavern,  The Stepping Stone, and The Tractor Tavern. Each month the Ballard Chamber of Commerce sponsors the Second Saturday Artwalk. Downtown Ballard also boasts a variety of restaurants and local shops.
  Downtown Ballard is also home to the Majestic Bay Theater, which was the oldest operating movie theater on the West Coast prior to its closure in 1997. In 1998, it was renovated and transformed from a bargain single-screen theater to a well-appointed triplex. The Deep Sea Fisherman's Union is currently located in Ballard too.
caption: The lower part of Ballard Avenue still includes many light industrial businesses.
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