Columbia City, Seattle, Washington

Columbia City is a neighborhood in the Rainier Valley area of Seattle, Washington. Its main thoroughfares are Rainier Avenue S. and Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. (until 1988 known as Empire Way S.) (north- and southbound) and S. Alaska Street (east- and westbound).

History

The area was once dense conifer forest, inhabited by the local Salish peoples, until the arrival of the Rainier Valley Electric Railway from Downtown in 1891. A lumber mill was built soon after, and in 1891 settlement began in earnest in "Columbia," named either for Christopher Columbus or the song "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/natlib/ihas/service/patriotic/100010423/100010423.mp3 (listen)] . Three streets in the neighborhood bear names of other famous explorers, a Columbia Street already existing Downtown: Ferdinand Street after Magellan, Hudson Street after Henry Hudson, and Americus Street after Amerigo Vespucci.Cassandra Tate, [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3327 Seattle Neighborhoods: Columbia City -- Thumbnail History] , HistoryLink, June 2, 2001. Accessed 24 December 2007.]

Columbia incorporated as "Columbia City" in January 1893. Annexation to the City of Seattle came May 3, 1907Cassandra Tate, [http://historyink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3321 City of Seattle annexes Columbia City on May 3, 1907] , HistoryLink, May 30, 2001. Accessed 24 December 2007.] following a petition by citizens to the City Council to hold a special election on the matter.fact|date=December 2007 Although opposition to annexation had initially been strong due to citizens' desire for local control, the March 5 vote was overwhelming: 109-3 in favor of annexation to Seattle.

In 1905, the newly-renamed Seattle, Renton and Southern Railway extended south to Renton. In 1912 the streetcar line went bankrupt and was reorganized as the Seattle and Rainier Valley Railway. Its last run was just after midnight on January 1, 1937. Meanwhile, Columbia City's ambitions to become a seaport were thwarted with the completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in 1917, which lowered Lake Washington by nine feet and caused Wetmore Slough to dry up. The former slough was used as a dump from 1941 to 1963, and is now Genesee Park.

Recent History

As African Americans moved to Seattle to be part of the wartime industrial boom, many settled in the area, and in the 1960s the area began to suffer the effects of redlining and racism. By the 1970s, the neighborhood had fallen victim to poverty, housing stock had deteriorated, and many storefronts along Rainier Avenue S. were vacant.

The Columbia City business district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 as the Columbia City Historic District, bounded on the north by S. Alaska Street, on the south by S. Hudson Street, on the east by Rainier Avenue S., and on the west by 35th Avenue S. [ [http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/seattle/s37.htm Columbia City Historic District] , Seattle: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary, National Parks Service. Accessed 24 December 2007.] [ [http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/preservation/columbiacity.htm Columbia City Landmark District] , Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Accessed 24 December 2007.]

Beginning in the late 1980s, Columbia City saw a large influx of minority professionals, artists, gay and lesbian couples and "urban pioneers" seeking classic housing stock at low prices. By the late 1990s, Columbia City was already referred to as one of Seattle's most creative neighborhoods. In the last decade, it has seen some of the sharpest rises in property values in the entire Seattle metropolitan area. The result has been widespread gentrification, including the restoration of many of the older homes and, in the last several years, the building of numerous condos and the planned construction of several hundred more [ [http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/excitement_trepidation_in_columbia_city Excitement, Trepidation in Columbia City | Slog | The Stranger | Seattle's Only Newspaper ] ] . As of 2008, Columbia City is one of Seattle's most diverse neighborhoods in terms of income and ethnicity, encompassing everything from public housing to multi-million dollar view homes.

Columbia City Today

Today, the thriving pedestrian business district along Rainier Avenue S. has become something of a citywide destination, and is home to six bars, a number of restaurants, assorted retail shops, a successful farmer's market, an art gallery, a book store, a new bakery, a Starbucks, a yoga studio, a locally-owned gym, a fraternal clubhouse, Columbia Cinema (a newly renovated movie theater) and Columbia City Theater (a live music venue), BikeWorks (a community charity that lets kids earn bikes by learning to repair them), a biodiesel coop, several community service centers and the national headquarters of the Freedom Socialist Party. The neighborhood hosts a bustling monthly "Beat Walk," every first Friday May-October, and many of the local businesses participate with Jazz bands, open houses and art shows.

The surrounding blocks are mostly single-family homes, in many cases older craftsman bungalows, with a handful of low-income apartment buildings and more expensive new townhouses and condos. On the ridge above the business district, where views of Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains are common, many new expensive homes have been built, and many smaller homes expanded and updated. This area is part of what's known as the "Gold Coast"fact|date=April 2008, a swath of often extremely expensive homes with lake views.

Crime is very rare, by big city standards, although there is still drug-dealing in the neighborhood, and a fair number of car break-ins. Though the area has gentrified rapidly, it still contains a few pockets of real poverty, and the clashes between the needs of the area's poor and the desires of the area's better-off residents are somewhat defining of the neighborhood's politics. Despite both gentrification and class conflict, though, the neighborhood remains perhaps the most diverse in the Northwest, according to the US Censusfact|date=April 2008.

The Future

In accordance with the Washington State Growth Management Act, and Seattle's strategy of concentrating growth in neighborhood cores to promote livability, quite a bit of change is coming to Columbia City over the next few years. A few see this as a threat to the community, but most residents appear to welcome change, seeing it as an opportunity to enliven and improve the neighborhood (and perhaps their property values).

Train service at the neighborhood's light rail station is scheduled to begin in 2009, connecting the neighborhood to both SeaTac airport and Downtown Seattle. Rainier Vista, once a post-war suburban public housing project, has been redeveloped into a much-acclaimed mixed-use, mixed income community built around the light rail station, and will include more than 900 new homes (some subsidized, some rental, some owner-occupied) when completed [ [https://www.seattlehousing.org/Development/rainiervista/rainiervista.html Rainier Vista ] ] . In addition, the Downtown Emergency Services Center is building an apartment building nearby, permanent supported housing for formerly homeless men and women -- the project prompted considerable community debate.

Other new development projects in the neighborhood include small-scale condo conversions and townhouse developments, to four 100+ unit new condo buildings on Rainier Avenue alone. Community estimates have put the number of new homes in the planning pipeline as numbering at least 1,500.fact|date=April 2008 Many have green building attributes. Little of this development will directly impact the single-family housing stock.

Besides the new businesses that will come along with these projects, there are quite a few new community and non-profit initiatives breaking ground, especially for children. The Boys and Girls club is building a new regional facility in the neighborhood, the Seward Park Audubon Society is opening an environmental learning center in nearby Seward Park and in 2008 the Brighton Science Park opens - one of the few free public science parks in the nation. The neighborhood's existing "p-patch" community garden will be joined by two new plots of gardening land. Other plans are said to be in the works to revamp the neighborhood's large Genesee park.fact|date=April 2008

A local arts group, the Pomegranate Center, has facilitated an effort to use public art, infrastructure changes and street furniture to slow traffic on Rainier Avenue and better connect Columbia City with the Hillman City neighborhood to the south, which has not yet seen the same level of reinvestment and renewal. Most observers seem to assume that the Hillman City business district will eventually catch on, and the two neighborhoods will be better integrated.

References

External links

* [http://ColumbiaCitizens.net/ Columbia Citizens] , the neighborhood wiki
* [http://ColumbiaCitizens.net/calendar Citizens' community calendar]
* [http://ColumbiaCitizens.net/news Columbia City in the news]
*the [http://ColumbiaCitizens.net/wikli:current Citizens' Wikli] , "Columbia City's neighbor news"
* [http://www.ccityrunners.com/ Columbia City Running Club]
* [http://www.columbiacitycinema.com/ Columbia Cinema]
* [http://www.columbiacitytheater.com/ Columbia City Theater]
* [http://www.columbiacityseattle.com/index.html Columbia City]
* [http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/market/columbiacity/index.shtml Columbia City Farmers' Market]
* [http://www.captaincolumbiacity.com/ Captain Columbia City] , a neighborhood blog of events
* [http://ColumbiaCitizens.net/photos/ Citizens' photo gallery]
* [http://www.historylink.org/cybertour/index.cfm?file_id=7044&frame=1 Columbia City cybertour] from HistoryLink.org
* [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004361342_mlk20.html Seattle Times article on light rail-related development]
* [http://www.rainiervalleyhistory.org/ Rainier Valley Historical Society]
* [http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv11637 Guide to the Columbia City Records 1893-1913]
* [http://columbiacitybeatwalk.org/ Columbia City Beatwalk] , a monthly community celebration