The coming year could be pivotal for the revitalization of Seattle’s Chinatown International District.
The cross-lake connection of Sound Transit's Link light rail, which begins in the spring, will be a direct — and faster — transit option from the east side of King County. And in the summer, World Cup soccer matches will be played right next door at Lumen Field.
And this Saturday, the annual Night Market is expected to bring thousands of people to the area once again.
‘What we’re going for’
A couple times a year, foot traffic in the neighborhood springs back to pre-pandemic levels. One is the Lunar New Year celebration in February. The other is the Night Market, which started in 2006. This weekend, more than 100 vendors will offer a bevy of food and entertainment.
“The Night Market is a great event because it shows what the neighborhood could look like at its peak," said Tuyen Than, executive director of the Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area. “And that’s what we’re going for: a Night Market, but all throughout the year.”
It wasn't always a smooth path forward, even after the height of the pandemic had passed. In 2023, the Night Market was cancelled because of a lack of sponsorship. But the next year, Amazon stepped in with a three-year commitment as the lead sponsor.
Taylor Hoang, Amazon’s head of community affairs, is familiar with the neighborhood; her parents owned a shop in the district when she was younger. She called it “part of the fabric of who Seattle is.”
Hoang said Amazon's investment recognizes the importance of events like the Night Market in drawing people to the neighborhood.
Neighborhood safety
The district's average foot traffic is still down by 13,000 people a day compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to the Downtown Seattle Association, which analyzed data from August 2019 to August 2025.
A significant hurdle to increasing the number of visitors is the perception of safety. City statistics show a dip in crime in the district in recent years, and city officials said at a press conference in September that the Little Saigon neighborhood had seen a drop in 911 calls, thefts, and robberies over the past year. But residents, business owners and city officials continue to express concern about open-air drug use, and there have been notable acts of vandalism in the area as well.
“Public safety is a huge topic, it’s something that we think about daily,” Than said.
In June, the City of Seattle partnered with nonprofits to launch the Safety Ambassadors Program. Ambassadors have conducted hundreds of wellness checks in the district in the past three months, fielding dozens of calls for de-escalation and to address public drug use. Volunteers organized by the district's Business Improvement Area have been cleaning up litter and graffiti, too.
“This is something that the community has asked for for a really long time,” Than said.
While next year’s World Cup is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of fans from all over the world, Than said they’re thinking about the long term.
“What are the beautification efforts that we can make to ensure that beyond the World Cup, the CID is a location that people will come back to day after day?" she said.
Than wants to fill the neighborhood, which she expects the Night Market will help accomplish this weekend.
It's set to run from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday at Hing Hay Park.
