Neko Case Spars With Seattle Urbanists Over Ballard Development

SEATTLE, WA — Singer-songwriter Neko Case got into an explicit back-and-forth with Seattle residents on Monday after Case made a comment on Twitter about how over-developed Ballard has become.

On Sunday afternoon, Case tweeted, "Wow. Ballard is gone," likely referring to new buildings that have gone up in recent years along Market Street and 15th Avenue Northwest. That prompted a response from current Seattle residents who say that development is necessary to support the housing needs of a growing city.

"I moved just south of Ballard bridge 3 months ago and never spent time in Ballard before but I love it. Cities change. When I go back to Santa Monica I don’t recognize parts of it. If we want to stop global capitalism — that’s one thing — but being angry at cities changing? Nope." wrote Laura Loe, a Seattle activist who runs the advocacy organization Share The Cities, in response to Case.

That prompted Case to tell Loe — and others — to "go f--k" themselves.

"Hey Laura, f--k off. I actually do know what I meant. Mansplain to your pals but take me off the chain," Case tweeted.

Case later tweeted a more general response:

"Don’t get nasty at me if I comment that Seattle is unrecognizable. It’s not 'yours' and my observations are not about you. And unless you are an Indigenous person with actual roots and ancestors here, go f--k yourself," Case wrote Monday morning on Twitter.

Case grew up partially in Tacoma, and began her music career in the Seattle-Tacoma as a teenager playing in punk bands in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She left Puget Sound for Canada, later playing in the band the New Pornographers. According to the music website Exclaim!, Case moved back to Seattle in the late 1990s, but left for Chicago because she didn't like the gentrification here.

"All the artists are being run out of town. Chicago is huge and exciting and there's more music going through there than any other place I've ever been. And there's great architecture, a lot of old buildings," she told Exclaim! in 2000.