Last night, my family and I hit up the new taco trailer at 23rd and Union in the Central District. Pretty swanky, eh?

But to anyone who lives near that troubled corner, the taco trailer is a total godsend. Through the 12 years that I've lived two blocks away, the intersection has remained a stagnant scar on the neighborhood. Nothing ever changes at 23rd and Union, except for the worse.



Even the shabby Philly Cheese Steak place has been closed ever since the owner was gunned down behind the counter one sunny late summer morning in 2008.

A new mixed use apartment project on the southwest corner was once in the works, but the process to obtain a contract rezone from a 40 to a 65-foot building height set the project back a year—which turned out to be just long enough put financing out of reach under the new rules of the post-housing bubble economy. The prominent corner site has been surrounded by a pedestrian-friendly chain link fence for over nine years (though it now hosts a neglected art installation).

Talk about a cursed site: before the Nisqually quake supposedly damaged the pre-existing 1920s brick building beyond repair, it housed the Dar-us-Salaam mosque that was frequented by James Ujaama, who was later convicted of terrorism-related charges. And before that, the building served as the Seattle headquarters of the 2000 Ralph Nader campaign. Nuff said.

But hey, truth be told, I love, love, love the taco trailer, and not just for the authentic, tasty Mexican food that blows doors on Taco Del Mar down the street.

The taco trailer makes me happy because seemingly insignificant minor additions to a neighborhood often make all the difference in the world. That bleak gas station is not exactly a pedestrian paradise, but when we were there several people came strolling over. People will walk if given a good reason to do so. And the number of people walking is perhaps the single most meaningful indicator of the well-being of an urban neighborhood.

Even better, it just so happens that right next door to the taco trailer, the urban farming collective Alleycat Acres is building a new pea patch on what has been for years an overgrown, junk-strewn vacant lot.

All this gives me renewed hope for 23rd and Union, because tiny seeds have been known to grow into big things.