Tag Archives: South End

Voices

Rosh Hashanah Reflection: Measuring and Celebrating Time

by Susan Davis

We live in a pluralistic community here in southeast Seattle. Even how we celebrate time varies.

According to the Gregorian (standard) calendar, the new year started on January 1, 2021. But the Ethiopian New Year starts Sept. 11 and the year will be 2013. Islam just celebrated New Year the second week of August and it’s now 1443. Chinese Lunar New Year was in February and it’s 4719. The Hindi New Year of 2078 happened in April. 

Some calendars are solar, or solar-lunar, while others are lunar based. You get the idea: Time is measured, explained, and observed differently around the world and, therefore, here in the South End, too.

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Community

South End Ethiopian Restaurants Paint a Picture of a Vibrant Community

by Mark Van Streefkerk

If you search for Seattle Ethiopian restaurants on a map, something you’ll notice first is where they are. While there are a few restaurants in North Seattle, the overwhelming concentration is in the Central and South End, especially from Columbia City to the Rainier Beach area. It’s a clear indicator of where the Ethiopian community has settled. 

“You’ll definitely see more Ethiopian restaurants on the South End than on the North End because our population is greater around those areas,” said a customer at Delish Ethiopian Cuisine who requested to not be named. Ordering from an Ethiopian restaurant offers a glimpse into the rich culture and artistry of these communities. 

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Community

Local South End Summer Programs Thrive With $1 Million In Support From DEEL

by Chamidae Ford

In July, the Department of Education and Early Learning (DEEL) awarded $1 million to 17 local organizations to support summer learning programs. Mostly concentrated in the South End, these funds will support programs that help students prepare for school in the fall. 

Chris Alejano, the interim K–12 division director for DEEL, explained that the department had an idea of what type of organizations they wanted to partner with. They specifically looked for programs that support getting students ready for school while also prioritizing mental and physical wellness and addressing educational gaps. 

“We’re looking for organizations that have a history of serving those students that are furthest away from educational justice,” Alejano said. “[Also organizations] that had some sort of experience achieving outcomes related to academic support, college and career readiness, [and] health and wellness — or at least a plan that showed that they had a strategy behind how they were going to address those topics.”

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Community

PHOTO ESSAY: South End Marks First Federal Juneteenth With Celebration and Joy

by Susan Fried, Ronnie Estoque, and Maile Anderson

From marching, dance, and roller skating, to meditation, music, and a restaurant homecoming, South Seattle marked the first federally recognized Juneteenth 2021 with beautiful spirit and joy. Emerald photographers hit the streets on Saturday to capture some of the many happenings around the South End. Among them: In the morning, “No Healing, No Peace!” A Walking Meditation for Black Liberation was held at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park and Jackson’s Catfish Corner celebrated their grand opening and return to the Central District. In the afternoon, It Takes a Village Juneteenth Festival took place in Othello Park while KCEN’s annual Juneteenth Freedom Celebration marched from 22nd Avenue and Madison Street to Jimi Hendrix Park. Black Girls Roller Skate hosted a Juneteenth roller skating party at Judkins Park and, in the evening, Wa Na Wari wrapped up the day at their Juneteenth Outdoor Celebration with live music.

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Arts & Culture

‘Still Here: A South End Mixtape From an Unexpected Journalist’ Hits All Its Notes

by Sarah Neilson

The epigraph of Reagan Jackson’s new book, Still Here: A South End Mixtape From an Unexpected Journalist, comes from the great Audre Lorde: “If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.” It’s an auspicious opening to an impressive collection of some of Jackson’s most important journalism over the past 10 years; writing for which she has won multiple awards and distinctions, including the 2016 Seattle Globalist Globie Award Journalist of the Year and a 2020 Distinguished Visiting Writer at Seattle University. It’s an ethos that the writing consistently embodies. 

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Community

Graham Street Station Light Rail Unknowns Frustrate Neighborhood

by Lizz Giordano

In 2016, after a successful push to add a station to the light rail system at Graham Street, between the Columbia City and Othello stops, the community in South Seattle quickly developed a neighborhood vision to guide development and prevent displacement. But skyrocketing costs for light rail expansion, which could delay or scale back projects, have suddenly left the future of this neighborhood ambition murky. 

“We’ve been going after the station for the last 15 years,” said Abdi Yussuf, an organizer at Puget Sound Sage, a social equity organization. “The community has been waiting a long time.” The station should have been built when the line was constructed more than a decade and a half ago, he added. 

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Voices

OPINION: Let’s Call It What It Is — Pollute and Trade

by Melina Rivera

I live in an industrial area of town. For the last 12 years, my South Seattle neighborhood has experienced the changes of gentrification. The punk rock house with a sign that read “don’t trifle with us” still stands, but its inhabitants and the sign are now gone and townhomes with six to a dozen units per lot have popped up with more on the way. I have new sets of neighbors where I see more young children and young parents walking their dogs and taking their children for an outing down my alleyway. In fact, my alleyway serves more like a sidewalk as folks walk by with strollers and kids on bikes as we exchange pleasantries. My new neighbors are also homeless with different types of RVs and makeshift homes lining our streets and a tiny-home village with folks who care about the community as much as those with a fixed roof over their heads.

What has not changed in my neighborhood are the toxic odors that I wake up to most mornings.

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News

Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture Launches Cultural PDA to Preserve Cultural Space and Strengthen Communities of Color

by Andrew Engelson

After three and a half years of collaboration between community organizations and the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS), Mayor Jenny Durkan today signed legislation creating the Cultural Space Agency Public Development Authority (PDA). This one-of-a-kind organization will be tasked with purchasing land and real estate to provide affordable spaces for the city’s creative, artistic, and cultural communities — especially in communities of color.

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Community

Photo Essay: T’Challaween, Some Much-Needed South End Sunshine and Sweetness

by Emerald Staff

This Halloween, the South End changed things up — though it’s probably more fair to say that a really weird year did that for us and we just got creative with the tools we had at our disposal. T’Challaween was something else! We had a blast putting it on. We hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as we did!  

We, the South Seattle Emerald, our exclusive broadcast partner, Rainier Avenue Radio, a stellar list of sponsors (which we’ll get to in a minute), and a dedicated group of volunteers laid the groundwork for the festivities — and the South Seattle community brought the party! (We knew you would, but we were overwhelmed by the turn out. Literally — we ran out of candy!) 

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News

A South End Guide to Thriving in the Pandemic — (The Archives)

by Emerald Staff

As King County moves through a phased re-opening of businesses and regular activities, we’ve updated our living guide to be more relevant to the current state of the pandemic. This our archives page. For the latest local coverage of COVID-19-related announcements and events, please follow along with our daily posts (on the home page). We’re also adding relevant updates to this post.

We created a living guide to provide a trusted aggregate resource for South Seattle during the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the guide archives—all our pandemic coverage from March 6, 2020 to June 12, 2020 in one place.

Looking for COVID-19 Updates and current pandemic-related articles for Seattle and King County? Visit this post.

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