WRITTEN BY PAUL DORPAT

COURTESY OF SEATTLE MUNICIPAL ARCHIVE

The pack of cyclists in the "now" scene nearly hides the triangular formation of eight bicycle racks installed this past June in the swath of sidewalk at the northeast corner of Virginia Street and Western Avenue. In the 1919 view, the freshly paved Pike Place runs directly through the intersection.

	PAUL DORPAT

During World War I, automobiles and trucks took control of the streets from carriages and wagons. The switchback from Western Avenue to Pike Street — here on the right — was such a popular route between the waterfront and the business district that in 1920 the City Council decreed that farmers would have to move off Pike Place, then proposed moving the entire Market to underground stalls near Fifth Avenue and Stewart Street.

An effective lobby of farmers and shoppers barely convinced the council to reverse these drastic plans. In 1921 the turn of a single vote in the 5-to-4 decision would have destroyed what a half century later would be again defended as "the heart of the city." In 1971, the citizen vote was 76,369 to 53,264 to "Save the Market" and not say amen to the often Orwellian promises of urban renewal.

The "market forces" of preservation that have since been released may be illustrated by the cooperation that Emily Allen and Chris King were required to line up to install bicycle racks. With Paul Dunn of the Friends of the Market, they enlisted support from the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board, the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority, 14 adjacent businesses, the Seattle Department of Transportation's bicycle program, and the Pike Place Market Historical Commission, to anchor the eight racks in the sidewalk bulb at the north end of the Market.

Such is the Market; such is Seattle.