By VANESSA HO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

For years, the community has thrived thanks to people like Edward Jefferson, principal of Thurgood Marshall Elementary School. Many students at his school live in what the district defines as poverty, yet Jefferson has created a rich learning environment. Enrollment has doubled in the past five years, and a widely known bilingual program houses 15 languages. In 1995, Redbook magazine called the school one of America's best and recognized Jefferson's championing efforts.

On the school's public-address system one recent morning, Jefferson gives his weekly mix of announcements, birthday wishes and motivational chats.

"Don't forget, the word for the week was 'respect,' " his disembodied voice crackles from the speaker. It gives the kindergartners in Room 113 pause from the elephants on their work sheets.

"We need to treat each other with respect," says Jefferson. "So far, all of you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work."

Down the street, Venessa Henry doesn't need a clock to know when school is out. Precisely at 3:15 p.m., her Judkins Street Grocery fills with students eagerly buying Fritos, Now and Laters and Zebra Cakes.

Posters for St. Ides beer line the walls, and Martin Luther King Jr. silently watches from a framed picture above the register. In the middle of a conversation, Henry abruptly rushes out the door.

"Hey, my man!" she yells to a pint-sized kid with a huge backpack. "You have to get on the sidewalk. You know better." Usually, she calls the parents when she catches a kid walking in the middle of the street.

"They say it takes a village to raise a child, so I figure everybody has to watch out for them," she says. For the past six years, she has organized Christmas community parties for local kids.

Originally from North Carolina, Henry has co-owned the store since 1989. Many of her regulars are also from the South, and she takes care of them by stocking Southern snacks including pickled pigs' feet and lemon-cream crackers.

On a misty day, Al, a construction worker from down the street, pops in for some drinks. "Hello, Miss Judkins!" he says, teasing her. He describes the location of his house: "If your car got no brakes, go down the hill and you run right into my house."

They chat for a bit, Henry bags up his goods, and as he stands in the doorway, letting the wind in, he says: "This is the best street in Washington. People are so friendly. I wouldn't live anywhere else."

Continued:

• Once rejected, this urban community unites for the future
• I-90 decimated the neighborhood, but residents rebuilt it
• Bureaucratic snafus kept area in limbo
• Diversity and location are drawing new residents