This post is part of a series of profiles of Central District residents, part of the “People of the Central Area” project developed and written by Madeline Crowley.

Bob Santos, photo by Madeline Crowley

About Bob Santos:

He sparkles with energy, charisma and depth – that very energy allowed him to accomplish real change in Seattle. Growing up in the Central Area of the 1940s with its multi-ethnic communities laid the foundation for him to become an enormously effective community leader.

Bob on the Central Area:

I was born in 1934 in Seattle’s International District (the ID). My Dad was professional prizefighter and my parents lived in the ID in the early 1930s. Then, my mother passed away in 1935. My Dad couldn’t take care of my older brother and I. He was a widower and his fighting career caused him to slowly lose his eyesight due to boxing injuries. Eventually an aunt, my father’s sister, took us in. They lived in the Central Area on 14th & Spruce and later 14th & Columbia.

When my father completely lost his eyesight in 1945, I became his Seeing Eye dog, so I would come down from the Central Area to the NP Hotel in the ID to take care of him. I lived in the Central Area and went to school there. I was running back and forth between the two neighborhoods so I could take care of Dad.

In between, I hung out with kids in the Central Area, mostly at the playground at the old Maryknoll School. That was a missionary school; the sisters came in the 1920s on a mission to convert Asian Americans, Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans to the Catholic faith. They established the church and school between 16th & 17th Avenues. 90% of us were Japanese and the rest were kids from the neighborhood. I attended Maryknoll Elementary for kindergarten and first grade.

I was in first grade in 1942, when our neighbor kids, the Japanese kids were rounded up and taken to concentration camps first to Puyallup and then Idaho. After that the school then became much more like a community center. The church still operated during the war but the school closed. The Filipino community grew around that church. Initially, it was Japanese and then it became Filipino during the war years.

There were a couple of German families in the church too, the Doedenhoff family and the Schmidt family. We always asked those kids, ‘How come you aren’t in jail? We’re at war with Hitler.’ And no one could give us a reason.

There was no reason except we were different, the Japanese, Chinese and the Filipino. We learned about that difference during the war when our Japanese friends were taken to concentration camps. The Filipino and Chinese kids were always picked on by the white kids, or the black kids, or the Jewish kids. When I lived at 14th & Spruce sometimes I had to get two blocks north to the Immaculate Church School. There were blocks I couldn’t walk down because of these two kids; they were black kids. I still remember who they are. They’re still alive today. Back then, if I passed down their block, they’d beat me up. At that time, all Asians were lumped in with the Japanese, it didn’t matter if you were Filipino or Chinese. It made no difference to them; you were the enemy.

Because we got beat up by the black kids and the other kids then the Filipino kids and the Chinese kids started to stick together, to watch each other’s back. That made it a little safer. But even when we rode the trolleys to go downtown people on the trolleys would yell at the driver, ‘Kick those Japs off the bus!’ So we started wearing these tags that read, ‘I am Filipino’ or ‘I am Chinese.’

What was your happiest memory of the Central Area?

At Maryknoll Kindergarten, I fell in love with a girl named Pauline. In first grade I’d go around with my Dad to the gambling halls down in the ID. Since my Dad had been a boxer, he was a hero not only to the Asian community but also in the Seattle sports scene. After he retired from boxing, he’d go to all his favorite places: the restaurants, the barbershops, the gambling halls, the haberdashery shops, and he’d bring me along. At the gambling halls, if these guys were winning I’d get a nickel, a dime or a quarter. We’d go from spot to spot. If my Dad forgot a place, I’d tell him we had to go there. I got all this change together.

In the first grade, Pauline was sitting up by the teacher. We had wooden desks with two people facing each other so I paid my way up to sit next to Pauline. I remember I had to pay a couple of folks off to sit next to Pauline. That was the happiest day of my life. Of course, one day we went to school and Pauline and all the other Japanese kids had been hauled off to concentration camps. And only the Filipino kids were left. That was the saddest day of my life.

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• Rash of Seattle U street robberies: Seattle University is warning students about a rash of crime in the past few days around the campus on the southern edge of Capitol Hill. In the most serious incident, two suspects beat their victim and stole his car near 13th and Jefferson early Monday morning. According to the report on the incident, the two assailants stole a gold Honda Civic in the 1:25 AM attack. The suspects were described as two dark skinned males in their 20s, both around 6-foot tall and both had what the victim believed to be East African accents. Seattle Fire Department medics were called to the scene to treat the victim who was bleeding from the mouth.Later that day around 5:25 PM, a SU student waiting near 11th and E Marion was approached by two men who asked her if she had cigarettes. “After the student gave the unknown men cigarettes, one of them put their arms around her, reached into her jacket pocket, and unknowingly stole her Iphone,” the report states. The men then left on 11th Ave. through campus as the victim realized her phone was missing and sought help. Both suspects ”appeared to be East African in their early 20’s. One was wearing a dark colored light weight hooded jacket with dark jeans, approximately 5’ 8” tall. The other was wearing a light weight black jacket, dark jeans, cornrow braids, and approximately 5’ 10”,” according to the report.Meanwhile, late Saturday night “two SU community members” were robbed as they waited for a taxi in the area of 21st and E Jefferson:
  

  A person described as being a dark complexion male, in his early twenties (21-25) of average build and height, wearing a black hoodie approached them and grabbed onto the victims clutch wallet. The wallet strap was around the victim’s wrist so she was pulled to the ground and dragged several feet before the suspect freed it from her and fled the area. SPD responded to the location for a report, and the victim was treated for minor injuries by SFD. No weapons were seen or mentioned during the incident.

• Close shave on S Main: The report on this 12th/Jeff hair cut gone very, very badly is pretty much one of a kind:

  

Swedish Medical Center – Cherry Hill Campus will be holding a free public session to help those who are signing up for new healthcare insurance through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange. It’s scheduled for Thursday, December 12 from noon to 8 p.m. in the Casey Room at Swedish Medical Center Cherry Hill Campus 500 17^th Ave Seattle WA 98122.  If you are not able to attend, please call 206-386-6996 to set up an appointment.

1622 E. Yesler Way

The dilapidated former gas station and auto repair shop sitting at 17th and Yesler will soon be replaced by seven four-story “live-work” units.

That means there will be 3,200 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, facing East Yesler Way. Each residential unit will have its own enclosed parking space, located behind the retail area.

The project is still in its design review phase, so we don’t have pictures of the architecture just yet. Those details are the responsibility of Caron Architecture, the same architects who designed the building at 23rd and Madison that houses Safeway. Caron has not responded to emails requesting more information.