TulaneLSU's Top 10 signs of Seattle

Dear Friends,

Whenever I visit a city, I walk the city. I do not know any other way to learn a city. Riding in a car or a bus or a subway is lacking in almost every way. To know the people, their stories, and the buildings, one must get out there and pound the pavement. For some of our friends, like dear OWL, walking may be difficult, so I suggest wheeling around town, which I assume offers the same experiential benefits of walking. I have spent many hours walking the many streets of Seattle this last week, perhaps reaching 40 miles in distance. With camera in hand, mind focused, and spirit led, I have accumulated my favorite ten signs of Seattle. I do hope you enjoy.

10. Bush Garden



As the East Coast and New Orleans faced the scourges of organized Italian crime syndicates in the early 1900s, Seattle faced a similar plight with Japanese crime bosses. The Willswood Tavern of Seattle at that time was the Toyo Club, the West Coast’s second largest casino. The Toyo Club, sometimes called the Tokyo Club, opened sometime in the 1910s in Nihonmachi, which was the Japenese neighbor to Seattle’s Chinatown.

It did not become notorious and world-changing until Kanekichi Yamamoto, Seattle’s version of Carlos Marcello, rose the ranks. Yamamoto was just 17 when he entered Toyo’s doors in 1918. Toyo at the time was the nucleus for a poorly organized syndicate in the Pacific Northwest that controlled gambling and prostitution in the region, mostly among the Japanese and Chinese. But it was also a center for Japanese American culture, serving as a social club and a restaurant.

Yamamoto, recently migrated from Tokyo, started working at Toyo as a busser, but his ability to get things done was noted by the club’s leader, Tayokichi Yamada, and Yamamoto quickly ascended the ranks as Yamada’s personal bodyguard. By the mid-30s, Yamada was arrested for tax evasion. Seattle’s Japanese community was humiliated by this man, so they sought to have him deported, which the U.S. government happily did. Legend has it that Japan sent Yamada to organize casinos in Manchuria after its imperial expansion.

Yamamoto was by the mid-1920s running the syndicate’s day-to-day operations, which controlled gambling, prostition, and the opiate trade in the Pacific Northwest all the way to Alaska. Opium dens were rampant in this part of Seattle, and Yamamoto controlled them all. His scummy business was good, but it was about to skyrocket.

Out east, the organized crime bosses knew that their cash cow, illegal alcohol, was about to become legal again. With legalization, its monopoly over it would end. So many families of the Mafia chose a new path to wealth: opiate dealing. One such family was the Outfit in Chicago, run by Al Capone. Capone sent his men to meet with Yamamoto and a seven figure deal was made. Capone and Yamamoto met weeks later in Las Vegas. Yamamoto would supply Chicago with opiates and they would split everything 50/50.

Just as today, when you buy illegal drugs you are supporting anti-American activities, so too was that the case in Yamamoto’s day. The tens of millions his Toyo Club and its heroin distribution brought were destined for the coffers of Japanese imperialism, leading to the Pacific theater of World War II. More than that, the Toyo Club served as a breeding ground for Japanese spies, making their way to the West Coast. The end goal was Japanese rule of the west coast of the U.S.

In 1939, Yamamoto was deported to Japan. The Toyo Club found a successor, but after Pearl Harbor, the club wielded no power, as Japanese Americans were rounded up and put in camps. I am uncertain what happened to the Toyo Club after 1941 as a building, but in 1957 Roy and Joan Seko bought the building.

The Sekos named it Bush Garden and during its heyday, it served 450 diners at a time. It also is purported to be the first karaoke club in America. It was sold again to the Sadatas in 1997, who closed the restaurant but kept the bar open in 2016.

While you walk through the International District today, take note of this sign and this building. They signify something far bigger and deviant than the nation’s first karaoke bar.


9. SIFF Cinema Uptown



Walking downtown Seattle is an easy task, even if it is somewhat hilly. The hills become steeper as one moves north. Mother and I wanted to make it to Kerry Park, which gives a stupendous overlook of the city. On the way, we passed an area that I assume is known as Uptown. It certainly does not have the charm or character of the real Uptown, starting at Canal Street, which winds its way to Carrollton.

Nonetheless, this theater’s marquee is quite striking, and its neon glass provokes one to wonder how beautiful it must look when glowing in the dark. Opened in 1926, it now is an artistic film theater that hosts the Seattle International Film Festival, for which the SIFF in the title stands.

8. Pike Street Market





For many, this is the most iconic sign in Seattle. I include it only for posterity’s sake and not to anger the locals and tourists alike who would moan if I excluded it. Look at the sign itself: it is very boring, much like the city it represents. I appreciate the clock, but not a lot of effort or thought when into the making of this sign. Be on the lookout on the Food Board for an upcoming Top 10 food items of Pike Street Market.


7. State Hotel



While Mother showered, I escaped to explore Pioneer Square, the historic old Seattle, which does not have much history, but there is at least some there. Seattle is one of those cities that lacks history, but worse than that, lacks any appreciation of history that it might have. Such is the place for a city built on technology companies. The material stuff of this world, and the history of man’s hands in molding that stuff, is an afterthought.

It seems only in the very tiny corner of Pioneer Square that there has been any effort to preserve the past. The population of homeless people in Seattle seems to appreciate this area, or perhaps it is where they are left alone best, as tourists do not seem to frequent the area. I saw perhaps ten people on the streets who were not high on drugs or exiting their tents while walking this area for an hour.

This building opened in 1891 and was home to the city’s first pharmacy. The State Hotel has since moved uptown and up have the prices also moved.

6. Mecca Cafe



Red flags abound with this dump whose slogan “Alcoholics service alcoholics since 1929” is sickening, especially so in a city so wrecked by drugs like alcohol and heroin. It is a tourist trap masquerading as a locals hangout. I would never enter and supposedly this place serves terrible food. All that withstanding, the sign is impressive, and this is a list about Seattle signs. It is not surprising that a yucky business would find its way on this list.