Shelf Life Community Story Project
Amplifying community voices, learning from neighborhood stories, and interrupting narratives of erasure in Seattle's Central District.
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No Reason to Leave

Photo by Jill Freidberg

Photo by Jill Freidberg

Davon Evans grew up in Seattle's Central Area. He owns a moving business and works for Cappy's Boxing Gym. He is the last member of his extended family still living in the Central Area.

Davon Evans

I remember when Odessa Brown was in an RV. Yeah, she used to come to Garfield and clean all our teeth. Then we used to slide down, before Garfield got remodeled, they had a hill a grass hill, and it would snow, we would go to Ezell's and take the cardboard boxes that had a little slick plastic on them and we would slide down those hills but now it's a bus ramp, where the buses come down at.

We used to go to Medgar Evers for free swimming on Wednesdays, then it went from free to 50cents, and we used to go to Medgar Evers and swim. We never left. There was no reason to leave. And play in the field where Walgreens and stuff is. That used to be a big field there.

Across the street used to be a hair shop where they always threw for the kids in the neighborhood a Halloween party, and we used to go bob for apples, and I think as I got older - I was putting my mouth in that water with everybody else, oh my god!

We stayed in our geographical area. No, we never left. There was no reason to leave!