Retail renaissance is sign that bad times are past

By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Despite its hard-working citizenry, some residents complain that Columbia City is a place where it can be difficult to get a pizza delivered or find a really great restaurant.

Nor has Seattle, which annexed Columbia City 90 years ago, paved all of its streets or added basic curbing and sidewalks. For years, the community also has gone begging for an expanded police presence, especially bike patrols.

Rainier Avenue South is its main street, a busy north-south thoroughfare that may someday accommodate a new light-rail transit system. Today, Rainier Avenue through Columbia City is dotted with ethnic restaurants, small retail shops and nail-care salons, some of which seem to come and go like Oriental rug shops.

But many other businesses, including Betty's ("home of the biggest hamburger in town"), have weathered Columbia City's worst days and thrived.

Neighborhood boosters say the overall Rainier Valley retail core is dramatically better with the recent additions of Eagle Hardware, a new Safeway, Drug Emporium, Hollywood Video and a Starbucks.

Columbia City recently enticed Taco del Mar to locate one of its fast-food restaurants there -- a point of pride for residents and business owners.

The median household income -- within a mile of the greater Rainier Valley -- was estimated at $42,000 in 1996, well above the citywide average of $37,000, says Chemnick of Southeast Effective Development.

Within that same area, residents spend about $28 million a year eating out, yet he says Rainier Valley restaurants are capturing only a small share of that.

The numbers and some community lobbying helped persuade Taco del Mar President John Nelson to open a place in Columbia City. "It is doing extraordinarily well. We just had no idea it would open with such a bang."

Nelson was approached about coming to the community by Pat Naumann, who lives in Mount Baker and drives a Metro bus. Nelson had given her his business card and told her to give him a call if she found a potential site. She did -- two days later.

Columbia City real estate agent Ray Akres then helped Taco del Mar lease a storefront in one of the neighborhood's historic bank buildings, which is owned by Pioneer Human Services.

The human-service organization got Taco del Mar to agree to give future hiring consideration to its clients, some of whom include former prison inmates.

The new Taco del Mar represents Columbia City's "renaissance," says Akres and others.

Ross Pardy, a former owner of Matthiesen's Flowers -- Rainier Valley's only full-service flower shop -- says Columbia City has always been a good place to do business.

Back in the 1980s, when he owned the store, "business was good, but not the neighborhood," Pardy says. "People were afraid to come out in the daytime."

But Columbia City fought back and the neighborhood feels much safer, Pardy says. At the same time, more young people are moving in. "Everyone seems to be interested in the community again," he adds.

Continued:

• Happy days are here again for once-blighted community
• For some families, area has been home for generations
• Hard work may make recovery stick