The Ave
Encyclopedia
University District, Seattle, Washington
The University District is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, so named because the main campus of the University of Washington is located there. The UW moved in two years after the area was annexed to Seattle, while much of the area was still clear cut forest or stump farmland...
and the off-campus extension of the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
(UW) in Seattle. Once "a department store eight blocks long," The Ave has gradually turned into what now resembles an eight-block-long global food court. The story of The Ave reflects the dynamics of many urban neighborhoods and the social and economic problems of countless American cities, though it is also a crossroads of diverse subcultures. It is patronized by many of the nearly 96,900 students, faculty, and staff of the UW; by the largely white and middle class residents of the U. District; and by a population of homeless or transient individuals, most of whom are youth.
University Way NE is a collector (tertiary) arterial, running from just below NE Pacific Street in the south to NE Ravenna Boulevard and Cowen Park in the north, where it turns into Cowen Place NE Originally platted as Columbus Avenue, the street was renamed 14th Avenue after the neighborhood was annexed by the city in 1891. Locals came to feel that a numbered street name was inappropriate because of the thoroughfare's importance, so in 1919 the University Commercial Club held a contest that decided the new name of the street: "University Way." The street had been known as "The Ave" for a time before this, however, and while it was no longer officially an avenue, the nickname stuck.
Vitality
University Village, Seattle, Washington
University Village is an upscale shopping center in Seattle, Washington, built at the south corner of Ravenna neighborhood. The 24 acre shopping center was built in 1956 across NE 45th Street on an earlier part of the Montlake Landfill University Village is an upscale shopping center in Seattle,...
and Northgate Mall
Northgate Mall (Seattle)
Northgate Mall is a shopping mall in the Northgate district of north urban Seattle, Washington. It is currently anchored by Bed Bath & Beyond, Toys "R" Us, JCPenney, Macy's and Nordstrom.-History:...
. From 2002 to 2004, the city and the neighborhood made some steps countering this trend by repaving the Ave and adding benches, bus bulb
Bus bulb
A bus bulb, also called a bus boarder or bus border, is an arrangement by which a sidewalk is extended outwards for a bus stop; typically the bus bulb replaces roadway that would otherwise be part of a parking lane...
s, and period lighting. The Ave remains at the heart of campus life for university students, and is filled with busy restaurants (mostly inexpensive), new and used book and record stores, clothing stores, and movie theatres, most densely between NE 41st and NE 50th Streets. Among these are the Varsity Theatre (1940) and the University Book Store (1924).
The Ave is so full of salon-style establishments that it has become its own sort of macro Third Place
The Third Place
The third place is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace...
. This is exemplified by the coffeehouse
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
culture of the middle and lower Ave - with at least six cafes on the Ave or its alleys - by the remaining used bookstores with late hours, and by the annual Street Fair and weekly Saturday Farmers Market. The Ave is also home to one of Seattle's Neighborhood Service Centers, outposts of the city government originally known as "little city halls." Still, The Ave is also plagued with the problems of urban neighborhoods, the social and economic problems of disparities and of American cities; in particular, it is home to the "Ave Rats," the young alcohol and drug users that have been attracted to the street.
The Ave is glorified by the Seattle hip hop group Blue Scholars
Blue Scholars
Blue Scholars is a hip hop duo based in Seattle, Washington, created in 2002 while the members, DJ Sabzi and MC Geologic, were students at the University of Washington....
in their song "The Ave" on their self-titled album. "Fuck class, get your education on the Ave" is a repeated lyric, as they portray the Ave as the last true cultural melting pot of Seattle. The business communities "improvements" of 2002 are lamented ("whatever happened to the avenue before the summer of 2002"), as they feel the unique street society of students/poets/druggies was thrown away for a conformist
Conformist
In English history, Conformists were those whose religious practices conformed with the requirements of the Act of Uniformity and so were in concert with the Established Church, the Church of England, as opposed to those of Nonconformists whose practices were not acceptable to the Church of England....
corporate business facade. Blue Scholars also reference several businesses on The Ave, including the University Bookstore and the used record store 'Second Time Around'.
Problems
The Ave is also the major hangout for homelessHomelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
and transient teens and young adults in Seattle. The local seasonal and year-round homeless population, referred to as "Ave Rats", is notorious for being a particularly countercultural
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
crowd. Their numbers have dwindled somewhat in recent years due to increased police patrols, tougher enforcement of loitering
Loitering
Loitering is the act of remaining in a particular public place for a protracted time. Under certain circumstances, it is illegal in various jurisdictions.-Prohibition and history:Loitering may be prohibited by local governments in several countries...
laws, and designation of an Alcohol Impact Area (along with Broadway on Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington
Capitol Hill is the most densely populated residential district in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the center of the city's gay and counterculture communities, and is one of the city's most prominent nightlife and entertainment districts....
and parts of downtown
Downtown Seattle
Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared to other city centers on the West Coast because of its geographical situation: hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by the Elliott Bay, and on the south by reclaimed land that was once...
neighborhoods).
Another factor contributing to the homeless youth's decline was the extension of organized, gang-related criminal activity on the Ave in recent years. Several groups, whose signature graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
"tags" can be seen throughout the U. District, contributed to the transition in drug sales from marijuana (formerly sold by homeless youth and transients) to include the organized sale of methamphetamine and cocaine. This transition has resulted in multiple incidents of gun-related violence, as well as obvious deals occurring in broad daylight. Regular visitors to the Ave could often recognize the same individuals standing at or "patrolling" the same areas, day after day.
The U. District has seen these problems recur. As reported in the University District Herald in 1921, librarian "Miss Mary Baker ask[ed] for police protection from gangs of boys" who were causing what is today described as vandalism and harassment. Librarian Clara Van Sant wrote: "Men hang outside the door to smoke, gossip, and pass comments to ladies coming into the library," behavior that apparently continued through the early 1920s. Recent declines have been offset by gradually increasing social and economic problems. "We're not an organized shopping district. We're very much like Main Street America," said an independent retail business owner on the Ave in 2001. "It's not a mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
."
Architecture
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. The building was built in 1909 and added to the National Register in 1982.
The University Heights School building on the upper Ave opened in 1902. Originally there were several other buildings on the block (the west side of The Ave between NE 50th and NE 52nd Streets), but with successive expansions, the school became the only building on its block. It was briefly known as the Morse School in 1903; from 1974, Alternative Elementary School #2 used two-thirds of the building. Its exterior was declared a city landmark in 1977. It was closed as a school building in 1989, with the alternative school moving to the Decatur School. Since 1990 it has housed the University Heights Center.
The Department of Neighborhoods' inventory of historically important sites, which is not exhaustive (for example, it omits the University Heights School) lists 37 properties on University Way. Most of these are either apartment buildings or retail establishments, but the list also includes current and former theaters and the University District post office.
See also
- Last Exit on BrooklynLast Exit on BrooklynThe Last Exit on Brooklyn was a Seattle University District coffeehouse established in 1967 by Irv Cisski. It opened on June 30, 1967 at 3930 Brooklyn NE near the University of Washington campus in a small light-industrial building leased from the University...
- Telegraph AvenueTelegraph AvenueTelegraph Avenue is a street that begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic downtown district of Oakland, California, USA, and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of California campus in Berkeley, California...
, University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
(UCB), Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington... - University AvenueUniversity Avenue (Minneapolis-St. Paul)University Avenue in the Minneapolis–St. Paul region of Minnesota begins near the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul and extends westward into neighboring Minneapolis, where it passes the University of Minnesota, and then turns north to pass through several suburbs before ending in Blaine,...
, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States... - University DistrictUniversity District, Seattle, WashingtonThe University District is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, so named because the main campus of the University of Washington is located there. The UW moved in two years after the area was annexed to Seattle, while much of the area was still clear cut forest or stump farmland...
, University of Washington, Seattle, WashingtonSeattle, WashingtonSeattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country... - Washington SquareWashington Square ParkWashington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
, New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, New York
Further reading
- Jon Marmor, "The Fall (and Rise?) of the 'Ave.'", "Once Seattle's Second Main Street, the Ave. Has Fallen on Hard Times. Can the UW and Local Community Save What's Left?", Columns (University of Washington alumni magazine), December 1995. Analysis.