Nearby Cascade is far removed from lakeshore glitz

By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The Cascade neighborhood, sandwiched between Fairview Avenue and Interstate 5, feels a little like a no-man's-land cut off from the nearby glitz of the lake.

Populated mostly by businesses such as Pemco Insurance, Evergreen Wholesale Florist, print shops and laundries, it also includes a few low-income apartments.

"There's sort of a physical isolation," says Mark Eckstrand, an artist who runs a glass-blowing studio in a Cascade warehouse. "Mercer Street corridor is sort of a divider between the haves and the have-nots."

Eckstrand notes that vandalism and prostitution are rampant around his building. Used condoms litter a nearby parking lot. One year vandals broke out all his front windows; the rocks they hurled also damaged expensive glass art inside.

The neighborhood is not especially resident-friendly. There is no supermarket in the South Lake Union area. Residents must go to Queen Anne or Capitol Hill for groceries.

Celina Aguiniga, a 29-year-old warehouse worker, lives with her husband and three children in a cramped, $210-a-month, one-bedroom apartment on Harrison Street.

She likes taking her kids to the lake so they can feed the ducks. But "it takes a while to cross the street because of the traffic" on Mercer, she says. The light at this busy I-5 exit often changes before they are even halfway across.

Aguiniga may be one of the few people who could do without all the fancy stores and restaurants on the lake shore. "There's so much that the kids want to buy now," she says. "Before, it was just a lake."

There are several bright spots in Cascade. A six-story apartment building opened on Yale Avenue in 1994. There are 65 units, eight executive suites and a rooftop hot tub and garden at The Union Bay Apartments. They cater to downtown professionals and city employees. Rents range from $585 for a studio to $1,275 for a two-bedroom.

A private elementary school has flourished in Cascade since 1983. At the Spruce Street School, which charges $7,600 tuition per year, enrollment is currently 45 children.

"People choose the school despite the location," says Principal Brenda Swidler. "Some people have resisted sending their children here because it's not attractive. But the resources we can tap into here are amazing."

Students take field trips to the nearby Korea Times newspaper, Frontier Geosciences environmental lab and other industries.

Like its wealthier lake shore neighbors to the north, Cascade is evolving.