Question for the old timers: what was Aurora Avenue like 10, 20, 50 years ago?

I'm relatively new here, so my experience with Aurora is only as it has been over the last couple years: seedy motels, prostitutes, run-down auto garages etc.Many cities have neighborhoods that were once grand and luxurious but are now run-down and crime ridden (looking at you, every city ever). I see no evidence of prior Victorian mansions up and down 99, so I'm going to venture that it wasn't quite that nice way back when, so how was it?The industrial side of things I can rationalize with cheaper real estate being farther from the city core. There's plenty of room for used car lots and construction tool rental places. Some of the shadier motels I could see being very different when they were new in the '60s or '70s, so I don't assume that it's always been hookers and drugs.Right off Aurora you have Greenwood Park surrounded by homes with stuff on the lawns that doesn't get stolen by tweakers every night. There are cute little houses around Licton Springs. The well-kept graveyard just south of Home Depot. Green Lake and its fancy houses. These don't strike me as the kind of places that pop up next to a Crack in the Box, or inspire songs about bus routes.How was Aurora Avenue from your first memories, and how has it evolved over the years? via /r/SeattleWA http://ift.tt/2daU7ke