Community seeks balance as population changes

Originally published Saturday, March 29, 1997

By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Lake City has always been an ethnically diverse place, and it's getting more so every year, says Tenney. Her company's work force reflects the community, with one manager who speaks Korean and a salesman who speaks Chinese.

Lake City was not always so worldly. Tucked away in the northeast corner of the city, it was something of a poor second cousin to affluent Capitol Hill, Queen Anne and Magnolia.

And, frankly, many Lake City residents never seemed to mind.

Their neighborhood didn't get sidewalks or parks, but there were plenty of tall trees, quiet streets and back yards big enough for swing sets and family barbecues. Many homes east of Lake City Way, which were built after World War II, have views of the Cascades and Lake Washington. And they're close to the Burke-Gilman Trail.

Though far from bucolic, Lake City maintains an air of isolation. Some residents call it an independent streak. It wasn't until 1957 that Seattle annexed the area. Over the years the sense of separation from the rest of Seattle may have led to Lake City's complacency.

The community is now struggling to find its equilibrium after years of rapid growth and demographic changes. From 1980 to 1990, the number of apartments in Lake City increased 29 percent. The number of people of color doubled to more than 6,200 during the same decade, bringing new cultures, languages and challenges.

For years, Lake City offered little in the way of social services. It now has the North Seattle Family Center, run by Ellen Stewart, a past community council president who moved to Lake City in 1987 to be near her mother and other relatives.

Stewart has tried to model Family Center after a library, a place where families can drop in for parenting classes, maternity support groups, use a computer or visit the children's playroom on a rainy day.

The center also offers English classes for people whose first language is Vietnamese, Ethiopian or Spanish.