Draft:Vanishing Seattle

= Vanishing Seattle = Vanishing Seattle is a multimedia project dedicated to preserving the memory of shops, restaurants and community spaces in the Seattle area.

Purpose
Seattle is actively undergoing the process of gentrification, and is losing a lot of the businesses that have been around for decades. The Vanishing Seattle's goal is to document, bring awareness, and ultimately help fight against this process.

Founding
Vanishing Seattle was created in 2016 by Cynthia Brothers. According to an interview of Brothers from 2020, she started posting on Instagram out of spite when one of her favorite local Filipino restaurants closed down. Since then, she has been continuing her quest to bring awareness to Seattle's gentrification issues and growing her organization. In a different interview, Cynthia Brothers opened up about growing up in the Seattle area and feeling a special connection to the location, explaining that the city is home to her, and feels that is being taken.

Media and Press
As of May of 2024, Vanishing Seattle has over 80,000 followers on Instagram and over 1,300 posts. Vanishing Seattle won the Seattle Gay News Readers Choice Awards for Influencer of the year. On their social media, the Vanishing Seattle account posts about closing businesses, reopening businesses, and other information that the Seattle community should be aware of.

Vanishing Seattle has had over 50 press opportunities, many of which are from local news stations, magazines, and radio stations.

Arts
Vanishing Seattle's involvement within the Seattle community does not stop at Social media to educate the public, it also engages in artistry to spread the news.

The organization created a series of six films all about different districts of Seattle to highlight how gentrification continues to impacts them.

In the Summer of 2023, Vanishing Seattle set up an art show set to showcase the different signs and memorabilia of multiple businesses that have already been lost to the effects of gentrification.