What Makes Your Neighborhood Great?

INGRID THOFT

Anyone who has read my books knows that Boston is my hometown and the setting for my Fina Ludlow series.  That’s why some readers are surprised to learn that for the past nine years, my husband and I have lived in Seattle.  In some ways, Seattle and Boston are alike: the ocean, great food, progressive politics, and thriving tech businesses.  But they are different in other important ways:  Boston is a city steeped in history (literally) while Seattle feels like a newer city with an influx of transplants.

I love both places, but I’m especially enamored with my neighborhood in Seattle, the downtown core, literally a stone’s throw from Pike Place Market.  Living in an urban center—even a modest one by many standards—certainly poses challenges and exposes residents to the full range of human experience.  Poverty, homelessness, and drug addiction are on full display when I walk out my door, but I also see people from all walks of life, of all colors and creeds.  The diversity and the hum of downtown are a welcome respite from the solitary work of writing.

What are some of my favorite places in my neighborhood?

I grew up in a town by the sea just north of Boston, and I can’t be far from water.  I can see Puget Sound from my home, and the Washington State ferry dock is just a short walk away.  I love being out on the water, and the ferry takes me to one of my favorite bookstores, Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo, WA.  The return trip to the city is equally spectacular, offering a completely different perspective on the same set of buildings.  The water and the weather systems that form over it are constantly changing and endlessly captivating.  How could you ever be bored with an ocean in your sight line?

Another favorite spot in my neighborhood?  The Seattle Public Library.  The unique central branch designed by Rem Koolhaas opened in 2004.  The building, with its glass exoskeleton and soaring ceilings, is a must-see for architect buffs and book lovers alike.  I’m a big believer in the value of public libraries, and the SPL doesn’t disappoint.  Need help with your homework?  Want to practice a second language?  Learn how to write a mystery?  The library can help you, for free, no less!

No discussion of my neighborhood would be complete without a mention of Seattle’s most popular destination, Pike Place Market.  To most people, the market is a tourist stop, but it’s my actual market.  I get my produce from Sosio’s (shown in the picture,) and when I ask them what’s good, I know I’ll get spot-on recommendations.  The Hmong flower sellers grow many of their blossoms just north of the city, and my butchers have been in business for generations.

But it’s more than just the fresh food and gorgeous tableau that make the market feel like home.  When my husband and I were visiting the city, contemplating making the move, we noticed a quote nestled into the pavement at the edge of the market.  It is a favorite quote of ours, one we had featured on our wedding program.  Stumbling upon it that day seemed a clear sign that the road to Seattle was the right one to take. 

Reds and readers, tell me about your neighborhood.  What do you love about it? Any frequent haunts? Or maybe you’d like to live in a completely different place?

To Market, To Market — Farmers Markets by novelist Leslie Budewitz

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Lovely readers, do you love a farmers market? I do (hello Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket with your homemade doughnuts and hot-spiced apple cider) — and so does today's guest, double Agatha award-winning novelist Leslie Budewitz. 

She's the author of The Food Lovers' Village series; however, her newest novel, ASSAULT AND PEPPER, coming March 3 from Berkley Prime Crime is the first in her latest, the Spice Shop Series. And its setting is a farmers market — THE farmers market — Seattle's Pike Place Market. Here's a taste:

Just a pinch of murder... After the year from you-know-what, Pepper Reece finds a new zest for life running a busy spice shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Her aromatic creations are a hit and everyone loves her refreshing spice tea. Pepper is convinced she can handle any kind of salty customer—until a murder ends up in the mix.

And here's Leslie on Seattle's Pike Place Market as well as the legendary markets of France — take it away Leslie!

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Does anyone not love a farmer’s market? The Pike Place Market in Seattle originated in 1907 when the city council created a market for farmers to sell directly to “housewives.” On the first day, THE farmers ran out of produce before they got their trucks unloaded.

I fell in love with the Market as a college student in the late 1970s, not long after it was saved from the wrecking ball of “urban removal.” Later, as a young lawyer working downtown, I ate my way through the Market several days a week. I’d start at the front entrance with a slice of pizza from DeLaurenti’s walk-up window, browsing the covers of the magazines at the First & Pike Newsstand— eyes only until my hands were clean! I’d sip a sample cup of tea at Market Spice while watching the fishmongers throw salmon and amuse the crowd with their comedy routine, pick my produce and cheese for the week, and end with dessert—a hazelnut sable from Le Panier, the French bakery, or a Nanaimo bar from a now-departed shop in the warren off Post Alley.

A few years ago, Mr. Right and I spent a month in France. We loved everything about it, including the markets, small, medium, and large. Our first was in Arles, a city with Roman roots and medieval history, once home to Van Gogh and Cezanne. At the Arles Wednesday market, you can buy everything from herbs and spices to sausages to sunglasses and goats.

The next Sunday, we found ourselves in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, a magical town. Once again, produce, cheese, and sausage were king, but here too were tables of antique monogrammed linens, silver cutlery, and other French treasures. Accordian music. Duck sausage. (We ate a lot of duck in France. We fed a lot of ducks, too, to make up for it.) Ravioli made before our eyes. The produce seller who asked when we intended to eat the cantaloup—and rejected three before finding one he promised would be ripe the next day. And he was right, bien sûr! 

Roussillon is not a historic market town, but no matter: the butcher, baker, cheesemonger, and a few produce sellers crammed into the village’s single parking lot on Saturday morning, beside a beekeeper, a soap maker, and handful of artists. Best macarons of the trip.

Back in Paris, the Sunday Market on Boulevard Richard Lenoir, directly behind our hotel, left us speechless. Food lovers’ heaven. Vats of olives, baskets of mushrooms we couldn’t identify, bread so beautiful it made our eyes water. We wandered the blocks, eavesdropping on the Parisians as they filled their baskets and rolling carts for the next few days, and bought a picnic for our last evening on the banks of the Seine.

Markets are inherently festive. They fire up our senses and spark our imaginations. They make us hungry—and offer us everything from fresh-roasted peanuts to fresh-baked piroshky. And they bring us back, again and again, to see what’s old and new.

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: What about you, Readers? Do you have a favorite farmers’ market or a memory of one? Leslie is giving a copy of ASSAULT AND PEPPER and a bag of Market Spice Tea from Seattle to one lucky reader!

The first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction, Leslie Budewitz lives in NW Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their Burmese cat, a book cover model and avid birdwatcher. For more tales of life in the Great Northwest, visit her website.