A stranger was staring at my car, an old Honda CR-V. It was shortly after 8 on a Monday morning, and I was taking my son to school. We’d celebrated his birthday the night before.

As I got closer, I realized the stranger was eyeing the glass on the ground, not the car. Someone had bashed a window to steal a bag.

“That’s my car,” I said to the stranger. My sensitive middle-schooler noted, sarcastically, “I’ll remember this birthday.”

It was a dubious welcome to my new neighborhood.

We moved to Ballard about six months ago, or about a month before this November surprise. We’d considered Ballard and dozens of other neighborhoods and suburban cities to include in Seattle magazine’s neighborhood issue.

The nine we chose — subjective, I admit — are all undergoing significant change. They are the neighborhoods — and, in several cases, suburban cities — that are reinventing themselves. Been to White Center lately? How about Edmonds, or even Everett? They’re not as you might remember them.

Ballard isn’t either, at least not if you take a trip back in time of about 30 years. A friend who grew up in the neighborhood recalls a gritty, almost hardscrabble place full of blue-collar workers who toiled in the maritime industry. It most certainly did not have the hipster (or multifamily) vibe it does today. I sometimes feel out of place without skinny jeans and leather boots.

The same changes, I guess, could be said of most of Seattle.

The ‘90s was a transformative decade. It launched the Seattle we now know. Today a new era is beginning.

I moved here in 1987, the year part of Husky Stadium collapsed. The Kingdome very much dominated the downtown skyline, as did the Viaduct. Seattle was gritty, not yet grunge-y. Microsoft and Amazon were thriving, but that money had yet to f low throughout the economy. South Lake Union was a collection of industrial warehouses and cheap motels. The words “traffic” and “jam” were seldom uttered in the same sentence.

The ‘90s was a transformative decade. It launched the Seattle we now know. Today a new era is beginning, one that will be defined by how we deal with the affordable housing dilemma, a growing income gap, a fentanyl crisis, and the resulting issues revolving around public safety and security.

One theory of urban development holds that cities undergo patterned waves of change every 25 years or so. That puts us on track for a new beginning that arguably began as we exited the pandemic.

A recent study from Deloitte Insights, “Urban future with a purpose,” cited 12 trends that are shaping urban life. Seattle is well on its way, especially in several key areas: Green planning of public spaces (the remade downtown waterfront is a perfect example); the concept of a 15-minute city where services are within 15 minutes of most residents; inclusive public services and planning; and smart and sustainable buildings and infrastructure. AI adoption is included as well.

As its simplest, the future boils down to a balance of economic competitiveness and quality of life. Just look around: Seattle is, once again, leading the charge.