Alderwood Mall (Seattle, Bellevue, Lynnwood: neighborhood, movie theaters, high school)

[burlshoe114]

Don't judge me before you hear me out, but this last weekend, my husband and I were at Alderwood Mall people watching. We hadn't been there in a while, and after we had walked around a bit we slowly noticed something.
How to say this delicately and in the most PC way... A LOT of the people at the mall last weekend were clearly not born in the U.S.A. It was kind-of a 50/50 if the conversation going on next to you was in English, and there were a lot of head wraps, saris, an occasional burqua, etc.
I'm not making a judgement of "this is a bad thing / good thing," but more of a "what happened?" I have lived in Washington from babyhood through my early 20s, and then when we moved back here 10 years ago, the majority of people were still US born, if not born and raised in Seattle.
Now again - I am only making on observation, so please don't jump all over me and accuse me of being racist, anti-immigrant, etc. We were just kind of shocked at the experience, and I was wondering why there was this sudden influx of other cultures in our neighborhood mall?

[xcalgal]

We moved from LA and my mom taught in a LA high school where there were 42 languages other than English that were first languages to students. My mom was lucky that she taught what came to be known as international foods. However, I do not know how the other teachers managed. When we left LA almost half of the radio stations were in other languages. I was a language major so I could understand all of the spanish speaking stations. Will it be for better or worse...who knows, but for those of us who have lived closer to the other border, definitely things have changed.

[pw72]

I don't take your post the wrong way, but you do seem to be quite sensitive to how your remarks will be interpreted. I wouldn't worry about it. Lynnwood (home of Alderwood Mall), like it or not, has become much more diversified the past decade or so. There is nothing wrong with stating facts.

The mall itself has improved the past several years, with new parking garages, movie theaters, and outdoor plazas. I really don't care who frequents the mall, as long as it continues to do well revenue-wise. Lynnwood will have to decide what it wants to be. Race is not important, but revenue is. So, if I were Lynnwood, I would be looking at ways to build it into the next Bellevue, and race has little to do with it.

[jm31828]

As others have mentioned Lynnwood is fairly diverse now. But one other thing- Alderwood Mall is not just a neighborhood mall these days- it's one of the major shopping centers in the entire Seattle metro area- a place people come to from all over the area for shopping, so I would guess a lot of the people you see there don't live directly in Lynnwood. I live just off of the mall a few blocks, and I see it on weekends- traffic in Lynnwood is gridlocked on Saturday and Sundays with everyone coming and going from I-5 to the mall. So that along with the metro area in general being a pretty diverse place really does explain what you are seeing at the mall.