ARTICLE FROM seattletimes.com (full story click here)
I was born and brought up here in Seattle’s Central Area or Central District or what a lot of us call the CD. My mother still has a house on 30th and East Spring St. My mom bought the house in 1957. It was bought for around $7,000 and now it is worth more than $800,000. Amazing right?
If you know me I speak up on issues that others are afraid or just refuses to touch. The changing of the CD here in Seattle bothers the hell out of me. I really does readers. And others it seems have picked up on this issue too. Because their has been numerous articles lately on the topic of how African Americans have been forced out of the Central District.
The latest article on the changing CD is in the Seattle Times and it is a good article. To be truthful readers all the articles about how whites have taken over the community I grew up in really bothers me. I am a school crossing guard on 34th and East Union here in Seattle and it is truly sad that I hardly see any African Americans when I am on my shift. Very few.
This is in a community keep in mind that was 70% African American just a few years ago. Because of HUGE property tax increases in the Central District African Americans have been forced out of the community and whites saw the opportunity to pack up from their homes in Ballard and Mercer Island and elsewhere and move to homes they can pay for in the community I grew up in…the CD.
In the Seattle Times article the long time CD resident said that white folks have moved in the Central District and do not speak to African Americans etc. Basically they hang to themselves. That is TRUE. BUT readers check this out as a school crossing guard on 34th and East Union, I catch it from BOTH ANGLES.
The angles are this. A lot of white folks pass right by me and have a mean look on their face. So I do not say anything to them like ‘Good morning” Then sometimes I will go out my way and speak to them…then they will speak. Most of the time just barely. On the other side of the coin. A lot of African Americans do not speak too!! And they have a angry and mean look on their face too. Here is a question. Why is this? You see I am a nice person. When I walk out my door I leave all my so called problems at home and put a smile on my face.
So in Seattle’s CD, there is unfriendly white folks AND the few African Americans I a lot of them look angry and unfriendly. Things was just NOT this way in the CD a few years ago. People were more friendly and we spoke to one another. There was places African Americans can go hang out and have a beer or play some pool or dominos like Thompson’s and Oscars and Deano’s and have great soul food with Mrs. Helens and a great hamburger and fries at Sammy’s and The Doll House. Or go buy a sports book or the latest Ebony Mag or get your medicine at Jordan’s.
Things ain’t the same anymore. The CD has turned into yuppie land with white folks walking there dogs all over the cd the area and folks driving very expensive Volvo’s and Mercedes and Audi’s and etc up and down the streets of the Central District. It is just very very strange readers to a fella who grew up on 30th and East Spring St. When you pass by Powell Barnett Park you mostly see white parents and their kids playing.
I have had white folks sit and stare at me while they are sitting on a bench on 34th and East Union. Like they are looking at a alien from Mars or Jupiter instead of a black man doing his freakin job!! It is just amazing readers. Like the lady said in the Times article “The Central District is not the same” It makes her sad and me too.