There is this place in Seattle that has housed the rich and the poor, the in-between. It was home to a forest, a trolly line, a logging mill, and home to the city's most powerful madams.
It serves as housing for those in need and takes care of those who are ill. It is part of Seattle's history and has been home to both famous and infamous. Yesler's Hill, Skid Row, Profanity Hill, Yesler Hill, Tap-Tap Lane, Yesler Terrace, a gateway to the rest of Seattle's central and south communities.
Planned redevelopment of Seattle Housing Authority's Yesler Terrace Community, set currently to start in 2012, is poised to be one of the most transformative changes in the long history of redevelopment on this 29 -31 acre site at the southern end of Seattle's First Hill neighborhood.
From the first uses by Indigeneous nations of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples, to the changes guided by European colonists, and to the ripples of Asian, East African, Central and Latin American immigrants who call Yesler Terrace home, the land first built on in 1853 called Yesler's Hill is a dynamic study of cooperation, conflict, challenges, and changes.
Yesler Terrace is changing again. For better or for worse, change is coming again, and the questions are the same as they were when Helen Burns walked on the hill in 1937 to start the process of equitably and respectfully moving the established residents to make way for the one of the first fully racially integrated public housing communties in the United States.
Over the coming months, and hopefully years, myself, the collective, the youth our teaching team works with, and the community we work to help sustain through the coming changes, hope to transmit and discuss the issues that surround any urban-core redevelopment of public housing lands.
This one will be historic. The social, economic, environmental, political, generational, and educational sparks will be flying, and it is our goal to bring the issues to the front in a fair and equitable way.
The project's 12 youth are from the Terrace and surrounding neighborhoods. Their training and experience is centered in looking into the planning and design process, historical research, community building, basic design skills, and opening their minds to looking at issues from several sides. The hope is that they will spread the word and take a postive role in the future of Yesler Terrace.
Plan right it. Improve it always.
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