Seattle City Council Briefing 10/26/2020

Colleagues, good morning.

Thank you so much for being with us.

It is October 26th, 2020. This council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 9.34 a.m.

Colleagues, before we ask the clerk to take the role, I did want to let you know that this morning, my office received notice that council member herbal will not be able to join us this morning during council briefing.

She's feeling a little under the weather.

We're hoping that she'll be able to join us at 2 o'clock during our full council meeting.

She does apologize to our.

honored guests for not being able to be here in person and we will go ahead and now ask that the clerk please call the roll.

Councilmember Strauss?

Present.

Councilmember Juarez?

Present.

Councilmember Morales?

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Here.

Excuse me, Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

7 present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, and I I inadvertently forgot to state for the record that Councilmember Juarez is also unable to join us this morning, so I will make sure to have the record reflect that she is excused for today.

Approval of the minutes.

If there is no objection, the minutes of October 19th, 2020 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, just wanted to say good morning once again to everyone.

It feels good to be feeling well again and to be back with you all this morning.

Thank you so much for your patience as all of last week as I was in and out of the virtual office due to feeling unwell.

And thank you to all of you who reached out with well wishes and even offers of soup and food and magazines.

So I appreciate it.

Huge thanks to Council Member Juarez for stepping in as President Pro Tem last Monday.

I really do appreciate her stepping up in that role consistent with our Pro Tem schedule.

At this afternoon's full council meeting, we have a short agenda.

We'll consider the payment of the bills, the introduction and referral calendar and council bill 119942, which council member Lewis will speak to later this morning.

We will also accept public comment this afternoon and consistent with the published agenda, the public comment period will be no more than 20 minutes this afternoon.

That does conclude my report.

And before I transition into a preview of today's agenda, council meeting where all council members provide, excuse me, we will not be moving into a preview of today's city council actions and council and regional meetings.

We're going to hear first a presentation on a couple of council bills and did want to note for the record a official welcome to this virtual space to many of Many of our guests who are going to be presenting on these two important property transfer and or lease bills that will be shepherded through by Councilmember Mosqueda.

So I wanted to welcome Joaquin Garrett and Triana Holliday from Africatown Community Land Trust.

Uh, Timmy will coma from when a worry Elijah Lewis from flourish financial or Sammy or Sammy from please come again.

And also we have several members of the executives staff.

with us.

Patrice Thomas from OPCD is an additional ad, I understand.

And we also want to make sure that we say thank you so much for being with us.

And I know that Council Member Mosqueda will have some opening remarks here as soon as we transition to this next section.

And I apologize if I missed anybody who is with us.

You will all have an opportunity to introduce yourselves to us.

And again, just a warm welcome to each of you for joining us this morning on these important bills.

Okay, so we will have now a presentation on Council Bills 119905 and 119906. Before we begin this presentation, I want to note an error in the Council Briefing Meeting Agenda, which incorrectly referenced the bill's titles.

The correct presentation title should read, Presentation on Council Bills 119905. and 119906 Africa Town Property Lease and Central Area Senior Center Property Transfer.

Again, a small error, but the clerk's office wanted to make sure that I corrected that for the record.

Again, presenters for the Central District Senior Center property transfer include Andres Mantilla, who's the Director of the Department of Neighborhoods, Uba Garderi with the Office of Planning and Community Development, Dan Ferguson, who is the Executive Director of the Central Area Senior Center, And then we will hear a presentation on Fire Station 6 property lease to Africatown Community Land.

And that will, we will also be joined by the Director Mantilla from the Department of Neighborhoods, as well as UBA.

And I read through the list of the Africatown representatives already.

So with that being said, I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Council Member Mosqueda, who is the sponsor of these two council bills.

and offer her an opportunity to make any introductory remarks before the presentation.

And Council Member Mosqueda, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Council President, and good morning, everyone.

I think that my excitement pales in comparison to the excitement that many on this briefing today are feeling after years of working on this effort.

So it's really exciting to be able to hear directly from the organizations and the community members who've been pushing for these transfers.

and actions for so long.

We have presentations as the Council President outlined on two pieces of legislation that are on our agenda.

Council Bill 119905 authorizing a long-term lease for the old Fire Station 6 to Africatown Community Land Trust for the creation of the William Gross Cultural Center.

and Council Bill 119906 to authorize the transfer of the Central Area Senior Center from the city to the organization to contribute to the services they have been providing to the community for over 50 years.

These pieces of legislation came to the council and to our body for deliberation, but it was after we had already begun in budget process.

So recognizing that we have asked council members to put various pieces of legislation on hold during the council budget.

We really appreciate the work that we have done with the council president's office to make sure that these organizations.

did not have to wait anymore.

There's already been a long process, many years of them, their efforts to try to make sure that this legislation move forward.

So today we're having a briefing in council briefing instead of in one of the finance and housing committees as a way to make sure that we are moving forward as fast as possible and not adding to the weight that's already been experienced by many community partners and organizations here today.

We're expediting the legislation while still providing this form as an opportunity for the council to have deliberations and the public to engage in a process both to understand the importance of this legislation and why we are moving forward, hopefully, with the council's support to enact these two pieces of legislation.

Followed by this briefing, we will have a full council vote scheduled for November 2nd.

So I want to make sure everybody knows the timeline for that.

If you do have thoughts or feedback, just like you would have a normal committee meeting, you can send those to the council members and to the community at large, because we will be taking action on November 2nd, at least that is the schedule right now.

All of you to ask those questions, but this is this is the chance for us.

And again, we want to thank council president for working to carve out this time during the council briefing.

We know our time is limited, but as we hear more about the legislation in front of us, you will see how this ties into the legislation.

This council's already passed.

You'll recall that last month.

We passed legislation legislation.

transferring bird bar place property to the organization.

And these kinds of transfers allow for organizations to have the ability to move forward and direct control over what happens on those pieces of property.

So at bird bar place, this transfer allowed for the mutual and offsetting benefit sites that have been occupying the community area for many decades to be able to continue the process of transferring that site to the community organization.

And that had been going on since the Nichols administration, just like these two pieces of legislation.

In late 2018, the council passed a resolution committing to collaborate with the executive to ensure the transfer of these properties that have mutual and offsetting benefits and lease them to the organizations residing on those facilities no later than March 2019. Well, here we are, October 2020. It's been a long process to get here.

I'm very excited to hear about these sites, the mechanisms of the transfer, and making sure that the organizations have the support that they need to be able to move forward with their plans.

So, lastly, as the Council President noted, on Council Bill 119905, the long-term lease of the old Fire Station 6, we're very excited to have Africatown, Waunawaree, Flourish Financial, and Please Come Again, in addition to D.O.N. and Equitable Development Initiative and Office of Planning and Community Development representatives, as well as LISH.

And then on Council Bill 119906, the transfer of the Cultural Area Senior Center.

We will hear from presenters from the Cultural, from the Central Area Senior Center.

And we again have the department representatives.

And with that, really excited to hear from the community partners.

And I know Lisha is going to kick us off.

But folks, remember, November 2nd is the final vote.

Thanks so much everybody for being here.

Looking forward to learning more.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda, on that.

The agenda does indicate that we are slated to run with this presentation until 10.15 a.m.

However, we did get started a little late as we were running through technology and making sure that we were able to receive the presentation.

So we're going to go ahead and run through these presentations until at least 10.30 in the morning.

My hope is that we'll be able to get through all of them by then.

So we can do the last item on our agenda this morning.

So I'm going to go ahead and look for Lish.

There is Lish.

So Lish, I understand you are going to make initial remarks.

So I'll go ahead and hand it over to you.

And then just really quickly, either Council Member Mosqueda or others, can you just provide the viewing audience and our guests sort of a run of show in terms of which bill you want to go first?

Thank you very much.

If it pleases the President, I would love to have Council Bill 119905, which is the Africa Town Transfer first, and then Council Bill 119906, the Central Area Senior Center second.

Okay, great.

So we will go ahead and do do that order.

Okay, let's hand it over to you.

Please introduce yourself for the record and make your remarks and then you can hand it over to the good folks who are with us related to Council Bill 119905. Please take it away.

All right, thank you.

And I'm going to be very brief.

There are people that have been spending a lot more time on these projects than I have.

But just to state the boring stuff, Council Bill 119905 is a 99-year lease under a mutually offsetting benefits agreement with Africatown.

So it would provide Africatown with a landmark fire station structure that's in at Yesler and 23rd Avenue South in the central area for 99 years.

And the programming that Africatown will provide will offset the rent that would normally be charged for that facility.

The Central Area Senior Center project, the CASC or the Central Area Senior Center has been operating under a mutually offsetting benefits agreement for decades now.

And that legislation would transfer the property to the Senior Center.

so that they would own the property outright.

So there's a difference between the two projects.

They're in different stages.

One has been active for a long time, and the other is a new project, a new idea that the city is helping to get off the ground with this legislation.

So I'll transfer it over to Director Montilla to talk more about the legislation.

Thanks.

Thank you, good morning council members and the director of department of neighborhoods.

Thanks for having us on behalf of Mayor Durkin here to brief.

About these important actions, I will also be brief as we want to get over to the community portion of the conversation.

A big thank you to our community partners on the phone.

that have worked tirelessly with us to develop these agreements, as Council Member Mosqueda shared.

This represents many, many months, and in some cases, years of conversations.

Thank you to our staff who, along with the community, worked to put together these organizational criterias to actually move us forward after years of conversation.

As was noted, this continues the work that followed Bird Bar Place in that transfer, and hopefully soon you'll also see transfer documents for the Greenwood Senior Center.

Staff are also in ongoing conversations with the South Park Neighborhood Center as well, as we know that there are additional mutual and offsetting benefit buildings throughout the city.

My colleagues from the OPCD will give a more detailed explanation of the transfer documents and the agreements, but just to offer a few comments.

We know, and the community has told us repeatedly, that when we put wealth, assets, and capacity in the hands of communities, communities can grow, organizations can be sustainable, and we as a city collectively can fight displacement.

We feel that in these two agreements, we have taken concrete steps to do that.

This project, or this protects and establishes historic and longstanding services for seniors, for broader community, and in the case of Fire Station 6, really establishes new programming that's really innovative within the Central District.

So with that, I'll turn it over to our colleagues from OPC.

Thank you, Andres.

Good morning, everyone.

Ubah Gadare, the Ecobar Development Initiative and Division Manager.

And just want to echo excitement that everybody has stated around transferring property to community to build community wealth.

And the fire station six has been one of the EDI is specifically the William Gross Center EDI is five initial demonstrated projects which meets three of the equity drivers around economic and mobility, building economic mobility, and preventing displacement, commercial, cultural, and residential displacement, and finally, building on the local cultural assets of those communities.

I would like, I'm not going to say a lot, to invite my colleague, Patrice Thomas, who led the legislation for Five Station Six, to do the presentation for this legislation.

Patrice, take it over.

Thank you, Uba.

So this proposal is a legislative action authorizing the Director of Finance and Administrative Services to negotiate and execute a real property lease with Africatown Community Land Trust for the development of the William Grove Center for Cultural Innovation at Fire Station 6, located at 101 23rd Ave in the CD.

The purpose of this legislation is to support the repurposing of the former Fire Station 6 as the William Gross Center, supporting small businesses, creative entrepreneurs, and creating pathways to the knowledge-based economy consistent with the goals of the Equitable Development Initiative, as Uba mentioned.

A little bit of background.

The EDI Initiative was established in 2015 as a multi-departmental effort coordinated by the Office of Planning and Community Development to meet the needs of marginalized populations, to reduce disparities and create opportunities such as quality education, living wage jobs, healthy environment, and affordable housing, again, as mentioned.

The city council adopted the EDI implementation plan in 2006. A little bit about Africatown Land Trust, and again, they'll speak more deeply to this.

But again, as one of our demonstration projects, Africatown Community Land Trust was formed to acquire, steward, and develop land assets that are necessary for the Black African Diaspora community to grow and thrive in place in the Central District, as well as support other individuals and organizations and retention and development of land.

ACLT was formed in 2016 following a historic inclusive development agreement reached between the Central Area community members and private owners developers of the Midtown Center.

The agreement culminated from the work of the Union Station Union Street Station Business Association and Africatown stakeholders to acquire and facilitate inclusive, heritage-rich development at the Midtown Center that includes community and small business spaces and affordable housing.

And I'm sure many of you on this call are familiar with that site.

Speaking specifically to the William Grove Center, Africatown has received 1.15 million and EDI grants to create the William Gross Center for Cultural Innovation.

It is intended to be and will be a catalyst to support the Black community's rich history of innovation and entrepreneurship that has been negatively impacted by the local, state, and federal government policies and private sector practices.

The William Gross Center was an early pioneer, or William Gross was an early pioneer in Seattle and successful African-American entrepreneur.

After helping slaves escape and establish a Canadian settlement in the early 19th century, growths arrived as one of the first few hundred people in what is now the city of Seattle.

WGC's activities will provide a means to help repair some of the harm that past policies and practices and current growth has created and to advance community self-determination.

Services and activities are expected to be provided at WGC will include, again, small business technical assistance, marketing assistance and training, employment, technical skills and entrepreneurship, training for individuals, and lastly, but not least, celebration and enrichment of Black African-American culture and heritage in the CD.

The last little bit I will share, the city owns the real property as stated in the CD.

That includes a historic building formerly known as 566. And WGC is going to and intends to activate this space with the stated intention.

So I will not go any further.

I won't blab on any further.

I think I will pass it on to ACLT if that is the intended order.

It is.

So we'll go ahead and hand it over to, um, our guests to go ahead and, um, walk us through the community portion of this conversation.

Welcome.

Uh, good morning, uh, council members and staff.

Thank you.

Um, we're glad to be here today.

This has been a long journey.

Um, uh, a lot of work with, uh, officer economic development over the years, officer planning and community development, um, much appreciation to Sam Assefa and Uba and Patrice just gave a great presentation in history so she just took off half of my presentation so that's great too and definitely to the mayor's staff as well for getting this process moving at this critical time.

So with that, I will share screen and go into our presentation.

And so just for the record, it will be myself, then it will be followed by, I'll be followed by Trayana Holiday, and then Tehmay Wacoma, and then Elijah Lewis.

Warsami will not be able to join us today due to scheduling conflict.

All right, are you able to see my screen?

Yeah, looks good.

Thank you.

All right.

So, yes, the vision to an opportunity to repurpose the former fire station six as William Gross Center for cultural and innovation and enterprise.

You heard about William Gross, who was an initial pioneer in Seattle.

And in 1882, he actually bought 12 acres of land from Henry Yesler and began to partition his land off to other Blacks that were settling here, which is what effectively established the Central District as an African American community.

was followed by many other pioneers or African-Americans coming from the South, mostly fleeing the Jim Crow post-slavery sharecropper society, seeking better quality of life, safety, and economic opportunities.

And this great migration we know of happened at the highest level around World War II, where many people came for shipyard, Boeing, wartime economy jobs.

And so when they came, again, the Central District in Seattle had a different type of Jim Crow racism in the form of housing covenants were restricted where people could live and buy.

And so Blacks were settled in the Central District alongside other communities.

Despite those conditions, a very rich community grew of creators, makers, innovators, and entrepreneurs.

We know the legacy of the jazz legacy in the Central District from Jackson Street to Madison Street that gave us folks like, or legends, should we say, like Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, creatives like Zenobia Bailey, world-renowned artists, attractive folks such as Octavia Butler, and even continuing legacies such as Ishmael Butler, Digable Planets, Bass Palaces, and Black Constellation.

Seattle has grown.

We look around, we see many cranes everywhere.

We see many statistics such as those outlined here around it being a a very robust and thriving economy.

Unfortunately, we have not seen our community that has been here for almost 140 years benefiting and growing at the same rate.

When we looked at the Seattle 2035 plan, we did actually did not see our community, the legacy of those that were forementioned, my children, my peers' children as a part of this future.

We have seen the trends and the statistics which really illustrate that what we have in Seattle currently is a state of a modern-day Jim Crow apartheid.

When we look at apartheid, the root word being apart and uh, our community being systematically over time through various policies and practices, um, being kept apart from, uh, the good things and, uh, such as here, we see the, uh, median income gap, um, almost, uh, or more than double.

Um, we look at the wealth gap, almost a half, a million dollars in difference.

And again, A lot of this is due to the lack of participation in the economic growth, the various industry sectors that have driven the growth over the last 30 to 40 years.

And so some of the key problems that we see is that the education that our community has received has not been preparing our youth for these industry sectors or entrepreneurship.

Many Black-owned businesses lack up-to-date business development knowledge and access to capital to actually grow and scale.

There are barriers to employment for our community members who have been victims of criminalization policies, mass incarceration, school-to-prison pipeline.

We see that 40% of jobs have been reported to be replaced by automation and that McKinsey studies show that that would hit Black males the hardest.

We know that our immigrant refugee community has specific barriers to the job market.

as well as growing businesses beyond the communities.

The current solutions have been fragmented and inconsistent over time, and COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted our community to only further exacerbate the existing gaps that existed prior to that.

When we talk about the startup Seeing Seattle has had a startup initiative.

We understand many tech startups, the large ones, established businesses such as Microsoft and Amazon, Expedia, etc.

And then the many spinoffs from those businesses.

Our community, again, has not participated in that economy.

Not participating in a knowledge-based startup economy.

1% of VC funding going to Black founders, even less, 0.2% reported goes to Black women founders.

And according to various studies, Black net worth and wealth is predicted to go to zero.

if there's not course correction and significant disruption of the existing status quo.

And again, COVID-19 only exacerbates these issues.

And so over time, through various initiatives, this project is really eight years in development.

And we have engaged with the community and done deep listening through initiatives like Hack the CD back in 2014, which started the Black Seattle 2035 Imagine Africatown community planning initiative that has been ongoing.

Black Dot, which was launched as a pilot pop-up co-working and incubator space in 2015 and still providing services and resources to the community today.

The 23rd Avenue Action Plan, Central Area Commercial Revitalization Plan, and the process for the historical Central Area Arts and Cultural District.

have all provided insights into what type of solutions we need and validated the initial thoughts and proposals and vision for the William Groves Center.

And so again, that brings us to this opportunity.

Imagine a team of two 12-year-old co-founders using a sewing machine and a 3D printer to design a hoodie that is laced with wearable technology, or a high school senior stopping by the William Groce Center to get assistance from volunteer Amazon employees to create an app for their band's new album.

These are the type of opportunities that we envision at the William Groce Center for Cultural Innovation and Enterprise.

But bigger than just a center, we really look at it as a catalyst and really an epicenter, which will provide for stewardship for really transforming our community through a cultural innovation zone or district.

We know that we do not want to be just museum pieces, murals and statues and plaques in a historic district.

We understand that, you know, innovation districts such as South Lake Union, and University of Washington are looked at as being essential to the economy and moving the economy forward.

And so we look at, you know, how do we connect the genius and the brilliance that has been in our community, the spirit of innovation, which is really making a way out of no way, working with what you have, often less is what our community has been forced to make a way out of.

And many time and time again, have created tremendous value, which has benefited many outside of our community, but not our community as much.

When we speak to the driving pop culture, we think about the music from jazz to rhythm and blues to hip hop to Electronic and all the different aspects.

And so we look at Africatown is an asset based community development initiative and we see the fire station six as being a place of really convening And stewarding a larger ecosystem that will provide for pathways from pre K all the way through workforce.

entrepreneurship and back to mentor and actually investing it back into the community.

And again, making sure that there's a connected ecosystem that our young people can actually matriculate through and that those resources are present, you know, at each step of their journey so that they can get to the destination of economic sustainability as individuals and then more so as a community collectively.

So the William Grove Center will be a hub for innovation that has been and continues to take place in the Central District.

We've spoken to that.

We look at key thing, connection points and values of culture, community, innovation, technology, and enterprise.

Really a one-stop shop for pathways to education, employment, and entrepreneurship.

Space for small businesses to incubate, pilot business ideas and receive the technical assistance needed to grow and develop, and also social enterprises and community-based organizations as well.

Spaces for regular meetings, gatherings, networking, community, culture building around technology, enterprise, and empowerment.

Who will we serve?

Youth and young adults, creatives, micro entrepreneurs, existing local businesses, technologists, community builders, unemployed, underemployed.

immigrants and refugees previously incarcerated.

And we think that, you know, bringing people together from different walks of life and different skills provides an opportunity for greater outcomes.

You heard previously that this project is an equitable development initiative demonstration project.

It was voted that in 2016. And, you know, we face, you know, significant, you know, Delays and bringing this to reality.

And so now you know, we, you know, hope that everyone can embrace the urgency, particularly as we are in this.

in the middle of a still a global pandemic that has devastated economies.

And even as we are doing this meeting in a much different way.

And so how do we give our community, our businesses, our individuals really clear pathways to the future and being economically sustainable so that we can have a future in the central district and in the Seattle that honors our past and help Seattle become a world-class city that's inclusive of the communities of the world that have made the city and not a one-class city that's exclusive pretty much to white, wealthy, high-wage earners primarily, which is the current trajectory that we are on.

And so some of the work that has been done includes, you know, hackathons, heard about that, design weekends, career incubators and technology career and incubation and really our focus.

over the last six months has been around COVID-19 assistance to our business community.

So with that, I would like to let people know that there's much opportunity to get involved to help make this a reality and make this really a vehicle to the future for our community.

And so that's advisors, strategic partners, business coaches, tech mentors, strategic partners, and obviously, resource development and fundraising.

And so with that, I'd like to pass it over to the distinguished and really our face of Africatown, as many people see, Trayana Holliday.

There we go.

Hi, everybody.

Thanks so much, Joaquin.

Great presentation and a great history and background.

into why William Grove Center is so important for our community.

You know, for me, I'll start a little bit with my background.

I started modeling and acting when I was nine years old at Bellevue, in Bellevue, at ABC Kids and Teens.

And I had to go all the way to Bellevue.

I was a Central District kid.

I was a Central District resident.

And hearing a commercial on the radio spiked my interest to say, that's where I can go learn.

That's where I can go train.

And I ended up training as one of the only black girls in my crew, in my cohort, trying to learn about how to introduce myself to the world as a star, right?

What does that look like?

How do you embrace your own identity when you're the only one that looks like you in this space?

You're being taught by a bunch of people who don't look like you, who do not have your lived experience.

And so really hearing about William Gross Center, for me, I think about my journey, taking all of that from nine years old, moving it into theater and doing a bunch of work at Garfield High School, really cementing my love for creative arts, finding my voice in front of the camera, behind the camera, stage managing, directing, taking all of that experience to other places, creating a drama troupe, right?

And taking all of that experience to Howard University and getting right into their theater program because I was trained, right?

I had the skills and they recognized it right away.

For me, it was at Howard that I was like, wow, I am here with all of these people that look like me who have this love and passion for creativity, for content creation.

for visioning something different, right?

Wanting to create a cinematic experience for an audience that doesn't exist yet.

And there I exploded, right?

When I came back and really concentrated on my studies at UW Tacoma, I was able to take all of that training in front of the camera, behind the camera, into production in a serious way.

And so I bring all of that experience with me to Africatown Community Land Trust, really cementing so much of my love and knowledge for my community by taking my experience and producing a documentary on gentrification, specifically in the Central District.

interviewing so many Central District residents who experienced exactly what my family did in 2003, being ripped away from a place that I was so rooted in, and bringing all of that knowledge to Africatown Community Land Trust and seeing a vision at Willam Grove Center.

For me, there's a direct pathway that is needed in terms of creative world for students, black students in particular, that I had to carve out for myself.

You know, there was one program at Garfield that allowed me to flourish.

That program is, you know, not really there anymore.

It is not the same.

They have taken so much money out of the arts and public institutions that our youth are not really having enough avenues and pathways to find out how to explore the arts and the creative arts in a way that takes it in and infuses it with technology.

We see that now, as Joaquin pointed out, right now we're all on Zoom.

Maybe there's a new creative way to do these kinds of virtual meetings, but there needs to be a space for someone that's innovative enough to even be able to explore what that looks like and be mentored and guided in the right direction so that they can see, oh man, this is how I can do that code that would change the way that we communicate virtually now that we have to because of COVID.

There's a lot of innovation that can be had, and I am looking forward to bringing in creative arts, content creation, you know, TV production, all the things that I do now with Converge Media, fusing it with my work with Africatown Community Land Trust and the new coalition of King County Equity Now.

It's inspiring for me, and I want to be able to give that inspiration to the next generation, and we need to root that in place, and William Grove Center will do just that.

So thank you so much for giving me some time.

I will pass it on next to the next individual.

Thanks, you guys.

Thank you, Trey, on a holiday, so much for speaking on those creative points and innovation and how those two meet.

often in our community.

I have a similar experience in Seattle.

I think the different points for me are I'm a creative.

and the institutions that were able to prepare me to be a professional and that catered to not only my lived experience but catered to my future perspectives, my dreams, my hopes, my goals were institutions like Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, which had programs that were there for youth that look like me.

Hearts and Minds, which is another program that they had at Langston Hughes.

Spaces I could go to like Odessa Brown, being a Garfield High School graduate, being a fifth generation Central District, born and raised with Juan Arwari, my great-grandfather, and his family really created an ecosystem And so I was able to get part part of that.

But this 20 year change between 2000 and 2020, I recognize that my younger sister, who is just hitting high school, has none of those opportunities to seek innovation, to seek inspiration, to sharpen iron with iron, to see others who can accomplish and physically mentor her through the way.

I have so many mentors in this community that them themselves don't have institutions to give back the way they were able to give to me.

I'm in the position to give back.

I'm a professional dancer.

I'm a licensed cosmetologist.

I got my cosmetologist license through SDI, which is again, not available to my community.

I have mentors that were my instructors that were constantly trying to find new ways to innovate and create a space for people who were like, I wanna do what you do, how did you get there?

There's no roadmap for that anymore because of devastation of our community.

And so I see myself at the William Grove Center being a mentor, but not only being a mentor, continue to be incubated in my community, continue to be stretched in my community because I know my community has a lot more to offer me.

And I know that it really starts right where you are.

You can't be successful anywhere in the world if you can't be successful on your own two feet.

If you can't be successful in your own neighborhood and the people who love you and the people you see every day, if they're not able to reach you and give you the nurturement, then there's no way you could spread your wings and do it in another place.

And so, when we think about places like William & Mary, and we just look at the whole campus, and Wanawari wasn't on that.

But soon, Mauna Loa will be on that campus map.

I think of a community that is, you know, being revived and that the fruits of that labor, the fruits of the, you know, being reinvigorated will will bless the whole city, you know, and we've seen it like the great stuff we've already looked at that all of us can look up to, you know, their own innovation, their own tenacity, their own will to make it happen.

And so like White King said, we've been making it happen for the past 20 years with little to nothing.

and getting things continually taken away from us.

I'm really excited to see our city come together and say, okay, this is a need, this is a problem and we're going to address it.

So people like me can continue to stay here and sustain oneself.

And I can offer something to the city and not feel like I have to move to LA, I have to move, I've lived all over the nation.

trying to find a place because my place has been dismantled.

My place has been taken from me.

And I'm just sitting here trying to stand for and bring something back.

So it's like, why should I have to go outside of my own city to get what I need?

And so I'm just excited.

I'm really excited about this.

And I think that's all I have to say about that.

And I'm gonna pass it on to Elijah, if he has anything to say to the William Breaux Center.

Thank you, sister Tammy.

I love, you know, hearing your passion and your story also sister China and brother why King, you know, I love, you know, you are my mentor.

So you all know what it is.

My name is Elijah Lewis.

For those who don't know, I am I'm a multi-entrepreneur.

I own Cleaning to the T, which is a tea company offering equal employment to my community.

Heavenly Memorials, which is a funeral home that is really essential to our community because in this time of burying your family members or your friends in the community, we need to be laid in rest with, you know, Making sure that our bodies are laid in rest in the best way and be represented within that, you know, also flourish financial group.

I own a, we do 6 week workshops for our community really.

making sure that our community where we're over underrepresented within our financial you know disparities as you can see as my brother Joaquin talked about being you know through that we we need to be represented and we need to be seen we need to have mentors like myself being able to talk to our youth who are going to go through this corrupt system and are going to go through all these predatory lending and everything else.

So we have a six-week workshop where we really teach the basic financial principles that we need to know to be able to sustain ourselves and to be able to get to financial wealth within our community.

And so I am a organizer.

I really am a Africatown baby, I like to say, because I graduated from the Africatown graduation.

Really, a little bit about myself is I've been an entrepreneur since I was very young, and I did not know that I was an entrepreneur because I really didn't have anyone to really cultivate myself, right?

From a young age, I remember at five years old, I started a lemonade stand and I would do little different side gigs for money.

And I would, you know, just always kind of a hustler, you know what I mean?

Whether it was lemonade stand, walking dogs, doing people's lawns.

And I remember it was just kind of seen as more or less just a side gig or a way to make money.

And my mom, she really didn't tell me I was an entrepreneur or a business owner.

She just thought I was a cute young son doing it, right?

And I remember at eight years old is really when I decided to brand myself and I made Doggy Daycare.

And I started to have my own flyers and started to do my own advertisements, going door-to-door knocking and client relationships, building those client relationships with my community members.

different people in my community.

And a lot of people took the chance on me and allowed me to walk their dogs.

And I was making a few hundred dollars a week at eight years old, you know what I mean?

And doing this this way, being innovated and being, you know, cultivating my inner genius by myself.

Right.

And I didn't really have those mentors in my circle to really tell me, hey, you can do it.

I believe in you.

You are great.

You are fantastic.

You know what I mean?

You should have your own commercial, you know, stuff like that.

I really didn't see any of that things because I was just a kid at that time.

You know, I'm just doing what kids do and that's, you know, when we find a way to, you know, get extra money and make it fun for us.

That's what we're going to do organically without the, you know, support system and whatnot.

But what happens when we don't have that support system is We start to be told that we need to be adults, right?

And adults work regular nine-to-fives, and we're going through the regular school districts, and we don't really see spaces for ourselves for entrepreneurs, right?

We are told that we need to work a nine-to-five, go to college, and do all these things so that we are made for society, right?

And so we start to forget about our inner talents, our inner gifts, our inner, you know, loves and dreams and compassions.

And we start working regular nine to fives.

And so that's what I did at 14 years old.

I remember working at the Rainier Beach Community Center, the Rainier Community Center, really a lot of the community centers in the you know our parks and recreations and I remember I did the math I worked for about 600 hours something crazy maybe 600 hours or something like that and I actually did the math and I made five dollars an hour at 14 years old because I wasn't old enough to work but you know I was committed to keep on doing this program because this is all I had to do and you know at the time I you know we went through homelessness.

We went through so many different things, transitional housing to make money, right?

And so I finished this program and I was happy when I had that $600 check because I worked for that and I was able to do that.

Um, and once I got to the age where I was old enough to work, I started working through the regular nine to five system and I started to go through racial profiling.

I started being targeted.

I started to fight these microaggressions, you know what I mean?

And just seeing all of these things, I didn't realize the system that was put in place to actually make me fail, but, I just knew that there was difference, you know, in the school district, even going to, because at 16 years old, I was going to school, I was homeless, and I was working three jobs while playing football, doing this all the same time.

And I was faced with all of these different trials and tribulations, whether it was in the workforce or in the classroom, people telling me that I could not be great, and that I was going to be a failure, going to go to jail.

And I did not have the proper mentors until later in high school.

And so really when I was able to see and find the proper mentors, got connected with my mentor, Y King, and really found out about Africatown and what that meant to me was seeing people who looked like me that were actually successful, seeing people who looked like me that were killing the game and that were able to give me the jewels that I needed to run the companies that I run now right and so what that is is being able to not just make us be able to just be stable but actually to flourish because that's what it made me do that's why I created Flourish Financial Group and to you know, build these professionals, you know, coming into our community, teaching financial literacy skills, right?

Because I want to give the skills that I needed growing up and that I struggled with growing up, and so I can help my community, and we can, you know, continue to thrive within our own community.

I've been raised in Seattle my whole entire life, but I could not live in Seattle, and so I was literally a product of gentrification, right?

My mom could not afford to live directly in Seattle, so We oftentimes, I went to school in Issaquah and Everett and continuously went to different schools.

And what that did for me is, you know, they put me in an IEP, but they weren't looking at my situation.

They weren't hearing my story.

They weren't seeing the trials and tribulations that I was actually going through as a young adult and facing, you know, the traumas, the, you know, you know, mental health problems that I was going through, going to different schools and whatnot.

And so that is what the William Grove Center is.

The William Grove Center will be a place for kids who look like me who have that inner genius within them and will be able to be cultivated within that process and I think that it is it is very sad that you know over 200 million dollars is put in to actually incarcerating us but when we look at the funding that is actually put into cultivating our inner genius and seeing us thrive and seeing our businesses actually you know seeing us as business owners you know I mean I'm 20 years old I went to Rainier Beach High School and when I tell people I'm a business owner A lot of people look at me and just it's just disbelief.

There shouldn't be that disbelief when you look at a young black professional and see them as a business owner.

You should be able to say, hey, how can I be a part of your success, right?

How can I help you?

You know what I mean?

How can I, you know, breathe life into you, especially if you are saying that you are, you know, supportive and want to be an ally of our community.

You have to be an ally to our business owners.

You have to be an ally to the William Gross Center.

You have to be an ally to these situations.

And so that's what I wanted to say.

Thank you all for listening to me, but definitely the William Groves Center is needed within our community.

Thank you so much.

I think that concludes the first presentation.

I think we've made it.

We heard from every presenter on that particular panel.

I do wanna recognize that we have one more presentation, but before we transition to that second presentation, wanted to afford council members an opportunity to ask any questions of either the executive staff with us or of any of the community presenters who spoke to this particular bill.

Any questions or comments?

Council Member Simlat, please.

Thank you.

very excited both as the district pre-council member and also a community member in the central district and as somebody who's marched along with Black Lives Matter that we are seeing the black community's vision for the William Groves Center for Cultural Innovation moving forward thanks to all the community members and leaders who just spoke so eloquently about the history and also what it means for the present and the future.

For years, Africatown and other community members, as we know, have been calling on the city of Seattle to transfer the unused Fire Station 6 for this vital community purpose.

And as Viking has correctly noted, this has been a long journey, and I would say too long.

And I just wanted to also note that until earlier this year, Mayor Durkin had been stalling getting this transfer done.

And then after the Justice for George Floyd protest broke out and the community's demand picked up momentum because of the mass protests, I think we are seeing a real, you know, we're seeing this coming to fruition in front of us.

And I just wanted to convey to everybody who spoke, the community members who spoke, that it has been an honor for my office to be to have joined Africatown and alongside all the Justice for George Floyd protesters in demanding that we have the city of Seattle finally expedite repurposing the fire station to the William Gross Center.

So I'm glad that we have the legislation now before us.

And what I expect will be a successful vote next Monday and I wanted to credit Africa towns leadership and all the allies, including King County equity now decriminalize Seattle and the broader black lives matter movement, who have been pushing for this to come about and also of course we're going to hear.

about the Central Area Senior Center, which is also going to be an important step.

So together, these are both important steps.

I just wanted to also note that we need to couple these important steps with a lot more.

And over the weekend, my office has submitted a new proposal that has come from Africa Down for an important budget amendment.

to really fund an affordable housing development on the site of the former Cairo Center at 1601 Yesler Way in the Central District.

These are all projects in Central District and this will be a rare opportunity to use a full square block in the rapidly gentrifying Central District to build affordable housing specifically to to benefit black community and to fight against black community displacement.

And lastly, I'll just add that it was really also a matter of pride for my office to have joined hundreds of community members who rallied against the sale of that site to a corporate developer last year.

And those protest actions were really inspiring because one of those actions was able to disrupt the board meeting that was planning the sale on on a rainy morning and it was it's because of all this pressure of community activists that Africatown I think correctly believes that we now have an opportunity to acquire it from the corporate developer.

I'll say a few more things about that when we do the council go around but I just wanted to share that and I welcome council member support and again once again congratulations to everybody in the community.

Thank you council member Salant for those comments.

I haven't seen any.

Council Member Strauss, please.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you all for presenting this morning.

What really strikes me and what I've seen from you before as I've watched a lot of your teach-ins is that you are creating a feedback loop within the community, you're using your community network to create a feedback loop that is able to expand the outcomes beyond whatever input.

And so I'm just very excited to support this transfer.

I'm sorry, it's taken so long and I look forward to working with you more.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Any other comments or questions for the first panel?

I do have one comment just to add.

I want to say, you know, thank you to Council, our Council, District 3 Council Member Sawant for always being willing to really push the city and the status quo to change to accommodate all of our communities.

And the second thing that I wanted to say, and all the council members who have supported those initiatives, it's hard to go from one state to another state, right?

And we have really been in a Jim Crow, apartheid, socioeconomic state, right?

And the only way that we can get to a new normal rooted in equity is to have bold, unprecedented, and disruptive interventions, right?

and investments and so this is I wanted to say that to say that you know our focus is around ownership and that the lease component is really a median or step between so that we can access and begin providing value and resources and services in that space as soon as possible but would like you know all the council to you know again remain committed to That property being owned by the black community, you know, as the actual outcome.

As soon as possible, we understand there's some bureaucratic issue, you know, things, and we did not want to stop that from providing again so critical services and resources to our businesses in this post coded.

environment, which we are vulnerable.

We're seeing 40 to 60% of Black businesses being threatened to close.

And then we have to also be thinking very hard and fast about upskilling our community that has also been hit based on jobs being taken away.

Thank you, Viking for those closing remarks do want to appreciate all of the time that you all have given, not just this morning, but throughout the decades and history in the city of Seattle of continuing to champion these really important.

And more importantly, to really fight for the solutions that we know are at our fingertips in order to make a meaningful difference in creating that disruption and really shepherding forward some meaningful wealth building opportunities.

that are really critically important throughout the history of the city but in a COVID-19 recovery phase have become even more important.

So really appreciate hearing from all of you and thank you to those who shared your personal experiences with gentrification and intentional exclusion from many of the programs available to other residents in Seattle who are not black and just really appreciate the opportunity to work with all of you in partnership as we continue to look at these important policies and in making sure that we are centering the Black community and those who are most negatively experiencing gentrification and displacement and economic exclusion in our policy decision making and construction.

So really, really do appreciate all of you being with us.

And you're welcome, of course, to stay for the second presentation if you'd like to, but we're going to go ahead and transition now to the second presentation.

I know we are running a little over time.

But I do think that these bills are very important and really do want to make sure that we have enough time to hear the full presentation.

So, Diane, you are going to go next.

I know you're gearing up to share your screen.

Lish, do you need to make comments about this particular bill as an introduction?

Okay, Lish does not have any additional comments.

And then Director Montilla, would you like to make some opening comments on behalf of the executive?

Or would you like me just to hand it over to Diane?

I'll just make a few comments on behalf of the executive council president, if that's okay.

Just on behalf of mayor Durkin, we also bring forward this legislation to transfer the central area senior center to the community.

The central area senior center has a long and rich history in the central district of providing essential programming as we know.

And services to seniors, particularly in the black community.

And just a note that this has been even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic as they're providing both hot meals, to-go lunches, help with prescription drugs, et cetera.

So this transfer builds on years of services and programs that provide social cohesion, connection, and community, as well as counseling and transportation support.

And we would just really like to thank Diane and her board for a thoughtful conversation, for advocacy over the years on this.

just pleased to bring forward this legislation.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you for those opening remarks, Director Amathia.

I really appreciate it.

Council Member Mosqueda, any additional remarks?

Okay, no additional remarks for you.

Diane, welcome.

I see that you have a very strong backup team behind you there in the room with you, so we are excited to welcome you to Council briefing this morning and we are excited to hear more about the Central Area Senior Center and how this proposed bill supports the Central Area Senior Center.

Welcome.

Thank you 1st of all, I would like to introduce we have with us our board president Barbara Pete we have with us my cohort John Dr John Perkins who's worked hard with us over the last several years to get to this point.

And then we have a member with us as well.

Carol wells.

We would just like to say that 2020 is shaping up to be an exciting opportunity for us and much is happening quickly.

We've been at this at least for the last five years and so everything is rapidly happening starting with in 2019. I remember the date August 22nd because it was my birthday And the city told us we had to make sure that we had $55,000 in the bank as capital enhancement funds and maintenance funds for the building.

And we had to make sure that by September 1st, we could document that.

And so we were part of another organization who didn't separate funds entirely.

And so things were kind of co-mixed and I couldn't get a clear number of how much money we had in our account.

So we decided to raise the $55,000 and put it in our own bank account.

And within seven days, the community had supported us to such an extent.

We had raised over $100,000 and we knew that we were on our way to where we needed to be.

It has been a long, arduous 50, over 50 years for us.

In 1968, a number of African American people who were public employees decided that The African-American seniors needed a dedicated space where they could have programs.

We had always been in partnership with the Jewish community owing to redlining where Italians and Jewish people and Japanese people and African-American people were confined to a certain part of the city.

And at that point in time, 70% of the central district was African-American.

compared to 8% today.

And so through that partnership, the Jewish community said, we're no longer using the space for a convalescent center.

We would like for you to be the owners of that space one day.

And so they allowed us to rent it.

Our purpose has always been to infuse warm friendships, healthy activities, joyful experiences into the lives of mature adults, which is defined as a population of 55 years or older.

One of our visions that we have and why we are so pleased for the ownership of the building is that it has been very difficult to raise the ongoing funds that are needed to make sure that we can keep the building up in top shape condition.

It needs retrofitting, it needs a bunch of different things, but we have always had a vision for ourselves.

And that vision is, is that we want to be recognized as the premier nonprofit organization serving older adults within the central district and the central community.

It has always been a place where people come together to grab a bite to eat, to learn and acquire new enhanced knowledge while socializing and having fun, having healthy ongoing activities.

Right now, we even have our drumming group meeting on the outside of the building.

as well as our health and wellness class doing some fitness, exercising, and tai chi.

The problems that we want to address in the future when the transfer officially happens is we want to modernize the building to accommodate more people.

We have many systems that we need to upgrade.

We need to retrofit it.

We need a generator here.

We want to Enhance and improve our parking lot, which we were able to acquire a permit for, and we want to continue to reflect the rich historical and cultural significance that the central area senior center has played in the central district since its very founding.

1 of the things that we're very proud of is that we have so many partnerships.

1 of the partnerships that we have is with a organization that every year I get to recommend, maybe 10 seniors who are in need of some rehab to their homes and their dwelling places and then they go out and they do whatever that rehab needs.

One of the particular things that happened just last year was one of our members was able to get her plumbing all totally redone, as well as a deck that had been deteriorating for years.

They came out and totally replaced the deck.

Our members are happy right now as we experience COVID-19.

The biggest thing that we always hear is that they all want to come back as soon as possible.

Social isolation is great, but they really miss the center.

Ongoing activities include live music every third Friday.

The birthday lunches that people miss where they get flowers and they're honored for Having aged another year, it's always a competition.

We have some that are as old as 107 and everybody always wants to be the oldest person in the room.

The fair patio party is something that everybody lamented about and missed this year.

That's a big thing here.

We open up our terrace.

You can watch the hydroplane races.

We have great food.

We have dancing and live music.

You can even get a couple of cocktails if you want, but that's the kind of spirit that happens at the Central Area Senior Center.

So our long-term purpose and vision since our founding in 1960 has been to celebrate and serve all seniors, especially those of African American and African immigrant backgrounds that live in King County, in addition to serving the whole entire Central District.

We are seen both as a senior center and as a community center in many ways for all of the various community councils that meet here, people that come here to celebrate a life and to just have a great time as well as make sure that they're all healthy and well.

We would like to thank everyone that's helped us in this journey.

We particularly appreciate that council members O'Brien and Herbold in 2018 was willing to take our case To the Seattle City Council and that council members, so what and musketa and moralis were very helpful and instrumental in moving us forward in 2019 and 2020 to get us to the place we are.

And we also think the interdepartmental team that we met with.

We have to say that Andreas of Dawn and Samuel of Office of Economic Development and all of their staff that worked with them took us through the wringer, but it was a good journey to take together because we've arrived at the point that has been our vision for the last 51 years.

So we thank you.

And now we're ready.

Great.

Okay.

Thank you so much, Diane, for that presentation.

Really appreciate it.

Colleagues, any questions or comments?

And certainly want to make sure that Director Montilla has an opportunity to add any additional information as well.

But I see Council Member Mosqueda.

in the queue first, please.

I just want to say thank you for all of the work, Diane.

It's wonderful to hear you today and just to see all of the work that you've been putting into this over the years finally come to fruition, ideally with a vote next week.

I think when we had the chance to meet with you in community with Aretha Basu, It was the same week that you had just found out that the parameters were sort of moving and there was a six page document that was like you had to meet these criteria.

And you all have been doing heroes work to try to pull together, not just the funding, but respond to sort of moving goalposts.

And I just want to say how much I appreciate all the work that you do, period.

But doing that in addition to getting all of this back end administrative work complete so that this transfer can just go forward is really applaudable and I just don't want that to go unsaid.

You've done a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes just to respond to changing criteria and kudos to you and the entire community for all of the hard work you've done to pull together the funding.

But especially right now when we know that senior isolation, for example, is tremendously high and adding to the stress that COVID is already imposing on communities, especially black communities, black and brown communities right now.

You are just actually saving lives.

So whatever we can do to help you, please count us in for the future as well.

Thank you.

This is just the beginning of another chapter.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda, for those comments.

So I have Council Member Sawant in the queue and then Council Member Peterson.

Thank you and thank you, Diane, both for the presentation and for your longstanding advocacy for this issue, for this to be brought into community ownership, but also all the service you provide to the community as a whole in the Central District, but especially the seniors who I know for whom, you know, it is not at all an exaggeration to say that the Central Area Senior Center is a community lifeline for the seniors in our, not just in the Central District, but really in the wider region.

Just wanted to share one example that is, it was never, I'm never going to forget this.

On April 23rd of last year, and of course Diane and Viking and others will remember, we were all there together with the Central Area Senior Center leadership, Africatown leadership, Africatown media, and many others from the Central District, including nearly 100 seniors at City Hall.

We gathered at a rally in the City Hall lobby and then we went up to chambers to do the committee, which was being chaired by my office, where we discussed the resolution.

That was one of the steps that we took in order to nudge this process along.

And it was really inspiring to hear a hundred seniors chanting, no more delays, no more delays.

You know, that we're fed up with delays.

We need this to go forward.

But the moving example that I was going to share was, and I, unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the community member, but I know Diane will know exactly who I'm talking about.

This wonderful woman who said she had a brain aneurysm and it resulted in blindness.

And you can just imagine the kind of trauma one can go through, especially being a senior.

extreme and sudden onset of isolation and she was describing how she literally needed to learn to walk again because she was suddenly without sight and how the Central Area Senior Center services, but not just the services, it's the community and the love and the support and the encouragement she got, that not only did she relearn to walk, she learned how to dance and it was transformative for her life and really possibly helped her live as opposed to some other extremely tragic outcome.

So I think that that story is a real example of how it is so precious what we have here and that it's really important that this legislation is now finally moving forward.

It is an integral part of the community.

And that was Kelsey Watson and she will be happy and thrilled that you remembered that.

She continues to dance today.

Please let her know that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilmember Sawant for those comments and for reminding us of those moments.

Really appreciate it.

Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you.

Thank you, Diane, for being here and with your crew today.

And I've spent a lot of time at the central community meetings over the years, and it's such a wonderful asset for the community.

I'm glad that we're seeing the council and the Durkin administration trying to address displacement issues and prevent more gentrification and preserve these assets in the community.

And I think this question, and I appreciate Council Member Mosqueda having this briefing so we can look at the real estate documents before us and try to better understand them or get them out to the public.

so that we can hurry up and get this done finally.

So I guess this question is for actually for Lish on our city council central staff, if Lish is still here.

He's still here.

Oh, good.

Lish, just two questions on the real estate documents that were attached.

There was something called a form of deed Um, and the form of deed, um, just want to understand, um, how is, uh, it looks like there's an opportunity in the future, perhaps for affordable housing.

Just wanted to understand how is affordable housing defined for this particular deal?

So my understanding is that the Central Area Senior Center does not intend to build housing on their site.

But if they did want to, it's 80% or below of area median income under the deed.

And I think half of the units would have to be below 60% of area median income.

Andreas, if I'm incorrect about that, please correct me.

Okay.

So it's defined as 80% of area median income, but half of the units have to be at least 60% of area median income?

Yeah.

Below 60%.

Below.

Thank you.

And then there's a paragraph in that deed at the bottom, uh, number five, uh, so B five, uh, which says the nonprofit organization is authorized to sell the property only if all the following conditions are satisfied.

Um, you know, obviously we want to keep the central and public hands and and you know, p services that it provides the purpose of that claus

So the city is transferring ownership of the property to Central Area Senior Center.

It's a nonprofit organization that fulfills a certain mission and the goal of the legislation is to enable them to continue serving that mission.

If, you know, it is very valuable property, it's, as you know, having been there, it's got amazing views.

It's a large site with a relatively small building on the site.

And it may make sense in the future for the organization to sell that property and move their operations to a different location.

And if that over time becomes in their interest, and I know that it's not their intent now or in the near or long term, but if it does become in their interest, the deed would require that there be that the mission of the legislation and the city's transfer of the property to the senior center is fulfilled.

And can I join in and say something?

Absolutely, please Diane.

Okay, thank you.

Our intent always has been that we would like to expand our footprint on this property.

We would actually like a facility that's double the size and space that we currently have, which would not preclude that if that was to happen in the future, us, Creating a partnership with the city to look at building some affordable housing, primarily for seniors.

But right now, what we need to do is just plan what our future is going to be, which is to do the retrofitting the upgrading for the current building that we are in.

Because we have studied the building enough to know that we're talking millions and millions of dollars.

Just to firm up the slope would be about $16 million.

Buildings that we've looked at in order to double our space would be between 24 and $30 million.

So we know that that would be quite an undertaking.

We would like to be here forever.

But we also want to take the time that is necessary to plan our future.

both in terms of our physical space and our programs.

It is never our intention of relocating to a different property, but we never know what the future dictates in terms of what's going to grow up around us.

But it is our intention to put together a plan that would allow us to expand our footprint on the property so that we can serve more people in terms of services, as well as be the community space for the community and for seniors.

Thank you so much for that line of questioning Council Member Peterson.

Are there any other questions or comments on this presentation?

Okay, looks like there are no other questions or comments on that presentation.

Really do appreciate Diane, you being here as well as your board president and others.

Certainly look forward to continuing conversations as we look to take final action on both of these bills next Monday.

So thank you so much again for being with us.

Thank you.

Really appreciate it.

Okay, colleagues, we're going to go ahead and move into other items of business.

Our guests, of course, are invited to their portion of the participation today.

And we'll go ahead and move into our next agenda item, which is discussion of Thank you so much, Diane.

All right, thank you.

Today's City Council Actions Council and Regional Committees.

I'll call on Council Members in the established rotated roll call for City Council meetings today.

That is Council Member Strauss, Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, Peterson, so on.

And then I will conclude this portion of today's agenda.

So first up is Council Member Strauss, followed by Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Diane.

I waited because I knew I was going first to thank you for all your great work on behalf of our city and the Central Area Senior Center.

Regarding Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, there are 33 items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction and referral calendar, 20 appointments to the Design Review Board, 13 appointments to the Construction Code Advisory Board.

and there are no items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's agenda.

Regarding the budget, my office submitted 14 Form Bs last week and we co-sponsored 38. Thank you to everyone who lent co-sponsorship support and thank you to everyone who were able to support good policy moving forward.

Events, I'd like to mention the groundbreaking ceremony for the new affordable housing development in Loyal Heights, which we saw come before council Just a few weeks ago, it will be October 29th at 10am.

This project provides look just normal income, I'm going to start saying families.

with a place to call home in our neighborhood.

So thank you to Habitat for Humanity Seattle King County for that partnership.

District six updates, I continue to host district six resident meetings every week.

During my resident meetings last week, we continued to discuss homelessness and public safety.

We also discussed secure treatment facilities.

We spoke to people from Finney Ridge, Green Lake, and a couple of people from Ballard.

Please continue to send in your meeting requests For awareness, we are scheduling about three weeks out and small business area.

I was excited to see the mayor put forward the cafe street permits and this extended street sidewalk cafe permitting.

for winter months, including updated guidelines around tents and propane heaters, and extending those permits until October 31st, 2021. So thank you for putting that forward.

Excited to see Cafe Streets throughout the city.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, colleagues.

That is my report.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and move down the line.

Next up is Council Member Lewis, followed by Council Member Morales.

Good morning.

Good morning, Madam President, and thank you.

I will be fairly brief with my presentation today.

I do have an item on today's council agenda, Council Bill 119942. A technical amendment was distributed to this bill, essentially clarifying the $245,000 amount and how it can be spent consistent with HSD, or that HSD money consistent with council intent.

That is a technical amendment that Jeff Sims circulated last week and will be considered in addition to the bill.

I do want to note too that we attached a supplemental framework that was submitted by the provider community in consultation with other community groups and organizations.

There has been a back and forth over the weekend between some of those stakeholders on continuing to refine that framework.

And so hopefully by this afternoon, we will be able to distribute and upload the supplemental framework that includes some edits and additions to it.

This framework, I don't know if council colleagues have reviewed it yet, but offers a really promising step forward and meeting of minds between the Human Services Department and the provider community on how this ongoing provider-based centering engagement method of outreach can work collaboratively and can be a material change from a lot of the deficiencies that we as a council and the provider community saw in the old navigation team model that this collaboration seeks to replace.

So that updated framework will be hopefully provided before the full meeting this afternoon, and look forward to considering Council Bill 119942 in the context of that new framework.

Last week, I had the pleasure of representing the council, the Puget Sound Regional Council.

Of note, we approved the transportation improvement The transportation improvement program, sorry, or tip as it is known.

This program funds 11 Seattle projects, among them the rapid ride J line.

the West Seattle Bridge replacement, the routes 40 and 48 corridor upgrades for those bus lines, money for pedestrian wayfinding, money for the downtown bike network, and investments for the Georgetown-South Park connection as well, $2 million in monorail maintenance, particularly important to the Seattle Center, and $700,000 in streetcar maintenance.

So it was good to see that program approved.

I look forward to the public hearing tomorrow for the budget and to discuss all of the budget items that we as a council have submitted.

And I don't have any other reports to make today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, we'll now, oh, I'm sorry, Council Member Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Lewis, just to clarify on the outreach and response team for homelessness, the framework that you mentioned, did you say a new version of the framework document will be provided or that we should just look at the one that was already provided?

Thank you for that clarifying question, Council Member Peterson.

A new framework is going to come forward that will be reflective of the sort of the deliberative changes that have been made by talking amongst community members, talking to people in HSD that will be submitted hopefully sometime this morning.

So I would expect another one to come down.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Any other questions or comments?

Okay, hearing none, we will now hear from Council Member Morales and then Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you, colleagues.

Good morning, everyone.

I want to thank all of the presenters who were here this morning.

Excited to see that the Senior Center, the Central, and that the William Gross Center are finally moving forward.

community members have been waiting for quite some time and this really moves us toward acting on our goals for improving and addressing the racial equity issues that we have in the city.

There are no items from the Community Economic Development Committee on today's full council agenda.

I want to thank my colleagues who co-sponsored our Form Bs and look forward to the discussions that we're having later this week and to the hearing that we're having tomorrow evening.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been visiting encampments, homeless encampments and our RV residents as well as businesses in Georgetown and in the Soto area during these visits.

We've been asking what folks think the city can do for them.

Encampment residents, I just want to share a few things that we've been hearing from folks.

Encampment residents have asked for trash service and easier access to running water.

RV residents have asked for help connecting to outreach workers who can provide clothing, especially as we're entering the winter months here, or meal vouchers.

Small businesses have asked for support with crime, and I want to make clear that what they are not asking for is for wholesale removal of encampments.

They are asking for particular issues to be addressed.

And everyone is asking for non-congregate shelter, or in the case of RVs, for a place to park where they won't be asked to move.

Last Wednesday, I also sat down with folks from small business, from Homelessness Services, Human Rights Commission, and three unhoused neighbors from here in District Two to talk about what the future of our city's engagements with unhoused neighbors could look like.

And from that conversation, I heard that we need to let experts lead on engagement and strategy, that we have to support outreach programs that treat unhoused folks with dignity and with respect.

We want a more collaborative relationship with our homelessness organizations and with unhoused people themselves.

and that we need to stand up much more hygiene services.

Folks just wanna feel safe in their community.

And they want to do that in a form of non-congregate shelter so that they don't have to worry about the pandemic as well.

So I do wanna thank everybody who met with us over the last couple of weeks, who took time to share their experiences with me.

And I thought it was important to pass on to the rest of our colleagues, my colleagues, thoughts that they had.

I think it's important that we listen directly to the people who are experiencing the impact of the policy decisions that we're making, that we hear what they have to say.

This week, on Wednesday, I'll be meeting with neighbors from New Holly to talk about the encampment at the John C. Little Senior Park and to talk about how we can address the issues of folks who are living housed and unhoused in that neighborhood.

I've been invited to participate in a town hall on Thursday that will be hosted by the D2 DSA.

and other organizers in the district, so we'll be talking about how we're building a budget that matches the needs of community members here in the South End.

I believe that is all I have, colleagues.

Again, I look forward to the budget hearing tomorrow, and that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Any comments or questions on that report?

hearing none, we'll hear from Councilmember Mosqueda and then Councilmember Peterson.

Good morning, Council President.

Thank you very much.

There are no items from the Finance and Housing Committee on today's full council agenda.

In budget activities this week, again, we will begin our public testimony for our public hearing starting at 5.30 p.m.

public comment is available to sign up beginning at 3.30 p.m.

so please do take the opportunity to sign up for public comments so that we can hear directly from you of items that are of most importance to you as we consider where we go with drafting the Council's version of our budget as in response to what the mayor has sent down.

This will be our opportunity to really get feedback directly from the public on priority issue areas of yours.

So again, tomorrow, Tuesday, October 27th, we look forward to hearing from you.

Public comment again begins to be open for sign up at 3.30 PM.

Colleagues, I am going to try to keep us to that 10 p.m.

end time.

So depending on how many folks sign up for public comment, we will give you an update on that as the meeting starts.

But my intent is to try to hear from everybody on the list, as we did in our last meeting.

As you'll remember, there was only over 150 people signed up for public comment, and we did hear from all of the folks who were present in the four and a half hour period.

On Wednesday, we will be going into discussions on the council budget actions and statements of legislative intents as you all submitted your form Bs to central staff last Thursday.

Thank you very much for everybody who got those in.

Central staff will be summarizing each of those proposals, both budget actions and statements of legislative intent.

And we'll give the public a chance to understand how those ideas that you identified in your form A's have been further honed.

and we will turn it over to council members as well to speak to their proposals very briefly.

Again, council members, you may indicate your support for these budget actions and statements of legislative intent, and we will have a memo that summarizes the process for signaling your interest and adding your name as a co-sponsor.

It will be a visual that will correspond with the public presentation so that each of the council members' faces appear instead of having to raise hands given that we're on Zoom.

If you'll remember in previous years, council members raised hands and central staff confirmed the individuals who were interested in signing on as co-sponsors.

But given that we're not able to see everybody in real time due to the Zoom technology, we wanted to make sure that there was an opportunity for all of you and for the viewing public to be able to see visually who was signing on.

So thanks to Joseph Pija and the communications team for working on this process.

You will see more about how this will play out in a memo that's forthcoming.

Furthermore, there is going to be a memo that's circulated by my office every Monday.

We attempt to try to summarize budget actions and the budget committee, what you should know for your internal deadlines, and any sort of communication ideas that we are flagging for you to highlight what is happening with the city council members' efforts to further dissect the budget and to incorporate additional priorities.

So we will send that memo to you shortly.

In that memo, you will be able to see which items will be discussed on which days.

As a reminder, the committee discussions are October 28th, October 29th, and October 30th.

So in the memo, you'll see all of the departments.

A quick heads up for folks who are interested in identifying priorities for the Wednesday meeting.

The list includes the City Budget Office, Department of Education and Early Learning, the Department of Neighborhoods, Finance and Administrative Services, City Attorney's Office, Ledge Departments, the Offices of Civil Rights, Economic Development, Housing, Inspector General, Intergovernmental Relations, Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, Planning and Community Development, and the last three are the Seattle Employees Retirement System, Public Libraries, and Public Utilities.

Don't worry.

That will all be summarized in a memo along with all of the other departments by date, but I just wanted you to know what was coming up first.

In other updates, it was Affordable Housing Week last week and we usually do a proclamation honoring that week.

We didn't get a chance to draft that in partnership with our community partners this year, but we will be working with all of you and hopefully be able to bring forward a proclamation in the next week.

I want to highlight some of the pieces that did happen in Affordable Housing Week last week.

We had the chance to participate in the town hall meeting with the author of The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein and Colleen Echohawk from Chief Seattle Club, Council Member Balducci and Michael Brown from Seattle Foundation.

We discussed much of what White King and the presenters discussed today, the history of racial segregation in Seattle and the impact that that legacy has on today's housing affordability and housing opportunities across the city and ways in which we should be working with public policy to undo those past harms.

We are interested in continuing to highlight the ways that we can make further changes in the proclamation that will be forthcoming, but it was a really great discussion and I think dovetails nicely with the presentations that we had today.

We also had the opportunity to be recognized along with Councilmember Herbold's office, Christina and Councilmember Herbold and I and Aaron House were recognized by the Homestead Community Land Trust Cooper Legacy Award.

Thanks so much to Homestead for all of their work that they've done.

They reached out to our offices and asked that we do a quick video for them as they featured the work in their virtual gala.

I know everybody's doing virtual galas this year and we were really fortunate to be able to work with them to provide a short video recognizing the ways in which we are trying to move forward affordable home ownership opportunities that benefit folks in the county and also embody inclusion of social justice work.

I'm very excited to be partners with them and want to thank Joy Garland-Hunt who recognized us for our work, but we want to recognize her in particular for her work with advancing home ownership.

opportunities.

She really wanted to thank us and the council as a whole for the work that we included in the jumpstart spending plan in 2022, specific to homeowner ownership opportunities.

As we know, this is a way for us to allow for family members across our city to get out of generational poverty and to truly create equity in an equitable way across our city.

And then lastly, in affordable housing news, we are just really excited about the work that Habitat for Humanity Seattle King County is doing.

They had an announcement last week about their groundbreaking affordable housing development in Loyal Heights.

But due to the Select Budget Committee this week on Thursday, I won't be able to join them.

But there is some really exciting work that they are doing, which when completed will provide seven hard-working low-income families a place to call home as we also work on greater financial stability, independence, and equity building in the city through various public policies.

Homeownership and first-time home owning is a great way for us to continue to create a more equitable and sustainable economy for all and really excited about their work and just wanted to highlight all of these things happening in housing that dovetail with the presentation we heard this week, but look forward to working with all of you to recognize affordable housing week in Seattle with a proclamation upcoming in the future weeks.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Are there any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, we'll move down the line to Council Member Peterson and then Council Member Sawant.

Hello, colleagues.

The Transportation Utilities Committee has no items on today's full city council agenda.

Our Transportation and Utilities Committee will resume its meetings on Wednesday, December 2nd after the fall budget season.

And regarding our review of the $6.5 billion budget proposal, thank you to the various council members who were able to co-sponsor my Form Bs.

I really enjoyed the interactions and working with you on your proposals as well.

Last week, I had the opportunity to ride along with the Seattle Fire Department's HealthONE team, which is currently located just downtown.

As many of us know, HealthONE is a relatively new model that combines firefighters and case managers from our Human Services Department to engage with people experiencing a behavioral health crisis or other distress on our city streets.

One of the main goals of this interdepartmental team is to prevent more expensive and dangerous situations.

and the concept is that it's a more effective intervention when the city government links the person to other services, rather than just reacting and sending them to expensive visits to the emergency room, or worse, the criminal justice system.

So Mayor Durkan's prudently proposing to double this model.

I'd love to see it expanded further.

I'd want to see it expanded into the university district, for example.

It was apparent that the HealthONE teams will need more data analysis support as they grow so they can follow up with the growing number of clients and to analyze trends with patient care and hotspots.

I know we'll talk more about this during the budget process.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, Councilmember Sawant.

Thank you, President Gonzalez, and good morning, everybody.

There are no items on today's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee, which has no regularly scheduled meetings until the budget deliberations conclude.

Thank you to all council members who provided co-sponsorship to the various budget amendments from my office and the People's Budget Movement.

And I also wanted to say the People's Budget Movement is in solidarity with the Solidarity Budget being demanded by hundreds of community members.

I'm sure many of them will be speaking from, both speaking from the People's Budget and the Solidarity Budget tomorrow at the public hearing and all the demands coming from community members are in alignment and in solidarity with one another.

I am disappointed that no other council member has so far agreed to support the proposals from our movement to defund the police by 50% and to increase the Amazon tax rate so that we can not only fund community-led programs for restorative justice and promote genuine public safety in addition to really expanding affordable housing and stopping the draconian budget cuts proposed by Mayor Durkin.

Also, the proposal for the city to do the necessary research to have an elected community oversight board, which would provide actual community control over the police.

However, we still have the ability to bring those budget amendments forward during the final round of budget discussions for the final vote.

And I really would welcome support from council members for these very important proposals that have come from the Justice for George Floyd movement.

And I look forward to pushing for them then.

We were just, of course, talking about the Central Area Senior Center and the William Gross Center for Cultural Innovation, both very key projects for anti-gentrification and anti-Black displacement in the Central District.

But as I was saying earlier, we do need to do a lot more.

And over this weekend, my office submitted a new proposal for an important budget amendment that community members have advocated for.

And I've, of course, also informed central staff and had a conversation with them this morning about this proposal coming slightly outside of the deadline, but the Thursday 5pm deadline that we had, which we submitted all the other Form Bs, but this one came just a little bit after that, but we think it is extremely important.

and it has a very concrete proposal.

So I'm really looking forward to support from council members.

Africatown is advocating for an affordable housing development in the site of the former Cairo Center at the 1601 Yesler Way in the Central District and District 3. This is, as I mentioned before, a rare opportunity to use a full square block in the rapidly gentrifying Central District to develop affordable housing to prevent displacement.

And also, as I informed earlier, I joined hundreds of community members rallying against the sale of the site to the corporate developer last year.

And as I said, the protest actions did have an impact.

And then now, because of the momentum from the Black Lives Matter movement, I think there is real momentum to be able to win this.

And I'm really delighted that Africatown have brought this opportunity forward to acquire it from the corporate developer.

Africa Town is advocating for the property to be used to develop affordable housing for populations earning 30 to 50 percent of the area median income.

The proposed interim use for the site will be non-congregate housing for community members experiencing homelessness in the current 275 beds spread out over 70,000 square foot of building space.

This affordable housing, of course, is urgently needed.

Africatown's project at the former Cairo site will represent an important step forward for affordable housing in the Central District and will be an important blow against racist gentrification and is a community demand to make Black lives matter.

As I said, this proposal came to us slightly late and we will need to walk it on the agenda for it to be discussed with the other amendments in this week's deliberations.

So please let my office know if you have any questions on the proposal.

And if you would like to be listed as a co-sponsor, I really welcome that.

And as always would be very happy to work with any council office that would like to support this project.

Thank you.

Thank you Council Member Sawant.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Okay, hearing none, I'll go ahead and conclude this section of the agenda.

I have just really quickly nothing on this afternoon's agenda from the Governance and Education Committee.

And we did have a opportunity, my office attended the Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy Oversight Committee meeting last week.

The Department of Education Early Learning led a discussion with members of the Levy Oversight Committee.

and requested officially their feedback on some legislation that DEEL is considering to allow them during the COVID-19.

pandemic to allow them some additional administrative flexibility in order to be nimble to responding to some of the ongoing early learning and education needs related directly to the COVID-19 impact.

So we will be hearing more about that at the appropriate time and after the Levy Oversight Committee has had an opportunity to consider the legislation, then we will have an opportunity to have a conversation with DEEL directly and in advance of submission of legislation to the council for consideration.

I don't have anything else to report this morning.

Any questions or comments for me on my report?

Hearing none, colleagues, that does conclude our agenda for this morning's council briefing.

So we are adjourned and I will see you all at two o'clock.

Thank you.