Will My Neighborhood Come Back to Life?

HOME: Pushers, addicts, hookers & screamers are part of the tapestry of my historic neighborhood, along with business owners, residents, shoppers & tourists. The community's future is uncertain.

I live in Pioneer Square in Seattle. I like the neighborhood. It’s been my home for twenty years.

A promotional blurb says this about the historic community:

“Welcome to the birthplace of Seattle. Laying claim as the city's “first neighborhood," Pioneer Square is a richly historic place known for its Renaissance Revival architecture, First Thursday art walks, night life, delicious lunch spots, and quirky boutiques. Explore the depth and beauty of Seattle's first historic district.”

Well, that was before the pandemic. Now, whether the neighborhood will be vibrant and prosperous and livable again is uncertain.

(Cinecam / Shutterstock.com)

My neighborhood was always populated by drug dealers, addicts, prostitutes, the homeless, the transient and the mentally ill. But, they were part of the tapestry of the streets. Those streets were also busily filled with business owners, tourists, residents, shoppers and seekers of entertainment. There was a peace, if you will, between those who lived off the streets and those who lived on them. Now, not so much.

Since the end of the pandemic, it seems the police have more or less disappeared from our neighborhood and the criminals roam our streets unhindered. The garage in my building has been breached three times since the pandemic, and I have lost hundreds of dollars in property from those burglaries.

I live in the Tashiro Kaplan Artist Lofts. I’ve lived here since it opened as a residential building in 2004. The block-long cluster of artist lofts is home to painters, dancers, performance artists, illustrators, fashion designers, writers, musicians, photographers, songwriters, gallery owners, disc jockeys, home decorators, burlesque artists and yoga teachers.

A scholarly study by Seattle University described the TK Artist Lofts thusly:

"The opening of the Tashiro Kaplan Artist Lofts in Pioneer Square marked a pivotal point in the fight for artist live/work spaces in Seattle, Washington. Pioneer Square had been an arts enclave for over a century, where artists advocated for their own place in the infrastructure of the city. The Tashiro and Kaplan buildings were built in the early 1900’s and were home to prominent businesses in the area for decades."

It is certainly a tradition that artists in search of cheap rents gravitate to neighborhoods which are not deemed to be the richest, cleanest or safest. But, I always felt safe here in Pioneer Square. The local precinct used to send cops to meet with us in our building to discuss safety concerns. We kinda knew the beat cops. And we looked out for each other.

But, now the streets are mostly the domain of those who make them their temporary sleeping places, their opportunistic criminal hunting grounds and their ‘mobile businesses.’ To service the street culture and economy, we are chockablock with missions and shelters, another artifact of the neighborhood, which was the original Skid Row.

“The term “Skid Road” or “Skid Row”, a slang term for a run-down or dilapidated urban area,  was an actual road in Seattle, Washington during the late 1800’s.  The real name of the road was Yesler Way (now better known as Pioneer Square), and it was the main street along which logs were transported.  It soon became a rather sketchy stretch of street that loggers began to call “Skid Road.” It also became the dividing line between the affluent people of Seattle and the mill workers along with the more impoverished population of the city. It didn’t take long for the name to catch on and eventually stick.”

The Pioneer Square Residents’ Council took an informal count of the missions in the neighborhood, quite some time ago, and came up with this partial list:

The Compass Center, 1920
Union Gospel Mission, 1932
Bread of Life, 1939
Chief Seattle Club, 1970
Downtown Emergency Service Center, 1979
Lazarus Day Center, 1990

I certainly want plentiful and accessible and effective social services in our neighborhood. I want those who need mental health interventions to be treated. I want those suffering from addiction to be helped. I want those hurting from loneliness and homelessness and poverty to be welcomed and sheltered. I want those who are hungry to be fed.

But, I also want those who are preying on the vulnerable to be policed, arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated. And I want to be safe and secure in my own home.

(Even before the coronavirus there were thefts & rapes & assaults in and around our building. So, I can’t blame it all on a post-pandemic dystopian unease. In fact, I was assaulted right outside my apartment door in our hallway a few years ago.)

(But, I digress.)

My home is in the center of the storm. Across the street from our building is a transient hotel run by the Downtown Emergency Service Center. Kitty corner is Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission. And across another street bordering our triangular block is a soon-to-be occupied low income housing building to be run by the Chief Seattle Club for indigent indigenous people.

I want us all to live in peace and harmony. This is a neighborhood for all of us - the hearty & the hurting, the well-to-do & the up-and-coming, the privileged & the struggling. We need to live in understanding, empathy, tolerance & safety.

Right now, I am feeling a resurgence in Pioneer Square. There are still scores of storefronts empty from businesses that closed during the pandemic. Too, too many.

But, there are also a handful of businesses newly opened. And two strong community organizations, the Alliance for Pioneer Square and the Pioneer Square Residents’ Council, which are always hard at work to improve the neighborhood.

Our wonderful building of artists is, unfortunately, surrounded by buildings housing the saddest and most vulnerable of our city’s hurting population. I haven’t even mentioned two low-income housing hotels, the Morrison Hotel and Frye Hotel Apartments, both a block away. These once majestic hotels are now busy centers of the drug trade. Like I said, we are surrounded by illicitness

On the triangular point of Tashiro Kaplan Artist Lofts, along Yesler Way, is a 1.3-acre park, called City Hall Park, also called Courthouse Park. The city of Seattle describes it this way:

“Bordering on the south side of the King County Public Safety Building, this former battlefield is now a small walking and sitting space filled with grass, trees, benches, small tables, and chairs.”

Yeah, that’s a lie. Ever since I have lived here it has been a grassy resting space for all manner of street folks. It has never been a safe place for “walking” or “sitting.” More like “dealing” and “sleeping.” Well, for the past half-year it has been closed to “address significant public health and safety issues at the site.”

Now I understand that it is being re-imagined as a community park. This from King County Executive Dow Constantine, “Making this long-neglected space a safe and enjoyable park for thousands of King County staff, jurors, customers, visitors and residents will help restore and revitalize downtown Seattle. King County appreciates Mayor Harrell’s proposal to create a safe and welcoming front yard for our historic courthouse.”

We’ll see.

The point of all this is that this beautiful historic neighborhood should be teeming with pedestrians, out enjoying the architecture and history and commerce and art and music and neighborly camaraderie.

Instead Pioneer Square seems to be seething with pent-up suffering on the streets. But, this bleakness also seems to be weakening, fading. The neighborhood may be seeing a resurgence very soon, when the streets are no longer filled with drugs and despair, but, instead, determination and delight. That’s my hope and expectation, anyway. It’s why I am staying.

A case in point. Just a few blocks to the West of Pioneer Square, there is major development and construction underway along the Seattle waterfront, called Waterfront Park. This is very exciting. The elevated viaduct highway which separated the waterfront from the city has been demolished. Large swaths of sky and space are now open. Twenty acres, in all.

There will be pedestrian walkways, green spaces, new piers for community events, bike paths and even a beach. That should surely bring new life and tourism and community spirit to Seattle’s ‘first neighborhood,’ Pioneer Square.

"The future Waterfront Park will span 20 acres along Seattle’s downtown shoreline. A constellation of lush, open public spaces linked together by a pedestrian-oriented promenade, Waterfront Park welcomes and encourages the public to come together.  From dynamic open spaces with free, rotating activities and events, to coastline habitats for learning and exploration, to peaceful landscaped seating areas for a natural respite from the urban hustle and bustle, Waterfront Park has something for everyone. Stretching from the Pioneer Square to Belltown neighborhoods, Waterfront Park reactivates Seattle’s exceptional urban shoreline, creating a new public place that reconnects the city to its surrounding natural environment."

I like living in Pioneer Square. I want it to be vibrant and inviting. I want it to be bustling with street activity. And I want it to be safe and welcoming. I want it to be home.

I look forward to a day, hopefully soon, when the pushers, addicts, hookers and screamers don’t control the streets and are getting the help they need, and when families, entrepreneurs, artists, shoppers, musicians & tourists are back on the streets of Pioneer Square, in droves.

I want the tapestry back.

It decorates my home.