The Urban Enterprise Center, a non-profit program of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce founded in 1933, worked with various organizations to create jobs, develop businesses, and improve racial understanding in south Seattle neighborhoods. By its 10-year anniversary in 2003, its successes included the placement of 7200 people in living wage jobs, $8 million in loans to small businesses, and 20,000 participants in Forums on Race, which brought together people who might otherwise not have an opportunity to interact.

One of the organization’s ongoing projects was the transformation of the intersection at 23rd Avenue South and South Jackson Street into a thriving commercial hub. Anchored by chain stores like Starbucks and Walgreens, diverse ownership was part of the plan for the area. For example, in the retail strip behind Starbucks were two minority-owned franchises--Papa Murphy, owned by Bob Coltrane, a Black man, and Magic Dragon, owned by Jae Oh, a South Korean immigrant.

Jae Oh arrived in Seattle in 1993 and opened the Chinese fast-food restaurant in 1999. This photo shows the interior of Magic Dragon during a weekday lunch hour, with Garfield High School students lined up to buy food. In the foreground De'Andra Charlston, a junior at Garfield, checks out the fare, and at left background, Jae Oh works the cash register.

Caption information written by Seattle P-I staff: "Success story in the Central Area: Urban Enterprise Center is making a big difference," by John Iwaski, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 20, 2003, p. 9-10.