By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Diverse population makes for a unique feel

The uniqueness of Rainier Beach comes into view every Saturday morning at the local community center playfields, says Elder, who lives across the street. Soccer teams of every hue and nationality take the field all day long.

Southeast Asians wearing traditional garb walk by on their way to the nearby P-Patch garden.

"Where else can you buy a house four blocks from Lake Washington, with a view of a greenbelt, where friendly faces from around the world walk by?" asks Elder.

The former public school teacher moved to Rainier Beach from Eastlake in 1990, buying a small bungalow for $47,000. The house had been "abated" as a part of an anti-drug program.

Elder says it was one of the few neighborhoods he and his partner of 10 years could afford. He admits to having reservations about moving back to the neighborhood so near his childhood home on South Beacon Hill.

"This was the last place I wanted to live because I knew the problems. I moved back here because in a city as great as the city of Seattle, how can such a major portion of the city be left behind? The discovery will occur. It doesn't take a great leap of faith to believe in Rainier Beach."

That faith is evident in so many people who live in Rainier Beach. One is Phyllis Beaumonte, a teacher at Rainier Beach High School and a licensed minister.

Beaumonte counts herself as one of the seven "original visionaries" who have worked for five years, first to secure money for the new performing arts center and now as a design review committee.

"We wanted this so that the young people of color, and others, had a place to perform, to come together and produce something and show it off, whether it is poetry, a play, music, ballet or whatever," says Beaumonte, who grew up in the Central Area.

She lives in Rainier Beach not far from the high school. Most of her neighbors have lived in the neighborhood 35 or 40 years and are of all races.

Continued:

• Off the beaten path, rejuvenation takes shape
• Residents unhapppy with focus on negative
• Community has a little bit of everything
• Planners hope to dress up neighborhood