Seattle, a city located in the state of Washington and is famous for its rainy weathers year round. I call the city of Seattle my home for 21 years. In Seattle, I have lived in a sub-city called White Center which is between West Seattle (North) and Burien (South). I’ve always wondered what my area was like back then. Was it diverse or was one race dominating the area?
I just immigrated to Seattle from the Philippines looking for work and wanting a new life here in America. I was the only one that went to Seattle or let alone the U.S. while the rest of my family is in the Philippines. The blue dot is where I lived, but unfortunately it wasn’t the new life I anticipated. I am mostly living within the “D8” district which was also red meaning hazardous. According to the description of D8,
“Sparsely settled district lacking adequate street improvements, schools, recreational facilities etc. Transportation is an acute problem. Future assessments will create an excessive burden incidental to home ownership in this area.”
What this means is that the area that I am currently live in is a bad area; it is underdeveloped. 22% of Seattle that was recorded in the 40s is considered hazardous. The demographics show that 368,302 was the total population. 16.2% were foreign-born white and 0.8% is foreign-born Japanese. This is extremely hard because there aren’t a lot of Filipinos in the area. On top of that, most of the area is in the red, if I want to work there. Observing the areas that surround mine, it looks like mine is either the biggest or second biggest when combining districts “B18” and “B19.” What district “D8” needs is a second chance to be viewed. The hazardous is only bad because people labeled us that way.
Fast forward to the present day, you can say that White Center has evolved through out the years. More buildings and roads that connect. In addition to that, a Seattle Times article says that, “White Center is among the most diverse areas in King County, with 60 percent communities of color, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.” Although the city still does sometimes gets a bad reputation by calling it “ghetto,” I am proud to be living here in White Center.
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A well researched post. The personal style makes it come alive for the reader. It effectively tells the story of a neighborhood from both a historical and contemporary perspective. Good illustrations from HOLC maps.
Your shifts from contemporary to historical back to contemporary are poetic, but you might consider using a heading or even italic to show when you are writing as a historical figure. I had to read it few times to catch that shift. Also it looks like the featured image is not in the public domain. Perhaps you could find another illustration that is.