By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Ridge's topography gives it a unique setting

Maybe Phinney Ridge's topography promotes such togetherness. The 350-foot, glacier-carved ridge rises sharply from the flanks of Fremont before flattening out at Greenwood, near North 85th Street.

The ridge forms a steep wall separating Ballard and Green Lake. Once on top, it gives the impression of a cozy hilltop retreat.

Along the ridge, the luckiest residents can look down at Green Lake, or farther east to the Cascade Mountain Range. The western slope has equally spectacular views of Ballard and Puget Sound. The jagged, snowcapped Olympics glow at sunset.

The view and cheap land are what attracted Guy Phinney, a Brit from Nova Scotia, to invest $40,000 in 1889 in an estate he called Woodland Park. He added ballfields and paths that dropped down the hill to Green Lake, where he built a bathing beach. He even added a trolley connection over to Fremont.

Eleven years later, the Phinney estate was sold to the city for $100,000, an amount some city leaders felt excessive, given that the land was so far from downtown Seattle.

Today, the Woodland Park Zoo draws about 1 million visitors a year, enough to clog the streets on most summer weekends and grate on the nerves of Phinney residents. At one point, the zoo dispensed traffic cones to residents to help them reserve parking spaces in front of their homes. That practice was ruled illegal and most of the cones have disappeared.

Despite the zoo traffic, many of Phinney's steep and winding side streets are quiet enough to allow the growing number of children to shoot hoops in the street.

The children mix with tail-wagging hounds of all shapes and sizes. They amble across the streets, oblivious to traffic and city leash laws.

Cats watch the action from every other porch.

Residents on Sycamore Avenue Northwest posted this sign in their front yard: "Our cat collects gloves. If these look like they belong to you, please take them." The sign has a mug shot of Sam, the mischievous kitty, and a collection of stolen gloves, socks and what appears to be a scarf.

Phinney Ridge has so many pets it even attracted a do-it-yourself dog wash, called Rub A Dub Dog at 6826 Greenwood Ave. N. Owner DeAnn Day and her partners just opened the shop, which features six elevated tub scrub-stations. For $13, Day supplies the shampoo, doggy conditioner, towels, aprons, brush and even blow-dryers.

Continued:

• Neighborhood's sense of spirit helps make it a family favorite
• Zoo sounds add to area's playful air
• Fostering community connections in time of change
• Phinney popular with residents and merchants