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In Seattle, Progress Equals Potential Gentrification
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Condo Overlord Illustration from NoiseTank.com
Ever since my family immigrated here in the mid-to-late 70’s, we’ve spread out all over the region, resting our collective heads in the North Seattle area (Ballard, Shoreline, Lake City) to the Eastside to all over the South End (Kent, Federal Way, Renton) and so growing up, I got to see the various shades of the Seattle-area.
When I started working for a digital media firm that was based in Rainier Valley a number of years ago, I noticed that the South Seattle I grew up with was rapidly disappearing – old Vietnamese shops were replaced with Starbucks, Blockbusters and Lord knows what else. Subsequent trips to the Central District also reflected this rapid growth of commerce and affordable middle class housing (don’t get me started on the International District, which I’m fairly certain I’ve covered here in the past).
My problem isn’t particularly with progress as much as it is with gentrification. In Seattle, it seems as though the neighborhoods that are being razed and over populated with gaudy shopping centers, chic stores and trendy cafes are largely ethnic and/or poor.
Columbia City, once mostly African-American, has been plowed with townhomes and ale houses and coffee shops. Lake City, the neighborhood I grew up in, had a rather rich Ethiopian populous in the 80’s, but these days, you’ll find no more than five different condo communities on a given block.
Whenever these modest communities are made to be “cleaned up,” the only people who suffer are the people who can really afford to live there. Trendy or well-to-do residential neighborhoods such as Queen Anne, Magnolia or Medina don’t have these giant shopping areas or malls there, and I’m sure that if someone proposed a Wal-Mart at any of these areas, there would sure be hell to pay.
Most recently, a proposed shopping center in the South End looks to continue to ruin affordable housing in Rainier Valley, which is probably one of the last neighborhoods in Seattle that still retains (as I remember it) a particular charm, close knit community and, at the very least, some of the best restaurants in the city.
The Stranger covered this recently, addressing how it will affect specific clusters such as Little Saigon.
With the International District already under Paul Allen’s control, I’m sure it’s a matter of time before all the mini-marts that I grew up with will be some sort of sterile condo and new Seattle transplants will have to find homes in suburban areas like Auburn or Burien.
