In Community: A love letter to Seattle's waterfront
From On the Waterfront
When you think about the Seattle waterfront, what comes to mind besides the gorgeous views over the water? Perhaps the Seattle Aquarium, Occidental Park, Miner’s Landing, Myrtle Edwards Park, Argosy Cruises, the Edgewater Inn? Maybe you’re thinking ahead about what is yet to come: a through line of public gathering spaces that can be enjoyed by all members of our community. A place to lay out a blanket and watch children play at the Park Promenade while they learn about the seawall or the vast history of the Coast Salish people. A date night that includes live music on Pier 62 and a bike ride or a stroll onto Overlook Walk over Seattle Aquarium’s Ocean Pavilion rooftop. Reflecting on the artistic brilliance of female Native artists along the Salish Steps, or shopping from local vendors on the way up to Pike Place Market. Enjoying happy hour at Elliott’s Oyster House before walking along Railroad Way to Lumen Field to cheer for our beloved Seahawks. These are just a handful of the wonderful things that excite me about the new Seattle waterfront that is taking shape.
Marie Kidhe, Friends’ Senior Community Engagement Manager
The Seattle waterfront has always been a joyous part of my life. When I was a young girl, my mother would bring my brother and me down to Ivar’s Fish Bar from our home in the Central District (CD) whenever she had extra money or wanted to do something special to celebrate one of our life achievements. As I grew older, I found myself further connected to the waterfront when I got my first job working at the McDonald’s at Colman Dock while attending Garfield High School. The energy of being near the ferries and encountering so many different people from various places and backgrounds was infectious, sparking a sense of wonder that has never left me. Whether it was seeing the military fleets with my girlfriends during Seafair or attending a concert at the mind-blowing Summer Nights at the Pier, the Seattle waterfront has always held a special place in my life. The vast and beautiful Salish Sea has been the backdrop of so many treasured moments and it’s the reason I am a proud employee of Friends of Waterfront Seattle.
I take my role within Friends very seriously. My relationship with this city has been complex, but my loyalty to it—and to the neighborhoods that have shaped it and me—is absolute. I dreamt of the day that the Alaskan Way Viaduct would come down so the corridors into some of my favorite communities (Capitol Hill, Chinatown/International District, and my beloved CD) would be reunited through downtown to the precious waterfront. It’s a privilege to be in this space now, as a member of an organization that is listening to the community and keeping a deliberate and fruitful focus on equity. The effort to reimagine the Seattle Waterfront must include giving historically underrepresented groups— including Black, Indigenous and People Of Color (BIPOC) communities—a seat at the table so they can add their voices to the conversation about investments in their communities. I am a first-generation Seattleite and a proud East African American woman. My lineage is part of this walk; I was raised by a single immigrant parent who was supported by a devoted local “village” with love and encouragement. I bring that passion, purpose, and commitment to my work as the senior community engagement manager at Friends of Waterfront Seattle.
Since 2019, Friends has been making intentional shifts to become a more authentic, diverse, and community-centered organization that represents an array of extraordinary voices, talents, and personal and professional backgrounds to equitably manage and produce programming for the City of Seattle and beyond. It has grown from a staff of only three employees of color to a 50% BIPOC team during the past two years, with two of those employees in the senior leadership, which is majority female. We launched our first Artist-In-Residence program in 2020 and were delighted that our community-vetted artist panel chose Takiyah Ward as the inaugural resident. Other programming, such as the visual brilliance of Reflections: What the Water Holds, highlights and honors Native and Black creatives in the region. As the nonprofit charged with managing these public spaces, we’re honored to be stewards in concert with the community. We take this responsibility very seriously and continue to push ourselves as an organization and those we partner with, aligning our “walk” with our “talk.”
Residents of Seattle deserve a glorious waterfront that ebbs and flows with cultural, environmental, and creative energy, where they can explore, hang out after work or on the weekend, and bring loved ones visiting from out of town. We deserve to have a world-class park that encompasses the beauty, intricacies, and history of our past while informing our present as we inspire the future. We deserve to have a waterfront that every individual and family, from every area within Seattle and from the surrounding region, feels welcomed and seen. We invite you to invest in this promising future with us.
— Marie Kidhe, Friends' Senior Community Engagement Manager
