Seattle Met composite. Photographs by Amber Fouts and Jose Luis Stephens/Shutterstock.
Protests have manifested emotional reckonings with the criminal justice system’s treatment of Black lives in neighborhoods across Seattle, but these demonstrations cut to the core in the Central District. Today a white-owned cannabis shop sits on a corner of this enclave where numerous Black men and boys were arrested for drug-related crimes. Blasé mixed-use buildings rise across the way, recent examples of a development boom that has contributed to a precipitous drop in Black residents occupying these blocks. Gentrification can’t completely rob the neighborhood of its rich cultural history—just take a glance at the flavors represented in the area’s restaurants, including some establishments that belong to a new group of Black owners. They’re bringing change that honors the past. There’s no reason others can’t too.
Displaced from the Central District
How the lives of two drug kingpins trace a neighborhood’s gentrification and struggle for justice.
Omari Salisbury Bears Witness to Seattle’s Season of Protest
“Time and time and time again, the journalist hat came off.”
Where to Eat (and Drink) in the Central District
A variety that reflects the neighborhood’s history.
D’Vonne Pickett, Jr., Delivers a New Package Hub in the Central District
“I’ve always been one to blaze my own trail. I just feel like I’m built for it.”
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