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Community Reconstruction: Seattle, Washington |
The Community
Within the Seattle community, the neighborhoods of Judkins Park and South Atlantic Street have long been representative of the ethnic diversity of the city. Since the 1960s, these neighborhoods have been composed of primarily African-American as well as Asian-American residents who are largely of Japanese and Filipino descent. The third Seattle neighborhood impacted by the I-90 project was Mount Baker, located along the bluff overlooking Lake Washington and just east of the Judkins Park and South Atlantic Street neighborhoods. Mount Baker is a middle-class neighborhood with fewer racial minorities whose residents were, to some extent, physically separated from their neighbors to the west by elevation. Mount Baker residents tended to be younger, better educated, and had higher household incomes than those living in Judkins Park and South Atlantic Street. The three neighborhoods shared several community facilities, including seven churches, an elementary school, and the South Atlantic Street Community Center.
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The neighborhood of Judkins Park, South Atlantic Street, and Mount Baker were representative
of neighborhoods found in older urban-fringe areas throughout the Nation in the 1960s and 1970s.
Lying within 2 miles of downtown Seattle, these neighborhoods were among the first "bedroom"
communities in this rapidly growing city. For many years, they provided neighborhoods in which
younger families could get a start in the Seattle area. When U.S. 10 (SR 90) was originally built in the early 1940s, two of the neighborhoods--Judkins Park and South Atlantic Street--were severed. Mount Baker--the third neighborhood--was bypassed by a highway tunnel that ran beneath it. This circumstance, caused largely by the height of Mount Baker Ridge, contributed to the divergence of socio-economic characteristics among the three neighborhoods. Because Mount Baker was not originally severed and enjoyed scenic views of Lake Washington, it sustained higher housing prices than its adjoining neighborhoods. |
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By the 1970s, prolonged and extensive land acquisition for I-90 and the R. H. Thomson Expressway made the State the largest owner of vacant property in the Judkins Park and the South Atlantic Street neighborhoods. In the 1960s, under procedures established to govern hardship acquisition, WSDOT had acquired 136 parcels in the proposed right-of-way (ROW) and 97 parcels outside the proposed ROW that were no longer needed due to changes in the I-90 alignment in 1970. When the R. H. Thomson Expressway was dropped from the regional transportation plan in the early 1970s due to vociferous public protest, some of these parcels were rendered redundant when the proposed interchange with I-90 was eliminated.
Impacts to the three Seattle neighborhoods from the I-90 expansion were significant, involving the relocation of over 500 people and nearly 200 households. As a result of these circumstances, homeowners postponed upkeep and maintenance of their homes, while others converted their homes into rental properties. According to community residents and city planners, vacancies in the area's housing stock, as well as the high incidence of absentee landlords, provided an environment for unsavory activities. By the late 1970s, 248 parcels had been acquired and cleared by the State. With this loss in density, decline in owner occupancy in the neighborhood, and the large number of vacant properties in the community, the Judkins Park and South Atlantic Street neighborhoods acquired notoriety for open drug dealing and random violent crime. The once-thriving, diverse commercial interests began to dwindle, closing or relocating until only a few essential businesses remained--even the local drugstore moved out of the neighborhood.