Seattle City Council Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development, & Arts Committee 12/11/18

Greetings and welcome to the December 11th, 9.30 a.m.

public hearing of the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee.

My name is Lisa Herbold.

I'm the chair of the committee and I am the council member representing District 1, West Seattle and South Park.

It is 9.36 a.m.

and just to go over today's business.

We will have a number of appointments to the Human Rights Commission as well as it's the only commission we have appointments to today.

Then we're going to hear from the Office of Arts and Culture regarding a feasibility study and racial equity toolkit analysis about their thoughts.

around creating a cultural space public development authority.

We're going to hear then from Langston Hughes with an update of their efforts in the community.

And then we're going to have two pieces of legislation that we'll hear from Seattle Public Utilities.

One, accepting easements.

And the other is declaring certain real property rights relating to sewer and storm drain.

easements as being surplus to city utility needs.

And we're joined by Council Member Mike O'Brien.

Thanks for joining us.

With that, we can kick off public comment.

We have two people who are signed up for public comment.

We have you, Zimmerman, followed by Megan Murphy.

You will be keeping time.

Take a step up to the mic.

You have two minutes.

Thank you.

Sieg Heil, my lovely consul, Nazi garbage rats, anti-Semite, and cretina.

My name, Alec Zimmerman.

So, guys, I spoke about Human Rights Commission, what we have for many years.

And many times, I go to this committee for many years, talking about my seven trespassers, what they investigate.

No one from this commission for many years never give me one question.

It's very unique situation what is we have.

You always choice people what is apple not far away from tree.

This is exactly what has happened.

And I apply five times, it never accept me.

And I am candidate for U.S.

Senator twice.

I am bring two class action against government and one from biggest class action in American history.

I'm staying in Politico for all my life.

And I don't understand why it's going on right now with Civil Human Rights Commission.

How is this possible?

For 10 years, I come to this commission and talk, and nobody give me one question when I talk for my two minutes.

Counsel don't give me, I understand you are crook by definition.

It's no secret.

But this almost two dozen young people, most of them, you know what this mean?

All identical, all work are most for government and all quiet.

Why they doing in this committee for so long?

And why this happen?

When we will be changes, when we will be open to everybody, not to all, only to Nazi social democratic mafia.

When people like me or another people like Marguerite Richard, who you give trespass, and you give me trespass, nine trespasses for 930 days, can be speak about openly.

When you stop acting like a Nazi, like a Gestapo, like a mentally sick psychopath, stand up Seattle.

Thank you very much.

And next we have Megan Murphy.

Well, I heard Sunday that Amina Ahmed had passed away in a car accident and it seemed, I was just really startled because then I started to learn she was really good at organizing and her memorial I think is going to be on December 21st.

Anyways, I just thought I'd read a quote from her.

Diversity is an action, inclusivity is cultural, and belonging is a feeling.

Change doesn't start from top-down leadership, it happens at every level.

We can all be leaders if we choose to be, and they saw call themselves a whole leadership titles in our state.

I encourage you to have a responsibility of making sure all people of color feel comfortable to lead.

When we feel like we belong somewhere, we can achieve our full potential and give back to our communities, mentor our youth, because we feel like Washington is our state too, and Olympia is not only a place for white male and women, but also a place where young and old people of color can play a big part in decision making, and overall making sure other people of color voices are represented.

We, or so-called leaders in our states, Evergreen State, should prioritize diversity in supporting people of color, men and women, who stand up to diversify our state and should vote people of color, young men and women, to represent us both locally and in the capital.

So we, Washingtonians with different backgrounds, can bring our unique strengths to the table.

That was on November 4th.

Thanks.

Thank you for sharing that quote from Councilmember Ahmed, and thank you for taking the time to observe the loss to the community.

Thank you.

All right, with that, we'll move into the appointments to the Human Rights Commission, and we can read items one through seven into the record together.

Thank you.

Appointment 1, or Item 1, Appointment 1107, Appointment of Tyrone Grandison as Member of Seattle Human Rights Commission for a term to July 22, 2019. Item 2, Appointment of Sarah Hellman as Member of Seattle Human Rights Commission for a term to January 22, 2019. Item 3 is Appointment 1190, Appointment of Derek Stephen Lohman as Member of Seattle Human Rights Commission for a term to July 22, 2019. Item four is Appointment 1191, Appointment of Erica Chan as Member of Seattle Human Rights Commission for a term to July 22, 2020. Item five is Appointment 1192, Appointment of Judith H. Howard as Member of Seattle Human Rights Commission for a term to July 22, 2020. Item six is Appointment 1193, Reappointment of Shelekha Kalamendi as Member of Seattle Human Rights Commission for a term to January 22, 2020. Do you want me to do the Women's Commission one?

Oh, I'm sorry.

I did not realize that the other commissioner was a Women's Commission member.

Let's just do one through six for now.

Thank you.

Folks can join us at the table.

It looks like five of the appointments are new appointments.

Is that correct?

And one is a reappointment?

Are we all joining you?

Yes, I think everybody, all of the new appointments should join us at the table.

Thank you.

And as soon as we're all seated, we'll do a round of introductions.

Great, thank you.

Let's start off with some introductions.

Hi, good morning.

I'm Tyrone Grandison.

I'm the executive director of the Data-Driven Institute.

It's a nonprofit that helps policymakers figure out how to use data tech and community knowledge to solve their most critical problems.

And my interest in the commission goes back to my previous work with the White House and the Department of Commerce on income inequality and including minority communities.

Thanks.

Hey there.

My name is Derek Lum.

And my work goes back into community organizing and social services, work with people who have developmental disabilities, and also organizing the Asian American community.

Lifelong style resident.

I'm currently in grad school seeking a graduate degree in social work with a concentration in administration and policy.

And I currently have an internship at the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance.

So I work on housing policy and organizing.

Good morning.

My name is Sarah Hillman.

I'm an Assistant Attorney General with the Washington State Attorney General's Office in child welfare law.

I represent social workers who work with abused and neglected children and been interested in human rights issues and contributing to the work of the city for a while.

So that's why I'm interested in this role.

Good morning.

My name is Erica Chen.

I currently work at Rainier Scholars as the event and volunteer manager.

I also volunteer with Advancement Northwest.

I'm the co-chair of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Committee.

And I organize with Social Justice Fund, donors of color in Seattle.

And I'm very interested in human rights, social justice, and advocating for policies.

Thank you.

Thank you all for joining us.

It doesn't look like we have anybody here from the Office of Civil Rights to present the mayoral appointments, but that's okay, we can wing it.

Usually we have somebody from the department come and talk a little bit about their interest in putting forward the mayoral appointments.

So we have a mix here, both of the mayoral appointments and I believe you are a council appointment, is that correct, Erin?

OK, great.

And do you want to just talk a little bit about your interest in serving on the commission and what it is you hope to accomplish?

In no particular order, just.

I can go first.

Yeah, thank you.

So the reason why I wanted to run the commission is because as someone from the API community, I look up to my community elders when looking for ways to organize for change and equitable, and to make an equitable city.

And specifically, Uncle Bob Santos was someone whose memoirs I've read, who I deal, idolize and who I want to work in a way similar to him.

And so I learned that he was on the Human Rights Commission back in like the 70s or 80s or something like that.

And I was like, oh, that's cool.

And then the next day I got an email that was like, the Human Rights Commission has appointments.

And I was like, oh, I should apply for that.

Meant to be, huh?

Yes.

And so, yeah, so what I want to do on the commission is, first of all, gather excellent colleagues like the people here, learn from folks who have way more experience than me, work on human rights issues, and specifically issues of social justice, racial equity, economic justice are of most importance to me.

Thank you, Derek.

I'll go next.

So my interest is in two different areas.

It's in homelessness and it's in race and gender equity.

I'm focused on figuring out how to help the city, the consulate itself, figure out what are the solutions they can actually implement using data and tech, where they're addressing root causes for these particular problems and not necessarily putting a bandaid on the issue itself.

I've done the work at the federal level before, but it just didn't translate well when it came down to local counties and cities.

So I'm hoping that I can implement it at this level and see what happens.

Can you just talk a little bit about what you've learned using data to address the root causes of some very difficult social challenges?

I've learned that resources spent in mental health services and figuring out how do you actually enable kids of a particular background, that has a higher multiplier effect than actually saying, building more beds, right?

But you have to actually do two things at the same time.

You have to address the current crisis, but also figure out how do you, for the future, reduce the impact of the problem itself.

So that's the number one takeaway.

You have to walk and kind of swim at the same time.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I can go next.

Well, like I said, I have a passion for social justice and human rights.

And I do already a lot of other volunteer work that's more community organizing related.

But I do have a master's degree from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance.

So I wanted to use my degree and really look more at policy and higher level advocacy work.

So what I was hoping to get out of being on the commission is having a voice here and you know, actually having a position where city council, the mayor's office would listen to the opinions of someone like me.

So I'm very excited.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, I have a fairly long career in public service at the state level.

And I'm interested in, excuse me, bringing that more to the city level and in particular addressing I love the inequities I've seen, particularly with child welfare at our state level, and trying to connect with other like-minded people to try to have some positive impact here at the city level with human rights issues.

Well, thank you all for your willingness to serve.

This is a fantastic commission.

They do really important work.

are engaged in issues that I know are really critical to the vision that this council has to make the city a more just place for folks who live here.

So I really appreciate that.

I appreciate you digging in.

I think I've seen some of you already at commission events recently.

So thank you for dipping your toe in and pushing your sleeves up.

Council Member O'Brien.

I just want to say thank you.

It's great to hear the variety of backgrounds here and the passion for this work.

The Human Rights Commission is a commission that has a long history here at really, you know, elevating priorities for the community, both back to the community and to the city council and the mayor.

And, you know, oftentimes it's elevating things we want to do.

Sometimes it's bringing attention to things we're missing.

It's a really important role to play.

I want to invite you all to be bold and ambitious in your work on the commission, and I hope you're not shy about holding elected officials accountable.

There's a high expectation in the city at this point in time in our planet's history and human existence.

It's critically important that we have folks like you all being really dedicated to thinking about what it means to be you know, how to be a just city and a just planet.

And we need to constantly hearing those good things that we should be working on.

So I also know it's a big commitment.

There's a lot of big shoes to fill there.

And I really appreciate your dedication to that work as a volunteer on the commission.

So thank you.

One of the things that I really love to see is when the four commissions at SOCR find topics to work on together.

It really just amplifies your power and also it amplifies, I think, the importance of the issue that you decide to work on.

So I know there's often a project that is selected at the beginning of the year.

I have a feeling it might be an extension of the project that was selected last year, which is addressing the city's response to unsheltered homelessness.

But just know that whatever you work on, folks in this committee are really committed to bringing forth your recommendations.

So thanks again.

With that, I will move appointment 0 1 1 8 9 appointment 0 1 1 9 0 appointment 0 1 1 9 1 and appointment 0 1 1 9 3 and I will also move appointment 0 1 1 0 7

councilmember Judith Howard is a new appointment but not here that's correct we did not move her appointment so we'll another another opportunity to come back got I thought I heard you reach five so

I also included.

Oh, yeah reappointment who is also not here, but that is okay.

Excellent So Jen, I was one through four and agenda number six, right?

I will second those appreciate it all those in favor vote.

Aye.

Aye and opposed none abstaining and These will all move on to full council on Monday.

Congratulations Thank you all

Agenda item seven is appointment one one seven three appointment of Diakonas member Seattle Women's Commission for a term to July 21 or July 1 2020 Good morning Thank you for joining us Thank you for having me

Care to introduce yourself?

Absolutely.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be considered for this position.

It's truly an honour.

My name is Dia and to tell you a little bit about myself, I was born in Singapore and I was raised in Toronto and I've lived in Berlin, back in Singapore and also in Tokyo.

And the reason I mention these places is because they've been instrumental in my identity And in all these places I've worked with women, both formally and informally, and I've realized that there is a tremendous power and resilience in women across the world, and wonderful tapped and untapped skills and talents.

And now coming to Seattle and making this place my home, I've realized that there's also a great synergy that's happening here between women that already live here and women that are coming into the city.

And I think it's a wonderful and very exciting time to be a part of a commission that consists of exceptional women doing wonderful work and for spaces to create opportunities to work with public office to represent the needs of women.

I'm a journalist, and I am also doing a number of projects in diversity, equity, and inclusion here in Seattle, but also in Canada.

And so that's where my interests lie.

Thank you so much for your interest.

And so your background is in journalism?

Yes, correct.

And are you working as a journalist here in Seattle now?

Yes, I'm with the Seattle Times.

Oh, fantastic.

I'm sorry, I didn't recognize your name.

Shame on me.

Well, yeah, this is fantastic.

You have a very, very rich background and breadth of experience, as well as depth.

both on international issues as well as specifically women's issues.

Really excited to have you.

And you are, I believe, an appointment that the Women's Commission is putting forward.

So the Commission itself is the appointing authority.

And have you been attending any of their meetings?

Yes, I've been to a few of their meetings and a few of their events.

They had, I don't remember the name of it, but it was an event that was held for victims of abuse.

Fantastic event, so it was a great chance to not only meet further with the commissioners, but also with the wonderful women that were speaking up at the event very bravely.

Councilmember O'Brien and I have been working to address some of the recommendations that a recent Women's Commission report has identified related specifically to renters issues.

So if you haven't yet taken a look at that report, I think it's going to be really important to the council's work coming up next year.

But specifically it was focused on the impact of evictions on women and particularly women with children and identified a lot of the sort of the circumstances that will lead up to an eviction and some really great policy recommendations that I'm excited about taking a look at.

I have no further questions.

I just want to say thank you.

You bring a fascinating background to the commission.

And, you know, as Councilmember Herbold mentioned, the recent report on eviction is just an example of the type of work that that commission does.

And thank you for your willingness to serve.

And I look forward to hearing more from you.

Wonderful.

All right.

Great.

With that, I will move Appointment 0-1.

One, seven, three.

Second.

All those in favor, vote aye.

Aye.

None opposed, none abstaining.

And this will move on to full council on Monday.

Congratulations and welcome.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right, number eight on the agenda.

Noel, can you read it to the record, please?

Agenda item eight is a feasibility study and racial equity toolkit analysis regarding the creation of a cultural space public development authority.

Thank you.

All right, good morning.

Thank you all for joining us.

By camera.

Yes.

With all the power, all the sound.

All right.

Can we start with some introductions?

Sure.

My name is Cassie Chin.

I'm with the Wing Luke Museum.

I'm also on the Seattle Arts Commission.

I'm the co-chair of the Facilities and Equitable Development Committee.

And I am also on the Interim Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board.

Randy Engstrom with the Office of Arts and Culture.

Matthew Richter with the Office of Arts and Culture.

My name's Ben Hunter.

I'm here representing Black and Tan Hall, the Hillman City Collaboratory, Community Arts Create, and musicians everywhere.

All right, great.

Thank you all for joining us.

It looks like we have a presentation.

Do you want to do some introductory remarks?

Yeah.

What we're doing here?

I will try to set this up.

It's a symphony in two parts, as it were.

One is Matthew's going to walk us through sort of a year of research and analysis that we did on the concept of a public development authority specifically for the preservation of cultural space and the creation of cultural space throughout the city.

sort of a response to the affordability crisis that we're in.

And then with the support of Cassie and Ben, we're going to walk through the racial equity toolkit process that we took that analysis through in order to come out the other side.

And we have a set of sort of next steps and recommendations going forward.

So it'll be Matthew followed by Cassie and Ben.

And this is a follow-up to an initial briefing that we had in August, sort of more of a status update.

Yeah, there was a statement of legislative intent as part of last year's budget, which asked us to come forward with the results of this analysis.

And then, yeah, we gave you an update in August, sort of teeing up some of the research we had done before we had gone into the toolkit process.

And this is sort of us coming out the other side with some more information.

All right, thanks.

Great.

So for five years, the Arts Office has spent its time fighting for the availability and affordability of cultural space.

A, of all, because we really like cultural space.

B, of all, because we found it to be a crazily effective way of preserving and strengthening communities and neighborhoods, fighting the cultural displacement that really is the very definition of gentrification.

For those five years, we've been engaging with the cultural community, with colleagues in the Planning Office, the Office of Economic Development, SDCI, Housing Office, and elsewhere to develop coordinated strategies around commercial cultural affordability.

Building on an idea born out of the CAP report, the 30 Ideas for the Creation, Activation, and Preservation of Cultural Space, we've been working with colleagues around the city and in the community to explore a structure to allow for the purchasing, leasing, and development of real estate on behalf of cultural communities and to build community ownership into that real estate model while we're at it.

There's been a focus on creating a public development authority or a similar governing structure which would allow the city to leverage both municipal support and philanthropic interest and to allow for mission-driven community investment.

Building on an idea generated through the CAP report, as I said, and also supported by Councilmember Herbold, your statement of legislative intent from last year, we began a feasibility study in earnest at the beginning of 2018 on the creation of this new entity.

We've engaged various tables of stakeholders from cultural communities and from the development community.

We performed a national scan and we worked with colleagues from around the country, including Mui Eng at CAST in San Francisco, Riza Shoup at Spaceworks Northwest, I'm sorry, Spaceworks New York in New York City.

We met with philanthropists, with artists, with investors, with community organizers, with attorneys, with business owners, and with culture makers.

With the collaboration of framework, the same cultural consultancy that we worked with to create the CAP report in the first place, we drafted a preliminary report and we began a significant racial equity toolkit process to vet the ideas in that preliminary report with cultural communities of color.

What that preliminary draft report has ended up recommending isn't the creation of one monolithic entity.

It's a constellation of various kinds of organizations that we've been calling collectively the Cultural Space Agency.

And clearly we're using that word agency and playing with its several meanings, but primary for us has been the idea that this project has to build in a sense of agency.

It has to build in a sense of control, and not just a sense of, but actual control for the cultural partners that we're going to be working with.

And that's about community ownership and that's about cultural control.

So what we're describing here is essentially in the middle you see two primary components to this model.

One is the Public Development Authority and one is the 501c3 Nonprofit Corporation.

Twinned together, they will share board members, they'll share staff, they'll share space.

From the outside, the divisions between them will be largely invisible.

One will primarily face the commercial real estate development world, the partner properties.

One will primarily face the cultural world, the arts and cultural organizations, the small businesses that we're supporting, and the community that we're going to be responding to.

Subsidiary to the Public Development Authority is a series of LLCs or limited liability corporations or triple LCs that, among other things, could allow for that community buy-in, could allow for that literal community ownership stake.

The control mechanism, the governance mechanisms for each of these include mechanisms to respond back to their authorizing environments, essentially.

A city of Seattle, whether it's an official interdepartmental team or not, an interdepartmental group, would have a certain number of seats on the board of directors of the Public Development Authority, and the non-profit would be a membership non-profit, which would mean that the community would directly elect the leadership and the governance of that, and that there would be, again, shared seats between the two, and so the community would have the remainder of the seats on the Public Development Authority's board as well.

The non-profit members, some of them would have seats on the PDA board, is that what I heard you say?

Correct.

One of the things that was presented in, and again, preliminary draft report to be vetted by community was the idea that the executive committee of the non-profits board of directors would have those four seats over on the PDA's board as well.

And then above it all, we had described something that we had tentatively called the Equity Authorizing Council, but what that basically is a stand-in for is the idea that coordinating the efforts of all of these various institutions, all these various organizations, is some responsive community panel that centers the equity needs that the city and the community have in moving this body of work forward.

What that looks like remains to be seen.

When we brought this proposed structure out to the cultural community for vetting, we did so through what we have called the base cohort, the build art space equitably cohort.

This is another manifestation of a cap report idea around certifying people in both culture and real estate.

The idea was to certify real estate people in cultural organizing and to certify culture makers in the ways of commercial real estate development.

The base cohort's a 30-person certification cohort.

It's made up roughly equally of folks from the real estate sector and folks from the cultural sector.

It's entirely people of color who've been meeting and learning for the past year in this pilot version of the certification program, which ideally will continue on beyond this first launch year.

We have three members of that group with us today.

As I mentioned, it's a 30-person cohort that's been moving through this report and vetting and responding to it.

We have Cassie Chin, who we did introductions at the beginning, but Cassie is the Deputy Director at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian and Asian American Experience.

She's the Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission's Facilities and Equitable Development Committee.

and she sits on the interim EDI advisory board.

Reese Tanimura, who's just joining us, hi Reese, is the managing director of the Northwest Folklife Festival.

She's a former program director of Rain City Rock Camp for Girls, and she's the chair of the Seattle Music Commission.

Ben Hunter is the co-owner and co-founder of the Black and Tan Hall, as well as the co-founder of the Hillman City Collaborative.

He's a successful recording artist and touring musician, and is also a Seattle Music Commissioner.

So together, we'll walk you through three slides that describe the RET process to date.

If we could just take a quick pause, I saw Council Member O'Brien reaching.

On the last slide, the two arrows that point to the side, is one essentially landlords and one tenants, or is it more complex than that?

It is more complex than that, but that's a great distillation of it.

I think we're trying to create an organization that can be responsive to both, recognizing the discrete needs around property development and real estate, and then the discrete needs of cultural community and cultural organizing.

When we began this process, the idea was raised that we need to start by centering it in an expression of the values that we want to see written into these organizations, written into this structure.

We talked about how imagining a future point at which literally on the wall of the boardroom, we would have these values written up to make sure that the organization stay true to them.

And so, they were generated by the folks we have at the table and others.

And if folks want to respond to or pick any of those out to discuss, I'll turn it over to Reese, Ben, and Cassie.

Sure, I can start off.

It was great that the office responded to the request from the community to take time to be able to express these values.

We wanted to lay the values in the foundational documents so we know as decisions move forward, you would always have those values to refer back to as that guiding principle.

As I look at the values, they keep race in the room and who decides who decides.

There's an opportunity to be able to center leadership from communities of color from the get-go and to be able to ensure that their decision-making role was clear and integrated throughout the entire proposed agency.

And then the other elements, Recognize that assets are not always financial and building community ownership.

We've been focusing within the base cohort on capital, a whole range of capitals, cultural capital, social capital, and financial capital.

And how are you able to, say, leverage the rich social and cultural capital that exists within community colors to translate that into financial capital?

And then how are you also able to build financial capital then within communities of color?

And this was viewed both as a way to acknowledge all of those different forms of capital that currently exist within communities of color and wanting to make sure that we were elevating it all through the work.

I think one of the other things to talk about is the city's legacy around these issues.

When we talk about values, I think we're very explicitly saying that it's important to develop relationships, to create a sense of trust between the communities that we're trying to serve and within the communities that are going to be doing this work.

And so a lot of this expression of values and a lot of these bullet points are really talking about how do we Leverage the relationships that have already been developing in these communities and trust that they know what's best for their communities.

But also recognizing that the city and this institution that we're doing this through has an acknowledgement to the past.

And making sure that we rectify some of those wrongs that have happened in the city that have led us to this problem in the first place.

I think there's also a systemic piece where we always talk about learning about development and real estate in terms of the system that is playing the game, so to speak, that is existing.

And I think that through this cohort, but also through this dialogue, we want to change the dialogue to understand that there's a lot of understanding and knowledge about land ownership, space sharing, space building through communities that it does not fit into the sort of typical Western white structure of what we do in real estate.

And realizing that that's a reality, but also that if we talk about racial equity, we need to recognize there are way different ways of talking about and navigating or building systems that people can navigate in order to make sure that space is held for cultural practice.

Can you just talk a little bit more about the concept of using community and social capital to leverage financial capital and what that looks like?

I think it's interesting, and it dovetails on Ben's comment about relationships.

So we know that there's an embedded and deep relationship network within communities.

Oftentimes, communities of color are called on for the community engagement piece and contracted for that or asked to volunteer their services.

But that represents social capital that exists within the communities.

So how do we take that model a step further instead of always just having the communities of color say, Isolated within the community engagement piece, how do you extend that and say that can then translate into direct property ownership, into financial capital gains as well?

So we want to be able to recognize that, the social capital, and then be able to expand it.

I know in thinking as we've been going through the BASE program, We've been recognizing that how are development deals made?

They're made by relationships that people have within their social networks.

Oftentimes communities of color have been excluded from those social networks where those deals happen.

Can we embed a place and a way for communities of color to be included and at the table as it comes down to property development through the space agency?

And I think there's an underlying assumption that we're working with that is the idea of belonging and cultural expression unto themselves have value, and that the loss of cultural representation, the loss of a sense of belonging in a community carries a consequence.

And so how can we embed culture and identity in our communities as we experience really intense change?

I mean, the one thing we know is that the city's gonna keep changing.

The opportunity that we have is to try to guide how that change happens.

and trying to center the communities that we value in how that change occurs is, I think, at the core of what we're hoping this idea can support.

I think we're also talking about knowledge, and we're talking about the different forms of knowledge that exist, which is what which Reese was talking about, I think, talking about within these different cultures and these varieties of backgrounds that exist in these neighborhoods in Seattle, there are a lot of different forms of knowledge and a lot of different things that we don't consider in a Western polity.

that could work in a dynamic neighborhood and dynamic community that Seattle has.

And so making sure that we explore that knowledge, but also fundamentally as artists, it's really important to think about the interdisciplinary ways that we can work together, the intergenerational ways that we can work together.

And that all I think has root in how we value the systems that we're creating, who we're including, not just racially or ethnically, But the variety of dynamics and interdisciplinary ways that we can talk to each other and share knowledge that we find probably is a lot of parallels, but what are the beautiful things that happen with the differences of that knowledge?

I think there's also just a very tangible piece that communities have been cultivating the spaces they're in and the shops they hold, the land that's there, and then suddenly developers pay attention.

And I don't want to say that like developers, but suddenly there's a need for space and there's suddenly attention on communities that have been cultivating that space for a long time, and then suddenly it's turned into somebody else's capital, right?

Instead of retaining within the community that has been making sure that that space is retained for community practice during all that time.

I think it's a great question.

Clearly, everyone wants to jump in to answer it, but I think it's because you've identified the core question that this organization is going to be wrestling with, that the base cohort has been wrestling with, about what does that alchemy look like?

What does that moment look like where you turn one type of capital into another that led to gold?

Ben has been playing with models at Black and Tan Hall around community ownership.

Equinox Studios down in Georgetown just had their big annual festival and has been playing with community ownership models as well.

There are answers out there that we look forward to exploring in 2019. These are roughly the questions that we asked the Racial Equity Toolkit Group, the base cohort, to respond to, broken out into three rough categories around engagement, policy, and program design.

And again, if anyone wants to speak to sort of this as the diving board or the launching point into this, we can pause here or we can move to the recommendations.

How were these questions selected?

We created an internal working group within the arts office in collaboration with the Facilities and Equitable Development Committee, which Cassie chairs.

And so it was both staff and community representative.

And then within the base program, there's also a guiding curriculum group, a smaller group that also had a chance to discuss the agency, develop more questions, and then that was brought to the broader group.

We can go back.

Obviously, we've spent a long time on this and there's still a lot of questions that we need to solidify and answer for ourselves.

And I think it's important to talk about that along with the values and some of these things we're talking about here in terms of engagement and policy.

This shouldn't be a political thing, right?

This should be something that's rooted in common values that we share for the development of the city.

And so one of the things that I'm worried about, and I know that I've talked about with other folks on the cohort, in terms of policy is how do we account for the shifting?

politics that happen, right?

And so that's just a concern.

That's just something that I want to bring up as something that I think about and I'd certainly like the council to be aware of is that how do we put something in place that we all recognize is valuable to the city and isn't going to be tainted by politics, you know?

Talk a little bit more about that.

I mean, that's the elephant in the room.

What do you mean by tainted by politics?

I mean, politics is a swinging gate, right?

I think we all are going towards the same place, but the ways in which we get there are different.

And what we want to make sure we put into place here is something that withstands the tides, right?

But do it right, not just check a box and say...

Well, I don't want to do it for political reasons.

I want to do it because it makes sense for the city and it reflects the values that we want to aspire to in the city.

And so for these three areas of inquiry, I understand that the process of asking and answering these questions has helped lead to your recommendations.

But is there a place where the answers to these questions have been sort of memorialized?

Or the questions that you ask and the answers might change over time?

There's two answers to that.

Yeah, we did document and take extensive notes across all of the, we had several multi-hour meetings in community.

We brought these questions and the responses to them to the entire base cohort.

We've been working with commission and staff for months on these issues, and I think that While, and I think the recommendation slide comes up next, which is really our attempt to distill what we heard as themes and what the, and how the feedback from community will influence ultimately what these recommendations look like going forward, we know that really, responsible and responsive racial equity work is an ongoing practice.

We've been clear with the folks who've contributed to this that this isn't a one and done enterprise.

As we move forward and try to really understand what the governance model can and should look like, how this can be resilient across political change over time, how this can meet the needs of a growing and changing city, those are questions that we are gonna try to get the best answer to now and that we're gonna continue to interrogate over time.

Because it's a practice more than a tactic.

I would just also echo the idea that

Some of this emerges to dramatic changes that are happening in the city right now, wanting to be able to be responsive to that.

But also with, I think, and perhaps even bigger, it's a generational viewpoint.

For myself, being fourth generation here in Seattle, having worked in the Chinatown International District for over 25 years, that comes with the perspective towards what we do now.

Yes, we want to be able to have immediate impacts because the times are dire, but we also want to create a robust structure that can withstand and be something that the next generation can carry on and use.

Yeah, and I think it's important to note that, you know, these questions are continuously asked and have been asked for, I mean, you know, we could say 10 years, but I've been, you know, working in nonprofit and arts especially.

for many years and many communities.

And these questions are constantly asked of the communities.

What do you need?

What are we facing?

And it's just gotten to a point more recently that the displacement is more rapid.

The growing disparity is widening.

So I think it's getting to a point where if we don't act, and actually try to answer some of these questions or try to put something in a place to address, we are actually going to lose pieces of our culture and community completely out of the city.

But I think to say that this is a body of work that comes out of the office is responding to work that's been being asked and constantly told on communities for many, many, many years.

And I think that also needs to be acknowledged.

You know we see this.

a lot of attention, you know, and I'll just say, the Showbox brought a lot of attention to cultural space, right, widely amongst the city, to communities that I don't know if they were paying as much attention to the Central District or the ID or the South End, right, that there are spaces that are just as historically important and actually maybe even in some terms more so because they're the last legacy of things of populations and communities.

But the conversation did not get to the level of full city council discussion and intervention that was immediate until it was something bigger that more widespread, you know, folks could pay attention to.

There were, you know, somewhat of celebrities involved.

And that's not to say We shouldn't look at both.

It's just to say that we need to pay attention to these voices that have been also talking about this for a long time and seeing what has been coming for a long time.

So just to know that this is not just because of that work, but it was in response to the fact that these questions have been asked for a long time.

I think that's appropriate and important to recognize that this is work from the arts office engaged with community in response to the pleas of communities and stakeholders in those communities for a long time.

And you're right in that the, The impacts of losing a cultural institution when most of the folks who lived in that neighborhood are gone is a really stark loss because those cultural institutions are one of the reasons why people come back after they've been displaced.

And so when you lose those places, it's really a tragic eradication of history and culture.

So, well said.

I think it's also important to mention that in these conversations, there's people that have explicitly said, you know, I don't live in the place that I grew up anymore, but I still come back to it to work for it and advocate for it.

You know, so there's a lot of energy and a lot of passion involved in this.

And I hope it is paired with equally bold action from

Councilmember you had asked where and how some of the answers that we found it through our ET process are being codified Here are some of them.

They're fairly specific and in the weeds.

I'm happy to go into them.

I love the weeds.

I live in the weeds but Okay, I feel like a lot of them are whether they use the word leverage or not are about leveraging or about leveraging one investment to draw or encourage another.

I feel like it's worth naming one really specific policy choice to be made in this consideration is around the idea of bonding against future ad tax revenue in order to capitalize a PDA or an organizational model in the short term so that it had the money to play aggressively or more aggressively or more nimbly in the real estate environment.

And that was a big, you know, I don't know that there's a right answer to that question.

Is it better to have 10 years, 20 years of five and $10,000 grants or is it worth trying to borrow against that right now in order to meet the urgency of the moment?

And we spent a lot of time on that question.

as staff, with the commission, and with the base cohort and the toolkit process.

And I think that what we heard was a cautious yes, that there is a willingness to consider doing that.

We've got to ensure we get the governance model right, the project selection structure right.

There is a lot to be figured out, but that generally, That was a big question we put to the community to ask, and we did get, I think, strong support for that idea.

To Ben's point about needing more bold tools, right?

We've been using the tools that we have as thoughtfully as we can, and it may be time to, as Matthew said, leverage more ambitious tools.

And that includes both bonding against our future capitalization, but also using that as a way to go back to private philanthropy, to go to other partners and say, join us in this work.

We're willing to put this forward, this money on the table.

Are you willing to meet us there?

And do you see what Reese and Ben and Cassie are describing?

Do you see both the value of these communities and the urgency of the moment?

So.

I appreciate.

Randy, you highlighting that, and I think agree that that is a big discussion, and I appreciate the work that you all have done to have a kind of community-based response to that.

I'm curious.

When you think about that decision between ongoing smaller investments or bonding future revenues for significant investments, for me, I can easily imagine that the existing model of providing the type of support that's needed on an ongoing basis for a bunch of organizations allows us to touch a lot of different places.

And I don't know if this is true or not, but I could see that bonding future revenues would allow for a couple, one or two signature type projects, but such a project or projects We would pick a geography to do this in.

We would pick a type of community that we would be serving with us.

And hopefully, that would be a priority.

But that would mean lots of, there's so many great, amazing work going on that would be at least not up in this round.

And this round could be the first five years.

So when folks have come together and said, we're tenderly supportive of it, is it?

I'm curious if there's a sense of like, I'm supportive as long as it, you know, touches the music industry because that's what I care most about.

Or is it a sport like we recognize collectively we have to do something big, and some of us are going to have to make some short-term sacrifices to get that, and our turn will come around later.

There are two answers.

One, we're talking about the cultural facilities fund as the source of the bond debt service, and we're talking about half of that fund.

So we would continue to make a half million dollar investment each year in the type of grant making that we've been doing.

It's not all or nothing.

It's not all or nothing.

So a lot of that support to a lot of organizations would continue.

And I think that there's, while there would be a couple of large signature projects, I would hope, that the PDA would get involved in its first couple of years, I think that paired with that would have to be a whole suite of smaller projects as well.

Built into the design of the program is everything from single storefronts, management for fee, all the way to development of basement to roof kind of project.

And I think that this idea is only as successful as its ability to solve problems that we can't currently solve.

And one example of that is right now, if you have a project, a physical project that you want to do, you have to wait for the right funding opportunity to avail itself.

and then be prepared in that moment with that timing to take advantage of that, to write a grant for that money or to pursue that loan.

What this hopefully would allow for is an ongoing enterprise that could support projects at varying places along their life cycle and be able to accept and raise money from people who wanted to address the problem but couldn't pick one particular project out of the air that they'd be able to support.

So if you wanted to support a cultural center that was emerging in the South Park neighborhood, for example, unless that project was writing a grant at the moment where there was an open cycle, you would have no way to support that project.

But if you could support the PDA and it was working with community, more like the way that the EDI has fashioned its ongoing relationship with community organizations, where it can provide capacity and technical assistance, that also gets to one of these recommendations, which is around leveraging other city partnerships and relationships with the EDI, with the housing office.

One of the conversations we're having is, can we get far enough upstream with an affordable housing development to talk about the utilization of their ground floor retail space?

Because affordable housing developers traditionally don't do ground floor retail as sort of their wheelhouse.

So those are the kinds of things where if this can unlock additional capacity, instead of just sort of spread the butter more thin on the toast, That's where I think it adds value and creates potential.

I would also just, one, echo, and coming from working with both the base cohort and through the racial equity toolkit, that idea of thinking about different levels of space, different entry points into the whole spectrum of property and space, and space security has been important.

So all the way from the independent artist pop-up to, say, a large quarter block development, what have you.

all throughout that.

And then the other thing that was brought up through the toolkit process was the ideas, perhaps the measurement of success for the PDA wasn't ultimately how big its own balance sheet was, but how did it spur other communities, other community organizations to lift their own ownership and balance sheet?

Was there a way to be able to over time transfer property transfer ownership to those.

So when you look at the model of the cultural partners, the LLCs, plural, are they also able to rise up and lift their boats?

Which I think is a different model from some of the existing PDAs now as we think about what success looks like for them.

And then the other thing that I would add that we've seen through the base cohort, which I think is also echoed in the race and social equity task force, is when the communities of color are coming together, we're seeing those connections and seeing those opportunities to not compete against one another, but to work in concert with one another.

And that's definitely embedded in this as well.

That's great, because the work that you all do with community, and frankly, I think the strong spot that the broader community starts around this work is really helpful, just that there is that type of collaboration.

And I think it's important for me not to think of this as a zero-sum game, but it's additive.

I mean, there is a distinction with EDI where that was new resources, whereas this will be, you know, at least the current iteration will be reallocating existing resources.

But I also really appreciate the helping me get the vision around it, that it's not just a couple signature projects, but it may be that there's lots of smaller projects that are invested in which That makes a lot of sense.

I mean, essentially, taking the work we're kind of doing right now and saying, but we want an ownership stake in this, or whatever that looks like, as opposed to just an ongoing tenancy and facing the challenges that we face.

And I think one of the things I hear you saying is, through this collaboration, we come out of the process stronger than we were before.

It's not just we take the dollar and spend it here or there.

There's multiplier effects.

There's networking effects that happen through the work.

And that's great.

And leveraging, like you said, of other That's the other piece I think I'm missing is the ability to leverage resources beyond the city that may not be available in our current model is something that's pretty exciting too.

I think also going back to the idea that it's not only dollars, but also thinking about space differently.

We already have a couple of developers that have done some creative models with buildings that are waiting for permits, thinking about how to turn their ground floor space into something that's more active that actually will be an enhancement to the residential communities above them and sort of maybe an incentive.

for those people to come in and say, you'll have concerts downstairs, or you'll have studios downstairs.

What is that?

I think there's the distinct opportunity to think about how we incentivize we push developers to think about different ways to engage with the community Beyond the sort of like get our permit build this typical model We have lots of residential that you know sort of really balances the books, but the bottom floor is just okay We're gonna lease it out commercially, and then it sits.

You know we see that all over the city.

There's a lot of ground floor places that I've seen sit for years that just say lease.

And that is a loss and a missed opportunity.

So how is it that we leverage those opportunities?

And then, you know, I just wanted to address really quickly to the other end on philanthropy.

I think one of the things that comes to mind is that, yes, I think that the philanthropic community often is looking for the cues of where to you know, make larger investments and make more sustainable or impactful, long-lasting investments for communities and community organizations.

I think the other part of that is to be able to, with some of the networks that are in place through the city and through city council members and even developers, is to also have the conversation about swinging that Swinging that pendulum too far, we've seen when everything goes towards housing and homelessness and goes away from arts investments.

So we've seen these kinds of wild, I don't want to say wild, but we've seen these kind of drastic funding focus changes that do severely impact the smaller organizations and their ability to sort of do the day-to-day, to be able to also have an influence in that conversation to talk about It's not an either-or conversation.

We have to look at both, yes, sustainable investments, and then how do you invest directly, also to continue to address artists, cultural workers, in a direct way that will help sustain them till you can get to the larger, more long-term investment.

Right, because those investments are supporting artists who are needing to make a livable wage in the city.

And so that all sort of ties into that whole ecosystem and infrastructure of affordability for a city.

So I get what you're saying.

And the frustration that the philanthropic community might not be making as many of those arts-related investments and seeing that linkage to the affordability issue for the city.

I do have a question before we move on about the reference to exploring the impending creation of opportunity zones.

I thought the choice of words was is interesting because you have both exploring and impending.

So is this something that is about to happen?

Or is it something that's being explored?

And how does an opportunity zone relate to the geographic focus that, for instance, EDI is using around areas of high risk of displacement?

Because I think if you're talking about leveraging other programs, it might be important to have similar ways of identifying the areas that you want to focus in.

Yeah, and I think we called that out.

I'll just say that opportunity zones are a complicated being, and the structure and guidelines are still winding their way from federal to state to local control.

And I I don't imagine that the arts office or the PDA would be driving that conversation.

But what we do recognize is that opportunity zones are a way to incentivize significant development in low income census track neighborhoods.

Often those same neighborhoods that we're talking about as being at risk of gentrification and displacement and cultural loss.

So what we feel, if the PDA can be capitalized such that it can be a market player in the opportunity zone conversation and can be part of directing the kinds of projects that strengthen cultural community versus put them at greater risk of displacement, I think that's what our goal is.

It's really early in the opportunity zone conversations in some ways.

It's also very late in that global real estate interests are putting capital stacks together in preparation for what comes.

So I don't think I have enough, or any of us on the dais have enough expertise to name where and how we'd interface with that.

But we recognize that this entity, this PDA idea, could operate in that space in a way that city government can't and most nonprofits aren't capable of.

Thanks, Lawsons.

Thanks.

One of the most important things about this new entity is its ability to both function inside of a supercharged real estate market and to be immune to the profit-driven motives that typically accompany that kind of market savvy.

An organization that can center the needs of historically under-invested communities and can seek to undo a century of Seattle's discriminatory and inequitable cultural space building while also operating as a well-capitalized market savvy partner for these new investments could be a significant reparative force in the city.

It could be a game changer.

And so this is where we are now.

I will say that the most humbling part of this process has been from the mayor's office, to council, to the arts commission, to all of the departments mentioned in that last bullet.

There's been so much support and interest in this project.

And the first two bullets are just about our commitment to continuing to try to get it right.

There's a lot we need to still figure out around how this thing would be established and governed.

around testing our assumptions around debt financing, around project typology, around governance and organizational structure.

But we intend to drill down and make this a priority for 2019 and beyond.

both in our office within partnership with the commission and our community partners who are here at the table, and also with the mayor's office and with other departments.

Because if this can be something that actually meets the stated goals of the housing office, and the stated goals of the economic development office, and the stated goals of SDCI and EDI, then I think we've really found something useful.

And our hope is that we're going to keep exploring this and keep refining this model and try to figure out what the best way forward is to keep it moving.

One of the tasks associated with this work was not only the racial equity toolkit analysis, but also a feasibility analysis.

And I see a lot of good things that would come from the creation of a PDA, but I've not seen where you look into that sort of feasibility question and maybe I'm just thinking about feasibility and too much of a bureaucratic.

There will be a report.

There will be a report, okay.

There's a draft report, you know, 50, 60 page report that the base cohort was responding to.

as part of the RET process.

Our goal is to take the responses that we've heard through the RET and take the preliminary draft and really synthesize those into a final feasibility report.

And we do, I mean, this admittedly has moved faster than I think we anticipated in terms of it's a big complex idea.

It involves a lot of departments and a lot of partners.

But the idea is that this draft report, this 60-page report that Framework is helping us put together, integrates what we heard from community, and then that final report is published in Q1 of next year.

Q1, okay, great, thank you.

I recognize that there's still a number of decisions and things could happen, and so this is still a thought, my sense is still a thought process, but if things continue to go in a kind of positive direction, is a creation of a PDA in 2019 possible, or is it like, I don't even, I don't know if we've done one since I've been here.

I mean, a lot of that is me water witching what's actually possible, or all of us doing that.

But I think it wouldn't be established in 2019. I think at the earliest, it would be in 2020, if we sort of went through our paces and continued to refine and land on a place that everyone still felt good about it.

And frankly, it's going to be a large and interdepartmental effort between now and next fall, next winter.

I would also just echo the desire of the Arts Commission to be thoughtful.

It's through the process, so we're excited to see the feasibility study and then know that there are still a number of things that would need to be determined, say in what the ordinance for the establishment of the PDA, what did that look like and how did that get translated?

So we wanted to be able to have that time to be able to get good foundational documents going forward.

Well, this is a great – I'm not going to say start because it's already been – you've been working on it for a while, but I think this is a really good sort of midpoint to the start of I think what is likely to be a very complex and impactful project moving forward.

So I'm happy to do whatever I can to help you think through the process moving forward, but you've got the right folks at the table, and I really appreciate the effort so far.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jen, item nine is Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute update.

I'll start, and then I'll switch it over to you.

Hello again.

Greetings.

Do a quick round of introductions just down the line, and then we'll come back and get it started.

Hi.

I'm Sandra Boas-Dupree.

I'm the manager at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, Office of Arts and Culture.

Tim Lennon, executive director of Langston.

Still Randy Engstrom with the Office of Arts and Culture.

Kelly Davidson, finance manager, Office of Arts and Culture.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Who would like to kick us off?

I will get us started.

We are here to sort of put a bow on what has been a five or six year journey to support the important historic mission of Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute.

And I think there's been a number of steps along the journey, but the balance of what we want to hear today is the new executive director of Langston's future vision for the organization, sort of building on all of the thoughtful work that has come before.

So I'm going to just sort of set the table and say, how did we get to this point?

Tim can walk us through sort of the vision and the work of Langston moving forward.

And then all of us are here to answer sort of any of the various questions from the current city facility runnings to the finances to whatever you want to talk about.

So, at the end of 2012, as part of the 13-14 budget biennium, the decision was made to move the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center into the Office of Arts and Culture as the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, and a council member named Nick Licata did a statement of legislative intent that ultimately said the city needs to find a more sustainable model for Langston Hughes going forward, but it is important that it preserve the historic mission.

It has to honor the historic mission of the facility.

Along with my partner in crime at the time, Royal Allie Barnes, who was the executive director at Langston Hughes and the mayor's office at the time, we seated what we called an action committee because there had been too many task forces.

There had been a lot of reports and a lot of consultants.

And it was time to take action.

It was time to do something.

And ultimately, we walked through what all of the previous reports had said over time and were left with a couple of questions at the end through the action committee process.

They were, should there be a nonprofit established and what is the city's ongoing role in the facility?

And so in 2015, we came back and did an initial sly response based on the Action Committee's recommendations, or in 2013, sorry, and it said we should bifurcate the programming work in the facility from the operations and community access needs of the facility, and over time, establish a non-profit that would carry forward those historic programs.

In order to pay for that, we would sunset the three positions at Langston Hughes that had historically done more non-profit activity, the executive director, artistic director, education manager, and that resource would then be given to the non-profit to carry forward those programmatic goals.

The action committee at the time said, in two years you'll do this and you'll support the non-profit for three years.

Then in 2015, we formed a transition team, so we had committed to this road of transition and creating a non-profit.

We did a massive amount of community outreach in partnership with Nayawela Consulting at the time, a whole bunch of focus groups, a bunch of community meetings, and then took all that feedback that we got from community and ran an analysis.

essentially did two things.

It extended the transition timeline.

There was sort of consensus that three years wasn't enough time for a new nonprofit to get on its feet, and so that timeline was extended to 10 years.

It also named a few other elements, one named here, which is exploring the establishment of a cultural district in the central area that could honor the historic African-American arts and culture community that was there.

And another was also to sort of One intractable part of the existence of Langston Hughes in that community is the context of gentrification in that neighborhood that that facility exists in, and how important that building is as a cultural anchor of black arts and culture in Seattle.

It really is a treasured enterprise, and it was important to center the conversations in that context.

So 2016, we did all those things.

We sunset the three positions.

We seeded an initial board of directors of nine people who were an outgrowth of the 28-member transition team that worked to set up the sort of mission and vision of what the nonprofit would do and become.

I have a typo in Langston, because I'm terrible at PowerPoint.

So Langston nonprofit established.

Apologies for that.

And after a long and thoughtful search, Langston hired an executive director in the form of one, Tim Lennon, who joined the organization coming from the Vera Project by way of lots of other places, which I'm sure he can tell you about.

But I was mostly just going to set that up and then hand it over to my colleague, Tim Lennon.

Before we do that, so the Intent of supporting the nonprofit for a period of 10 years, that is in reference to the nonprofit management of the facility, not the physical management, but the, for lack of a better word, programming.

Yeah, Sandra runs the building and the staff in the building, so we still hold down the theater tech and the maintenance of the facility and rentals and event bookings.

So it's still a city-owned and city-operated facility.

That was another thing that came out of those bills.

And it will be.

And it will be.

Past the 10 years.

Yes.

It's important that came clear through all of the outreach was that the city needs to retain ownership of this building in the public interest.

But yeah, the programming, which, frankly, a nonprofit is better situated to do than a city government, and also that allows for more self-determination.

You know, that same political pressure that was referenced in the last presentation can show up in programmatic decisions, too.

So we wanted to give a level of autonomy to the mission and the programming in the facility.

Thank you.

Tim.

Nice choreographing.

Thank you, Randy, and thank you, council members, for this time.

It's, well, one, this is kind of a bridge from the last agenda item.

I just want to say that I thoroughly support the conversation that arts has been leading and community has been driving around the cultural space, PDA, or whatever structure is created around this.

I think it's going to be transformational for the whole city, so I'm really excited about that.

Coming back to this one, and kind of coming full circle, Randy mentioned the action team that was formed in 2013. I, at the time, was a staff member at the Office of Arts and Culture and staffed a lot of those initial meetings, and so it's really an honor and a privilege to be here on the other end of that process today to speak about the new nonprofit and what we're going to be doing now and going forward.

So, thank you.

Helping bring it full circle.

Exactly, yeah.

So, as I mentioned, in 2016, the nonprofit, independent nonprofit entity, Langston, was created and incorporated.

The board stood up, etc.

In 2017, just speaking operationally, the board contracted a sort of part-time program manager just to sort of steward some existing programs that were happening and to pilot a few new programs for the nonprofit.

while the board and other stakeholders were engaged in the ED search process and some of the logistics of standing up the organization.

And so, as we'll see later, there was some programming and some really great programming that happened in 2017, but 2018 was really the year where things took off.

And this year, we hired our first permanent staff, myself included.

We had a huge expansion of programming, did a lot of work on sort of organizational developments, and we really had a priority, first and foremost, on reactivating the space of LPI as much as possible, experimenting with many different kinds of programs and partnership models, and all with the goal of getting the community accustomed to, reaccustomed to, and excited about coming to and working with Langston in various ways.

Our mission, vision, and values are here.

Those emerged from the years-long stakeholder engagement process that Randy referenced and represents the collective vision of what is needed for this new iteration of Langston Hughes.

The gentrification of the central district has really changed the landscape, and so new approaches are really needed to best serve our community, orienting our programming and organizational structures to these principles.

is going to enable us to do so.

So really, we want to give former residents of the Central District reasons to come back regularly to the old neighborhood.

We want to inspire new Seattle residents to see Langston and the Central District more broadly as the home for black cultural life.

And we want to create new opportunities to build connections between and amongst Seattle's historic black community, more recently arrived diaspora communities, and local, regional, and national institutions.

Really, when you look to our vision of cultivating black brilliance, that's a very broad and expansive and inclusive vision, and it's really all in service to strengthening and advancing our community through black arts and culture, which is what we do.

So, how do we do that?

It all, oh, shoot.

I apologize, my slide was full of maybe 20 different little images here.

The next one hasn't formatted properly, but there are quite a few other programs that I was going to highlight here, which I'll just do verbally.

It all starts with our programming.

We, as I mentioned, intentionally focus on creating as many and as many different kinds of program offerings as possible, both as a means of testing out different models of use of the space and, more critically, to get as many different kinds of people back in the building regularly, black artists, seeing different cultural expressions, getting different community groups and audiences back in the building.

We really want folks in the community to see Langston and Alpine more broadly as a resource.

and as a home for all kinds of cultural experiences rooted in the Black diaspora's many stories.

We accomplished this through our original programming.

We've had examples that you can see here include a series of programs called Beautiful Powerful Love, which infused African, African, sorry, African, Afro-Caribbean, Brazilian, healing, dance, music, food, into a series of workshops and performances.

The participation of Langston, the Northwest African American Museum, and Central District Forum in the Juneteenth event.

Our film festival, which you can see some young filmmakers presenting on a panel there.

Events with community partners, local luminaries like Ijeoma Oluo and Ahama Oluo.

We also did quite a bit of work with African artists, including Somi, local choreographer at the end.

partnerships around MOHAI, et cetera, but original programming that also focused on underserved black communities.

I'm thinking particularly of LGBTQ communities.

We did an amazing dance performance, multimedia and dance performance called Tail Feather, one-person show called Marching in Gucci, memoirs of well-dressed black AIDS activists, and other programs that sort of highlight that aspect of it.

We also developed and strengthened a lot of relationships with external partners, and here's just a bunch of them.

These partners that you're, these folks that you're working with on particular programs?

Yes.

Throughout the course of the year?

Yes, over the last year we've partnered with all these folks and more on performances, on lectures, on community meetings and sort of community development work, youth programs, the whole nine yards.

And that includes organizations that are black-led, organizations that serve predominantly black and POC communities, non-black organizations that have as part of their work or mission to create connections with the black culture and communities.

And it's enabled us to really greatly increase the programs on offer and has sort of positioned us as the go-to partner for other organizations endeavoring to bring black cultural offerings to black audiences.

From a community perspective, the number and variety of programs that I'll apply the last couple of years, has restored the reputation of Langston and El Pai as an active and accessible place where new and relevant and engaging experiences can be had almost every week.

On your next slide, it's by the numbers.

You can definitely see.

Yeah.

So a little bit on impact.

We spent, again, a lot of 2017 building organizational capacity, but still managed to do quite a bit on the programmatic front.

Several community-led workshops and work sessions, several performances, good numbers in terms of audiences reached and participants served.

2018, you can see a massive increase in all of those metrics in terms of audience and community.

Another one I just want to point out is that, you know, as we're looking at the work that we do, it's not just the number of shows, but the number of individual artists, the number of culture workers, the number of community activists and other folks engaged in sort of building black community and rebuilding black community, preserving what we have and expanding upon it is really very important to us.

So you can see here the number of individual artists served.

I also wanted to highlight that beyond just the artists that are working, which the creative economy is critically important, there's a slew of small businesses that we're also supporting.

Every event that we're catering, every printer that we're designing and printing, those are putting money back into the local economy.

And we work very intentionally with small local businesses and whenever and wherever possible, black owned small businesses.

And so that's been a really good boost to the local economy as well.

Yeah, these numbers are really impressive.

I remember some of the concern in the past was just that the physical space was not being as well used as the needs of the community and the the expectations really of the community given the importance of that building historically.

So this is, you're making strides for sure.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that's actually a really great segue to my next slide.

And just take a moment to recognize that it's not just about us Langston, the independent nonprofit, but there's really a whole bunch of us that are working to pull off this great success.

This has been, a partnership with Langston, with the staff at the Langston Youth Performing Arts Institute, with the Office of Arts and Culture, with the other resident organizations in the building, the Historic Central Area Arts and Culture District, and the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas, and with a lot of other city departments and non-city entities that are utilizing the facility more and more.

And so this year we saw tons of programs that were generated by the facility grant process that we have in partnership with the Office of Arts and Central District Forum.

Through private rentals, several city departments actually have housed workshops, trainings, et cetera, in the building during the day.

And what we've seen is this kind of multiplier effect where there's a really great cross-pollination between folks who are coming in for a workshop and realizing like, oh, this place would be great for my other artistic creation, and folks who are coming in for an event rented by Town Hall Seattle or Youth Theater Northwest, and bringing back their other creative endeavors to the building for even further use.

So every event that we've done has sort of generated two more events, and it just kind of snowballed from there.

And it's been really sometimes too busy in the building, which is an awesome change over years past.

So I just wanted to...

Good challenge to have.

Yeah.

What about the capital needs of the building?

How...

Can that investment in the improvement of the facility, how can we use that as a way to leverage more use of the building?

Are there needs that we should be aware of for the physical space?

I would say definitely yes, and I think both Tim and I have talked about, you know, how we can enhance the building so that it's easy, so that there's more versatility and more access to the building, better use.

I mean, they're really big projects though.

I mean, like it would be great if we had a black box.

That would take some doing.

I've talked to, the Parks Department, the Facilities Department about it and try to find out what different possibilities would be.

And they're big projects.

And so given that this is no longer a Parks Department facility and...

Parks still owns it.

It is.

The Parks does still own it.

They own the facility.

Okay, so...

Oh, sorry.

No, no, go ahead.

You're anticipating my question.

They own the facility, but because they're no longer managing the facility, our relationship has changed a little bit in terms of we're more a renter in the space.

the responsibility of parks becomes more of a core and shell component.

So when things such as the theater seats need to be replaced, those are things that are now on us.

There are more pieces of it that are our responsibility now versus parks maintaining the core and shell component of the building.

So we have, and Sandra and I have had a lot of conversations I think it is a great opportunity for us to have a conversation about how we can start building funding for our facility needs there to make sure that we are meeting all the needs that we have of the space to maintain it.

This isn't the kind of facility that would apply for funding from the Office of Arts and Culture to address a physical need, because those are dollars that we use to address capital needs of non-city facilities.

I just don't want to get into a situation where this facility is sort of a redheaded stepchild and nobody

I mean I think that's why I mean under Sandra's leadership we have seen in addition to Langston as I think the slide points to we've seen a dramatic uptick in all of the activity in the building which comes with it some attendant challenges around the wear and tear and needs of the building I think.

Having Kelly in her capacity as finance manager working closely with Sandra, I think we're starting to plan for those future improvements that we're going to have to make.

And doing something like transforming part of the space into a black box might be an ask to an outside funder, you know, like a Kresge Foundation type of a partner.

So I think as we map out where the use of the building is going and what the needs are, we have to create sort of a plan to meet that.

And do you feel like you have a really clear written clarification between the arts office and parks on sort of what those expectations are for those capital improvements?

Or do you kind of...

Do you address them as they go?

Oh, no, I don't think that's yours.

That's yours.

I think it just seems like this might be something that if you don't already have some sort of an MOU or MOA.

I appreciate your questions.

One of the prime things I've been working on this year is our lease agreement with SDOT to get us into the King Street station space.

And I've done a lot of leasing space things in the past for the city.

The only thing we have right now with the Parks Department is the MOA that basically outlined what the divide would be, and that has about three bullet points in there as to what Parks is responsible for and what Arts is responsible for in terms of the building, and just outlines that big picture, core and shell.

Going through our agreement for King Street and SDOT in a much more detailed fashion, using an FAS template for city to city rentals.

I would love to be able to prioritize next after getting this, the King Street one signed off to get more into an update on that with parks, because I feel like having a detailed lease like that will benefit both of us.

It will also allow us to start that priority list and have the clear distinctions of what are our responsibility in those maintenance updates, yes.

And Parks has been fabulous in working with us.

Sandra and I have both spent time with them this year.

With the increased activity of the building, one thing that we're implementing, right, that we implemented this year is installing a key card system.

Until now, the building has been a hard key, which makes it really challenging when you have this many more people coming and going from the facility.

And Parks has been really great working with us on that.

So I think that'll be a really good next step to help us then lead up to that.

Some of the other things that we are hoping to prioritize that Sandra and I have been talking a lot about lately is just our general safety and emergency procedures as well.

I just want to add to that, whether it's operationally or with regards to larger capital projects, and I can spend a lot of time daydreaming about those.

But I think that we needed to get through these last couple of years to really identify what the highest and best use of the space is going to be and how we can best serve the public overall with regards to any of those aspects.

So I think the timing is perfect.

the experience that arts has had with King Street over the last year or two.

coupled with the experience that the Alpi staff has had in sort of witnessing and participating in this massive uptick in activity in our building, given all the different community members and organizations and partners that have been actively utilizing that space, I think we'll have a much more informed picture of what we as, you know, sub-tenants, I don't know, as resident organizations of the building need, what the folks that we serve and that Alpi serves needs.

And I just wanted to add, when I do talk to the Parks Department, it's about feasibility or estimated costs.

And I take that information.

And I talk to Randy and Tim and Kelly.

Facilities management of our own facilities is a whole new program area for our office.

And so as we've been going through this process leading to the other one, we've been really trying to look for ways of where do we have consistencies, how do we draw on the expertise of the people who've been running the Langston building for a long time, how do we build their learned knowledge into how we're doing King Street, and how can we work collaboratively to share resources as needed, and also understand where there are different needs of both facilities because they do different work.

And likewise, as we, you know, part of why we're sort of a little bit more vague about the ultimate governing model.

For example, the PDA is all the things we learned in establishing this nonprofit.

It took a lot longer than I think we anticipated.

We're like, oh, well, we'll just move the programming over.

It'll be fine.

And the truth is, that's harder to do.

And it takes a while to get your legs with governance, to get all of your organizational infrastructure in order.

And then you have the new opportunity of a really busy building and in real time you're triaging your needs and trying to ensure you can staff appropriately.

So we're also going to be borrowing on the lessons of the Langston transition for anything that we wind up doing with the PDA because there's some similarities there too.

I wanted to add also that Tim's numbers, they're great, the numbers that he provided, but he really could have, I think, I would add more because the traffic in the building with community coming in and talking to us, talking to Langston and Langston Hughes staff, having meetings with them and just, you know, the community atmosphere is bigger.

Yeah, and these numbers don't include rehearsals and, you know, planning meetings and all the rest of the work that goes into some of these events that we've pulled off.

Great to see.

I love that that, you know, after all of the plans, planning and studying and consultant reports, that we've landed on a roadmap that seems to be working, so.

Yeah, just, I mean, wrapping it up, we're just looking to build on the successes of 2018 going forward, trying to expand those and strengthen those partnerships.

continue to work with the city, whether it's arts or parks or the rest, to really maximize the use of the space and set up the organization for long-term sustainability.

And I don't know, it's an honor to be doing this work, and it's great having these amazing partners on board, and I'm just looking forward to a brilliant future.

Thanks for stepping into it, Tim.

My pleasure, honestly.

And thanks for helping.

Anything else?

All right.

All right.

Thank you.

Glad we were able to find some time to dig in.

All right.

So now we have two pieces of legislation both related to SPU and that's why Alex is joining us at the table.

You want to read?

Are they related?

Yes.

They are.

Okay.

So why don't we read them?

Well, let's read them.

Actually, one requires a public hearing.

That's item 11, so we'll get to that second.

Okay.

Item 10, Council Bill 119-412, an ordinance relating Seattle Public Utilities accepting easements granted to the City of Seattle for installation, operation, and maintenance of hydrants, water mains, domestic water vaults, fire service meters, and aperturance is necessary for water utility purposes at various locations in Seattle, placing the property rights and interests conveyed by the easements under the jurisdiction of Seattle Public Utilities and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

Thank you.

Introductions, please.

Brian, good night.

Council central staff.

Tom Fothrip, the Acting Manager for Facilities and Property Management Services at SPU.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Brian, you want to give us a quick little background?

Sure.

From time to time, in order to properly install and maintain its facilities, SPU comes before the council to request the acceptance or the relinquishment of easements.

And so this item and the next item are both those.

The first one deals with the water system and the second one with the drainage and wastewater system.

And one requires, the second requires a public hearing.

That's right.

Relinquishments require a public hearing, and acceptances do not.

Yeah.

That's right.

Great.

We have a presentation.

Yeah.

This is our water presentation from our water line of business, and it's quite clear and direct.

We have seven easements that we are accepting, water easements for hydrants.

Can you remember to speak directly into the microphone, please?

Water main extensions.

Thank you.

Yeah, and so today that's what we're here to do and we're doing it through our streamline process of approval, which we call SEAP.

And that is the process that gathers multiple transactions.

And we have seven today in relation to our line of business, water line of business.

So they're related in that these are all acceptance of easements, but they are not necessarily related to any particular project.

It's just that we consolidate those easements as a way of moving them through the process more quickly.

These particular ones are all on separate properties, separate ownerships, and the fact that they're all the same is that they are for the water line of business.

Thank you.

And our benefit, of course, is that we're able to present this to you in a package, and that's a benefit to us as Seattle Public Real Property Services and to the rate payers.

And these are our five locations, our seven locations, excuse me.

These are the seven locations of the easements that we are accepting today.

And is there a cost to the city for these easements?

No.

Zero.

Okay.

So this development, these developments require the property owner to deliver these services or to have us be able to deliver the services.

So that's why we, there's no cost to the easement.

That's how that kind of works?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Excellent.

Right.

You want to know who's going to respond.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

So we're recommending these seven be approved.

Okay, great.

Yes.

And...

No further questions from me?

No further questions, no.

All right.

So with that, I will move passage of Council Bill 1194.12.

Second.

All those in favor, vote aye.

Aye.

Aye.

None opposed, none abstaining.

And this will go on to full council on Monday, and we'll move on to item 11.

Item 11, Council Bill 119419, an ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities declaring certain real property rights relating to sewer and storm drainage easements within Seattle as being surplused to the city utility needs, authorizing the director of Seattle Public Utilities to relinquish such easement rights and to accept new easements placing the real property rights and interests conveyed by the easements under the jurisdiction of Seattle Public Utilities and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

And we thank you for that.

And you've really summed it up.

What I would add is that these are five sites that we have.

Two will be relinquishments only.

We have one will be a relinquishment and accepting a new easement.

And then we have one which will receive new easement rights only.

So.

And can you just talk a little bit about some of the circumstances that would lead the city to relinquish an easement?

Yes.

Many times the developer is remodeling on the site, doing new development on the site, and they have existing facilities, existing rights on the site, and they may just be changing the location.

or we may have asked them to change the location.

So in conjunction with our request and in conjunction with their suggestion, you have sometimes a dual situation where we are relinquishing the rights and then we are getting new rights, which is accepting a new easement.

I'm going to open this up to the required public hearing.

And this is specifically a public hearing to comment on the relinquishment of this easement.

And we have one person signed up, and that is Alex Zimmerman.

And Alex will be your timekeeper.

Dorian, Tissamite, and Cretina.

My name Alex Zimmerman.

I once spoke about this utility.

I'm totally confused.

Maybe a freaking idiot.

Maybe my experience for seven plus year, nothing.

Maybe my experience for leaving city for 30 plus year, nothing.

Why?

For last five year, you totally destroy city, bring disaster, not only to city, not only to kicking country, to all state Washington.

What is motivation?

What is the reason with this nightmare what is we have for last five years to everybody?

Show me one happy man in Seattle right now.

Oh, Bezos, yes, he's happy.

He's a vice president.

Trump, Bezos.

Trump, Bezos.

Two bosses we have.

One pure idiot, and I talk about business, and crook.

Why you support this for five last year?

I talked to you about this many time.

No one council for last five year mention Amazon who destroying city, who destroying king country, and who destroy all state Washington.

What is the reason for this?

It's supposed to be business common sense.

So a dozen billionaires have a profit, and almost 7 million people lose everything.

50% is totally poor.

I ask a very simple question.

Why you did this?

Why?

What is the reason?

You're supposed to represent 700,000.

So who you represent?

A dozen billionaires who make money?

A builder who make money?

We're all in disaster right now, nightmare.

So right now I speak to everybody, stand up Seattle, stand up Washington.

We need to clean this dirty chamber from this cretina, from this criminal and bandita who sit in this chamber.

That's all we have signed up for public comment, although I didn't hear anything related to the acceptance of the relinquishment, but nevertheless, we'll move on.

If there are no further questions, I will move passage of Council Bill 1194-19.

All those in favor, vote aye.

I'll second.

Second, sorry.

Aye.

All right, none oppose, aye.

None abstaining.

And this will also move on to full council on Monday.

And thank you for your patience and taking the time to present.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's it.

Adjourned.

And I suppose I should have said something about this being the last meeting of the year.

It's the last meeting of the year.