Walking shoes are a perfect fit in Roosevelt district

Just about every day, residents in the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle can see Tad Bigelow on one of his many daily walks with his pal, Tuxedo.

Bigelow, 76, said he tries to get in three miles a day with his Shih-Tzu-and-maybe-Lhasa Apso mix while doing errands, or doing nothing at all.

That's the beauty of living in the Roosevelt neighborhood, he said: You can walk to wherever you need to go.

"I live two blocks from the Safeway, and Whole Foods is a half-mile walk, and there's a wealth of good restaurants that we can walk to," said Bigelow, who has lived in the same home for 35 years. "It's a friendly neighborhood."

The Roosevelt neighborhood has become much more commercial, and the population has grown significantly since he moved here in 1972, Bigelow said.

Back then, he and his wife, Reba, picked Roosevelt because it was close to the freeway, the one he used every day to get to work at the Washington Air National Guard and later for the state Department of Revenue. The neighborhood is made up mainly of single-family homes in the Craftsman style, but there are growing numbers of condos and apartments.

Its close-in location has helped drive up prices.

The median price of a single-family house sold in May in the North Seattle area that includes Roosevelt was $550,000, up 22.2 percent in a year, according to figures compiled by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

The median price of a condo was $256,950, up 11.6 percent.

Earlier this year, some residents asked the city to increase code enforcement and review zoning for some properties that have fallen in disrepair.A few years ago, residents successfully rallied to change locations of the planned light-rail extension from Eighth Avenue Northeast, parallel to the freeway, to the more-traveled 12th Avenue Northeast.

A station will go just north of 65th Street, 85 feet below the surface with entrances planned for 65th Street and 12th Avenue and 67th Street and 12th Avenue.

The move creates a more "urban village" feel, said neighborhood-association President Jim O'Halloran, who has lived with his wife, Paula, in the area for five years.

"Growth is our destiny, and density is our destiny," O'Halloran quipped. "It's not up to us whether or not we grow, but we can influence how we grow."

The neighborhood boasts a concentration of audio stores at Roosevelt Way Northeast and Northeast 63rd Street.

Just a few blocks to the north, at Northeast 65th Street, there are a number of metaphysical and alternative-health stores.

A prominent fixture since the early 1920s has been Roosevelt High School. The school reopened last year after a major two-year renovation.

O'Halloran often walks around the neighborhood with Cleggan, his golden retriever.

And though they live on opposite ends of the neighborhood, once in a while he'll pass Bigelow and Tuxedo.

"I live in the far southern end, and he lives in the far northern end, and we pretty much see each other in the middle," O'Halloran said.

"We'll smile and then catch up on the goings on."