By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

For many years, Madrona was a self-contained community, off the beaten path. The neighborhood had a dressmaker, cobbler, pharmacy, hardware store, a black arts theater and several gas stations.

Most of those businesses are gone now. The buildings at 34th Avenue and Union Street, the center of Madrona, have been recycled and restored by artists and speciality shops.

A string of worldly restaurants, including Cafe Soleil, specializing in Ethiopian dishes, and Cool Hand Luke's Cafe, known for its Asian cooking, have taken root.

For some senior citizens, though, the neighborhood is not as convenient as it was, Davis-Pitre says. That, coupled with escalating property taxes, is driving some black residents on fixed incomes out of the neighborhood, she says.

Racial statistics generated by the U.S. Census bear that out. The number of black families living between Lake Washington and 31st Avenue, which represents a major slice of Madrona, has declined sharply in the past 20 years.

The number of blacks there hit an all-time high of 3,197 persons in 1970. But by 1990, the population had dropped to 1,552, a 48 percent decrease.

During that same period, Madrona homes increased in value roughly tenfold. The median house value was $20,200 in 1970. By 1990, it had skyrocketed to $236,000.

Madrona houses now sell for an average of almost $300,000, says Christian Moulin, who works for Windemere Real Estate. Homes closer to Lake Washington can easily sell for more than twice that.

Moulin says he bought his own home on 31st Avenue in Madrona from an elderly black woman. Along with white home buyers, Moulin says, there also are more mixed-race couples moving into Madrona.

Such sweeping demographic changes are cyclical. In the 1960s and 1970s, "white flight" and The Boeing Co. "bust" created new opportunity for blacks to move into neighborhoods such as Madrona and the Central Area.

Now, the demand for housing is creating stiff competition -- it's a seller's market.

"As more people now come back into the city and it becomes desirable, the price of housing goes up," says Debra Sullivan, dean of the Pacific Oakes College Northwest. "It is true of Madrona, Beacon Hill, Capitol Hill and First Hill. It is not an uncommon trend."

Continued:

• Community takes pride in diversity
• Keeping neighborhood integrated may be challenge
• Fates of school and antenna tower among key issues
• Neighbors have worked together to build better, safer home