INSPIRATION STATEMENT

Even after being priced out of the neighborhood we helped establish and anchor, Baby & Company stays committed to supporting the city we will always call home.

The unraveling of our once vibrant and booming downtown center has created a positive shift and growth of neighborhood commerce opportunities and community identity. Neighborhoods like Ballard, Fremont, Queen Anne, Columbia City, West Seattle, and Madrona are booming with small businesses committed to representing the identity and enhancing community needs and engagement. People can work in and around where they live. This creates a healthy environment to help support and get involved in issues important to the neighborhoods they represent.

However, this trend has allowed the residents of Greater Seattle's 206 to understandably turn their back on downtown and retreat to the safety of shopping malls and neighborhood shopping zones. While it is entirely understandable, I wish we could have harnessed the power of our outrage and protest to demand accountability from the city officials and our "do nothing" city council. These elected officials have developed absolutely no roadmap for recovery or vision for any solutions. The apathy of the 206 residents has let political officials sit by and watch the decay of our once-thriving downtown neighborhood. Now, I understand first hand the frustration of residents who watched helplessly as our communities became meccas of crime, homelessness, mental illness, and filth. But those of us working and living in the city were not enough to combat the overwhelming effects of the multiple issues driving the decay and safety on our streets. We need ALL the people in the Seattle Metro area and bedroom communities to have our backs and fight this fight along with us. Those who did not have to work or live downtown took on a "Not my neighborhood, Not my Problem" attitude and moved away from the problem instead of leaning in to force change. While I understand that, how can we ALL not see the need for and importance of all Washington residents' cultural and financial benefits to having access to a world-class city? We need our museums, theaters, waterfront, tourism, and convention centers to showcase our state's incredible beauty and cultural identity. We all benefit from our waterfront, performing arts halls, cultural centers, and civic pride of what used to be called as early as 2015 "The Jewel of the Pacific NW." Our incredible lifestyle filled with lakes, mountains, islands, and forests need a commercial center to offer the benefits to all Washington residents. Every neighborhood and zip code that makes up the incredible identity of the Pacific NW should consider themselves stakeholders who will benefit from Seattle's success.

It will take a commitment from our local officials, state officials, law enforcement, and the private sector to push for new ideas and innovations to find workable solutions for the deep and systemic issues destroying urban centers around the country. We simply can not accept the current status quo winning the day in our once vibrant and exciting downtown centers. It is a fight we must all be willing to take up.

For this reason, we will do our part to shine a light and contribute to the revival of our downtown retail core after a devastating 2 years.

BABY & COMPANY POP-UP

Baby & Company Presents - The 4th Avenue Collective - Located at 1908 4th Ave. in downtown Seattle from April 30th - June 4th

Featuring:

Susan Wheeler Home Red Lemon Vintage Easy Street Records Tune Hi-Fi

Baby & Company comes back to Seattle for their bi-annual seasonal Pop-up.

We will collaborate with retail partners and present a specially curated selection of Spring / Summer goods and services.

Just back from a buying trip from Italy and Texas, Susan Wheeler will present a fantastic selection of home & jewelry that will not disappoint.

Easy Street owner Matt Vaughan will hand pick a selection of new and used vinyl to spice up any record collection.

Red Lemons curator Lauren Wheeler has been hard at work buying designer vintage from Italy to Texas and anything in between.

Tune Hi-fi will have a home listening display to inspire the need for a great home audio system for any space, large or small.

Opening day Saturday, April 30th through Saturday, June 4th Tuesday - Saturday 11-6. Sunday 12-5 Closed Monday

We hope you will journey to our downtown location to discover a plethora of style and design from all of our retail partners.

Here is a list of local businesses that make up this 4th Ave corridor. We hope it will motivate you to come back and rediscover and support these local downtown businesses:

POP-UP COLLECTION PREVIEW