Ballard

Ballard is everyone's sweetheart. Reminders of its origins as a neighborhood of Swedish and Norwegian immigrants still exist -- most literally in the Nordic Heritage Museum -- but the neighborhood is undergoing inevitable changes as the number of artists, hipsters, and young professionals (many of whom have been priced out of Fremont and Capitol Hill) increases. Trendy restaurants, furniture stores, and boutiques have already popped up along Northwest Market Street and Ballard Avenue, the neighborhood's main commercial strips. But no matter how tidy it gets, Ballard doesn't feel as gentrified as Fremont -- or as taken with its own coolness as Capitol Hill.