Happy days are here again for once-blighted community

By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A well-dressed woman sporting dark sunglasses and a tower of hair steps cautiously into The Wellington, looking a little uncertain about stopping in Columbia City.

She says she's driven past The Wellington countless times and finally decided to check it out.

What she discovered is a neighborhood treasure, a place that draws customers from throughout Seattle and the Eastside for fresh-baked scones, peach cobbler, tea cake and conversation.

"I get a lot of Eastsiders who call me up on their cell phone and say, 'I'm on I-90; where do I get off?' " says owner Gwen Baker, who opened The Wellington five years ago.

With its gilded mirrors, antiques and knickknacks, the cozy tea shop flies in the face of Columbia City's reputation as a neighborhood hardened by crime, drugs and prostitution.

Even though crime rates are way down in Columbia City -- thanks in part to some hard-working homeowners -- the negative perceptions and fears about the neighborhood linger.

"It still has the image, let's face it," says Pat Chemnick, economic development coordinator with the Southeast Effective Development organization. "It is overcoming that, and we have a market just waiting to be tapped."

The community of 3,500 residents, in the heart of Rainier Valley, is one of Seattle's most economically and racially diverse neighborhoods. Whites are a minority in Columbia City, representing about one-third of the neighborhood's population. Blacks and Asians make up the other two-thirds, an increase from the 1990 census.

Continued:

• For some families, area has been home for generations
• Retail renaissance is sign that bad times are past
• Hard work may make recovery stick