A new community hub has blossomed within sight of the Space Needle. The Terry Avenue Saturday Market has been transforming the blocks between Thomas and John Streets since its early June debut. Now a pedestrian-only area from 10am to 3pm, it packs in stalls selling everything from produce to organic soda pop and Pacific-Oak-scented soy candles.
Once a forest—and then a sawmill district—South Lake Union later housed Seattle’s Model T factory and Boeing’s airplane test ground. By the 1960s, its low-slung, mostly pre-fab buildings were isolated by Interstate 5 and Highway 99. The area had become an industrial no-man’s land. But everything began to change in 2007, when the city opened a trolley line just as Amazon set up shop in the neighborhood. Car dealerships soon gave way to glossy mid-rise buildings as the neighborhood boomed into one of the hottest and most visionary real-estate ventures in America. With this runaway success came some serious concerns about authenticity and a lack of connection.