Sunset Magazine Ruining Our Drinking Stairs Cred

Some of the stairs are cooler than others. This one looks down Galer Street. Photo courtesy of cloverity from the Seattlest Flickr pool.

As former residents of Queen Anne, we can vouch for the myriad of stairs and passageways that connect the hill’s random access ways. Around every corner there seems to be a staircase that only squirrels or cats knew about until that racy "mature" rag Sunset Magazine exposed the phenomenon.

Sunset Magazine is promoting the stairs for their views, exercise, and historical qualities, while ignoring the more functional role they serve as great drinking and smoking places for the neighborhood riffraff. If you need a dark place to drink on Queen Anne, you're much less likely to get hassled on one of the stairs than in one of those suburban little neighborhood alleyways.

Admittedly, Queen Anne’s stair culture isn’t up to snuff as gritty, public hangout spots go, but they’re trying. The supposed gangs being promoted on some of the stairs are cuter than they are intimidating--but that’s Queen Anne for you.

At the very least, the stairs offer a reliable assortment of hangouts for people who tire of sipping their ice beer under Kinnear Park’s shady canopy. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how to coexist with the bandwagon of Sunset Magazine readers who are moving in on our public drinking turf with their selective drinking habits and healthy alternatives to the traditional stair roles.