Seattle Chinatown International
District is a hub for Asian immigrant
owned businesses and senior housing.
Since the start of the pandemic,
the neighborhood has seen a decline
in business and foot traffic.
I spoke with community organizer Jamie
Lee about life these days in the CID.
I know it's usually a huge celebration
in the Chinatown International District,
but unfortunately the pandemic has
postponed the big celebration.
So tell us what's going on in the
CID for Lunar New Year this year,
regardless of whether or not
we have a big celebration,
people are celebrating with their
families as much as they can.
I know that a lot of grocery
stores are getting ready for it.
They have their food ready and
a lot of the restaurants are
getting and getting that ready.
Last weekend, the Friends of Little
Saigon had an event at their space.
The Little Saigon creative
where they made mistake.
I think it's fun tech which is like
the Vietnamese traditional thing
that they eat for lunar New Year and
so people are just getting ready.
I think to try to make this
better than last year.
Hopefully.
Well, Speaking of food which is a huge part
of Lunar New Year and the celebrations,
the restaurants are such a big part
of the CID and what really draws a
lot of people into that neighborhood,
what has it been like for these
restaurants over the last couple of years?
I think it's been kind of
a roller coaster journey.
In the past two years,
a lot of our restaurants had to completely
reconfigure how they did their business.
You know, take out was the game
and like how they did, you know,
a lot of their dishes and how
they were able to do that.
Many of the restaurants had to
figure out how to get online.
A lot of the restaurants either
pulled in their their children or
some younger staff to help do that,
and they've been able to adjust
in a certain way in this and it's
kind of been the status quo for
the past couple of years.
A lot of them have suffered,
you know,
some public safety concerns,
some break in's.
A lot of them had plywood up around their
storefronts for a majority of 2020,
so when dining rooms were
allowed to be used again,
it was really great for them as we
come a lunar new Year and attend that.
We're so used to celebrating and
having a lot of people around
it be really great for folks to
come down and even get takeout.
And just like support the restaurants.
Yeah, and you talked about,
you know the the impact of the
pandemic and what that has
had on restaurants in general,
but it's specifically in the
CID and then also this violence
that you just mentioned to.
There's been a lot of incidents.
Of break Inns and violence
at these businesses,
to the point where some of them
don't even bother calling the police.
And it's really hard for these
businesses to have to constantly
repair their windows and their
doors and have things stolen.
What's been the response
from these businesses?
Are they frustrated about this?
Yeah, so many of them are very frustrated.
Many of them have chosen either to
keep plywood up or kind of modified
how they operate, where they may be,
are open all the time or they're
not open for people to come in.
Many of them have modified their hours so
there cannot open up until later hours of
the day so that they can close earlier.
I know a lot of them have employees that are
kind of scared to come down to the district.
Now. One of the biggest concerns now is
not just the pandemic but also just like
how can we operate our business, you know?
In the district and the reality
of it is is that you know,
our neighborhood was a huge kind
of transit hub pre pandemic,
and like lots of folks who come through
it in the streets are just empty around.
There's not a lot of people around
and so that's been really hard.
And I think businesses are frustrated,
but they they want to survive and
they want to continue to have
their business in the
CID. It's honestly heartbreaking for
someone like me who grew up going to
the CID and now my mom still sings
Chinese opera there almost every weekend,
so I'm back in the neighborhood
and drop it off and.
You know it's been really great
to actually see some vibrancy.
Come back to the neighborhood and some
life and that's really encouraging.
Would you say the state of
the neighborhood right now?
And do you feel like more people are
coming back and you're really encouraging
even more visitors to to stop by?
Yeah, I mean, I'd say definitely
like the weekday traffic hasn't
picked up as much as it used to be.
Just because honestly people are working
at home, but on the weekend and it's
hard to find parking in the week.
So that's a really good sign.
Yeah, I would really encourage folks to come
down and continue to patronize, you know.
Your favorite businesses,
if they can't come down during the week,
that would be really great,
especially like kind of for dinner time.
And when when things die
down a little bit downtown,
I would really encourage folks to do that.
And there are a lot of positive things
actually coming out of the neighborhood too.
There's some artwork and murals
to try to liven things up in the
different buildings and whatnot,
but there's also a new Yesler
family housing that is under
construction as well, right?
Talk a little bit about that,
so yes, or family
housing is not the official name.
We're still working on the official name,
but that's the name is we have it right
now is a housing unit that my organization
skipped is actually working on.
In building multifamily housing with child
care and some commercial on the ground floor,
it's just right outside the district.
Some of it there has some replacement
units for Yester Terrace as well as
larger family sized units for low income
families to be able to return to Seattle.
Return to the area.
And then we're really excited to have
nice Louis Education Center in the ground
floor and some commercial along Yesler.
So it's it's a pretty
exciting project for us.
It's the first out of the ground new
construction building that we've done.
I think in. Almost 20 years,
so that's that's really great for us.
Yeah,
that's a big deal.
Well, your organization.
The goal and purpose is to preserve
the Chinatown International
District and keep it vibrant.
So thanks for all that you do.
Really appreciate your time, Jamie.
There will still be a lunar New
Year celebration in Seattle's
International District,
just a little later than usual this year.
So Mark your calendars for Saturday,
April 30th for a food walk and music and
dance performances at Hing Hay Park.