‘This could be the start of something’: Gee and Ursula question whether proposed McDonald’s will help Seattle’s Chinatown

A McDonald’s could be coming to a struggling corner of Seattle’s Chinatown-International District (CID). KIRO host Gee Scott worried it could hurt nearby restaurants and speed up gentrification.

“I’m not being disrespectful towards McDonald’s, but I can also understand, like, I don’t know about this,” Gee said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “This could be the start of something.”

McDonald’s has proposed moving into part of the former Bartell Drugs at Fourth and Jackson, across from the light rail station, The Puget Sound Business Journal reported. The proposal was set to go before the neighborhood’s special review board Tuesday.

Plans for the walk-up and dine-in location include bamboo-toned fixtures and signs in both Chinese and English. The architect said the restaurant would make the corner more active and welcoming.

Some neighborhood advocates disagree. A community development group worries the McDonald’s would take business from local restaurants and speed up gentrification. The group also pointed to drug activity around the McDonald’s at Third and Pine downtown.

Gee worries local restaurants will lose out

Gee said the McDonald’s would give people in the neighborhood a cheaper option than local restaurants, which have had to raise prices because of inflation.

He also expects fans to stop there after Seahawks games instead of eating at local restaurants.

“They’ll come to the CID after a football game, after the Seahawks game, and go to that McDonald’s, but they probably won’t go to the restaurants in those areas,” Gee said. “So that’s going to be rough.”

He admitted McDonald’s is one of his guilty pleasures, but said he understands why people oppose this location.

Ursula: ‘The CID needs help’

KIRO host Ursula Reutin said the neighborhood has real problems and has become “somewhat of a dumping ground.” More business activity could help, she said, as long as the restaurant doesn’t turn into another Third and Pine.

But she had questions.

“Does it take away from what this neighborhood’s supposed to be?” Ursula asked. “Is it an additive thing, or is it something that’s just going to add more problems to a neighborhood that’s already plagued with problems?”

‘History has a way of repeating itself’

Gee compared the situation to Seattle’s Central District. He asked Ursula, who has covered Seattle news longer than he has, how people used to talk about that neighborhood.

Ursula said people described intersections like 23rd and Union, 23rd and Jackson, and 23rd and Cherry the same way they describe the CID now. Then the area turned over and became a very desirable neighborhood.

“So history has a way of repeating itself,” Gee said.

Ursula asked if he would fight the McDonald’s.

“Oh no, I for sure would fight it,” Gee said. “But I just know sometimes you can’t fight the inevitable.”

He predicted that as more CID businesses close or sell, real estate investors will move in over the next decade or so.

“We’re going to see the Central District happen all over again,” Gee said. “That CID is prime property.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio.