Being partially Cantonese, I often visit the Chinatown when I go to a new city. Seeing as how there is a large Chinese population, I expected that it would be somewhat thriving. Yea, no. Seattle’s Chinatown is not bustling, and feels quite unsafe to be in at times. It also has a few good restaurants, but for as large as it is, it lacks the character of other chinatowns.
I think the main causes of this are primarily the location of Chinatown, and its streets. First, it’s sandwiched between a highway overpass, a hill, and train tracks for Amtrak and the local light rail. This means that Chinatown has very little space to expand, and also occasionally gets a somewhat unsavory crowd coming from Pioneer square and the light rail. Chinatown in Seattle is effectively ``boxed in’’, and thus it feels disjointed and cramped. For example, there is a part of Chinatown beyond the highway overpass which I never go to, because you have to walk underneath through 2 blocks worth of parking lot under the overpass to get there. That feels like it stunted the growth of the Chinatown significantly.
Furthermore, the streets there are 3-5 cars wide (if I recall, it’s an odd number due to middle turning lanes). Thus, it’s a bit difficult to walk through Chinatown. It doesn’t feel comfortable to cross the street except at the crosswalks, and thus it feels like there’s much less space to walk around, even though the streets are incredibly wide. There’s no stop lights either, just stop signs, which may be better since there is relatively little traffic in Chinatown, but then if there’s so little traffic the streets can be narrowed.
What I really want to see from Chinatown is that it’s bustling with people. Right now, because of safety, lack of a lot of things to do, and difficulty for kids and elderly to get around, I think Seattle’s Chinatown falls behind other ones I’ve been to in the US.