The damage at Med Mix.
Yesterday we reported that the Seattle Police Department has determined the fire at Med Mix on Monday morning was intentionally started.
The graffito on the Neighbor Lady building that reads “4 Pratt and Trayv”
Last night, KIRO 7 released footage of a hooded person approaching the Neighbor Lady building across the alley and spray painting the words “4 Pratt + Trayv.”
“Trayv” is likely a reference to Trayvon Martin, and “Pratt” may refer to Edwin Pratt, a local civil rights leader who was killed in 1969. The graffito was painted on the wall where there was once a mural featuring Pratt and other African American leaders.
The award sign on the Med Mix building.
The video also shows the person pouring a gas from a can over a fence and into the Med Mix storage area. The suspect then lights the gas and leaves the scene.
The restaurant is currently closed, though the owner does have plans to rebuild and reopen. Fire line tape surrounds much of the building.
There is sign on the building offering a $10,000 reward for any information pertaining to the case. Anyone with information is instructed to call 1-800-55-ARSON.
Here’s the video capturing the suspect spray painting the graffito and starting the fire:
So bummed about this. Rebuild soon, Med Mix! I miss your chicken and rice already.
it’s really great to see a neighborhood standing up against racism and gentrification. way to go!
Yeah, for sure. Because destroying neighborhood jobs and property and replacing them with burned-out shells of buildings leads to wonderful, liveable communities. Full of culturally and racially diverse residents– all with no jobs and bars on all their windows. Good job!
So zingozango what do you and your idiot white anarchists know about this? Hope the hell they get them and lock them away.
Here’s a tip: learn what a word means first before you go using it incorrectly. It’s abundantly clear you have no idea what gentrification is.
What about this neighborhood looks at all gentrified?
There are a few places to get microbrews and several places to buy coffee. People talk about housing prices and are concerned about crime.
Those all add up to meaning the gentry have arrived and are killing everything good.
I have been a customer since Day 1 and I miss you already Med Mix..I had to eat the fried chicken at the competition this evening..Hurry up and re-open…My best to your employees and glad that no one was hurt..Any many wishes that the Arson culprit is caught and spends lots of time behind bars where I don’t think Fried Chicken and Lamb-Beef Schwarma salad is served!
competition = healthy community
This is just meaningless. Businesses have insurance, but the workers are now unemployed and people have less access to good, inexpensive food. This was simply for someone’s ego and to feel that they could do something meaningful, which it wasn’t. Putting up Pratt and Trayvon was a sad attempt to attach meaning to what is essentially a childish costly act of vandalism. I doubt the person doing it had any real concern for them or anyone else. It was meaningless.
no, your comment is a sad attempt to erase all the hatred these man child business owners have incurred from the community they are erasing.
no fiddlesticks, your post is a sad attempt at blaming local community members from trying to fix that blight of a corner. both of those businesses are owned by non-wealthy locals who bought/rented ABANDONED business fronts and fixed them up. get off your gentrification horse so i can beat it to death please.
Oh, please. “Fiddlesticks” indeed. There is absolutely zero connection between either Pratt or Trayvon and the owner of MedMix, who as Alex said is providing good, inexpensive food and helping provide something on the corner of 23rd and Union for the community. “man child business owners” is more a commentary on your own lack of understanding of current events than any insult to the owner of MedMix.
What history is MedMix erasing? Which part? Because before the CD called itself little Africa it was Japanese and before that Jewish and before that … so which part of history gets to be preserved and why? What a load of bullshit, seriously. The nature of community and humankind is change and things are changing and will change. This neighborhood doesnt and shouldn’t belong to anyone group or mentality.. it belongs to all of us who want to make it a livable community where people can thrive.
Stop trying to start a turf war.
The person who did this doesn’t represent the community, past or present although they might like to think they do. The community has one less restaurant. This is an attack on the people who work there and a man who has put his hard work into the business. Or do you prefer a burnt out shell? Maybe you do – symbolism is much more powerful than jobs.
lol
and one more thing fiddlestix – it was empty before he moved in. The community lost.
Looking at the article written about the mural I was surprised by the date. 2 years ago the mural was painted over.
“There is a plan for a new mural, according to Ian Eisenberg, who owns the Old Philly Cheesesteak property. The brown paint went up to prepare for the mural.”
If plans were made 2 years ago where is the mural?
why dont you ask the local community member who just wants to make money and doesnt care about 23 and Union or the CD or the history he and his man-child buddy are erasing. i hope these guyz dissapear. also commeter like alex are noticed by people in the neighborhood and it makes them hate not only CD news, but the businesses they defend like little fascist boot licking dogs, to put it mildly.
For those of you wondering…from urban dictionary
man child
a grown man who is very immature, therefore considered a man child. Dude you need to grow up and stop being such a man child.
fascist boot licking dogs… LoL.
Jason: There was a mural made as part of the Corridor of Peace project: http://www.centraldistrictnews.com/2011/07/new-mural-at-23rd-and-union-kicks-off-the-corridor-of-peace/
I must have missed the note about where that mural has gone. I would love to see art return to that wall.
Tom, thanks for the information.
I saw the picture of the brown wall on the current article and the same brown on the archived article and made a bad connection.
Totally understandable connection. Most murals don’t get up and move. But this one was painted by kids on boards and then mounted on the wall. I feel like I knew at one point where it moved, but I just can’t remember now. Anyone know?
It’s on the east wall of the same building, facing the now-empty Key Bank (Emerald City Bank, Liberty Bank, etc.) building. My recollection is that someone thought it would be more visible there.
P.S. This is in response to Tom Fucoloro’s question. I don’t know where this will post – there was no Reply icon on Tom’s post when I started this comment, though I see that one has now appeared.
Ooops!!! I just walked up E. Union to the post office and noticed that the Corridor of Peace mural is gone from the eastern wall also! I have seen it there quite recently, but it’s a blank wall now.
One other detail: the Pratt mural that had been defaced and was taken down was on the second-story level; the Corridor of Peace mural that came afterward was on the first-floor level of that building, both when it was on the west side of the Neighbor Lady building and when it was on the east side.
I can’t believe anyone is even hinting that this business somehow deserves arson or that a mural is taking too long. This was arson, someone could’ve been hurt fighting this fire (remember Martin Pang?). Arson terrorizes the good people of thus neighborhood, plain and simple. There is absolutely no justification for this crime.
lotz o people are happy about this off the internet, just saying. why dont you go take a walk.
Lots of people are happy about arson? No they are not.
yeah they are. go find out. outside.
Looks like we found our arsonist. Way to go idiot. Do you really think you’re anonymous?
You and your couple of loser friends don’t constitute “lots of people”. And don’t flatter yourself calling yourself a “community member”. You’re a rodent.
The neighborhood is changing. Join the community in bringing about positive change in a culturally diverse population or leave and join a bigoted community who shares your views elsewhere. If abandoned homes, empty lots, burnt out cars, and crackhouses are your thing, Detroit has plenty of low cost places for you to live and die. Your opportunity to retain the history of your ancestors and friends in this geographical area depends on your joining the community that is rebuilding it and offering a positive contribution. Fight it through criminal acts and you will lose. Change is coming. Accept and adapt or move along.
For those who dare to start small businesses in the Central District, I applaud your vision and resolution. For those who dare to reside in the CD, call 911 every time you see something concerning. The bad element will eventually find new homes elsewhere or in our prison systems.
What a knuckleheaded move. Was this act really in the name of people who’s lives deserved to be honored & recognized, their tragedies be brought to justice? How does attacking & destroying a local neighborhood business justify anything? If Walmart moves into the central district & devastates the local vibe, then by all means torch it! The very system you are retaliating against, the one that subjugates, represses you, & forces you on the fringes of society, is one that also sets you up to attack YOURSELF, your own community, and encourages you to wage war against your own community. Its a strategy that keeps them where they are up there & where you are, down here. Wake up & do something productive to build your community, not break it down further… quit being a pawn & do something truly revolutionary.
Yes.
double YES. Why on earth would people in our neighborhood want something good (that provides jobs, food, local spot) to be destroyed? To be replaced with what? Nothing? To perpetuate a life of what? Abandoned homes? Violence? Drug use? Why?
Im looking forward to the CD starting to teem with business and life. I want a safer, more alive neighborhood.
Medmix was not “good”. It was a shitty restaurant. The food was cheap at best. I don’t know why anyone would defend that ugly building. Its about the same as defending the opening of a gas station. “Oh wow look at the entrepreneurship, those people have opened up that lovely gas station. “
First of all, it’s not “was”. They’re coming back. So if anyone thinks this fire spells the end of them, they’re wrong.
Secondly, please spare us your sanctimonious restaurant review. As is obvious from the crowds who have eaten there since day one, MANY people love their food. And besides, WTF– you don’t like a restaurant, you burn it down? Just don’t eat there, for chrissakes.
Since you are clearly the authority on low-priced fine dining, I’m really looking forward to when you open YOUR new restaurant so you can show everybody how IT’s done. But it had better be good. Cuz, you know– if it’s not, we’ll have to burn it down, right?
Wow. People are glad about this? Really? Because that’s not what I’m hearing from the folks on my street. I’m hearing that people are concerned about the 12 employees and their extended families who won’t be getting a pay check for over a month; people are worried sick about having an arsonist in their neighborhood; people are weary of the abuse that decent business owners continue to get from a small faction within the CD… but nobody…NOBODY… I talked to when I was out in my neighborhood yesterday was glad about this.
People? Person with an affinity for the phrase “man children” might be more appropriate.
actually you didnt, but you did find out about the coke sniffing, phone sex operating, IDF supporting owner of the Med Mix and his man-child friend who is helping him destroy the CD. all these things are well known in the neighborhood. like has been said, you should go outside and stop accusing people of being the arsonist because your just wrong. if you went outside, you would learn that there are hundreds “suspects” with a “motive” in the surrounding area. this guy is notorious and is big on making belligerent scenes of himself in public. thanks for the anger and reaction, our side (you know, freedom and peace) is going to win over your side (money and greed). just so you know in advance.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz huh? Sorry, were you trying to be interesting? Oh nevermind, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
only people immitating a grandma say things like “worried sick about an arsonist in the neighborhood.”
People who have something to lose are worried about an arsonist in the neighborhood. And from my perspective, it isn’t just the arson that’s worrisome, but the fact that it seems based on such flawed logic. “For Pratt and Trayv”? What the fuck does an immigrant entrepreneur and his business and employees have to do with Edwin Pratt and Travyon Martin. Correct my assumption if I’m wrong, but it seems pretty clear.
Med MIx isn’t a symbol of gentrification. They cater to lower income folks with cheap prices, and it’s owned by an immigrant and employs people with a variety of ethnic heritage. If the intent was to target the building owner, they missed there, because he must have insurance for this sort of thing. If the intent was to screw the insurance company, the stupid sacrifice has now dicked a bunch of blue collar workers out of a job for a month – something which is going to be very difficult to deal with. Even if the owner is a dick, the retaliation further hurt the people supposedly being mistreated by the owner.
The absolute stupidity of this move is very worrying. Violence that is logical, or at least predictable, is something one can begrudgingly work around. Most of us dodging bullets feel this way about gang warfare. But childish, blindly over-zealous, reactionary violence worries me sick.
I cannot help but draw lines of connection to the anarchist camp, even as I’m trying very hard to be fair and just. It’s infuriating that turds like this arson are so arbitrary, when they think they are living with intent. There is a whole camp of individuals living among us by the credo of the teenage boy. Selfish, angry, and more powerful than they realize, but always exerting more power due to profound insecurity.
Restrain thyself, activists. You are out of control.
(yes, I know, feeding a troll and all…)
“cindy’ – when’s the last time you ran a small business? Why don’t you talk to these “rich” owners and see what else they might be doing about it other than what you managed to read about here?
I was saddened to see what has happened to MidMix, I don’t see the correlation between MidMix and gentrification. The owner of MiDMix is Morrocan Immigrant. I know him for over fifteen years. He is an example of what hard works day in day out means in this country. Let me give you an example. The owner started his career as a street merchant pushing a hotdog cart. Nervier missed a baseball game, he saved up and bought MidMix. So he is not rich as a matter of fact he still lives in the CD. As a person of black origin I had the same opportunity as other blacks in this country as a matter if fact I had it worse since I am an immigrant. But still I was able to purchase a property in the community. It’s supply and demand market get 2 jobs forget about the nice ride and buy property in your neighborhood to maintain your ancestry legacy. If gentrification will yield to diverse affluent people including African American I am all for it. Because if more people are able to buy houses guess what the property taxes will go directly to the local schools.
So if you don’t agree with a business you burn it down? If that’s how disagreements are dealt with in your family, then you have bigger problems. Wake up.
Cindy-
You should really get your facts straight before you open your mouth. The Twilight Exit did RAISE money for the injured door guy and all that money DID go to him.
Cindy’s point is that the Twilight Exit owner should just dig in and cover all the employee’s medical bills out of his own (supposedly deep) pockets, without fund-raising. A good example of what some predictably naive people think it’s like to own a small business. People who have NEVER attempted to anything such in their whole lives.
Seriously? You must not have a clue of what its like to be a small business owner – by no means are you rich, its a precarious (that means delicate, gentle) balance of money in and money out. You sound like 1. you dont know how basic business works and 2. are angry that you can’t figure it out.. instead of lashing back why don’t you leave yourself open to learn something and maybe elevate your perspective and quality of life.. punishing people who are trying to do something good for the hood is stupid.. if they go away then what? you’ll be bitching how the neighborhood has nothing…. wake up. read a book.
Not to mention that the restaurant business in particular is a very low margin business… I also highly, highly doubt that this fellow is rich. It shows the immaturity and ignorance of the arsonist that they chose this place – a small, immigrant owned, local business to attempt to make a statement.
Anyone who supports this type of vandalism (terrorism) is a complete idiot. Period. I have a hunch this moron is going to get caught. He will tell someone and that someone or “friend” will easily sell his sorry ass down the river for the 10K. Money talks and bullshit goes to jail.
let’s hope!
medmex needed to go. probably the grossest food ever.
Its not gone. It’ll be back. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. Don’t talk about it as though some vermin has accomplished something.
Poor Cindy. Obviously, she’s a french fry short of a happy meal. Small business owners do NOT have the type of money to pay employees after their shop gets burned down or pay for the the medical bills of a gunned down doorman. Educate yourself sweetheart. Gentrification is the least of your problems.
Um… Right. The survivor of the Twilight shooting had all his hospital bills paid for through Seattle’s crime victim compensation fund. So nope. Try again Cindy, or at least give a 4th grade attempt at research of facts before slandering hard working independent business owners.
There are some useful points to evaluate on both sides. Being I am the only inteligent being here I will point out some interesting points for you all to consider.
1) Local Community Member correctly points out that there is a large segment of the population that is happy about this event and supports movements that include violence to make a point. They are angry for reasons that I would hope I don’t have to explain. If you do need an explanation, go check with Wyking about history and what he is trying to do about it. Ignoring the anger and the devide is foolish.
2) Pupil for the People supports burning down WalMart stores. Way to go. So violence is OK so long as we focus on the right people to hate. Let’s keep that in mind when ever we get angry. That way we can torch, rape, and burn the subjects of our hatred and anger. It’s OK. Good job “People”. Your a real humanitarian.
3) Cindy is a child, quite obviously. Try just leaving her alone. It is good that she expresses her self and is chanllenged. Their is hope.
4) Let’s not assume this is as straight forward as it appears. Just as the N-word arson has not been explained, and we should not inherantly believe the motive of an arsonist is racism. We also should not automatically assume this arsonist is black or motivated by Trayvon. It could all be a ruse to foment hatred. The facts will come out. blowing your heads off won’t help. Well, I might rethink that last part.
Wanna to place bets on the fact that the arsonists are the young white middle class punks calling them selves Anarchists that have been aroung the CD far Too long.
Would not bet against you. Seems very plausible.
Finally someone here who can think like a petty criminal! When I heard about the “4 Pratt and Trayv” graffiti from the mask-wearing assailant I immediately assumed “white guy,” and then I next assumed Ian Eisenberg – who owns the building. Building owners are the most likely suspects in an arson case.
So was it you “that’s my guess” or whatever name you want to give yourself. Sounds like a trail leads to you. I have met Ian, not his style and your statement is libelous but you seem to have hatred in you against him and have used assumed names to post with trying to hide but your writing style gives you away every time.
Now Alex, whom I generally agree with, but not in this case states: Who ever did this does not represent the CD.
Clearly the do represent the CD. Let’s not discount who is or is not a representative or a real person. The arsonist is a real person and they do represent the CD and more than just themselves. You must acknowledge that there are angry people running about.
As the nut job says – take a walk, listen to the people. Many people are angry. Are they shooting each other out of love? Busting windows for productivities sake? Burning stuff to make a living?
Just because white liberals believe that we should all keep the easter bunny as our model citizen, doesn’t make them right or intelligent or a majority. The easter bunny isn’t real. Arsonists, Gansters, Anarchists, Teachers, and other criminals are real, and they represent the CD.
Let’s at least accept the truth and try to deal with it. If you drag out the damned easter bunny and tell me everything is wonderful I might cap the cotton tailed creep.
They don’t “represent” the CD. They might LIVE IN the CD, but they clearly don’t represent anything but mindless criminal behavior, or twisted and unfocused white-guilt pseudo liberal politics which benefits nobody.
People who “represent” a community engage proactively with their neighbors to develop solutions to community problems and issues. People who “represent” their community do not burn it down.
Rich boss ??? What are you talking about? You must be wrong!!!
I want to remind all that in the 70s that spot was a Jack in the Box, not a local business. So far everything is speculation.
Ok. Not at all sure what you mean j.
This thread is out of control. I think we’re just dealing with a run of the mill arson bug. The duplex at 24th and Pine was lit up less than 24 hours before Med Mix. I talked to the construction guys there today and they said it was also set with gasoline. A few weeks before the Cadillac was torched; before that the the Subaru and a truck also on 24th. Seems like a lot of flames all in the same area. Who knows if the racial and political graffiti means anything. Hopefully it stops and no one gets hurt.
Agreed, In the meantime this asshole has the pleasure of stirring things up. The “N” on a car and now “4 Pratt + Taryv.” This guys is playing us from both sides. Let’s not forget the real issue here. He needs to be caught before someone gets hurt.
Agreed. Personally, I believe these things are not racially motivated, but more the acts of those simply trying to create unrest and chaos, and they attempt to tie the fires to racial issues to throw us off the track. To me this seems fairly obvious. So rather than feed into their attempts and tearing each other apart, let’s just agree that arson is never okay and these people need to be caught. I’m tired of watching my neighbors treat one another this way.
I’m glad I’m not the only one – my first thought was the arsonist/graffiti artist in this case was the same one as with the burned car (and probably the other recent arsons) – Someone playing both sides of the race card just to stir up trouble.
Unless it is a national chain or something we don’t like. Gotta have options.
I’d have to agree with Geronimo’s post. I suspect that the graffiti reference to ‘Pratt’ and ‘Trayvon’ was to throw folks off of the perp’s real intent: to cause dissension among the community; to get back at someone associated with the restaurant; and just plain acting-out his own failures and in-sufficiencies. All these other crap about gentrification, the owner’s personal life, etc… is total hogwash and off-subject. Stop with the madness and fingerpointing. Let’s get to WORK!
Put the word out that we’re all involved in seeing that this idiot PERP is found AND convicted; that the business is soon fully restored and operational; and that there remains multiple eyes and voices on the streets of the CD to maintain peace, safety, and a healthy environment. The criminal element will NOT ever thrive within OUR Central District! They don’t and will NOT own this community…
WE DO! Let’s stop talking and get to work.
@ sally., Ok, fine!…YOU and others have alluded to these owner’s alleged questionable activities, morally-deficient ways, and ooooh… even, his/their possible attempts to buy up the available & distressed lots and properties in that corridor.
No prob. But, from where are you getting this information? To who is it being disseminated? Who else holds such personal information about these owners’ businesses & life that it becomes detrimental fodder to discourage rebuilding after an arson attempt? Or, is it absolving the perp on ideological reasons? I’d sure like to know.
If you haveessentail information for this community, then provide it. Speak your verifiable proof, or stand down. Bottom LINE is that we’ve an arsonist on the loose in the CD who needs to be stopped and apprehended.
Everything else is just scuttlebutt and scurrilous opinion.
WILL YOU be first – on that corner – to help revive the business or just another – mouthing written words of dissension?
Btw – every SPD officer is NOT our enemy in the CD.
I ought to know as I’m of a 2nd generation family of King Co./SPD, and we’ve been on board and still visibly present in the CD community since the early 1950’s. I take great offense at any suggestion that our SPD’s central district officers or the “Feds” might be complicit in this coward’s deed. Stop. Please don’t vilify the SPD as a whole – because I know better.
Thank you, and have a nice day!
Sally, even as a longtime resident there are couple of details you seem to have neglected:
1. Even if/when a new condo goes in across the street there’s no reason Earl’s can’t be a thriving business in the same building.
2. The Neighbor Lady did not “drive out” Thompson’s Point of View. It was shuttered due to back taxes, brought on by insufficient business, and the unfortunate passing of the previous owner whose wife could no longer keep up the business. And the lack of support from “the community” obviously did not help. A lot of these references to “the community” are clearly referring to the black community. We all know Thompson’s point of view was a bar and restaurant popular with black patrons. I’m not going to cast any blame for the failure of the business, but we all know that if business had been really great, Mrs. Thompson would not have gotten behind on her taxes and had to sell the building. So, you do the math.
Let’s stop demonizing every developer who wants to improve that intersection, and blaming them for killing off “community” businesses. It’s nonsensical bullshit.
Wow, a hole train load of crazy there.
“Do not equate jobs with salvation.”
Yes, work is for stupid people!
Yes. Exactly. Thank you.
So apparently:
Opening a new business in a long-vacant building = destroying the community.
Burning businesses, putting people out of work = saving the community.
P.S… is anyone here WILLING to step FORWARD & help organize a clean-up event to get this restoring process started? Between working 2 jobs, family care, and little sleep, I have limited free time but I do have other resources that I’m willing to contribute. Let me know via this site. Thanks!
are you for real??
Yes! Apparently… you’re not.
So, keep it MOVING.
what a dumb comment
You mean the intersection that had empty businesses, an open air drug market and constant violence? Them were the days, weren’t they? Take off your rose colored glasses and stop romanticizing a time when the community was decimated by drugs and violence.
I get that people feel displaced and that certainly doesnt feel good. but at the end of the day less violence, increased property values, occupied storefronts are all positive things.
Hey Cindy,
You claim to stand up for “the guy” that got shot. He has a name. He is my friend. And, we, at the Twilight Exit went to great length to make sure that he was taken care of financially for his time away from work. There was a fundraiser for him shortly after the shooting. You must have missed it or you would know his name. Good of you NOT to help out. All the proceeds from that night went to help him out. Then, the owner matched what was raised out of his own pocket. Get outside and into one of these fine local businesses and talk to some real CD residents before you open your uninformed mouth. Also, he was the employee, currently working at The Neighbor Lady who called in that asshole’s fire. If not for him it could have been worse. Fuck You Cindy!
Gentrification? Speaking as an actual gentrifying yuppie in the CD, this is the last restaurant in the world I would have visited. I do, however, respect hard work and determination so kudos to the owner, i hope he gets back on his feet soon.
By the way, you can guarantee this was one of those stupid white anarchists.
Gentrification FTW. I’ll think about all of you supporters of violence when I’m buying heirloom tomatoes at the whole foods that will inevitably go up once the thugs are priced out and have moved elsewhere.
Ain’t happinin here yt. CD is a peemanent toilet bowl. The development we are getting is such poor construction that in ten years things will be much worse and more dangerous than ever.
And you know this because?
The homes certainly aren’t the craftsman homes of the early 1900 but they are certainly better than the cardboard homes built through the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I’ve been watching a nearby set of 3 townhomes going up in the place of an empty lot and the materials and techniques are quality. The styles?…. they leave a lot to be desired but they will stand over 100 years. The density is troubling but the land between 520 and 90, Elliot Bay and Lake Washington is very valuable and when land is valuable, developers build vertically.
I hope they are checking all the video cameras at other stores and buildings in the area – it seems like the arsonist runs past the bank after lighting the fire.
Can’t wait to go back to MedMix when they reopen, or visit their downtown location to support them!
I don’t know about all the comments on the ‘crime wave’ – the area seems a lot safer than 20 years ago, but we live in a big city, and there will be the occasional violence. And how do you factor in the increase in population of Cap Hill when looking at crime rates?
Sorry but your prediction is pure crap. hey lets all pull nonsense out of ass and pretend we’re all structural engineers!
“4) Do not equate jobs with salvation. Knowledge and illumination do not come from working for 10 bucks and hour, they come from supportive and nurturing communities that do not condone the erasure of existing community”
lol.
This thread makes it very clear that we have some radically different interpretations of the changes underway all over the CD and 23rd & Union in particular. There is a genuine and heartfelt concern with the lack of control we as individuals have over the economic forces that change where we live. The frustration about the loss of a historic identity is legitimate – I get that, I really do.
Change is the only constant in the universe. We need to remember that. Given the broader economic forces, it is impossible to hold the CD in stasis. Seattle has a strong economy and is experiencing in-migration. There is high demand for housing and places to do business. Those are facts. Given those facts, we know that land, a scarce commodity is worth something. A lot, in fact. The CD has many vacant and run down properties. When those properties come on the market, someone will buy them. That buyer will build something there – something that offers a return on their investment and provides real estate that people are looking to buy.
Given that the properties in question were derelict until the present owners acquired them, and in the case of the sw. corner, completely vacant, the argument about displacement/erasure just doesn’t hold water.
On the other hand, there’s real cause for concern that the African American community is being priced out of the neighborhood. The significance of this cannot be underplayed. The diaspora of black Seattlites to southern neighborhoods has scattered and diluted the population, and when you have an oppressed minority, physical proximity is very important. Dispersing and watering down that critical mass undermines the community’s solidarity and reduces its ability to organize for collective action. The population density, proximity and level of day to day social interaction helped the community organize the shop ins at local grocery stores in the sixties, helped activists demand the creation of the cross town bus route (aka the 48). Moreover, when poor communities are priced out of a given area, those communities problems don’t end. They just happen somewhere else. Is the Central District the streets and buildings, or is it the people who live here? When all the poor residents have left, poverty is not reduced, it’s relocated.
My question to those upset about the direction of change – the arrival of new non-African American businesses and the development of new housing etc. on vacant lots is this: What is your vision? What would your ideal future look like? What specific initiatives would maintain the integrity of the community and how would they work, legally and financially? None of us has the power to roll back time and keep things the way they were. What we can hope to do is act collectively to demand inclusive and justice-bound development.
Would it be productive to create a forum to play matchmaker between owners of new developments and local small businesses? We could work to help existing businesses relocate into new projects, creating space for existing locally owned businesses to stay here in our community and even potentially create openings for new businesses.
If anyone has any better ideas, I’d love to hear them.
Thank you, Jonathan, for this insightful, respectful, and useful comment. I hope that it changes the negative direction this discussion had taken and that it elicits additional positive ideas!
Spare us your white guilt. CD hasn’t always been black, it was Italian, Jewish and Japanese before. Before that, it was Native American; the only folks allowed to complain about outsiders in my book.
The most important thing we can do is not help and not coddle people. If we continue to treat them as helpless babies they will continue to act like helpless babies. Peoples are generally capable. There may be some differences, but, people find a way unless somebody is helping them.
Helpful people get you directed down a pathway that is not your own. A lesson I learned is simple and I have done very well since accepting the this philosopy: Never listen to anything anyone says about what you should be doing. Nobody knows better about you than you.
Ignore everyone. Try and try again. Eventually you will find yourself and your own path. Hold very tightly to this rule. It goes against what the world tries to teach you – “listen to me – I will stear you to success”. BS. Even you mom is ignorent of your true calling. Go out and find yourself. If someone offers a suggestion then piss on them.
“eyes” with a new handle?
Thank you Jonathan for one of the few well thought out opinions and you make some good points. I’m not sure what you can do about people being priced out of a community though. I grew up on capitol hill and got priced out of mine. It was important for me to be close to my family and the CD was where I landed. Definitely won’t feel bad about it.
The suspect they are looking for is also a suspect in a rash of recent arsons, meaning he/she is a serial arsonist, and therefore, statistically speaking, likely caucasion. I think the graffiti was just a bunch of bs. This is just another crazy cracker..
So many of these comments are completely off topic. Who cares if the owner of the Twilight and the Neighbor lady is a douche? Who cares if the Med Mix guy is a sleaze bag? I can’t stand those bars or Med Mix food, but burning down businesses is not justified… no matter what.
E, where did you get the info on the suspect? It would help the community if there was an official sharing of the information on several different level. First the idea that it is a crime directed at anyone group would be lessened and second it would alert all to be award that there is serial arsonist in the area.
The people who are glad the place burned down must be talking to the people who have, until recently, worked on that corner and in the bathrooms of the former establishment. The one where the owner kicked out some dealers and then got shot. Yeah, the current business owners sure are ruining the “culture” of that sad corner of the neighborhood. It is hard to take part in the culture of shooting rival dealers and selling drugs to people who come into the CD from the suburbs when you know the cops will be called. So pro-arson bone heads, are you a dealers? Perhaps you are here to absolve yourselves of white guilt? Regardless your opinions are downright stupid.
Too bad the original black owned, hyper-local business in the Med Mix spot closed back in the 1980’s to make way for this mega franchise. I think it was called something like Jack in the Box.
a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people,[1] by posting inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room, or blog), either accidentally[3][4] or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[5] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[6]
Just to be clear, I posted the wikipedia definition in response to a flagrantly racist remark by “melissa.” which thankfully, has since been removed.
I’m going to go with the long-standing and semi-canonical internet definition which says that trolling is when someone posts inflammatory remarks solely for the pleasure of getting people upset and watching their responses. It’s usually disingenuous (the person probably doesn’t really even believe what they’re writing), but just put there for the cheap thrill of winding up other people.
Accuracy is often confused with racism or anger. People don’t like facts to point out the disparity. We know the disparity exists and can talk in general terms about it. But put some figures to it and people blame the messenger. I don’t see what she said, but, was it actually a racist thing or was it a statement of the facts that described a racial injustice. Did she create the injustice – or just state that it exists?
If the past informs the present in any way, I can tell you that accurate statements of facts are not Melissa’s specialty when it comes to comment contributions.
If you are looking for uncensored racism, racist “statements of fact” or other types of racist rhetoric there’s still plenty of it left in the comments section of this post and many others.
lol… are some still not sure what’s an internet TROLL?
Well, then please – heaven help them to CATCH UP. lolol :)
I have some time this weekend to help clean up, is there a time that people are meeting to help out? Saturday morning would be great!
http://www.centraldistrictnews.com/ai1ec_event/support-medimix/?instance_id=
https://www.facebook.com/events/313181992159034/
The place is haunted.
troll – A supernatural creature of Scandinavian folklore, variously portrayed as a friendly or mischievous dwarf or as a giant, that lives in caves, in the hills, or under bridges.
So, a part of the definition of troll requires that in order to get ageement on who is trolling and who is not – we must agree as to what the discussion is about.
In most cases the troll label is applied liberally by people who think only they can determine what a conversation should procede like.
When somebody dis agrees with you or considers a broader point than you can concieve – then you call them a troll.
Two points: 1) We appear to have an arsonist in the neighborhood and this should concern everyone, your car or house/business may be next. 2) Regardless of your opinion of the owners of MedMex and Neighbor Lady, they are adding to the safety, and stability of the neighborhood. Remember the thugs, dealers and lowlifes that hung-out on this corner a couple of years ago?
Agreed. The CD is improving and though some are fighting it, the positive change is inevitable. A $400k home requires $150k a year salary between the family members who live there to make the payments on it and have sufficient funds for maintenance and other life expenses. The land itself under many of these homes is worth $300k. The land value alone says that those that reside in this neighborhood in years to come will be educated contributing community members. My grandparents neighborhood went the other way while I was growing up and the community deserted it to the thugs. Change is difficult but it’s all part of the cycle of life.
I must argue about your affordability assumptions. For one thing, I just bought a $460,000 home with 15% down. I have no car payments or credit card debt but do have $20K left on my student loans (they don’t count that against me). I have to pay some private mortgage insurance. The interest rate was 3.75. My down payment came from the recent increase in home values on the unit sold inthe CD. My payment is about $2300/month including PMI, Taxes, and insurance. My income is 65,000/year. I have a wife (not currently working) and child.
You do not need $150,000/year to buy a home. To say so scares people more than they are already. Buying a home is tough, but, it can be done by people less well off than me.
Let’s say a couple both work and each earns only $35,000. That is $16.83 per hour of full time work. Those people could buy a really house if they could come up with a down payment Two people at $16.83 and then hope their income grows over time so they can start having some fun or investments eventually. Less than that, and you have to find a cheaper house to fix up over time.
There have been some ratty old houses on the market as low as 300K. A couple earning $12/hr could pull that off if they really cooperated and pinched for a while.
This is how things get done. If you want to have cable tv, unlimitted cell data service, a new 20inch rims and tires, a daily dime bag of pot, etc – then, you can’t buy a house or get ahead.
Life aint easy. Getting ahead is for people that work really really hard. It has always been that way. You can do it. It may take two jobs and a partner working two jobs. If you have kids then you better have a grandparent to help. If your single and can’t find a good mate then consider becoming a lesbian or gay. Those folks can due it as well.
You can do anything if you add enough ethanol.
” If you want to have cable tv, unlimitted cell data service, a new 20inch rims and tires, a daily dime bag of pot, etc”
Racist much?
Fred. What is racist about that collection of purchases? It looks like a list of items that many people purchase. Perhaps swap the 2 coffee drinks and a few beers for dope and you have a picture of alot of people that are going to struggle to pay the rent and will never buy a home. Coffee alone prevents 13% of people from making the rent payment. Alcohol and Cigarrets prevent 27% of people from buying a home. Pot is a lesser known contributor to financial failure, but, I would suggest the impact is severe. There is a clear disconnect between daily pot smoking and home ownership. These are not race issues unless there is a racial contection to substance abuse. I would suggest it is not a racial connection but a socialization issue that may have some racial skew. Essentially we are looking at the issues of substance abuse and marketting of uneeded products to people who should spend their money on homes. Lot’s of white people fall in that camp.
@zoom So, if you’re not making at least $150K/year you are not an educated contributing member of the community and you should be priced out???? If you don’t make that much you must be a thug?
That’s some messed up logic right there! Cycle of life my ass. That’s the cycle of white privilege and economic oppression. But, I guess for you that may well be “the cycle of life”.
Z00M clearly has no grasp of the real world. I doubt that he is responsible for any significant daily income or expenses. Perhaps his grandparentsl gave him a trust fund with a trustee. Probably has a daily allowance that is spent on psychotherapy, prescrictions, and martini’s at Daniels Broiler every night. Wears a captains hat but hasn’t gotten the boat running in 15 years.
You think? I arrived in the CD with $100 in my pocket, no place to stay, and in need of a job. I have a GED diploma and have never attended college. The most I ever received from my family after being kicked out of the nest was $500 to keep me from being completely homeless in Seattle. The morning I arrived I walked from my truck where my clothes and shoebox of keepsakes was parked at 15th and Yesler to the UDistrict and back filling out applications and talking to the local business owners pleading for a job. This was in the downturn of 2000. How many days did my efforts take to find me a $12 an hour job in 2000? 1.
The family income required to buy one of these expensive parcels of land and the sticks and bricks on it includes paying for child support, saving for retirement, dependable transportation to and from work, paying off the debt that resulted in my arriving in Seattle with $100 in my pocket. The suggested income level is widely distributed financial advice on living within your means and what the cost of the home you can afford to buy or the apartment to rent is. The subprime mortgage crisis was a combination of the bank’s greed and the stars in the eyes of people committing to more than they could afford.
With regards to the thug comment, my grandparents house was located in a Midwest neighborhood that was middle class that become progressively lower income much like the one we live in now did through its most recent change to the state folks are decrying the loss of. The alley behind his house became the open air drug market where the new residents literally opened the garages as folks of all walk drove down the alley to acquire the goods the new market offered. At 18 I found myself there one evening purchasing said products.
The cycle rendered my family’s property nearly worthless. Cry me a river about the property you bought for much less selling at a nifty profit to next generation of home owner in the CD.
People who are purchasing new homes in this neighborhood are doing so with the hope and desire to build a life. Educated was the wrong word, I’ll give you that. How about hard-working, dedicated, and contributing community members? This isn’t Mercer Island…
…and MarkIV, we all make poor assumptions some times.
All the nasty talk about Ian Eisenberg sounds like anti-Semitism to me. So his family had a phone sex business. So what? What a stupid thing to complain about.
The neighborhood’s changing, and for the better. You don’t like it? Move. Let someone better have your space.
now we have bat shit crazy people like “gun show” trolling. Time to cut the reply’s on this one.
Most of you die hard NIMBIES have the comedic sense of a block of wood. Take a Xanax and relax already
Hello,
My name is Inye Wokoma. Yes, my real name, not an internet handle. I am using my real name because first and foremost I believe in honest discourse and I believe in standing behind everything I say. To much of that is lacking on internet forums, an frankly that is precisely the reason I don’t engage much in comment threads. Most people use handles that obscure their identities and employ that sense of anonymity to say things and speak in manners that they most likely would not if they were interacting with someone in person. Honestly, I don’t have the time, energy nor inclination for those kinds of interactions. To be absolutely honest, I find this dichotomy between what people say online and what they will, or will not, say in person, indicative of cowardice. Which ultimately leads me to be an observer on threads such as this.
To be succinct, I find most online conversations about gentrification in general, and gentrification in the central district in particular, both exhausting and depressing. While this post is bound to be incomplete in respect to the full range of my thoughts and reflections, I will attempt to explain why.
I am, with the exception of ten years that I lived in Atlanta, a lifelong central district resident. I am still a central district resident. I am African American, my family on my father’s side is Nigerian and my family on my mother’s migrated from Arkansas after WWII. On my mother’s side my grandfather’s family were sharecroppers and my grandmother’s family owned land and farmed. When they moved to Seattle the central district was one the few places they could purchase property in the city. They were industrious, family and community minded and had a vision for making a better life for their future generations. These are all values that were at the heart of our family culture and remain so to this day.
I share a bit of background for a specific purpose. In almost all of the conversations about gentrification there are generally two basic narrative threads about the state of the central district prior to gentrification that rise to the surface consistently. First, that it was a drug infested, crime riddled section of town with failing businesses and second that gentrification has ‘made things better’. While there is a smidgeon of truth ( very TINY smidgeon, mind you) in these narratives, they are generally presented as the defining nature of the neighborhood’s history and its recent changes. The truth is much richer and much more complex.
How i described my family’s background and values, is pretty much how I would describe my overall experience growing up in the central district in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. It was a community rich with diverse ideas, perspectives, outlooks, ways of being and interacting. I say this as a way of defining, in broad strokes, the complexity of the black community. We are not, and never have been, monolithic in our disposition. Generally speaking we had/have a collective sense of identity, but this doesn’t mean we all thought and moved in exactly the same ways. Nevertheless, in all of this complexity, we had a cohesive and thriving community. Folks worked hard, played hard, loved hard and fought hard. We were no different than any other community of people on this planet, a healthy mix of function and dysfunction, good, bad and indifferent, virtuous and profane and… well… you get the picture.
In the end, the demise of our community in the central district was essentially economic. Partially due the same economic forces that are afflicting the nation at large (globalization, industry displacement and an increasingly corporatized economic structure) and partially due to economic forces (such as redlining, inequitable civic development and workplace inequities) that targeted African Americans in particular and made the advances gained during the wartime (WWII) and post war economies increasingly difficult to maintain across generations.
One thing I want to make clear, the African American community in the central district transcends the narrow narratives of ‘open air drug markets’ and ‘gang activity’. Even at the height of these activities they represented an extremely small portion of life in our communities. The folks engaged in these activities were fractional in relation to the overall population, the values driving these activities were never embraced by the community nor passively accepted by the majority of folks. Of course these activities make juicy ‘above the fold’ headline copy and newscast leaders so it is no wonder this sensational view of our community has taken root in the collective mainstream imagination. All I can say is, in the immortal word of Chuck D, “Don’t Believe the Hype”!
All of this is germane because this imaginative narrative is consistently used in an attempt to neutralize the voices and concerns of folks who have been invested in the welfare of this community for decades and refuse to blithely accept that being priced out of our homes is a ‘fait accompli’. Some of us (well, me at least, i cannot credibly speak for anyone else) also refuse to remain invisible. As long-time residents our place in this community, who we were to one another, who we are to one another, our values and our visions will not be reduced to or erased by the sensational imaginings of folks who would define our collective history as dysfunctional and drug-addled. That shit is tiring and it is tired and it is silly and it demonstrate general unwillingness of some new neighbors to make even the most basic effort to be neighborly. That is, get to know something about the place you are moving into and the people that are already there. There is a word for the failure to do so…. colonialism. I say that with a certain degree of snark, but peep the kernel of truth within.
To all of this I say continue the debate about gentrification. Keep your positions and differing opinions, but keep them honest and, to the best of your abilities, try to keep them informed by as much truth as possible. I recognize that change is the nature of things, I am less distressed by the fact that the community is changing, than I am by the wholesale erasure of my collective historical identity in this place. I am open an willing to have that identity evolve into something new, but I refuse to have that process defined by a set of ideas and imagined histories that have nothing to do with who I am as an individual and as one of few representatives of a once thriving community.
Keep it real, keep it open, keep it honest, and by all means feel free to ask questions if you are confused or curious about anything I have said. Just remember, i don’t feed the trolls and I only respond to decorum.
Peace.
-Inye.
p.s.
-whew! glad I got that off my chest. feel a bit better now. carry on! :-)
p.s.s.
-I am not in the habit of following comment threads closely so I may or may not respond in a timely manner.
This is my first time posting and i actually didn’t intend to post my comment as a part of this sub-thread. my apologies.
Omg… omg… thank you! I’m so glad that I came back to this thread, and read further down to find your most eloquent gem of a post. I, too, share your frustration at the many negative & bigoted comments about the CD from all of these “new residents”.
I attended Horace Mann from kindergarten to 4th grade when it was still a viable and functioning public school in the ’60s. Our BLACK community members started and maintained the decades-long Mardi Gras events until they were eventually folded into Seafair. My mom and her friends made most of the floats. It was my mom who put pressure on Seafair to include Af-Ams in the annual celebration. Before and until then.. we had our OWN princesses and princes in all their regaled glory atop floats representing our CD community.
Before it was Powell Barnett Park… it was just another open-air, unused space where there were carnivals every summer. As youth, Mom had us selling hot roasted peanuts and soft-drinks.
Where Garfield’s track is now – those were all row houses… and once that block was torn down amidst “white flight”.to make way for a SeaFirst Bank-developed housing .. it was where the carnivals were held. Jefferson Street went all the way through from 23rd to what is now, MLK Way. The Garfield marching band used to practice their routines in front of our street, and the whole community would come out to watch and support. The Bulldog hamburger joint @ 23rd and Jefferson was a familiar and safe hang-out for everyone, Safeway was thriving @ 23rd and Union, as it was at 23rd and Jackson. Don’t get me started.
Our BLACK family has also been mainstays within this community since the early ’40s. We’ve owned, built. and rented multiple properties right here ever since. We’ve served on CD community councils, started the FIRST CD block-watches, multiple CD school boards & PTAs; started CD community-based nonprofits, and partnered with social service orgs. to provide education and outreach to disenfranchised & foster youth of all ages and races.
Relative was one of the first black officers @ SPD, and King County Sheriffs office. Right here, still here… for YEARS, and one family member is presently nearing SPD retirement.
Our parents fought hard against the banks’ redlining them from purchasing property in the ’50s and 60s in communities all over Seattle and the Eastside. They worked with others to break that cycle of banks keeping Black and Asian folks from expanding outside of their corporate mandates to corral us within the 6-mile radius of the CD, and we did. Still have the newspaper clippings to prove it.
So, I’m NOT trying to hear anything that these new bigots have to say about who lives here. Not ONE of my sizeable and immediate family members have ever ‘slung dope, hung out on corners, or burnt down down thriving businesses’! FOH with the madness.
We maintained our properties with the pride and concern of most owners, and we worked with our neighbors – of all races, to join us. That has NOT changed from then – to now.
When I read these discussion board comments about our CD community as a whole, and BLACK folks in general – I am often disheartened and become so angry… because many of these with internet access haven’t A CLUE of what has come before them, or what remains consistent… and that is a still viable, concerned, progressive, and active Af-Am legacy that continues to thrive DESPITE their misconceptions, prejudices, and dismissals. RIGHT HERE in the Central District. Always will.
So, welcome home again, my sista. Your voice is truly appreciated and needed. Thankful.
Well said, Inye – thank you!
Inye,
Thank you so much for sharing your perspective. I really value your perspective and the time you took to share it. Whether or not we as as a community can act to reduce displacement and scattering of disenfranchised populations, at a minimum, we have a responsibility to understand what is really happening. I’m speaking as a newcomer to the area – I moved to Seattle from Portland in 2011, and I’ve lived in the CD for a little over a year. I’ve tried to educate myself about the history of this community and meet as many people around me as possible. Is really frustrating to hear people dismissively write off the effects of change as “circle of life” or some such nonsense. Newcomers like myself need to at least give people who have been here since the days of redlining the respect of an honest recognition and acknowledgment.
Thank you!
All this talk of chang and gentrification. Erasure of history. It all looks mostly the same to me. What has really changed so much. Perhaps this is all alot of talk about nothing. Arsonists and jerks are not a new phenomena.
I suppose recognizing change all depends on having a point of comparison. A lot of change is relational for those of us who have been here a long time. Which is to say that our community was a rich and complex tapestry of relationships of various forms and degrees of intimacy and interdependence. The dissolution of those interpersonal networks are quite profound from a communal standpoint, especially when they are not replace with new and equally meaningful relationships.
I could get really specific, but then I would be straying into the realm of autobiography, and I am not sure we have the patience for that in this forum.
That is a tiny glimpse in to the nature of the experience i am sharing. I cannot begin to imagine what you are experiencing as change/not chage unless you elaborate more.
As for arsonists and jerks, yes, they seem to be a pretty universal phenomena.
And, there it is.
Voices in the wilderness… yet, ‘Horton (still) hears a who”.
Would love you meet you someday. Perhaps, we’re already acquainted?
Interesting post from the Seattle Globalist about the context of this crime.
http://www.seattleglobalist.com/2013/08/17/med-mix-arson-central-district/15761
This Globalist piece isn’t journalism – it’s just a poorly researched opinion based on incorrect facts. The Pratt & Malcolm X mural has been gone for several years. It was tagged and retagged and was beyond repair. I didn’t own the Neighbor Lady building when it was removed. The purchase of Neighbor Lady building wasn’t a speedy affair a couple of years ago. It was a lengthy deal that closed just in December of last year.The metal siding went up because the bricks were failing due to earthquake damage and neglect. There was no choice but to remove the brick facade. Most real estate pros considered the Med Mix building & the car wash to be being repair and basically tear downs and only the land having value. They were rehabbed at major expense so they didn’t continue as fenced off lots and blights on the neighborhood. There really aren’t “questions” about land ownership – it is all public record and easy to google. She says I have no ties to the area and am only interested in profit. Of course I have ties to the area and yes I am interested in profit. That is what drives business. I profit if the area gets better and more vibrant. This doesn’t mean I want a whitewashed Bellevue generic landscape. Quite the contrary. An old closed down car wash, boarded up restaurant and un-insurable building (Neighbor Lady due to failing brick facade) doesn’t help anyone. She also says that landlords can “hike up the rent at any time and leave them hanging.” I don’t know about other landlords and tenants, but my tenants all have leases that dictate how the property is managed. Pretty basic concept. Then there is the issue of the corners being up for rezone, sale and development. Where does this come from?. Only the post office block is up for rezone as far as I know. The others she mentions are pure fiction. What is this fourth corner that has “already been sold, rezoned and awaiting EPA approval..?” Is she thinking of the SW corner? It gets worst when she talks about the businesses owned by African American, black or immigrants that have been in the neighborhood for years. I own one of these she mentions, the car wash, and previously she calls me an outsider. Go figure? I know some of the owners of the other businesses she mentions and they don’t match her description, not that I consider her preferred tenant mix a prerequisite for being a good addition to the neighborhood. That kind of smells like prejudice to me. For someone working on their doctorate at the UW I am pretty disappointed in this piece of sensationalism garbage.
One last thing – if she knows “This wasn’t just the random work of a pyromaniac” then by all means step up, do the right thing and let the police know. For the safety of all.
Thanks for the clarification Ian. In the absence of facts people usually fill in whatever facile narrative they already subscribe to. The reality is usually a lot more complicated.
Thank you, Ian.. for the illumination and real, hard cold facts about that property’s issues and value;
and for being a part of this community’s vibrant revitalization efforts. Stay around, please. Your voice is wanted and needed. *Peace*
Thank you Ian but I am afraid some only want to believe what bolsters their own agenda. Say it enough times and people will believe it. You do good work Ian, keep it up!
My pleasure! My office is above the NL. I am there everyday. No one subscribes to more conspiracy theories than me, but in this case the truth is pretty easily discernible. Anyone that wants to know what I know, my motives, intentions etc etc just needs to come ask me. All these wild ass accusations and laughable theories can and should be put to rest. I just read the Madrona school arson last night was deemed an arson. That’s like the 6th this summer in the CD. Scary indeed.
Ian- thanks for your post above. I always appreciate reading the opinions of business owners in the neighborhood. I read the Globalist piece and what immediately stood out to me was- oh yeah, Ian owns both of the targeted properties. That seems a quite relavent point that was otherwise unmentioned in the media coverage of this arson. There is some hyperbole in the piece, but there’s also potential motive. If I had to guess, at this moment, I’d go with your theory that these acts are the work of a psychotic anarchist middle schooler,but absent any other information from SPD, it’worth wondering if there are specific intentions at work in these arsons.
Fyi,
Madonna school had a fire on Sunday that is believed to be arson. If I lived in the CD I would be really nervous
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I was part of the committee who worked with the youth who created the new mural for the “corridor of peace” which was mounted to the wall and has since been taken down completely. Where is it and why is it down??
We all worked very hard to get that up there. I was sad it got moved to the east side of the building a while back because it was LESS visible, now it’s down completely.
Do you mean this mural? http://www.centraldistrictnews.com/2013/08/anyone-seen-this-mural/