Tideflats to Tomorrow: The History of Seattle's SoDo

What exactly is "SoDo?" This is a question that has occurred to more than one newcomer to Seattle, as well as the out-of-town Mariners fan trying to locate Safeco field from I-5. In Tideflats to Tomorrow: The History of Seattle's SoDo (2010, Fairgreens Publishing) Dan Raley, a former Seattle P.I. reporter, digs deep into the southlands to reveal a part of Seattle that is much more than big league sports facilities stranded in an industrial desert. Besides brief sojourns at Qwest or Safeco Field, SoDo has never held any particular allure for most of us. However, Raley points out such unexpected gems as the Marginal Way Skatepark -- originally a renegade series of jumps and dips built without city permission by skateboarders that today is a popular, city approved hang out. Eateries may be somewhat scarce in SoDo, but Raley discovered those that have sprung up between the warehouses and industrial facilities deserve a try, including Pecos Pit BBQ and the Siren Tavern. He blends in stories of local family businesses, such as the 109-year-old Star Rentals, the area's longest continuously running business; as well as household names that got their start in the gritty neighborhood, including Costco, Starbucks and Tully's Coffee. Raley also gives a lively history of the area with the tale of the improbable but true scheme to fill in marshy tideflats, thus creating SoDo; the role of the Alaskan Gold Rush in building up the neighborhood; and more than a few crazy ventures by characters whose names are now bestowed upon streets around Seattle. If you're planning to catch a Mariners game this month, Tideflats to Tomorrow might just inspire you to explore SoDo; something too few of us in Seattle do. Now to answer the earlier question, which after nearly a decade in Seattle I didn't know the answer to: What does "SoDo" mean? "South of Downtown," naturally. In my defense, Raley discovered that Ken Griffey Jr. didn't know what it stood for either. And he works there. From [...] Author of In Retrospect

The district south of downtown Seattle has deep historic roots but was built on shaky ground. In Dan Raley's "Tideflats to Tomorrow," the reader learns of the neighborhood's continuity and disruption. The regrade projects of 1900s are known to bury "Underground Seattle" and to provide landfill for the Alaskan Way seawall. The author traces another regrade back to the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889. Debris from that conflagration provided the foundation upon which the hilltop soil rests. Further, Raley discusses grandiose but failed projects to "up grade" oyster beds into more productive land. Upon this soil factories, foundries and recycling facilities were built. Raley records first-person interviews with members of the families that have owned these enterprises for a century. He also documents the "Hooverville" of the 1930s and the car campers of today. He mentions the effects of the 1948 and 2001 earthquakes and how these temblors left broken buildings and sunken streets. He interviews people who observed both to the 1952 Eisenhower and 2008 Obama campaigns which traversed the district; and the early brewery and coffee cultures that define Seattle. The author suppresses the urge to insert himself into the story line as "working journalists" sometimes do. This book is not "My SoDo," but the reader suspects, given Raley's biography, that he has made a cameo appearance in these pages just as Alfred Hitchcock can be found in a few frames of a film that he has directed. To his credit, Raley researched SoDo by taking walking tours through the district accompanied by those how have lived it for decades. He recorded, as if in dispatches back home from an adventure, about the characters he met and places he had seen. A major topic that went unexplored in this book was post-World War II immigration. A rain-soaked crowd often gathered at the entrance of the U.S. Immigration Service building on Airport Way South. Possibly as many folks queued its front door as attended events at the Kingdome. Some of those immigrants probably had jobs in SoDo but were displaced as the multi-venue sports palaces absorbed the land on which light industry had a foothold. Yet, "Tideflats" contains its discussion of immigration to how one large landholder hopes to help Asian businessmen procure EB5 visas through the "millionaires buy into America program." This softcover is a coffee table book that belongs in every reception and waiting room for the light reading it provides. But it has a lot for the more serious student of local history.

Dan Raley, one of Seattle's preeminent journalists, has captured the heart and soul of Seattle's South Downtown neighborhood. Written with the same historic detail and affection as the author's long-running "Where are They Now" series for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tideflats to Tomorrow traces the growth of SoDo from a marshy tidal basin to Seattle's industrial heart, eventually to become the home of the Seattle sports and coffee industry. Along the way, you meet the iconoclastic personalities who inhabited the neighborhood and gave it its distinct character. Like the SoDo neighborhood, this book is about substance, not pzazz. It is far more than a coffee table photographic journal. While it is filled with wonderful historic photos, the essence of the book is its well-researched history of the area, detailing the growth of particular businesses and how they changed the neighborhood. More than just a nostalgic look at a bygone era, it is a progress report on a neighborhood that tries to integrate its old-line industrial sector with more modern commercial and sports activity. That story is not yet complete. If you live or work in Seattle, or have an interest in how industrial areas have developed and adapted to modern city life, this is an enjoyable and informative read.