Chinatown-International District

Gentrification - “a process of neighborhood change that includes economic change in a historically disinvested neighborhood —by means of real estate investment and new higher-income residents moving in - as well as demographic change - not only in terms of income level, but also in terms of changes in the education level or racial make-up of residents” (Urban Displacement Project, n.d.). Seattle is a heavily segregated city, with the majority of people of color living in South Seattle. Seattle’s expansion of the light rail system as well as rising living costs have pushed middle and upper middle class people and families largely west and south. Gentrification can be found in many neighborhoods south of Lake Union. 

Pandemic - an infectious disease encompassing the whole globe. Seattle has experienced a number of Influenza epidemics and pandemics, the HIV epidemic as well as the COVID pandemic. Another applicable definition is the adjective form of the word that describes a widespread occurrence effecting a significant portion of the population.

Community Process - “ The community is the expert .” Ordinary people know a great deal about what their needs are, how their public spaces work—or don’t work—and what ideas might do well in those spaces. An effective placemaking process engages these experts at the very beginning to set the priorities and vision for the project, and keeps them involved throughout implementation and beyond. (A Playbook for Inclusive Placemaking, n.d.)

“There is no pipeline or way to get people's feet wet in terms of what community process can look like because it is, it can be, really messy. You have to show up in a different way. The successful artists that we have worked with have really shown a lot of patience and flexibility with the art that we do. Someone who is embedded in the community, a great listener. As project managers, I really value, and I feel really lucky when we do find partners who already understand the process.” - An Huynh, SCIDpda

Placemaking - As both an overarching idea and a hands-on approach for improving a neighborhood, city, or region, placemaking inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community. Strengthening the connection between people and the places they share, placemaking refers to a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize shared value. More than just promoting better urban design, placemaking facilitates creative patterns of use, paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution. (What Is Placemaking?, n.d.)

“There is a racial divide and an economic divide and peacekeeping/making can exacerbate some of those issues sometimes.” - An Huynh, SCIDpda

Placekeeping - Across the country, “Creative Placekeeping” has come into usage as a counter to Placemaking. Placekeeping as the active care and maintenance of a place and its social fabric by the people who live and work there. It is not just preserving buildings but keeping the cultural memories associated with a locale alive, while supporting the ability of local people to maintain their way of life as they choose. (Creative Placemaking, Placekeeping, and Cultural Strategies to Resist Displacement, n.d.)

“ ‘Placekeeping’ has more of a connotation that the community is there, is working to communicate to the ‘outside world’, folks who are not familiar with [the] neighborhood or community, that, ‘We are here; the place has already been made.’ [With placekeeping], the community members already know that, ‘this is a place.’ Placekeeping shows up in a lot of ways; it is a bunch of cultural events and artifacts that can be formed through collaborating with community members of a certain area. It is working with residents, business owners, property owners, other folks who come through the neighborhood for whatever reason, and together building with them a vision for what they want their neighborhood to look like.” - An Huynh, SCIDpda

Public Space vs. Private Space - From time immemorial, societies have fashioned informal and formal public and private spaces in their settlements. Public space is “a place accessible to all citizens, for their use and enjoyment” ( Jackson, 1974 ). In contrast, a private place is open to those permitted by law or custom. The meaning of the words “accessible,” “use,” and “enjoyment” is very broad ( Francis, 1989 ). The demarcation of public and private areas, although seemingly sharp is sometimes vague. In addition, different societies at various times in history have placed more or less attention on the creation and maintenance of public space. Public space is important to urban sociologists who recognize that it serves as a setting for community activities or public life, for example, parades, meetings, and informal gatherings. They also observe how it can be a magnet for community organization; for example, groups unite in designing, developing, maintaining, and protecting public spaces. They provide a unique identifiable reference that reinforces a sense of belonging to a community. (Birch, 2007)

“One of the issues that [SCIDpda] runs into when we're doing public space work is ownership, and not only actual ownership, who owns this, but who is going to maintain it? ...The way the world is set up, you need somebody who owns it, to get insurance on it, that can do these things, and it becomes very sticky… There has to be some way which will make it more socialistic. How does the community own it?” - Jamie Lee, SCIDpda   

Regrade -After a fire razed much of the downtown area, City Engineer R.H. Thomson lead a comprehensive effort to subdue the terrain around the city by digging canals and diverting rivers. The glacial hills and ridges that separated neighborhoods from the downtown waterfront were deemed a major impediment to travel and commerce, and targeted for removal. (Arbuckle, n.d.)

From the 1890s through the 1920s, more than 50 million cubic yards of earth were scraped away. Much of the displaced earth was used for filling in tidal flats on the waterfront. (Arbuckle, n.d.)

Asian American heritage & multiethnic community - Chinatown-International District is unique because it is the only place in continental United States where multiple Asian groups like Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino become one multiethnic community in one neighborhood (Chin, 2001).

Nisei - Japanese term for “second generation”. Specifically refers to the child of Japanese immigrants that is born and educated in America.

Pan-Asianism - Arguments about the definition and nature of Asia in reaction to the impending Western threat marked the beginnings of Pan-Asianism as an ideology and a movement. Sentiments about strengthening Asian solidarity were gradually developed into concrete policy proposals for a united defense of Asia against the encroachments of Western imperialism. In many cases, such calls for Asian solidarity, integration, and unity were accompanied by endeavors to create an Asian identity by postulating commonalities and identifying traditions of interaction and interrelationship. (Szpilman & Saaler, 2011)

Racism and the history of exclusion - The communities here have been historically marginalized and excluded by discriminative law, such as Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and Japanese Internment, despite the fact that they had become citizens. The history of oppression and displacement manifested in the shifting locations of Asian settlements until the official Chinatown-International District formed and documented in the National Register of Historic Places (Resistance and Resilience in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District - Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment, n.d.). Despite the history of exclusion, the Asian communities are solidarity and resilient.

Redlining - In July 1975, the Central Seattle Community Council Federation published a report, "Redlining and Disinvestment in Central Seattle: How the Banks are Destroying our Neighborhoods." In the report, redlining was defined as "the practice by banks and other lending institutions of refusing home loans or requiring higher interest rates and larger down payments to otherwise credit worthy people because they happen to live in a certain area." (Redlining in Seattle - CityArchives | Seattle.Gov, n.d.)

Zoning Codes for the city of Seattle, International District (Zone Codes)

• IDR/C - International District Residential/Commercial 
• IDR - International District Residential
• IDM - International District Mixed
• DMR/C - Downtown Mixed Residential/Commercial
• DMC - Downtown Mixed Commercial

Upzone - Legislation passed by Seattle City Council that allows developers to build one to three stories higher while triggering a new program that requires developers to help create affordable housing. (Beekman, 2017)

National Register of Historic Places - The official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources. (National Register of Historic Places (U.S. National Park Service), n.d.)

Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) - Ensures that growth brings affordability. Requires new development to include affordable homes or contribute to a City fund for affordable housing. Implemented this requirement by changing zoning to allow larger development and more housing. (See: MHA Overview, How MHA Works)

International Special Review District (ISRD) - One of Seattle's eight historic districts. It is a collection of early 20th-century commercial and hotel buildings that serves as the center of Seattle's diverse Asian American community.

The District was established by the City of Seattle through an ordinance in 1973 to preserve the District's unique Asian American character and to encourage rehabilitation of areas for housing and pedestrian-oriented businesses. The Seattle Chinatown National Register Historic District is located within the International Special Review District. Its listing on the National Register testifies to the important contributions of the Chinatown/International District area on a national level. (International Special Review District - Neighborhoods | Seattle.Gov, n.d.)

Displacement - Displacement pressures threaten the ability of marginalized households to stay in their homes and limit where these households can live, reducing their ability to stay connected with supportive networks and limiting their access to opportunity. Displacement can also result in Seattle households, businesses, and organizations being pushed out of their neighborhood--or out of Seattle altogether. While displacement is difficult to predict and measure, existing data enable us to track some forms of displacement and gain insights into displacement risk.

The indicators we present here signal and/or quantify various displacement pressures affecting Seattle households, with each indicator measuring at least one of three types of displacement risk.

• Direct/Physical Displacement - Households are directly forced to move for reasons such as eviction, foreclosure, natural disaster, or deterioration in housing quality.
• Indirect/Economic Displacement - Households are indirectly compelled to move by rising housing costs, or loss of cultural / social networks.
• Exclusionary Neighborhood Change - Households are unable to move into a neighborhood that would have previously been accessible to them; also known as "exclusionary displacement." (Displacement Risk, n.d.)

Initially part of the Downtown-South Lake Union area, the city separated the C/ID out because of unique economic, physical and cultural displacement concerns in the area. The C/ID proposal requires 5-7% affordable units in new development or $8 – $20.75 per square foot into the city’s affordable housing fund.

The city predicts that the C/ID upzone will result in 150 affordable housing units over ten years. The city believes that displacement will occur regardless of the upzones given anticipated development in the area unrelated to MHA, and that the MHA upzone will reduce displacement given the new market-rate and affordable housing units that will result from the MHA process. (Seattle’s Next MHA + Upzone Area | AIA Seattle, n.d.)

The upzone that includes parts of Chinatown, Japantown and Little Saigon will increase maximum heights from 240 to 270 feet on some blocks, 150 to 170 feet on other blocks and 85 to 95 feet on still others. (Beekman, 2017b)

The yellow region is the National Historic District. The blue area is “subject to specific planned community development regulations and is already built out.” Both areas are excluded from the upzone.

The remaining area was rezoned in 2011, adding an additional 10 feet that must be earned through participation in the city’s Incentive Zoning program. The proposed MHA rezone excludes the area with the highest displacement risk from redevelopment, and is a minor update everywhere else.

The city did extensive public engagement with the local community:

• There is strong support for creating affordable housing and for the MHA program.
• There is a desire to look at how to get more market-rate housing.
• The community preferred taller buildings over wider buildings.
• There is concern for preserving the historic areas.

That feedback led to the exemption of the historic district, as well as changing the plan for extra capacity to add height instead of width. (Schofield, 2017)

“[Often times] when anything happens, say like a decorative crosswalk, people are thinking that that is the first sign of gentrification. There is the joke that Starbucks or pretty art pieces are the first sign of gentrification. In some ways it is an indicator of a threat. Let us assume it is a piece of art and that it is a committee led process. There is something that is triggering the community to say we need to put our stake in the ground and say that we are here, which means that there is a threat happening...” - Jamie Lee, SCIDpda

It is important to recognize that the Chinatown-International District is one of the world's most diverse working-class neighborhoods. The C-ID has a history of being a target of gentrification as people of low income have been displaced from their homes and communities for so long. Working citizens and independent small business owners struggle and rally against forces of the ruling class both outside and within their communities in order to combat gentrification. In 2017, the city of Seattle approved an upzone ordinance in the C-ID. Due to this, residents have been concerned that their small businesses and living circumstances will be pushed out. (City of Seattle, 2017) Citizens expressed their dissatisfaction with the making of the new luxury condos and hotels, stating that they need affordable housing and inclusive, community-led development.

Although the city of Seattle chooses to displace citizens of the C-ID, organizations such as the CID Coalition, Seattle Artist Coalition for Equitable Growth, Seattle Asians for Black Lives, Pacific Rim Solidarity Network, and #WeAreKeiro are battling redevelopment and displacement. (Council Connection) While gentrification pushes the vulnerable minorities in the C-ID, it brings in the white population. This stems from how The NCAPACD discovered that between 2007 and 2014, more than 350 low-income families were displaced from Seattle's Chinatown International District. As a result, the Asian population has shrunk while the white population has increased. According to a survey conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, white communities in Chinatowns rose faster than total white populations in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Again, this shows that while Asian Americans remain the most numerous ethnic groups in those Chinatowns, they no longer constitute a strong majority. As previously stated, due to growing market rents and a lack of market-produced family-sized housing, SCIDpa is assisting in the construction of 158 units of affordable, family-sized housing beginning in the summer of 2021 and expected to be completed in the summer of 2023. (SCIDpa)

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically altered the streetscapes of Seattle’s Chinatown-International District over the last year. People avoided the district as fears arose that the virus first identified in China would spread to the United States, causing economic harm to the communities even before the first case of COVID-19 was reported in America. During the pandemic, Asian American small businesses have been among the most affected by the economic crisis as the outbreak has slowed down the flow of customers. The small business owners wanted people to know that the businesses are open, the neighborhood is open, and everyone is welcome, and that they should all be mindful of how the virus operates. It isn't a virus that is founded on race. As businesses and the community have been processing through this experience, SCIDpa has helped create a CID Restaurants and other Small Businesses Relief Fund. As of today, 93 small businesses have secured $2,800 grants from the relief fund's fourth granting round, with more eligible businesses planned to be confirmed. (SCIDpda)

Through speaking with SCIDpda organizers, we found that during the pandemic, even though the community-based organizations have mobilized to provide resources for small businesses and check-in with residents, it was hard for them to conduct community meetings online. Jamie, the community organizer mentioned how people were just more comfortable with in-person check-in that happens in public spaces more casually. At the same time, a lot of projects have been put on hold and gave way to COVID-19 emergency response and assistance since the pandemic started.

Amidst the pandemic, protests in the summer of 2020 resulted in numerous amounts of property damages among Asian-owned small businesses. The Chinatown-International District was lined with plywood-masked storefronts. Many other business owners have taken similar precautions to avoid potential damage. Seattle Public Utilities, which has volunteered to board up storefronts in the region, has done so for approximately 230 businesses in the community. Many Seattle business owners have sought some solace in recent days, when King County had new preparations, allowing some stores to reopen with reduced capacity after the protests. (Secaira M , 2020)

The Chinatown International District is home to the city's largest population of senior citizens. Most are low-income and have limited English speaking skills, making receiving the COVID-19 vaccine incredibly difficult and challenging. Fortunately, advocates collaborated with the Seattle Fire Department, ICHS, and SCIDpa to vaccinate hundreds of the low-income, high-risk elders by hosting clinics. These clinics have some core features that made them more available to seniors, such as proximity to mobility-impaired seniors and the convenience of a familiar atmosphere. (City of Seattle).

“Recognizing that we were an organization that houses vulnerable folks. We did receive support for COVID. And I'd like to say, you know, we've been doing it for 46 years. You're just noticing right now. Because people are reaching out right now and lots of corporations are reaching out.”-Jamie Lee, SCIDpa

For the larger part of Seattle’s history, its land and its people have been segregated by race. The effects of these policies have had long-term impacts that have continued to shape today’s urban fabric. Early growth and distribution maps of Seattle show Chinese and Japanese population distribution in 1920 concentrated south of Yesler Way and East of Occidental (Yoon et al., 2017).

From the 19th century, Seattle housed Chinese immigrant workers to work on railroads and replaced the workforce with Japanese workers after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (Tsutakawa, 2020). The shift to the large Japanese population established the Nihon Machi neighborhood, or “Japan Town”, and set how Seattle’s International District would develop with different ethnic enclaves from “Manilatown'' to “Little Saigon”.

The Racial Restrictive Covenants prevented minority populations from renting, buying, or even occupying the property in much of the city. These covenants forced the Asian and other minority communities into designated areas during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s (Silva, 2008). These practices were further enforced with “redlining” that came with the National Housing Act of 1934, which delineated geographic areas for investment and identifying areas like the CID as risky or hazardous which resulted in disinvestments in the area. By 1948 these practices and covenants were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, deed restrictions and social enforcement by communities persisted and concentrated communities of color into an L-shaped “ghetto” (Silva, 2008). In 1968, the Seattle City Council passed Ordinance 96619 that prohibited unfair housing practices (City of Seattle, n.d.-a).

The practice of Racial Restrictive Covenants, deed restrictions, and redlining was also aided by the zoning of the CID for commercial and manufacturing use (City of Seattle, n.d.-a). From the late 1800s to the 1970s, the CID was zoned mostly as commercial and manufacturing with little multiple resident zones. Historically, the Asian workers and laborers stayed in hotels and mixed-use buildings in single room occupancy (SRO) facilities. The initially mostly male workforce of early Chinese migrants, then Japanese, then Filipino, and all the other Asian communities were segregated into the area as they worked in and around Seattle or the greater northwest region. During WWII, the internment of Japanese Americans removed them from the area, and post WWII, the right for Japanese Americans to return to their homes was opposed by anti-Japanese groups. 

After WWII, the construction of I-5 with the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 split the CID during the 1960s, eliminating businesses and homes. The construction of Kingdome Stadium in the 1970s also created traffic and parking problems for the area. These types of construction showed little consideration of impacts on the communities housed and making their livelihoods in the neighborhood. Also, the 1970s saw the passage of stricter building and fire codes that forced the demolition and closure of many of the buildings in the area (National Park Service, 2018). These constructions spurred the Asian American Movement with concerns for the displacement of residents, deteriorating conditions, and little voice in neighborhood planning (Tsutakawa, 1999). 

“The activists continued their struggles and demands for respect for the residents and businesses of the ID as “Concerned Asians for the International District.” Evaluating that the Kingdome was inevitable, however, they decided to particularly focus on elderly housing. Their efforts, including a march on the local Housing and Urban Development office, eventually led Seattle to include a provision to maintain the area’s Asian character and to rehabilitate the area for housing and small businesses in 1973.” - The Snake Dance of Asian American Activism: Community, Vision, and Power

Established in 1973, the International Special Review District (ISRD) formed as one of eight historic districts in the City of Seattle (City of Seattle, n.d.-c). Its goal is “to preserve the area’s Asian culture and history and to protect it from unwanted development” (National Park Service, 2018). This special review district saw the implementation of projects like Hing Hay Park, a traditional 45-foot tall Chinese gate (paifang), Kobe Terrace, the Wing Luke Museum, and Uwajimaya Village. Today, the CID stands as a testament to the history and heritage of the communities that came before and is now a busy residential and commercial neighborhood.

The activism and work of the Asian American community and leaders like Bob Santos and Wing Luke led to reform and brought attention to the plight of Asian American communities. The work continues today through organizations such as Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) in advocating for and helping community development (Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority, n.d.).

The Pacific Northwest saw a change in demographics long before Seattle became a city, or Washington became a state. Policies, laws and regulations on a federal, state and local level as well as social conditions spurred and emboldened by white supremacy all played a role in who lived and worked where within the Seattle area, as well as the creation, destruction and rebuilding of Chinatown-International District. Over all the demographics of CID have not changed drastically as this was where many Asian immigrants were lumped together due to racist policies and sentiment. Chinese migrants were the predominant inhabitants of the area from the 1850's-1880's, Japanese migrants were then the predominant inhabitants from the 1890's through the 1940's. Korean and Philippian migrants and later citizens also gravitated (and were pushed) to the CID over the years. Currently in 2021 it is predominantly Chinese-American and Japanese-American families.

• In the 1850's the first Chinese migrants moved to WA territory. Coming originally for gold they stayed to work on the rail lines and in the lumber/mining industries that were booming at the time.

• By 1880, there were 3176 Chinese immigrants in WA territory. The vast majority living in the historic China Town that was closer to Pioneer Square than the current location is.

• By 1882 the US passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This did not trigger any immediate change in demographics, however the years preceding this federal action did bring about change.

• In the year 1886 an angry white mob attacked and burned down the historic China Town in Seattle. On the premise that the Chinese were "stealing" jobs. This was not entirely true. It was common for labor intensive companies to hire Chinese laborers because they paid them less. The 1880's saw many states violently and forcibly remove many Chinese migrants from states such as Washington, Oregon, Alaska, California, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nevada. Some were put on boats and literally shipped to other cities and states to "make sure jobs were available for white people". Between the federal policy and local racism the Chinese population dwindled in many areas, some populations never rebounded, for instance in the city of Tacoma and the state of Alaska.
• Those who did stay in Seattle kept Chinatown going until 1889 when the Great Seattle Fire burnt down much of what is now Pioneer Square. Chinatown relocated to the area just east of where the current location is, off of South Washington Street. Thanks to the efforts of labor contractor and merchant Chin Gee Hee.
• Renovations to Downtown Seattle streets in the early 1900's uprooted the second Chinatown location, however by this time many more Chinese, and Chinese-American merchants, contractors, and laborers were in Seattle. Rebuilding Chinatown in it's current location was relatively easy with the number of Chinese investors contributing to the businesses.

• During the 1880's, 1890's and early 1900's Japanese migrants began immigrating to the US in larger numbers, many taking up the same or similar jobs the Chinese migrants had before removal.

• When the US acquired and colonized the Philippines from the Spanish, many Philippians began to migrate to the US. Though not a large number moved to WA.

• 1942 after the attack on Pearl Harbor Japanese immigrant's and Japanese-Americans were forcibly removed from their homes, many living in and around the CID.

• 1943 the Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed. The US and the CID see an influx of Chinese immigrants, especially young working aged men (many women and children were still barred).

• 1950 the Korean War begins. No Koreans are forcibly removed from their homes, however anti-Korean sentiment rises along with anti-Asian sentiment in general.

• Based on the 2010 census Asian-Americans, Asian migrants and mixed race with Asian lineage peoples made up about 14% of the population of Seattle. The majority living in the Bridal Trails area south of Kirkland and North of Bellevue, CID and South Seattle.

• 2020 did have another census, that data is not out currently in 2021 however, the recent rise in Anti-Asian Hate fueled by dangerously inaccurate and flat out false allegations relating to the COVID-19 pandemic may have an impact on where people decide to live, work, and play in the future.

Demographics, while a clear indication of who lives in an area, has also been one of the less tangible aspects of the CID in that not a lot of attention has been paid to just how many different ethnicities make up the CID. Due to sweeping "anti-Asian" laws and ordinances many different groups of people have been lumped together from nearly the entire continent of Asia. For a place to thrive with such cohesion is an important and noteworthy aspect of this neighborhood.

"And so I think the neighborhood has always kind of been... an immigrant gateway, but also a really unique geographic area where so many different races and ethnicities have always kind of coexisted." -- An Huynh, SCIDpda

These sites have been intentionally listed out. The first set of slides, 1-5 are a few of the businesses in the neighborhood. The C-ID is known for it's businesses bringing together both folks from out of the area and residents of the C-ID. One reasons we wanted to highlight the businesses first is because they act in many ways as a regional draw for folks. Many folks in Western WA will come to the CID to buy their food or other needed supplies because they find their culture and community here. This drawing in of different populations from around the state is why the area, and thus the programs are so multifaceted. Tourism is often what folks think of first when it comes to who is utilizing the neighborhood and the businesses, however, as we know it is much more complex than that. Residents are often not the first to be thought of because of how many tour Slide 6 highlights one of the service providers in the area, Asian Counseling and Referral Services. Slides 7 and 8 are highlighting the green spaces in the area. Many people in and around the community feel there are not enough green spaces. Activists today are prioritizing this work in addressing where green spaces might fit in to the fabric of the current community. Slides 9-11 highlight community centers in the area, places for folks to gather, problem solve and be in community together. Slides 12-14 showcase some of the many important cultural aspects of Chinatown-International District. The final four slides, 15-18, are dedicated to the spaces that encompass nuance and complexity just as people do. These spaces we felt embodied culture, they serve as community centers and they provide services.

Systemic oppression shows up physically in Seattle in many forms. One of them being the dividing of neighborhoods by major (more than 2 lane) roads. This happened first in the early 1900's and again around the 1950's/60's when I-5 was built through Chinatown, essentially cutting it off from the rest of Downtown. These transportation renovations were put in place to relieve the transportation congestion in downtown, however, it serves as a barrier in Chinatown as more and more commercial transportation moves through the area. The congestion was not alleviated, it essentially just moved east with constant stopping and going, without people stopping and staying, or contributing in other ways to the neighborhood. With this push came with it a lack in green and open spaces. The lack of greenspaces may have led us to assume that the forming of community would have been hindered, however this is not the case. In fact, the community that has been fostered and supported is rallying around creating more greenspaces for residents and visitors alike. While clearly, these renovations and lack of green gathering spaces have caused some harm, CID used the opportunities presented to really build a tightknit community.

Partially because of the space provided, and mostly because communal care is already second nature for many people living here. This tightknit nature of the CID has fostered a great sense of cultural heritage, pride and community. We see this beautifully in the architecture of the buildings. Many of which draw on traditional designs from China. It is a reminder of the culture and heritage of the past, while also fostering a sense of pride in the cultures created and maintained in Seattle.

The gathering spaces in particular are great examples of how the community feel resonates with people. These are places people go to not only be in community, but hear from each other, problem solve and organize. It is in these spaced where developers, city planners, and other people with decision making power can come and hear the concerns of the public. They can ask questions, and hopefully answer a few as well. Another example of a potential future gathering space is the Night Market. An open air layout, this would allow businesses to get more attention while also supporting more community members in making connections and providing for residents. An example of this is the renovations of the old ACME poultry farm, low income and multi-generational housing is the hopeful outcome of those renovations. Due to redlining many folks weren't able to buy homes in and around Seattle if they were not white, this racism also manifested in how and where services were provided. Churches and Veterans centers were created specifically for Chinese and Asian people living in Seattle because they were denied entry or services in other parts of the city. Housing, services, and open/greenspaces have all been created by the community for the community as they have had to deal with white supremacy showing up in physical ways in Seattle.

“When it comes to funding, you know what your strategic plan is, which is really great. So we can say you need the things you want to focus on. And then you seek out funding that really fits that. our team has a good idea of what we want to do for a certain project and what we can do to fund it. We're like, this is a good fit for this project. And we kind of do this brainstorm and think about it as a team.” - Jamie Lee, SCIDpda

Through previous research and the interview with members of SCIDpda, we identified the impacts of gentrification as racism, housing, and transportation developments, which took a toll on the health of the residents as their familiar environment changed, not to mention the indigenous culture that had been historically marginalized and neglected. In our quantitative research, we focused on and further investigated these five aspects as priorities for the neighborhood that needed to be addressed moving forward.

Chinatown-International District is known more broadly for its businesses and retail spaces. As is true for many cities, the closer to the downtown business area one goes, the fewer single-family homes and sprawling neighborhoods there are. This is true for the C-ID as it is in close proximity to downtown Seattle. While the C-ID does not have sprawling neighborhoods with many single-family homes it does not fail to foster a sense of community and belonging for those who live there. There are multiple apartment complexes, condos available to rent or buy as well as affordable housing options for both multi-family and multi-generation living options for people and their families. For example, the old ACME poultry farm in the C-ID is being renovated into affordable housing for the community, this is one of the projects to bring 150 affordable housing options to residents between 2017-2027 (HALA, 2017). One thing that is clearly evident in the design of both housing and community spaces is the intentional accessibility of them, as it is not uncommon for families to include 3 or 4 generations in one home or area. Another is the intentionality behind preserving historical-cultural dynamics and creating new ones for and by the residents (Associates, 2020). One thing to note about this new development is that even though a lot of money is being invested in the creation of these buildings we have to question how much of that money is being invested in the residents. In our study area in C-ID (census tract 91 and parts of 92), American Community Survey data from 2013 to 2017 shows that overwhelmingly 93.8% (in Tract 91) and 75.5% (in Tract 92) of occupied housing units are occupied by renters (Exploring the Patterns of People in Seattle and King County, n.d.). Meaning most folks living in the newest CID real estate will not own their homes (Bayang, 2018). This is important to note on both a historical and contemporary level because we know that the majority of generational wealth flows through the ownership and management of property especially real estate. This will be an important aspect of the CID to monitor for effects of gentrification, because if living spaces become available to purchase in the near future and they are not purchased by current residents or folks who have ties to the area, there is potential for them to be pushed out.

One way SCIDpda is addressing this issue, and the issue of housing in a more broad sense it through the management of property. Not only do they manage existing buildings, they are also involved in two new real estate projects bringing more affordable housing to the area. This is very encouraging, considering SCIDpda has direct and intimate links to the community already. As stakeholders in these development projects they can integrate community needs and wants.

“[In regards to developers building affordable housing] and not recognizing that they're building in our neighborhood and not really thinking about what does it really mean to have a building in a neighborhood such as ours where it is not just about housing people, but it is also how you house them and how you serve them.” - Jamie Lee, SCIDpda

In terms of the built environment generally it is clear the historic intentionality to disenfranchise the people living here. The roads are busy, as many are “throughways'' for trucks and business vehicles getting to and from downtown Seattle. Comparatively to neighborhoods like Maple Leaf or Greenwood, there are not as many green spaces or as many trees. Activists and organizations in the community are working to ensure that as renovations happen, and as new spaces/businesses and the like are built, that both of these issues are addressed (About the CID Neighborhood). 

Gentrification is influenced by racism, especially in the Chinatown-International District community. Seattle is becoming more diverse and multi-ethnic, while some of the city’s historic and longstanding neighborhoods such as the Chinatown/International District with high proportions of color are seeing people leave. Until the present decade, Asians were the most numerous racial/ethnic group in South Seattle. Asians made up 40% of the population in 2000, according to the census. Since then, the figure has continuously declined. According to the most recent figures, Asians are the second-largest group, accounting for 30% of the population. The Asian population of the South End is estimated to be at 29,000 people, a small decrease from 2010.

 Asian American small businesses have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic's economic crisis as a result of the latest activities of the pandemic anti-Asian hate crimes.. According to a National Bureau of Economic Research study, though overall small business-owner activity fell by 22% from February to April, Asian American business-owner activity fell by 26%. Some speculate that the rise comes from the mistaken belief that Asian countries and Asian Americans are somehow at fault for the COVID-19 pandemic. Between March 19 and December 31, 2020, Stop AAPI Hate, a non-profit that monitors acts of violence and abuse against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, collected 2,808 allegations of anti-Asian hate crimes. There were 126 assaults on Asian Americans aged 60 and up. As of one of the recent events, Noriko Nasu, Seattle resident, was the victim of an attack in Seattle's Chinatown-International District on February 25. As Nasu reports their experience as a hate crime, the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office says it lacks the evidence needed to file the case as a hate crime at this time. Violent crime has a negative impact on the health and development of victims, family members, and entire communities. People with low incomes and racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected.

“In the [affordable housing] properties that we [SCIDpda] manage, we have seen an increasing need for behavioral health services. The pandemic has caused increasing stress and depression. And cases of domestic violence have gone up… The threat of social isolation was already pretty high for our [C-ID] population before the pandemic, and you can just imagine, during the quarantine, how much worse that got. I think that’s another thing that doesn’t really get talked about at all…” - Jamie Lee, SCIDpda

Under the impacts of the pandemic, according to Jamie, even connecting through Zoom became exhausting and added an extra burden to social isolation. For another member of SCIDpda, she felt like the regional traction of C-ID for the younger generation faded out a little bit at the same time, potentially due to quarantine and crowded environments in C-ID. She thinks that younger people either moved out or didn’t come as often. The usual intergenerational interactions didn’t happen as often in the public space, while it is certainly harder to happen over Zoom. The changes are definitely influential considering the population density and age composition of the C-ID. The population density of C-ID is one of the highest in Seattle. From 2014-2018, the median age for Census Tract 91, where the majority of C-ID falls on, is 45.1, while the median age was 35.5 years for the city of Seattle (US Census Bureau, n.d.) (Exploring the Patterns of People in Seattle and King County, n.d.). During the same time period, overwhelmingly 53.9% of people in Census Tract 91 was older than 65 and lived alone, while for the city average percentage of people over 65 years old is 12.3%. In comparison, the population of youth (under 18 years old) was 6.6% compared to the city average of 15.1% (US Census Bureau, n.d.) (Exploring the Patterns of People in Seattle and King County, n.d.). The struggle to maintain vitality of the neighborhood could become more evident in the next decade and extra resources and support will be needed to attend to the vulnerable senior population who, at the same time, may have language barriers.

Besides mental health, exposures to various environmental hazards in C-ID are potentially a threat that accumulates over time. The demographic characteristics like racial composition and socioeconomic status of C-ID and the physical environment of dense housing and high traffic corridors further adds the susceptibility and vulnerability of the population, especially when facing challenges like COVID-19 (Min et al., 2019), not to mention the effects systemic racism and discriminative attacks exacerbated by unfounded claims of the cause of the pandemic. Taken from the Washington Environmental Health Disparities Interactive Map Project, the series of images below shows how C-ID ranks with highest risks compared to the rest of the city based on factors like environmental exposures, effects, and diesel pollution disproportionally affect the communities.

Screenshots are taken from  Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map Project Interactive Map 

With SCIDpda’s role in property management, they’ve been primarily helping people navigate these physical and mental health challenges in the past year during the pandemic, giving them the support and resources they need. Jamie also mentioned the City has not been adequately reaching out to vulnerable populations, like the elders in C-ID during the pandemic. Instead, SCIDpda and other similar community-based organizations have been the ones initiating these efforts during this special time. Take wellness calls as an example. The City was not equipped to conduct wellness calls for C-ID residents because of language barriers and SCIDpda has helped with a lot of those efforts, but these efforts take time and funding, which SCIDpda needs to constantly advocate for. Another example was that for hosting a COVID vaccine clinic, the City had not done a good job making sure that the communities knew about the opportunity. Their method had been limited to posting on social media, which was not enough because a lot of the vulnerable populations were not on social media.

With a high senior population in the neighborhood, we at first wonder if accessibility ever became an issue for people. According to members of SCIDpda, for east-west transportation, the seniors can take streetcars and buses but they usually figure their own way around. Most affordable housings are on flat land except one near the Panama hotel and the elders usually just pace up the hill slowly. A core downtown improvement plan developed by SDOT recently mentioned putting benches along 6th Ave for them to rest while walking up, but other than that, not much has been done.

Located at the southern end of Downtown, the CID neighborhood is highly trafficked to and through with its proximity to Pioneer Square, the sports stadiums, and as a destination for food and many other attractions. The CID is bordered by what SDOT classifies as “Principal Arterials” (Rainier Ave, S Jackson St, S Dearborn St, and 4th Ave S) of which two operate as major freight network roads (S Dearborn St and Rainier Ave S) (SDOT, 2021). The “Minor Arterial” 12th Ave S that borders the west side of our study area has an average weekday traffic volume of over 22,000 vehicles and Rainier Ave S on the east side has an average weekday traffic volume of 36,000 (SDOT, 2021). The Census Bureau ACS 5 Year Estimate data from 2019 shows that 65% of people do not own a vehicle in one of the two Census tracts that the CID covers (Census, 2019). That is compared to 18% in Seattle and 7% in Washington State (Census 2019). These factors compound with the heavy traffic that the street networks bring in creating dangerous conditions in an area with high pedestrian traffic and a large elderly population that walk these streets. The image below illustrates how more than 6 pedestrian collisions occurred in this area in 2019 (SDOT, 2020).

Historically, the CID has had a fraught relationship with transportation systems, with the construction of I-5 cleaving it in half. And since then, projects like the Kingdome and streetcar line have caused transportation problems for the neighborhood creating issues of parking, congestion, and many other issues. They are yet again facing a public-works project with Sound Transit 3 (ST3) passing and decisions for the construction of a new light rail station on 4th or 5th Ave present future concerns for the neighborhood residents (Lindblom, 2019). As a major connection point, the area around the King Street Station Multimodal Hub (KSSMH) is a vital part of how many people commute and travel. The new project brings the potential for increased activity in the CID area with nearly 70,000 people projected to board or exit a train in the new combined station. But residents and business owners are wary of the project, as the previous streetcar line construction set a precedent for interfering with foot traffic, access for elderly residents, and utility shutoffs (Lam, 2013). And with new construction comes the fear of gentrification and rising housing costs that have compounded in Seattle.

“I'd say this is the reality of working with a community that I think is not talked about enough, is that politics always plays a role. As a forty six year old institution in the neighborhood, there are things that people are still mad at our organization about that happened before I was born. And like there are people old enough to remember it and like so I can't make headway on something just because [of how things played out in the past].” - Jamie Lee, SCIDpda 

“We cannot look at Chinatown International District without recognizing the irony that we’re sitting in a train station where those train systems were built by Chinese labor, where that Chinese labor was excluded from this country by discriminatory laws, where they carved out a toehold here in Seattle, where the Japanese community landed and then we took them and interned them, and this community has been a vibrant part of our city for a long time. The community deserves more attention as additional transit lines converge there. It is the place where everything joins.” – Mayor Jenny Durkan

Positives:

1.Ever present cultural awareness around elder care in the area. Intergenerational cultural practices and values. Shifting resources based on needs (resilience). 

2.Attentions to Asian communities are growing, as well as investment and resource, sadly because of the pandemic and racist attacks - interview SCIDpda

3.Special review boards and historic registry to protect the history and culture of neighborhood

4.Incorporate economic activities - night market - cultural and social activities + businesses

5.Development brings in more investment, contributing to more affordable housing and businesses

Negatives:

1.Increased anti-Asian racism due to COVID-19 pandemic

2.Affordable housing has to go on the east side of I-5, hard on small businesses and effect placekeeping efforts of the neighborhood. Loss of cultural and neighborhood identity and changing sense of place

3.Development of transportation corridor poses challenges for residents to keep the sense of community and navigate within the neighborhood - virtual tour SCIDpda

4.Decreased business with pandemic’s influence as a small-business oriented neighborhood

5.Loss of younger generation members

Seattle’s Chinatown-International District is the only majority-minority neighborhood in a 12-mile, 14-station corridor. The district that remains a cultural crossroads of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Vietnamese communities is facing significant change due to Seattle’s growing demands for more affordable housing and enhanced public transportation. The introduction of both to the neighborhood has the potential to greatly improve the quality of life for the small businesses that were built there in the early 20th century, and where one fifth of its 7,000 neighborhood residents are over 65 years old, and the  median household income  is half the Seattle average. (Lindblom, 2019). In reviewing the options that Sound Transit is assessing for the C-ID station and tunnel construction, Southeast Design Review Board’s recommendations for Acme Farm’s retail and residential spaces, and Parks and Recreation’s plans for Little Saigon Park, it is clear that the neighborhood’s historical significance, cultural artifact, and the community’s feedback and preferences are being taken into careful consideration. In addition, attention is being paid to community highlights/factors of creating green and open public spaces, adding culturally relevant public art and events, activating local economy, and including greater accessibility. (Fesler, 2019)

We recognized that there were limitations to our work due to time constraints and difficult access. None of us lived or worked in the neighborhood and we didn’t have any direct interactions with community members, which may limit our ability to to capture the full picture of the impacts of gentrification and pandemic. For the qualitative data, we mostly gathered our information from the interview and virtual tour with the same SCIDpda members, who generously offered their time as resources for us, as well as reviewing some literature and documents. We believed that not being able to directly hear from community members and opinions from other stakeholders like business owners and interact with the elders and younger population in the neighborhood had affected our understanding of their actual situations. Furthermore, the research was conducted during the pandemic, so we were not able to grasp the entire picture of the impacts of the pandemic and it was hard to evaluate if these impacts would be everlasting. Future research would be needed to understand the situations.

Our research led our team to make the following recommendations for the the neighborhood and specific study area. Further exploration and studies into these recommendations will hopefully show the positive impacts they can create in terms of gentrification and the pandemic.

1. Consistent efforts for investing in the community
2. More socialistic approach to ownership of community space, including affordable housing. One large worry brought on by gentrification is that many of the residents will be pushed out by rising prices in housing. CID is unique in that the community is very intergenerational. Gentrification is affecting entire families, people who have been in the CID for decades and decades. One recommendation would be to encourage community organizations to claim a stake in affordable housing for the populations they serve. An organization that is leading by example is SCIDpda, which is working to ensure residents have and will continue to have affordable housing in the C-ID. Their efforts include “nearly 500 units of affordable housing for more than 700 low-income residents in the heart of the Chinatown International District.” By prioritizing the people who already live in the C-ID, SCIDpda can help offset gentrification in the area.
3. More arts and culture projects that build cross-race alliances
4. Little Saigon area needs more public open spaces and green spaces for community interactions and cultural events which can bring benefits to the businesses. It should also be prioritized for improving the physical and mental health of the residents, especially with upzoning and increasing density of the area. Green/open space and sustainability requirements should be formalized as requirements for affordable housing development to make sure they are serving the community. The development of Little Saigon Park and public space within public housing are good starting points. They indicate the possibility of future developments with the incorporation of public space 1) privately-owned public spaces, like courtyards or terraces of affordable housing and 2) adaptive open spaces like alleys, streets, or plazas. In addition, with increasing transit development, green spaces and trees are important to incorporate to alleviate the effects of air pollution that have been the health burdens of the neighborhood for some time now.
5.  There is an increased need to prevent commercial displacement with the recent focus on Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and the oncoming Sound Transit 3 (ST3) development. A precedent was already set by the work Sound Transit did previously with Link Light Rail on MLK by providing grants, loans, and technical assistance in advance of construction. These services need to be in language and can be partnered with local organizations to help businesses stay open during construction, and provide other assistive services.
6. Look into public accommodation laws that protect people from discrimination (Mostly towards businesses). CID community members can also work with their workplace and community organizations to issue a statement denouncing anti-Asian racism to encourage everyone to work towards racial justice. SCIDpa addressed how residents in the CID are not able to check social media for any type of news for their wellbeing, and it would be important to find ways to relay information to everybody.

Local

• Community organizations: SCIDpda // Friends of Little Saigon
• Real Rent
• ISRD - International Special Review District
• Wing Luke Museum
• Chinatown-ID Business Improvement Area

National/international organizations

• Culture - 4Culture (King County)
• Trust for Public Land // Community Land Trust

Government entity

• SDOT
• Seattle Parks & Recreation
• SDCI - Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections
• Future Washington State creative economy workgroup (SB5238)

Barnabas Hong

I have grown up in the Greater Seattle Region my entire life. And as a 2nd generation Korean American, I have had ties to Seattle’s International District through my dad making visits to the senior living community there while I was young or through grabbing dim sum with friends during college. I have since learned of its cultural significance through taking Asian American Studies classes at UW and have studied the historical effects of the construction of I-5 in my Urban Planning classes. The community here has created their own place in the urban fabric of Seattle that is distinct and important to the city, and my relationship to it has grown stronger after years of interacting with it, eating food, spending time, and making connections and memories there. The resilience of its people and the culture that has embedded itself here makes me reflect on the struggles my parents had to go through in finding and establishing their own community as immigrants. Over the course of looking deeper into the study area, I’ve seen the effort of not only organizations but also community members in understanding the importance of identity that they hold together. The history of struggles and work that the many communities that have come together to what we see today is important to acknowledge as an integral part of what makes Seattle what it is today. As changes occur with new public-works projects and new developments, the process different organizations go through to listen to community voices and respect their vision is vital to not only maintain what once was but also build something that can enhance the experience of interacting with the neighborhood.

Wynne Pei

As a Chinese American, I have always been drawn to the Chinatown district of any city for the familiarity of people, architecture, culture, and food... Growing up, family dinner was mandatory and my mom primarily cooked Chinese cuisine. The C/ID is where I go to find ingredients or restaurants for comfort food. Seattle’s Chinatown/International District (C/ID) is particularly compelling to me because I have lived in South Seattle longer than anywhere else, and because of its importance in the Asian American Movement.

While learning about the history of Seattle’s C/ID and the challenges it has and is currently facing (exclusionary acts, anti-Asian racism, rezoning, sound and air pollution, gentrification, COVID-19) I am impressed by the resiliency of the Asian-American community and their ability to come together and advocate for the collective. The formation of a Pan-Asian coalition during the Civil Rights Movement and establishing the International Special Review District (ISRD) guaranteed them a seat at the table when it came to impactful decision making. Of course, it is not perfect; not everybody agrees with everything. As Jamie Lee mentioned in her interview, Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) is a forty-six year old institution, and people are still mad at the organization for things that it did before she was even born.

It is important too, to acknowledge the harm that the Asian-American community was complicit in during the first alien land law in Washington; the displacement of the Coast Salish peoples from their land. It is also important to recognize that no individual or group is without bias, past, present or future.

"Communities can use placekeeping to build cross racial alliances. We forget that Asian and black folks have organized together for a really long time." - An Huynh, SCIDpda

Moving forward, I am interested in seeing how I, as both a member of the Asian-American community and an agent of social equity, can address accountability and promote transformation and collective healing, particularly across cultural barriers.

In physics, the observer effect describes the phenomenon in which the act of simply looking at something changes it. I think this an important detail to take under consideration and why reflection is such a vital aspect of social work. Throughout this project I can see how different factors have ongoing positive and negative effects on the C/ID. It is my hope that this project can be used by community organizations to highlight and bring attention to the neighborhood's narrative. Donations to Real Rent were made in honor of the individuals who graciously donated their time and efforts to provide a more humanistic lens to the project. Last quarter I wrote a memorandum to the Committee of Business, Financial Services & Trade, advocating the support of SB 5238 and the formation of a BIPOC centered strategic work group to improve Washington State's creative economy. As a proponent for a more equitable future, it is essential for me to remember how diligent and mindful one has to be.

Zyrin Ramzan

When I was a teenager, one of my very first volunteering opportunities was located in the International District/Chinatown. Throughout my volunteering experience, I was able to explore and appreciate the true essence of the International District and its community. Along with that, I always enjoyed the culture, food, and events that took place here.

I developed a greater understanding of how the C-ID serves as a home for their AAPI community after learning about the policies that come into play, and the charitable organizations that support the city. It seems that no matter what obstacles the C-ID faces, their community will come and find ways to work together, thereby becoming resilient. Their advocacy of fighting for their neighborhood and citizen rights have been inspiring to read about and they are rightfully justified. An example would be how the International District Preservation Movement was established as their citizens wanted to protect the ID and to address the increasing availability of affordable housing in the International District and offering a variety of culturally relevant services to the neighborhood's residents, especially the elderly.

One key takeaway for me would be how community organizers have been working so hard to be in aid for the CID community and it is important to acknowledge their efforts especially during the global pandemic. A quote by one of the SCIDpa members declares “Wellness calls happened when COVID first occurred. They needed language folks to call individual apartment units to check in with our residents or we do. They weren’t used to doing it this way. They find that the city or organizations don’t understand that. And so a lot of what we do is to either advocate for more time or funding to actually do those things because it is a lot of work.”-SCIDpda member. 

Haley Rooney-Wilcox

I have lived in the greater Seattle area for the majority of my life, however, I do not have a strong connection to Chinatown-International District. The times I have visited were to experience the beautiful mix of cultures through events and food. In recent years I have also gotten to know the area as protests and rallies have been held in and around the CID. I look forward to getting to know it on a more intimate level through this project.

While I have enjoyed getting to know this area through the research exploration, I have especially loved the interviews and site visits we did through this class. In my opinion it was these two things that allowed for more intimate insights into SCIDpda as an organization as well as the Chinatown-International District. Being able to glean a deeper understanding from those actively working in the CID was helpful in rounding out my knowledge of this neighborhood. Before the site visit at Chinatown-International District I was unaware that SCIDpda was an entire organization that is involved with the preservation of the CID. Getting to hear and see our Jamie and An go into more detail about what they were doing, and to see the genuine care they had for their work and this neighborhood was really touching. It made me want to do my best to show up for this space via this project. Before our interview, I wasn't aware that SCIDpda had control over multiple affordable housing initiatives, and I tasked myself with looking into housing for this project. I also was not aware that the C-ID hosts the largest number of seniors in King County. As I find myself drawn more and more to intergenerational practices, I was very curious and excited to learn this.

It is important for me to assess, and reassess as necessary (aka often), the role I play as a white, north Seattle resident in the preservation and appreciation of the C-ID. Gentrification in particular is a large problem for Seattle as a whole, as neighborhoods that have rich cultural histories are at risk of loosing those places to more white folks moving in. As some one with easy access to educational materials on gentrification and connections with people and organizations addressing this issue, I feel it is important to share that information with fellow white folks, friends, and family so that they are aware as well. Also, support monetarily, with y time, and energy, initiatives that combat gentrification. This project has been incredibly eye opening, and I have appreciated the opportunity to explore this space more, from pre-colonization up until now.

Luyu Zeng

• As an international student from Guangzhou (Canton), China, I feel a strong connection to the Chinatown-International District as it reminds me of my home with the food, culture, and languages. Originally knowing a little history about shifting demographics of the site, I was intrigued by the intersections of different cultures and how the place came to be meaningful culturally. At the same time, I’ve always admired the tenacity of the people here despite being in a disadvantaged situation for a long time. Through the investigations about neighborhood changes due to gentrification and pandemic, I gained a sense of belonging and I can only imagine how this knowledge of interpreting correlations and policies can inform and further empower people in the community to act and advocate for their own rights. Partnering with my teammates from social works on this project further contributed to my understanding of how grassroot community efforts were essential to cultural placekeeping, especially the power of solidarity, which has been the driving force for social change. With an interest in community engagement and environmental justice, I’ve also developed my professional ethics as a landscape architect to always call out the environmental injustices by applying the interdisciplinary lens and working creatively.

As students coming from the field of social work and built environments, this learning opportunity has taught us different ways to explore and contribute to the efforts of the organizations we encountered. The first approach we thought of giving our efforts was to pay real rightful rent to the Duwamish tribe in order to continue to acknowledge their presence and land. From looking into the CID, we understood that this neighborhood occupied the land of the Duwamish tribe. This is important because as citizens in Washington State, we can pay homage to what was once here. One of the other efforts we looked into was to continue to engage in the conversations with the community organizations that were shared with us. Stay updated with the news regarding the neighborhood. As well as educating ourselves with professional development. Along with that, we found it important to participate in community meetings and engage in dialogue on issues of ST3 designs for the new station to bring out potentially missing perspectives. We explored stepping back and taking time to understand stakeholder perspectives, honor lived experience, and be creative when addressing the issues. And respecting and advocating for cultural, social, and environmental justice in practice.