Besides artist studios, Shoe Building residents include small shops and a number of galleries. The Shoe, six stories high with the top floor abandoned to pigeons, occupies a big section of the space between Jackson and Occidental streets, one block north of the Kingdome. If rained out, the rally will move to the Shoe's fourth floor at 163 S. Jackson St. Expected speakers include City Council members Nick Licata and Judy Nicastro. Anyone who thinks they've heard this story before is right. The plot's so old it creaks.
Artists move into a seedy area, giving it tone and vitality.
That attracts the affluent, whose interest inspires landlords to raise the rents or go condo. In Belltown in the 1980s, this story played out in its crudest form. Developers wiped off the map a lively community of artists, razing their studios to build massive condos. He's not, in fact, tearing anything down, nor is he a developer in the usual sense of the word. It would be a violation of Sam's will.