Customers line up at Canela food truck, a local business, during the South Park Plaza grand opening event. As summer kicks off, weekly outdoor markets and plans for more than a dozen free events in the coming months are energizing Duwamish Valley neighborhoods. The City of Seattle’s Duwamish Valley Program and departments are working with community organizations to transform previously under-utilized areas into thriving small business districts.
The Valley’s Georgetown and South Park neighborhoods are historically under-resourced, facing a legacy of pollution from nearby heavy industry and highways. This has led to worsened air quality, noise pollution, and transit and greenspace accessibility. As climate change intensifies, the region also has an increased flood risk due to sea-level rise and increased precipitation, compounding existing concerns about housing and affordability.
Led by Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment’s (OSE), the Duwamish Valley Program partners with local organizations to create a healthier and more resilient region through increased climate preparedness, housing, small business support, job opportunities, and more.
We’re working together to provide small businesses with technical assistance, youth workforce development, and business district attraction. Keep reading to learn how you can support Duwamish Valley small businesses!
Markets and Events in the South Park Business District
Community organization Cultivate South Park has been hosting a weekly, seasonal pop-up market called El Mercadito since 2020, supported by funding from the City. El Mercadito gives local micro businesses, like self-employed contractors, artists, and mom-and-pop restaurants, a chance to vend their goods. What started as an effort to attract people to the South Park Business District is now a fixture.
Today, El Mercadito is a youth-run summer farmer’s and maker’s market. El Mercadito pop-ups and other events like the recent South Park Plaza grand opening are vital to attracting locals and visitors to the Duwamish Valley. People from across the King County area come for the event and stay for dinner, fun, or shopping. And then they come back, boosting revenue for small businesses.
These events are part of a community-led economic empowerment effort. Organizations like Cultivate South Park, Duwamish River Community Coalition (DRCC), Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association (DVSA), Villa Comunitaria, Growing Contigo and Only in South Park (Vision 7) are working together, and with the City of Seattle, to help fund, organize, and promote activities in the Business District, every week.
Job Preparedness and Youth Skills Training
Earlier this month, DRCC hosted a public job fair attended by dozens of residents and Duwamish Valley Youth Corps participants. Future employers connected the residents and high-school aged youth to local job opportunities, City of Seattle apprenticeship programs, and career trainings offered by Maritime High School and Food Lifeline at South Park’s Concord Elementary.
DRCC also provides paid environmental justice training to Duwamish Valley youth, prioritizing the many local kids from low-income households who do not speak English as their first language. To empower participants, the program mixes classroom lessons with hands-on outdoor work focused on tree planting, neighborhood clean-ups, air-quality monitoring, and more.
Businesses Are Seeing the Results
Last year, community partners hosted more than a dozen events and “Shop Small” campaigns to promote the South Park Business District. Cultivate South Park truly “lit up” the Business District by hosting a tree lighting event with live music, supported by funding from the City. The event attracted hundreds of new customers who have continued to come back.
At the South Park Plaza ribbon-cutting event earlier this year, local food truck Canela saw sales double compared to what they typically earn on a Saturday. Longtime local taco truck Muy Macho has continued to see an increase in new customers after the event. The small business Good Voyage has observed local businesses become even more vital to community connections amid economic uncertainty.
“We all need a physical place to gather, especially during hard times,” said Campbell Scarborough, the owner of Good Voyage. “I love being able to provide that space. I love being in those spaces offered by my community as well.”
Seattle’s Duwamish Valley Program looks forward to continuing to work with local leaders to support small businesses and the many benefits they bring to the community. That work will include continuing to improve housing, climate resilience, and the health and safety of the region.
Be sure to check out one of Duwamish Valley’s largest summer events – Cultivate South Park’s summer bash, SOPASUPA!