Tacoma's roots can be traced to the original
settlers of the Central neighborhood. It has blossomed into a collection of working-class homes,
apartments and businesses that makes up about 9 percent of Tacoma's land area
and 11 percent of its population since the late 1800s. " It's aptly named," said city historian Michael Sullivan. "If
you want a central understanding of the city, this is the place to learn it."
the
Central area evolved around streetcars that connected the city's bluff with
downtown,
which hugs the waterfront down the hill, unlike the newer North End where
homeowners relied cars. The streetcars gave rise to the neighborhood's
two main commercial strips
along Sixth Avenue and K Street,
which today is Martin
Luther King Jr. Way.
Though it's home to nearly 21,000 people, the Central
area is the second least populous of the seven neighborhood
council
areas
in Tacoma.
The Central neighborhood's borders include Sixth Avenue on the north, Tacoma
Avenue on the east, Center Street on the south, and Highway 16 on the west.
The area
has long been home to diverse cultures which have taken it through
different forms over the decades. It grew with the
arrival
of Scandinavian,
Italian, Greek, German and
Irish immigrants. As they prospered, Sullivan said, the first
settlers moved
to other city neighborhoods,
or the suburbs.
In recent years, the Central area has been known as a mixture
of white, black, Asian American and Hispanic cultures. It includes
the city's largest
percentage
of black residents, 21.7 percent, as measured by the 2000 Census.
Though George P. Riley, an early black settler, moved to the neighborhood
in the 1860s, most blacks settled the area after World War II. Later,
Asians arrived
in the neighborhood after the Vietnam War, Sullivan said.
Tacomans who remember how drug dealing and crime plagued
K Street in the late 1980s might be surprised to learn that
the
street once was
a thriving
strip of
ethnic clubs and nightclubs. John Chen Beckwith, the housing and economic development director
of the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association, keeps
a historic
photo
near his
desk of a crowd of hundreds who filled K Street on a New Year's Eve
in the 1930s. The photo, he said, offers him inspiration for how
the neighborhood
could once
again become popular and vibrant.
Beckwith sees a turnaround coming in improved land values.
" In this last year, we've seen values jump an average of one and a half
percent a month," he said. "I'm seeing small and large
investors coming in."
Joseph Decosmo of Seattle
is one such investor, who has owned a building at 1216 1/2 Martin
Luther King Jr. Way the past six years.
In recent
weeks, he's
begun
scheduling nonalcoholic Friday night socials and dances at what
he calls "Joseph's
Jazz Club." For now, a disc jockey plays the music. Tacoma's
downtown redevelopment, including its new museums and the growing
University of Washington Tacoma campus, encouraged
Decosmo
to buy the
building.
" I have every reason to be optimistic about the investment," he said. "Eventually,
we hope to attract musicians to that space."
The housing development association maintains 325 rentals in
the neighborhood and in the past three years has managed the
construction
of 10 to 12
new homes a year.
" Good housing stock revitalizes a neighborhood," Beckwith said. "It's
providing the critical mass of people necessary to create shoppers
and further economic development."
At least one major retailer, Rite Aid, responded to the improvements
by opening a $5 million pharmacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Way
around 1998. An estimated 35 small businesses moved into the
neighborhood in the past decade, as police and residents fought
to reduce
crime,
many
along
Martin Luther
King,
Jr. Way, said Morris McCollum, chairman of the Upper Tacoma Business
Association.
" One great thing has been the nearby University of Washington campus," said
McCollum, who has owned Mr. Mac Ltd. clothing store in the neighborhood the past
18 years. "Another strength is that we have two great hospitals
(St. Joseph's and Tacoma General) here and many churches."
McCollum credited longtime residents who formed block watch
groups and the police for a reduction in crime the past 15 years.
" We reduced it by just putting pressure on the police that we needed more
attention up here," McCollum said.
Sixth Avenue also has seen renewed retail activity the past
decade, including a couple of cafes, restaurants and a nightclub;
Jazzbones.
" These were good commercial buildings that were rentable at a low cost," Sullivan
said. "They were buildings that lent themselves to being
turned around."
Regardless of the area's gradual recovery, challenges remain,
said Steve Apling, chairman of the Central Neighborhood Council.
The neighborhood still has its share of "nuisance properties" with
various code violations, Apling said. Budget problems also leave
the city unable to tow abandoned cars and the Metropolitan Park
District of Tacoma unable to
maintain parks and keep them all open, he said. Next year, the
district may stop maintaining Ferry Park, which sits near Apling's
home. He fears it will
mean
a return of drug dealing in the park.
But Apling credits city police for their response to calls for
help.
" Whenever I have a problem, I call or e-mail our substation and we get
results," he said. "They're a very good resource." |
