The Ave reaches crossroad

Midafternoon and there are more employees in the store than customers. A young woman with a streak of orange hair spies a stone necklace. Upstairs, an older gentleman browses through a room lined with African masks, Moroccan drums and Asian shadow puppets. The electronic register hums quietly.

"On a day like today - this is the Friday before Mother's Day - I should be swamped. I shouldn't have time to stand here and talk," says Monique Tran, co-owner of La Tienda Folk Art Gallery on University Way, a funky Bohemian shopping strip known to all here as "The Ave."

Up the street, the Windfall general store is quiet. And at Monsoon, a trendy clothing and bead shop two doors away, the owner has been catering Bar Mitzvahs on the side to subsidize his 20-year-old business.

Even McDonald's, a pillar of urban survival that to many seemed an ominous portent of the franchising of The Ave when it arrived on the street more than 15 years ago, is limping away when its lease ends in September.

Once a bubbling mixture of counterculture and commerce, the narrow street running parallel to the University of Washington campus is now an enclave of dingy sidewalks, second-hand shops, indifferent landlords and a growing populations of homeless teens and panhandlers - giving the street a sad, sometimes menacing veneer.

As thousands of area residents flock to The Ave this weekend for its annual street fair, merchants will ponder how to make those revelers into regulars at a time when mega stores and nearby shopping centers, such as the upscale University Village east of the campus, siphon away customers.

Though renovation next year will radically change the complexion of the street, optimism is scarce.

"The city of Seattle has forgotten about us; we're not hip anymore," bemoans Monsoon owner Eric Gorbman. "We're like the big ugly stepchild that nobody wants."

Lots of people, few customers

The gloomy business outlook seems incongruous with the heavy foot traffic the street receives every day.

The Ave is still the second-busiest pedestrian street outside downtown. And it's perhaps the only place in the city where you can sit down to cheap Himalayan Sherpa food for lunch, browse a few bookstores, try on a vintage leather jacket, ruffle through used CDs, catch an artsy flick and be out in time for Vietnamese Pho for dinner.

Also on The Ave, however, is the troubling social issue - the kids nobody wants.

By day, homeless teens and "bus-downs" - kids who ride in from nearby neighborhoods - clog the skinny sidewalks between Rite Aid and McDonald's, hitting up passers-by for a dollar.

In this way, The Ave is little different from most urban college drags across the country, where street kids blend into the alternative scene and find a sense of comfort among people close to their age.

"You never know what's going to happen next; it's fun down here," says 15-year-old Amanda, a bus-down from Lakewood.

On most storefronts are anti-loitering signs. But the sidewalk ordinances passed in 1997 are sporadically enforced. And the kids have a simple mantra: "Don't sit down; don't get arrested."

Streams of pedestrians filter by, inured to the tumult of tattooed and body-pierced kids.

Quieter at nights

Except for occasional flare-ups, the scene quiets at night. Bus-downs gather at the corner, share cigarettes and wait for their ride.

A maroon van with a big sign, "Street Link," pulls up to a corner to serve food, hygiene products and a shoulder to lean on for kids without a place to go.

To many merchants, it's a glimpse back to hippyville days. But instead of Vietnam and civil rights, the biggest social issue now is the kids themselves. Other vendors are just annoyed.

"It's a ghetto out here," says shop owner Cindy Speare. "It's terrible to say, but I don't like getting hit for money every 500 feet."

Most merchants say the kids have a palpable impact on business. At the same time, most agree that there is a bigger reason for their economic woes - the disappearance of diverse retail shops.

And for that, they place the blame squarely on the landlords.

"To be very candid about it, the biggest problem I had down there was with the people who controlled the real estate - the landlords," says Uri Burstin, who in the mid-1980s made an ill-fated attempt to expand his fashionable Belltown boutique, Baby & Co., into The Ave.

"They were more interested in having anyone as a tenant who would pay an enormous amount of rent than they were with the ambiance of the street. There was no concerted effort to bring in a mix of businesses to make it a better place."

Burstin had fond memories of The Ave as a lively shopping strip where he had operated a store in the early 1970s. He ached to return.

"The Ave had an urban feel - it was like a promenade where people could stroll and window shop, see people and be seen," says Burstin, who with his wife has owned Baby & Co. about 25 years. "It had an eclectic feeling, an intellectual air. It was warm and friendly."

But then he opened the new Baby & Co. on The Ave and discovered the street was nothing like he remembered. It was hard to attract a sophisticated customer when his next-door neighbor was a fast-food restaurant.

He shut down the store two years after it opened.

Burstin's complaints are not surprising given the variety of landlords on the street, says George Rolfe, director of the UW's urban-planning program, which often uses The Ave as a real-life laboratory. Nor is the fact that so many buildings have fallen into disrepair.

"One of the basic problems with an area like this is as soon as you get second-generation and third-generation and absentee owners, it becomes very difficult to entice owners to spend capital to improve their buildings," Rolfe says.

New look on its way

Sitting outside a trendy little bistro on a warm, cloudless day, Stephanie Cohen, a 20-year-old UW communications major, is picking at a pasta salad, reading a magazine and sipping lemonade. At University Village.

"My parents went to UW and they always talked about The Ave being the place to be, so when I came here I checked it out," Cohen says. "I just said, `No thanks.' "

Many of the University District's older residents also say The Ave no longer holds anything for them.

Karin Dickenen, a retired school teacher, visits The Ave every few weeks to pay her utility bills. But she seldom shops, except for maybe a quick stop in Rite Aid or Bartell drugstores.

"When you look down the street, what is it I can shop for?" she says, staring across at Taco Bell, McDonald's and RetroViva, a hip urban-clothing shop for young women.

Merchants have been warning of the street's economic demise for years. But while Queen Anne, Madison Park, Broadway and other commercial centers have spruced themselves up, efforts to revitalize The Ave have never gotten past the planning stage.

Until now.

Beginning next summer, the Ave will undergo an $8 million facelift, funded almost entirely through local, state and federal grants. It will be The Ave's first major redevelopment since the trolley-car tracks were pulled out in the early 1940s.

Wider sidewalks with a signature color, bus shelters, decorative street lamps and more greenery will bring a tidy new look to the street. Neighborhood planners envision a strong commercial center that is youth-oriented, yet diverse enough to attract visitors and residents citywide. At the same time, planners want the street to rediscover the wacky, eclectic charm that characterized it for so many years.

"We know we're never going to be University Village, and nobody wants to be it," says Patty Whisler, a University District resident who has spearheaded the plan for nearly seven years.

But the cleanup doesn't mean an end to the panhandlers. Where other neighborhoods often consider panhandlers and the homeless part of the debris to be swept away during redevelopment, The Ave, because of its unique connection to the UW, seems bound by invisible contract to accept them.

"The Ave does have a certain problem - it has to find ways to do things in a politically correct environment," Rolfe says.

`Special neighborhood'

For all the grumbling about the street kids, social workers say business owners are accepting the fact that being next to a university means attracting homeless teens. Instead of resisting, they're pitching in to help.

"This is a very special neighborhood. Not only does it come up with volunteers, it comes up with money," says Nancy Amidei, coordinator of the U District-University Partnership for Youth, a diverse collaboration of outreach programs, churches, university personnel, neighborhood planners, merchants and landlords.

For example, the partnership has created a summer-job program where street kids can earn money rather than panhandle, through involvement in community projects. The kids also have been included in an anti-graffiti campaign and cleanup projects.

There are other good signs. Crime statistics show less theft and violent crime here than in much of the city, and a recent survey conducted by The Partnership for Youth and the Seattle Police Department shows most visitors to The Ave feel safe.

Drug dealing and teen prostitution - both prevalent in the neighborhood as recently as five years ago - appear to have decreased, or at least to have left the street front.

And not all businesses are suffering. The Big 5 Sports on The Ave is one of the better performing of its nine stores in the Puget Sound region, and Porter & Jensen Jewelers reports brisk business. And parking, a longtime lament among the vendors, usually is easy to find along side streets.

"It may not appeal to everyone but it does appeal to enough people to remain viable," says Scott Soules, whose family owns five buildings along The Ave and who has been a longtime proponent of redevelopment.

The businesses that thrive on The Ave are flexible enough to adapt with the changing times, he says. Conversely, those that fail tend to be chain retailers shackled by a corporate culture that does not allow store managers to cater their product to the prevailing trends.

"I don't think The Ave is a street for cookie-cutter-type stores," Soules says.

The impending closure of McDonald's, which blew onto the scene amid controversy in 1984, is "sort of poetic justice," Soules says.

"McDonald's doesn't fit on the street - it never has. There are so many good owner-operated, reasonably-priced ethnic restaurants on The Ave, why would anyone go to McDonald's?"

McDonald's official response: It closed because it had no drive-through window. The street kids had nothing to do with it.

Ray Rivera's phone message number is 206-464-2926. His e-mail address is rarivera@seattletimes.com

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Street fair

The 31st annual University District Street Fair runs tomorrow and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at University Way and N.E. 50th Street.

--------------------------- THE AVE: It used to be a place to buy a new suit. Now it's a place to buy that same suit - in a used clothing store. Once the second busiest retail core in the state, The Ave was a vibrant urban promenade. Today, The Ave's venerable retailers survive among nondescript eateries and oddball gift shops, making its future as hazy as the effects of a shopping spree at the former Doctor Feelgood's head shop.

1940:

Hansen Bros. Transfer & Storage

University Funeral Parlors

Irving's Clothes Shop (men's furnishings)

Kremen's (department store)

F.W. Woolworth Co.

Nordstrom (shoes)

Schuck's Auto Supply

Ernst Hardware

Tradewell (grocery)

Safeway

Western Auto Supply

Dutch Boy Paint Store

"The Ave" was chock full of services, like barbers, florists, tailors, cleaners, stationers and shoe repair shops. Shoppers had their choice of grocery, auto part, hardware and department stores. University Book Store, Bartell Drug Store and Melrose Flower Shop were there then and are there now. Where Thai Tom and Little Thai Express are today, the Egyptian Theatre was then.

By 1950:

Less service, more spice. Safeway vacated, and Tradewell moved out. Two fur stores brought glitz to The Ave. The addition of J.C. Penney and Kress gave Woolworth a run for its money. New clothing and shoe retailers included Klopfenstein's, Martin & Eckmann, Lerner and Leed's. Pay 'n Save joined the mix. Singer Sewing Machine took Western Auto Supply's old spot. Flowers by Ness opened on the corner of 43rd and erected a colorful sign still in use today by Flowers restaurant.

1960:

Pamir Espresso House (restaurant)

Duke's Melody Mart (records)

Pizza Haven

Philippine Import Shop (gifts)

Shiga's Import Shop (gifts)

Benton's (jewelers)

Diamond 5 CENTS to $1.00 Stores and Snack Bar

Carter's Fine Foods (grocery)

A hint of things to come: Import gift shops and a record store steered The Ave toward a decidedly eclectic turn. Carter's became a popular hangout. Martha Nishitani's Modern Dance studio remains a fixture today. Where Tower Records is today, Hartman's Books was then.

By 1970:

More worldly gift shops and a few higher-end fashion boutiques called The Ave home. Jay Jacobs sold women's clothing next to Bartell. The Squire Shop told men to "be a leader, don't be led" and offered them the appropriate wardrobe. But the real trend-setters shopped at Bluebeard's, where bell bottoms were sold by the crate. Yet another pizza joint, Pizza Pete, advertised itself as a "whole lot of fun now." Discount Records brought rock'n'roll to The Ave. Miller-Pollard, an interior furnishings store that moved to University Village before it was cool, started on The Ave. Porter & Jensen Jewelers was a mainstay at the corner of 45th.

1980:

Jazz Alley (restaurant/nightclub)

Roxy Music (used records)

Doctor Feelgood's Panacea (head shop)

Yesterday & Today (used records)

Nordstrom Place Two (clothing)

M.J. Feet (Birkenstock shoes)

Baskin-Robbins

Soap Box (toiletries)

Musicland (records)

Teriyaki Sagona

Shakey's Pizza

The first link to the chains: Jack in the Box and Skipper's Fish & Chips ushered in the fast-food trend that longtime merchants had trouble stomaching. Athlete's Foot and Radio Shack stretched beyond their suburban-mall comfort zones. The Ave became a destination for buying used records. The word "teriyaki" appeared on an Ave storefront sign for the first - but not last - time. The North Face eventually hauled its outdoor gear from The Ave south to downtown.

By 1990:

Many eateries are transients on The Ave, making it difficult for the occasional visitor to know what has come and gone. In 1990, there was Spiro's Bar & Grill. In the same space today is a similar establishment, Big Time Brewing. Hot Lips Pizza once occupied the spot now filled by Pizza Brava. The Wok In walked out and Wonder Wok walked in. Asia Deli exited in favor of University Noodle Shop. Seoul Teriyaki was then; Nasai Teriyaki is now. Also by 1990, the Athlete's Foot retreated to the suburbs but other mall favorites like Benetton and The Limited had moved in. They didn't last.

2000:

Espresso Roma

Bulldog News (newsstand)

Big 5 Sporting Goods

Pier 1 Imports

Wizards of the Coast (games)

Monsoon (beads and clothing)

Cellophane Square (new and used CDs)

The era of "dirty chic" takes hold with vintage clothing stores like Red Light Clothing, Buffalo Exchange and Retro Viva leading the charge. McDonald's is closing but Taco Bell, which is next-door, will still dish it out. Mainstays like La Tienda Folk Art, Johnny's Flower Shop, Bartell Drug Store and Rite Aid (the former Pay 'n Save) provide stability. Woolly Mammoth continues to adapt to every era with its stylish selection of shoes. University Book Store remains the anchor of The Ave. It, along with The Dawghouse and Tequila Club Sweats (technically on Northeast 45th Street) are the leaders in selling University of Washington Huskies apparel. And, of course, there are plenty of coffee houses on The Ave.

Sources: R.L. Polk & Co. Seattle city directories; Cole Directory for Greater Seattle and Vicinity