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TI: So I want to move to another issue that even kind of rages today in terms of, what do you call the area?

BS: [Holds up glass of water] Vodka.

TI: [Laughs] Traditionally, or historically, it was called Chinatown. At some point after the war it started to be called the International District by some people. Now there's this hybrid, the Chinatown/International District. I mean, tell me about that, the issue of what should the area be called?

BS: "Chinatown, get a life." Back in the '50s there was a, there was a Mayor Clinton and a Mayor Brahman who ran the city, and there was a Chinatown. I mean, the core, Weller Street, King Street, Jackson Street, that was Chinatown. Nihonmachi was north of Jackson Street up to the hill, all the way up the, to Twenty-third or whatever that was, Yesler, Jackson. Manilatown was right within the Chinatown core, along Maynard Avenue, along Sixth Avenue. Filipino businesses were along there, and all the hotels in the whole Chinatown area were filled with Filipinos. And so we had these three major Asian ethnic groups. There was a black, a very prominent black population down here, and as you might have remembered, this was the jazz capital of the West Coast. Being at the end of the railroad lines, Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, all the porters, cooks, everybody, all the black folks that worked on the railroad line, when they came to Seattle they'd come to Chinatown International, this International Settlement. And during the war years the soldiers, the black soldiers and the soldiers of color would gravitate to the International District. So the mayor at that time in the '50s said, "This is more than just a Chinatown, it's larger than just a Chinatown," and didn't want to exclude people, so they said, "We'll name it the International Settlement," which includes Chinatown, Japantown, Manilatown, whatever. And a couple of years later there was, there was a flier that went around, rickshaw races. I think it was, had to be the late '50s or so. There was a bright idea from, I think, the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce to have a rickshaw race, and when it was publicized in the local newspaper it says, "Rickshaw race in International District." That's the first time anybody saw that term.

TI: And interesting it came from the Chinese community.

BS: It actually came, it actually came from, the rickshaw race was sponsored by the Chinese community, but it was publicized, picked up by other people outside the Chinese community as in the International District. We were the jazz capital, Jackson Street was, the Embers, the Black and Tan, all these clubs up and down Jackson Street and some around King Street were owned by black entrepreneurs, Chinese entrepreneurs and black entrepreneurs. And then, course, you had the fishermen, the white fishermen that would live in the International District during the off season. The lumbermen would come into town, would stay in the International District and Pioneer Square. So it was really a mixed neighborhood. It wasn't just Chinatown. So now the word is out that Bob Santos wants to eliminate Chinatown. Duh. I don't know why I get credit for that, but I keep telling people, "Call it what you want, just don't force other people to call it what you want," right? And there was a little controversy a couple years ago when those of us from InterIm and the PDA -- InterIm created the Chinatown/International District Preservation Development Authority, we created that as a low income housing developer -- and when the Village Square was built and the health clinic was built and the library was built, some leaders in the Chinatown area said, "We don't want it to be called International District Health Clinic. It should be Chinatown Health Clinic." Back and forth. How about International District/Chinatown? No, it's got to be Chinatown/International District. And I said, "Hey listen, if you build something you name it. We built the International Village Square and we're gonna name it." So we decided to go halfway and name it the International District/Chinatown Village Square. Chinatown, International District/Chinatown Health Clinic. We went halfway with them. And it's still not, it's still not good enough for some of the very small leadership in the Chinese community. Others are saying, "Yeah, they built it, they should name it." But it's, this controversy crops up every once in a while and I tend to try to forget about it, but they keep pounding on us that, "This is Chinatown, this is Chinatown." It's not true. There is a Chinatown within the International District.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.