The way I would describe International District
is it's a product of three
civil rights era redlining.
A lot of businesses have survived or a lot of businesses have changed
their names and a lot of businesses have been passed down.
Seattle's International District is a bustling mix of old and new.
And Mike Vu's Itsumono restaurant is one of the new wave of businesses
that's keeping the neighborhood a relevant and vital.
A lot of us are trying to preserve all that of what our grandparents
or our parents brought,
but also creating our own identity and saying Yeah, this is our culture.
This is what it means to be an Asian American.
Phnom Pen Noodle House is one of those businesses
that's been passed down. Diane Le and Dawn Ong
are two of the three sisters who have taken it over.
The restaurant was just an integral part of our upbringing.
So we wanted to carry it on.
It means a lot because we've done so much around here.
People know where we are and they know where to come.
Tuyen Than and Ryan Catabay run Drag & Drop
Creative, a multi-disciplinary agency that has helped
infuse the neighborhood with the fresh esthetic.
We specialize in logos, websites, branding.
Did you already say website? We do websites, yeah.
Uh huh.
There's definitely a new energy.
You see more young people, you see more of the same faces.
I really do feel like we have a strong community
and we help each other out.
Despite the energy brought in by these young entrepreneurs, the past couple of years
have been an especially tough period for the International District.
The neighborhood we see and experience today is not the neighborhood
we grew up in or the neighborhood we want to see for the future.
I think the biggest hurdles is the safety.
The start of the pandemic saw a drop in foot traffic
and a rise in anti-Asian violence, and Seattle's ongoing spikes in crime
and homelessness are each having visible effects.
We live on the Little Saigon side, and if you don't know
what the Little Saigon side is, it's after the freeway and,
you know, walking under that freeway is not as fun as it used to be.
International District
is going through a lot of changes, and it's at a crossroads right now.
There's a lot of development, and we're at a point where we're kind of
we're creating what Chinatown looks like right now.
As the neighborhood goes through this period
of rapid growth.
Business owners point to some nonprofit developments as examples
of how growth can occur while respecting the neighborhood character.
Because some of these developments
are run by the neighborhood association like SCIDpda.
And even in this development, like there are certain parameters
that they tried to keep to ensure that there's still some neighborhood identity.
I mean, this is called Thai Binh.
I think they're very intentional with the name of the building.
I think at least they're trying to make some accommodations
to still keep a lot of the identity and the culture
in these neighborhoods and try to preserve some piece of the history.
You know, if we can't keep these old buildings, we should at least try our best
to preserve the history and keep talking about it.
Just to the northeast of the ID
is an example of what the neighborhood is working to avoid.
In the 1970s, Seattle's Central District was 70% Black.
Today, it is less than 20%.
As Seattle gentrified the historic character
of that neighborhood was largely wiped out.
In the I.D., there are signs that process may be starting to repeat itself.
And that's why these young entrepreneurs work so hard to maintain
the neighborhood's identity as a cultural hub.
Diane and Dawn are also motivated by the memories
of what the neighborhood once was for their family.
We used to walk from Beacon Hill.
That's where we lived and come down to Chinatown
and we would just run all over.
When the sisters had to look for a new location in 2018.
They briefly considered moving out of the neighborhood.
We looked at, like Renton and Kent, but nothing felt right.
And our hearts came back to the neighborhood where we grew up
and where we felt like this was just our neighborhood.
This is where we should be.
Nancy Nomellini agrees.
She opened her Mother Yoga studio during the pandemic
and says the International district bridges many different cultures.
There's not an exclusivity of like, OK, this neighborhood is only for
Chinese people.
This neighborhood thrives on other
neighborhoods and people coming into it to support the local shops.
Mike Vu
says the diversity of cultures is a strength.
It's a defining characteristic of both his restaurant and his neighborhood.
For me, I'm I'm half Chinese,
half Vietnamese. My business partner.
He's first generation Japanese.
So that means he immigrated here.
My 5th generation Japanese from Hawaii.
We all see being American
and living in America very differently.
But we all agree that,
you know, we definitely want this place to be a safe place
for everybody to come in to
basically have a taste of our culture.
Even with the challenges, and uncertain future,
the sisters behind Phnom Penh know they're in the right place.
There's no other neighborhood I'd rather be in. Seattle, CID,
Little Saigon. Is it.