This year in Seattle, two new museums and a new traditional gate marking the city's Chinatown will be completed, formally acknowledging the role minority groups have played in shaping Seattle and the region (as well as remembering its racially turbulent past). In the Spring, the Wing Luke Museum, named for the first Asian American elected to public office in the Northwest, will reopen after a major expansion into a historic building in the Chinatown section of the city's International District. And this Saturday, the new Chinatown gate--more than fifty years in the making--will be formally opened.
However, these efforts to preserve the past in some of the city's historic minority neighborhoods are happening as much of Seattle's Asian American population is leaving the city for the suburbs: Seattle Takes Steps to Recognize Minorities' Role in Shaping Region