By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

About 350 merchants and property owners in the International District pay to clean the streets, sidewalks and alleys of refuse and graffiti.

A long-term goal is to create more parking areas, a costly proposition and one that has eluded the district since the Kingdome was built.

With the 1997 vote to build a new football and soccer stadium -- and the opening of Safeco Field -- the International District can be expected to lobby hard for more parking to accommodate game-day traffic and shoppers.

Iwata says the BIA has a good relationship with the Mariners and Seahawks and is developing marketing plans to attract more sports fans to the neighborhood on game days.

"It's just a real exciting time," says Iwata.

The BIA also has hired security officers to patrol the neighborhood at night.

In 1995, the neighborhood group Community Action Partnership got a grant to work with Seattle police on public safety issues. Since then, overall crime, including fights and drug deals, has dropped, says David Sylvester, a police officer who walks the neighborhood beat. Residents also say crime here is no worse than in other downtown neighborhoods.

Despite that, Sylvester said some people still think the area is dangerous, mainly because of lingering Hollywood stereotypes.

"People make assumptions about Chinatown, that it's dark and mysterious, with gambling, gangsters and massage parlors," Sylvester says. "But in reality, that's not the case. It's actually a pretty good place to come and see."

The neighborhood is generally safe, but it has been affected by ongoing problems with public drinking and transient camps under the freeway, said Aileen Balahadia, project manager of the Community Action Partnership. She says those problems lead to a misperceived fear of crime and her group has been working to solve them.

Continued:

• Immigrant surges still boost its energy
• Area's future mixes old buildings, new projects
• Little Saigon has blossomed over past decade