Multicultural community meets at Crossroads Gary A. Bloxham
Ebbtide Reporter
Can you have dinner for two with live entertainment for just $10? It happens every Thursday and Friday night at the Market Stage in the Crossroads Shopping Center. On Fridays, the center hosts an open mike night from 6 to 10 p.m. Local Northwest musicians come to demonstrate their talents before a highly appreciative audience. On Saturday nights, the center engages local musicians to perform for the community. The quality of the entertainment is surprisingly good.
Live music is just one of the keys to Crossroads' success in the face of the intense retail competition on the Eastside. Caught between the Redmond Town Center and Bellevue Square and less than half of the size of major malls, Crossroads has devised an exceptional formula for success. By focusing on the needs of the local area, the mall owner, Terranomics Development, has created an environment that is more typically found in the downtown of a small community.
The heart of the Crossroads community is not the typical affluent Eastside neighborhood that one would expect; it is a much more culturally diverse mix of families. A walk through the mall itself will expose visitors to dialects from Eastern European countries, the turbans and saris of India, the ethnic influences of Asia, as well as the Spanish sounds of Latin America.
A direct outgrowth of this ethnic potpourri is the wide selection of restaurants found in the mall's food circus. With more 22 restaurants, including Bite of India, Dragon's Wok, Torero's, New York Deli, Piroshky and Papaya Vietnamese Cuisine, it is evident that Crossroads is answering a clear ethnic demand. With individual meals in the range of $3 to $6, it is a great food bargain as well. Live entertainment adds further excitement.
Another part of Crossroads' response to the needs of its community is the game area. At any given time during the day 10 to 15 games are in progress. Although there is an occasional game of checkers or cards, the obvious favorite is chess. With table and chairs provided, each player need only bring a chess set. On Friday or Saturday nights, one could easily believe that a regional chess tournament was in progress. There are numerous games, and the play is intense.
Local enthusiast Manny Ramos said, "I have been playing chess here for over seven years, long enough to earn my doctorate in chess." Ramos can be found during many weekday afternoons playing on the mall's giant chessboard.
The successful mixing of age and ethnic groups is apparent in the game area as well. Opponents are respected regardless of age or heritage.
Crossroads' newest addition to its community focus is the Imagination Studio. This is a joint project of the Children's Museum of Seattle and the Bellevue Art Museum (BAM). The studio's mission is to inspire children and adults to make connections with creative art experiences, cultural conditions and each other. Following a theme taken from BAM's current exhibit, the studio provides art materials and tools to enable hands-on art experiences for children ages 3 and older with an accompanying adult. While nonprofit, a small donation is asked as the price of admission.
While the mall has the typical assortment of retail establishments, it also has a few indispensable shops such as a supermarket and drugstore. While not usually found in the big power malls, these are part of the essential core for a neighborhood. Combine these with a library, a mini city hall and police station, and Crossroads is a distinct community.
Although the shopping center is still a profit-oriented business, its unique mix of food, entertainment, games, art and business enable it to assume the character and intimacy of a traditional neighborhood gathering place. The multinational makeup of the local community, with its young and old, well-to-do and poor, gives importance to its ability to bring people together.
