Since the mid-1800s, Seattle has been built around a small four square mile plot spanning east to west from Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue to 12th Avenue, and north to south from Jackson St. to Madison. Known as the Central District, this square of land has been a part of our Seattle culture for a long, long time. It has been the source of the beautiful diversity that permeates the great city of Seattle, and as such it stands as one of the most prolific centers of our common culture.

The CD was originally logged and cut out because it was the ideal place for residential development. It was right next to the Central Business district, and there was a wealth of job opportunities. Henry Yesler owned a sawmill nearby, and logs were slid down the hill to his mill. The street they were slid down was originally called “Skid Road,” but was eventually changed to Yesler way.

From the beginning, around 1890, the CD was primarily filled with poor Jewish people, who manned the hardware and grocery stores. As the decades passed, people of more diverse ethnicities came to Seattle, most of them settling down in the CD. Jews from Germany, Poland, Spain, Turkey, and Rhodes came first, and they built kosher markets and synagogues. Soon people from Scandinavia came to Seattle. Then Japanese people came to Seattle, all making their homes in the CD. They set up stores, churches and gas stations; there is still a strong Japanese presence between 14th and 18th Avenues along Jackson. The CD began to diversify even more when William Grose, an African-American businessman, arrived and bought a 12-block portion of Henry Yesler’s land. This marked the start of the black community growing in the CD. Because of unfair landowners and prices, many were unable to afford housing elsewhere.

All of these cultures, all of these people have helped to shape the CD into the wonderfully diverse area of Seattle it is. But ever since around the 1990s, everything started to change. People with higher incomes started to flow into the Central District. The continued expansion of companies like Boeing and the beginnings of major corporations like Microsoft created hundreds of well-paying jobs, and the people who took these jobs were mostly white.

Higher property values emerged as a result of the CD’s increased desirability to wealthy white families. Its proximity to downtown and the freeway, as well as other well-established neighborhoods like Madison, Madrona, Capitol Hill, and Miller attracted new families to the Central District. Raises in rent and higher taxes forced much of the black population out of the CD, and into neighborhoods like Columbia City, Skyway, and Renton.

Anne Gilpin has been a resident of the Central District for a long time now, and she has seen a lot of change since she first moved here. “When I moved here, there really wasn’t much building going on here,” said Gilpin. “There were more elderly African-American families, and I was definitely in the minority.” This is typical in the CD: a family that has lived in the area for a long time has a fire or a death in the family and is no longer be able to afford its house, or pay the rent. This forces families with history in the Central District to sell their houses to developers and other people who can afford to live in the CD.

A couple years ago, there was a small house across the street from mine. When a fire burned it down, the African-American family that lived there was forced to sell their property to a developer. Now a large cluster of relatively ugly townhouses stand there, and almost every single person who lives in those condominiums is white. I’ve got no real problem with my new neighbors, yet I can’t help but worry that the flavor of my neighborhood is changing.

This change is very obvious in the cost of houses here. Not 16 years ago, the house I am sitting in right now sold to my parents for less than one hundred thousand dollars. Now, less than two decades later, the value of our house has more than tripled. Part of this change is because the CD has experienced a large drop-off in crime in the last couple years.

“Two summers ago, there was a shooting, just three doors down,” said Gilpin. “Ever since that shooting, where there were actual gang members arrested, the police really do respond, because we can say that there has been a shooting.” Now, whenever something smells funny, there are police cars here instantly. Traffic circles abound because of the effort to stop people speeding down our streets.

The CD is changing. It seems like every day brings new families, new developments, and new colors. Yet the flavor of the area is still here. You can still go to Ezell’s for fried chicken. You can still hear jazz music on Jackson. Nothing is going to change the soul of the CD, and no length of time is going to erase its footprint.