<Begin Segment 10>
[Ed. note: standing out on Jackson Street in Seattle's International District]
TM: -- improvement association through model city funds, we were using the office, under the NP Hotel. It's still being used there.
BF: Oh, really?
TM: Yeah. Interim moved out, and they came back a few years back. So I been "International District Activist" since early '60s, I guess.
BF: And you were saying that you didn't see really, there hasn't been that dramatic of a change, in your mind?
TM: Yeah, incremental changes, telephone poles, we got signs up, we redid the sidewalks, and there hasn't been --
BF: Seems like the ethnic group, though, has changed, no?
TM: Yeah, we have now ethnic Chinese from Cambodia, and Southeast Asian, Vietnam, which we never had before. Koreans have not moved into the area; we have only one or two Korean businesses, which is probably unique to the Seattle International District. But anything, even before the World War II, things north of Jackson was considered Japanese Town. But having said that, there was a lot of Japanese business all the way down to Dearborn.
BF: Hmm. North of Jackson was considered Japan Town.
TM: Yeah, and then, before they built the freeway, you were able to walk all the way up King Street, Main Street, all the way to like, Buddhist church. And there were houses along Main Street. That's where a lot of the Japanese families used to live. So they would go to church going East, and then come West to go shopping and things like that.
BF: That's a long walk.
TM: This is before the war, yeah. And your grandparents used to run that hotel up there?
BF: Uh-huh, right.
TM: And that used to be kind of, the kind of demarcation. From there was the residential and...
BF: Nippon Kan.
TM: ...West of that was kind of the commercial places.
BF: Well, do you think now it's become, it was sort of more of a tourist place, and now with the new residential space opening up, maybe it's going to get back that old neighborhood feel?
TM: Yeah, we're trying to get it back. This has always been a neighborhood where people on a temporary basis lived. There were very, very few permanent housing. But having said that, a lot of these hotels were run by Japanese families, their families just lived in one or two units. But the overall residency has been primarily single, bachelor-type single SROs, they call them, single room occupancy type of situations. And a little bit on the fringe there used to be Chinese and Japanese families, Filipino families. But I think the census shows that most of the population here -- and there are surprisingly a couple thousand living in this area -- are primarily single, elderly, or mostly very low income.
BF: Uh-huh. And the area, you think then the area over the next five years will be what they call gentrified?
TM: Yes. And you know, we thought that would happen when the Kingdome was built twenty-five years ago. It's slow, but having said that, we do have one, two, five, four or five brand new senior housing. And then we have a number of old hotels being converted to some kind of housing.
BF: And is this, the senior housing, is it mainly Asian?
TM: No, no. I don't know, but it's not as many Asians as you would think. First of all, if they're run by like the Seattle Housing Authority, they pull from everybody too, but.... There is a good number of Asians, but I would take a wild guess that the Beacon Hill elderly housing project probably has more percentage higher Asians. For some reason, this is, attracts a lot of good, a lot of people that feel this is very comfortable here. Of course, there's a lot of people that don't feel comfortable here, either. For one reason or another, we have never been, have had enough subsidized elderly housing in the area. I mean, to say it another way, whenever you put it on the market it just gets snapped up. And Interim and the Housing Development Association have done a good job. NP Hotel, and two or three others. There's a number of still eight or nine vacant hotels that are candidates for fixing it up as higher quality housing. But there's a lot of reasons why that hasn't happened. But slowly we hope they get converted to good housing. And that's one of the reasons why I took on the Fujisada, because if we prove that project to be financially successful, then hopefully it'll convince other organizations to put in market rate housing.
BF: Uh-huh. And that's part of the growth and future of your company, as well as there's a lot of history in this area. You're an activist for this area.
TM: Yeah, you know, all the studies you read and all the lectures you hear, community stays viable when there's quality housing, because people take ownership. I think Pioneer Square has been trying to get, and they have been partially successful in getting good housing. Denny Regrade area, Belltown, now there's all kinds of housing. And I hope the stories and theories are correct in that it'll be successful. But if you lived or visited any major cities like New York or Tokyo or Hong Kong, living two, three blocks away from where people shop and eat and work is not unusual. It's cities like Seattle or San Francisco where people always wanted a picket fence, I think that's changing. Next generation don't have to have it that way. They have a preference. And then the freeway gets so clogged. Why you want to spend forty minutes either morning and evening?
BF: Now you were just saying that Higo's is closing, and that's probably one of the last, or if not the last prewar Japanese-owned business.
TM: I don't know the full story, but you know, they were here prior to the war and fortunately, the property was maintained and owned by some hakujins naturally. And so they came back, and they were one of the first, I'm guessing, to open and reestablish themselves right after World War II. It's a shame. You don't have too many "Japanese businesses" in this area anymore. Twenty, thirty years ago we used to have a tofu places, and little place, Chihara Jewelry, you know we had the photograph place. It's too bad we don't have those anymore.
<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.