For our 2025 Neighborhoods concern, we requested notable Seattleites why their nook of Seattle deserves to be within the metropolis’s prime tier. Right here’s the case for White Middle from Donna Chan.
In the summertime of 2021, a hearth took out about 10 companies on White Middle’s essential block. It actually introduced the neighborhood collectively as we found out the right way to rebuild. In case you simply ask, everyone seems to be more than pleased to assist out. The individuals listed here are so community-minded. We hosted a fundraising block occasion, and it was evident that neighbors love supporting neighborhood occasions and native companies.
We don’t have many huge chains, however nearly each storefront is a small enterprise on the principle block. We now have knowledgeable wrestling–themed bar, Lariat; now we have my panda-themed dessert café, Puffy Pandy. We now have the curler rink and legacy companies just like the Salvadorean Bakery. Once I first moved to White Middle, there weren’t any outlets that you could possibly stroll to. Now, there are such a lot of eating places, so much extra bars, and doubtless one of the best genuine Mexican meals in Seattle, making it an actual meals vacation spot.
The house my store is in now [is where I started] a commissary kitchen eight years in the past, and I don’t assume I ever walked down the principle road in these days. The block events and new month-to-month artwork stroll really feel like proof of an enormous shift within the final three or 4 years in the direction of extra native companies and neighborhood occasions.
Whereas White Middle has a Seattle handle, it’s formally unincorporated King County. That always interprets to receiving much less funding than different Seattle neighborhoods. However when individuals transfer right here, they often keep, making for a constant, tight-knit neighborhood that wishes higher for the entire neighborhood.
Our essential focus proper now could be rebuilding. It’s going to take a while. However that’s a part of the White Middle draw: the neighborhood is in an impressionable stage of progress, and neighbors get to determine what White Middle’s future will appear to be. As informed to Taylor McKenzie Gerlach
Puget Sound–raised Donna Chan has been a White Middle resident for 12 years. Her dessert café, Puffy Pandy, has a bear on the roof and panda cams inside.
