Yesterday, I had French toast with about 100 other people at The New Thompson’s Point of View at the corner of 23rd and Union, as we listened to Mayor Mike McGinn announce the Seattle Office of Economic Development’s latest effort—the Seattle Jobs Plan, a targeted initiative to improve neighborhoods and create jobs by supporting neighborhood business districts.
McGinn announced the city government will invest $1 million in 18 neighborhood businesses in the Central District, the International District, Rainier Valley, Pioneer Square, and Capitol Hill. We heard a lot about “revitalizing the neighborhood,” improving public safety, and the benefits the grant will likely offer—namely job creation and a stronger sense of community.
There’s no ignoring that Central District residents are excited about this. You see, people talk a lot of unearned smack about their neighborhood. Although there are very few places in the city where I actually feel unsafe, I regularly hear uninformed Seattlites refer to the Central District as “the ghetto.” (Clearly these people have never been to Worcester, Massachusetts.) Nobody is more aware of this perspective than the people who live there, and they’re hoping that a grant from the city will help people see the Central District the way they see it—as a neighborhood set apart by its diversity alone.
“Other neighborhoods are pretty Wonderbread,” said Jean Tinnea of the Union Street Business Group, when speaking of the CD’s diversity. “It’s much more interesting here.”
Most said that the CD is already changing, grant or no grant, but this money will certainly help businesses, and residents, make those changes happen sooner.
“You can feel the neighborhood coming back,” said Gail Thompson, who took over ownership and management of Thompson’s in June. Thompson hopes the money will help with lighting the neighborhood and cleaning up streets. She said the community is already working with the Seattle Police Department to improve public safety.
Tinnea echoed Thompson, saying the neighborhood’s partnership with SPD—including the department’s Drug Market Initiative several years ago—has improved public safety and resident moral. “The Seattle Police Department has done a really good job,” she said. “But the perception of safety still needs to be turned around,” so other neighborhoods see how really great the CD is.
Residents know that changing public perceptions about the CD will be challenging, but not impossible. Longtime CD residents Tinnea and Derryl Durden, of the East Union Investors Group, remember when the Central District was a nice place to live and work.
“In the forties, this intersection [at 23rd and Union] was one of the social centers,” said Tinnea. “We’d like to get some of that back.”
Couple this with Seattle University’s 20-year commitment to tutoring students at Bailey-Gatzert Elementary and SU’s NEW commitment to invest $1M in programs to help that school (and Washington Middle and Garfield) and you see only hope for a great and revitalized Central area.
I love the CD. When I first started working for City Light, I was assigned Ballard. All I was doing was talking with bored housewives and ordering power removals for nice little homes that were being demolished in favor of townhomes.
As soon as I could, I transfered to the South district, and got the CD. Worked it for years, and miss it terribly now that I’m not doing that job anymore. The people are nice, the infrastructure is interesting, and there’s not as much wholesale destruction as Ballard was seeing. People tend to renovate or restore homes there, not tear them down.
And not once did I ever feel threatened there. There’s some other parts of Seattle where I have gotten a really creepy vibe, but never in the CD.
Wonderbread? Racist much? FYI it’s actually artisan while grain $6 a loaf up here north of the Ship Canal.
Good to see the city encouraging more gentrification in the CD.
…oh, and all those places in Seattle where I felt the creepy vibe? All north of the ship canal.
Back in September, the Hernandez’s moved from the north end of the U-District to just beyond the northern border of the CD. What a world of difference. So much quieter and cleaner. Lots of diverse families and great local businesses. I’ve really taken to the area and have yet to feel unsafe there (in contrast to our old digs). Glad to see the city investing in the neighborhood.
Gentrification @3 is a very relative term. The intersection of 23rd & E. Union currently anchors: one closed gas station, one vacant lot, one closed restaurant, and a smattering of small businesses plus one drop-in satellite SPD office. Developing what was once a thriving neighborhood business district hardly amounts to the sort of “gentrification” to which I believe you’re alluding.
Not that there hasn’t been some modest redevelopment in the vicinity in the six-plus years I’ve lived here, but it’s quite literally nowhere close to the scale seen in other neighborhoods: for example, no wholesale destruction of single-family homes to make room for 120 unit six story $300K condo developments, which has been the norm for the past five or six years prior to the real-estate bust.
I am a young white person and live and work in the south end (Beacon Hill, Columbia City, Hillman City). I’ve never felt safer. I lived in the U-District for three months and got robbed twice.
I’ll be interested to see the details of McGinn’s plan. Sounds excellent, hope it’s done in as equitably as possible.
@7 The difference in that neighborhood in the last decade has been nothing short of profound. Yes, that particular intersection could use some work, but it is no longer the cesspool it used to be. And gentrification is exactly what is happening to that neighborhood. Once the economy get back to normal the process will again pick up speed…older black families selling their houses for a mint to young white professions. Seattle gets whiter, Seatac gets blacker, and the Central District get a Whole Foods. Or something like that.
HEY!
Random attack on Worcester, MA. What gives?
@9:
As I alluded, it’s happening to some extent, but frankly, from my perspective at 22nd & E. Union, it’s (quite literally) not so black-and-white. For example, two of the most recent families to move onto our block are Latino and Asian (Indian), not to mention the large influx of recent immigrants from East Africa (mainly Ethiopian and Sudanese so far as I can tell). So, while it may be possible that overall the African American population may be falling, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the demographics are getting less diverse, but in point of fact may be getting even more diverse, since it’s not just upwardly mobile young Caucasian families moving into the area, but a much broader mix.
Hey…me and a buddy just opened ”The Judkins Street Cafe” in the thick of the Central District and we are groovin there…great jazz music, kids and moms,neighbourhood people that are hella real….WE ARE SOOOO GLAD THAT WE ARE IN THE CD…presently we are doing 12 to 14 hour days….but we get sooo much energy off the clientelle and the vistage we have…Judkins & MLK….beer and wine with great soups and salads and burgers and breakfast for 4 dollar….Caffee Vita is brewed nd Panzanella breads….with Painted Hills meats….groovin and communicating in the CD…..2608 S Judkins Street