The Ave

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Looking south down the Ave. from its intersection with NE 45th Street
Looking south down the Ave. from its intersection with NE 45th Street
A couple of mallards on the east side of the Ave between NE 42nd and 43rd Streets
A couple of mallards on the east side of the Ave between NE 42nd and 43rd Streets

The Ave, officially University Way Northeast, is located in the University District (U. District) in northeast Seattle, Washington. The Ave is and commercial heart of the U. District and the off-campus extension of the University of Washington (UW). Once "a department store eight blocks long," the Ave has gradually turned into what now resembles an eight-block-long global food court.[1] 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;[2] 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 Northeast is a collector (tertiary) arterial,[3] running from just below Northeast Pacific Street in the south to Northeast Ravenna Boulevard and Cowen Park in the north, where it turns into Cowen Place Northeast. 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.

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[edit] Vitality

The Ave declined significantly in the later 20th century, due in significant part to the more competitive planning, capital investment, and popularity of University Village and Northgate Mall. From 2002 to 2004, the city and the neighborhood made some steps countering this trend by repaving the Ave and adding benches, bus bulbs, and period lighting.[4] 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 Northeast 41st and Northeast 50th streets. Among these are the Varsity (1940),[5] and the University Book Store (1924).[6]

The Ave is so full of salon-style establishments that it has become its own sort of macro Third Place. This is exemplified by the coffeehouse 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; by the annual Street Fair and weekly Saturday Farmers Market; even by the "Ave Rats," the young alcohol and drug users that have been attracted to the street. The Ave is also plagued with the problems of urban neighborhoods, the social and economic problems of disparities and of American cities.

The Ave is also glorified by the Seattle hip hop group Blue Scholars, 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 Ave before 2002"), as they feel the unique street society of students/poets/druggies was thrown away for a conformist corporate business facade.

[edit] Symptomatic of larger scales

The Ave is also the major hangout for homeless and transient teens and young adults in Seattle. The local seasonal and year-round homeless population, referred to as "Ave Rats"[7], is notorious for being a particularly countercultural crowd. When in groups, they can be particularly unsettling in appearance, if not more aggressive in panhandling. Many of them are victims of abuse and addiction to narcotics, particularly cocaine and methamphetamine; most are aimless, looking for something to do. They commonly cluster in groups all along the Ave, buying and selling marijuana and doing hard drugs in the alleys. Their numbers have dwindled somewhat in recent years due to increased police patrols, tougher enforcement of loitering laws,[8] and designation of an Alcohol Impact Area (along with Broadway on Capitol Hill and parts of downtown neighborhoods).[9]

Another factor contributing to the Ave Rats' decline was the extension of organized, gang-related criminal activity on the Ave in recent years. Several groups, whose signature graffiti "tags" can be seen throughout the U. District, contributed to the transition in drug sales from marijuana (formerly sold by Ave Rats 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.[10] Regular visitors to the Ave could often recognize the same individuals standing at or "patrolling" the same areas, day after day.[citation needed]

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.[11] Recent declines have been offset by gradually increasing social and economic problems.[1] "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.[12] "It's not a mall." [13]

[edit] "The Ave" or "the Ave."

Both local newspapers of record officially use "The Ave", no period.[14]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Lehrke
  2. ^ 3,600 instructional faculty, 27,600 faculty and staff, 39,251 student enrollment on Seattle campus (Autumn 2005), 26,444 extension enrollment (non-graded programs), according to "Quick Facts". UW Home > UWIN > About the UW > UW Profile. University of Washington (2005-04-18). Retrieved on April 21, 2006.
  3. ^ "Street Classification Maps". Seattle Department of Transportation (2005). Retrieved on April 21, 2006.
    High-Resolution Version, PDF format, 16.1 MB
    Medium-Resolution Version, PDF format, 1.45 MB 12 January 2004.
    Low-Resolution Version, PDF format, 825 KB 12 January 2004.
    "Planned Arterials Map Legend Definitions", PDF format. 12 January 2004.
    The high resolution version is good for printing, 11 x 17. The low and medium resolution versions are good for quicker online vewing. [Source: "Street Classification Maps, Note on Accessing These PDF Files"]
  4. ^ Marmor, Kim
  5. ^ "VarsityTheatre". Landmark Theatres (n.d.). Retrieved on April 21, 2006.
  6. ^ The book store was moved to The Ave following a campus building fire and the closing of a pool hall on University Way, which freed up the space it currently occupies. "Store History". "History & Highlights". Bookstore of the University of Washington (2005-01-31). Retrieved on April 21, 2006.
  7. ^ Goedde, Brian. "Visions of the Ave", Real Change News, 2001-09-25. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
  8. ^ Lehrke; Binion; Borders (Borders is print published, documented opinion).
  9. ^ Alcohol Impact Areas are not the same as neighborhood boundaries. See Castro (13 December 2005)
  10. ^ Castro (13 February 2006); Castro (14 February 2006); further may be in archives of The Daily of the U of W at Archives (by year back to 1995, off-line back to c. 1891), the North Seattle Herald-Outlook, Real Change, or the alumni magazine Columns; Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Times (archives access with free registration) are at nwsource.com.
  11. ^ Burrows
  12. ^ Kim; Goedde
  13. ^ Lehrke; Goedde; Binion; Castro (14 February 2006)
  14. ^ Deutsch; Kelton; the local North Seattle Herald-Outlook uses the same convention.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Further reading


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