EDI Coalition hosts community press Conference on jumpstart and progressive revenue

Welcome, everyone.

Thank you for attending our press conference this morning.

My name is Aretha Basu.

I am the political director of Puget Sound Stage and Stage Leaders.

I will start our time together this morning with a land acknowledgement, and then we will hear from our community partners.

In the Puget Sound region, we are on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish nations, including the Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Nisqually, Silaguamish, Snohomish, Suquamish, Puyallup, and Tulalip tribes.

We honor with gratitude the land itself and the diverse Coast Salish people, many of whom still fight for federal recognition, who have stewarded this land since time immemorial and who continue to steward this land today in resistance to colonization.

I'm here today with this powerful coalition of community partners to call on the city council and mayor to invest in black, indigenous, and people of color communities here in Seattle.

We call on the city to not do business as usual and to not balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable and marginalized in our city.

Organizations here today represent communities in almost every district of Seattle.

We are all doing the daily work of supporting our communities to thrive and grow in the midst of gentrification, poverty, hardship, and ecological destruction.

The Equitable Development Initiative was fought for and by communities to provide capital and capacity support for projects that are needed to sustain us.

Childcare centers, senior homes, cultural spaces, and youth achievement centers, and many, many more.

Our communities know best what we need, and we are here today to say protect funding for EDI, and we are here to hold the city accountable to its own promises.

75% of EDI comes from Jumpstart, a progressive tax on large businesses, which is another win we as community members fought for.

And so we are also here today to say defend Jumpstart.

EDI, Jumpstart, participatory budgeting are all examples of revenue that are designated for community development projects.

The city breaking its promises is nothing new.

First and foremost, breaking its promise to the Duwamish tribe and then to black communities and so on.

This pattern continues years of harm through anti-blackness and white supremacy and sows divisions among community members and organizations.

But today, we are here to say we are standing united in our demand that resources be protected for BIPOC communities.

As our friends at the Solidarity Budget have pointed out time and time again, the city continues to allocate $41.3 million to the Seattle Police Department for police positions that have not and cannot be filled.

This does not include the extra $10 million that goes to redundant line items.

And this money is allowed to carry over year after year after year.

So explain to me how our communities and our programs are getting nickeled and dimed while the police department's budget grows in the midst of such a massive budget deficit.

How is that equity?

We reject austerity budgeting that seeks to be balanced on the backs of black and brown communities.

We reject the illusion of scarcity and call on the city to find other means of ways to balance the budget.

We are here today and every day to protect our communities, EDI funding, Jump Start, and all community investments.

We will now hear from our community partners, and we'll start with Ken Workman from the Duwamish Tribe.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am Workman of the Duwamish Tribe.

And great, great, great, great grandson of Chief Seattle.

172 years ago, my grandfather stood on the shores of Alki Beach and he said, come ashore, my friends, onto this ancient land of the Duwamish.

He did not say, come ashore, only you people that look a certain way, only you people that speak in a certain way.

He said, everybody is welcome here.

And so the Duwamish have benefited from this program, from this EDI program.

And so I am here to speak to you today in our own words, in our own way, that we as native indigenous people would honor the city for continuing to honor their promises to us as native people and to support EDI in its original format and that we reject this proposal CB120774 in additional burdens that would be required by us.

the Duwamish tribe who have benefited from these resources and who may not have benefited given these new reporting requirements.

So thank you and we appreciate your presence.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ken.

My name's Crystal Brown.

I'm the Executive Director for Cultivate South Park.

I'm not normally one to stand up and speak out.

I like to stay in the background.

I like to play the support role.

I feel very privileged.

I'm empowered in myself.

I'm very confident.

And Cultivate South Park was lucky enough to receive funding through the Strategic Investment Fund, through EDI, for the Project El Barrio.

El Barrio is in the heart of South Park and it is South Park reimagined it's a quarter block of naturally occurring affordability in community hands to both preserve and develop for the future it's 25,000 square feet 5.8 million dollars was raised in less than two years and that was through partnerships through funding through the city and philanthropy In two and a half years, we have implemented small-scale economic development through Shop Small South Park, supporting over 100 vendors and small businesses, the build-up concert and art series, construction of a commercial kitchen and elevator to support and further small businesses and their development, and a support space for other CBOs who do not have space in South Park.

There's not a community center that's active right now, no other community space, and we're right on the heart of the Duwamish River with a lot of great, amazing organizations doing work in community.

We are investing in the spaces we live in, work in, and deeply care about for generations to come.

And I think that's the important thing that we know that what we're doing is empowering our people, we're empowering community.

And I don't think as the EDI or Strategic Investment Fund as a handout, it was really a hand up for the South Park community and other communities.

And we're thriving from that.

And in turn, we're developing empowerment and prosperity for the neighborhood, which is really for all of us and everybody in Seattle and beyond.

Thank you.

Hello all, my name is Stephanie Ung, the co-executive director of Khmer Community of Seattle King County, or KCSKC.

I'm also a frontline community representative for the City of Seattle's Green New Deal Oversight Board.

I'm here to oppose any amendments or policies that take away from Jump Start, the major source of funding for the Equitable Development Initiative, or EDI, Green New Deal, affordable housing, and other important investments in the well-being of our communities.

The community organizations awarded EDI funds are at the front lines of climate catastrophes, displacement, political erasure, and racism.

These are the last efforts that should ever be compromised when seeking to fill a gap in the city's budget.

KCSKC is an EDI grantee in District 1, specifically southwest Seattle, just north of White Center, where Khmer families and businesses settled and thrived since the 1980s.

It remains a cultural hub today, but displacement has spread our community further and further apart.

EDI has been our one hope to build what our community deserves, a Khmer-owned gathering space for our elders, youth, and families to be seen, represented, and centered, and for anyone to come learn about and celebrate who Khmer are.

EDI's origins are rooted in community power, and OPCD staff have been working tirelessly with us since day one, helping us navigate the city's landscape, policies, and processes, and I would not be standing here now if it were not for them.

We are glad to learn that Councilmember Rivera dropped the spending proviso.

However, the reporting requirement demonstrates that she and other supporters prefer to create administrative barriers, honestly unnecessary headaches, for the communities who are already taking the city's shortcomings into their own hands.

A government report will not adequately provide information that she claims to be curious about.

It will keep relationships between government and the people transactional and strained.

We urge council to invest their time to visit and interview each of us to understand the status of our projects and what value we bring to the city.

You will then all see the patterns of harm done that we are turning into healing and blooming.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Miguel Maestas.

I am with El Centro de la Raza, the Center for People of All Races.

On behalf of our Executive Director, Estela Ortega, and our El Centro community, I am here to voice our opposition to any efforts that will utilize EDI and Jump Start funding for budget shortfalls.

The Equity Development Initiative provides vital funding to organizations serving communities of color to address the affordable housing crisis, but this funding also represents a basic commitment to our communities to support grassroots efforts in developing generational assets for the people we serve.

For years, El Centro, along with many others, have raised our voice regarding the inequities that exist and that have been exacerbated by institutional and structural racism.

Our organization, like many others, has struggled for decades to address the needs of our communities, and we have successfully demonstrated how to combine affordable housing, childcare, community and cultural space, and economic development opportunities to uplift families and build community.

EDI supports the building of infrastructure and long-term assets that serve communities and enhance local services and creates thriving communities.

EDI is supporting the construction of a child development center at El Centro's Four Amigos beloved community in Columbia City, which will have art that reflects Afro-Latino, indigenous, and mestizo cultures of the Latino community.

These outcomes are a testament to EDI's effectiveness and demonstrate governance at its best.

You have seen the unified voice that has risen from our communities in this past week.

EDI is an important city initiative because it says that black, indigenous, and communities of color are heard, acknowledged, and supported.

to withhold EDI funding sends the message that we will no longer be heard, acknowledged, or supported.

Thank you.

Mil gracias.

I'm Leslie Morishita with Interim Community Development Association, one of the oldest CDCs in the nation with deep roots in the Chinatown International District.

The EDI is providing crucial funding for reopening beloved legacy business and community cultural anchor Bush Garden Japanese Restaurant and Karaoke Bar at our latest affordable housing project, Uncle Bob's Place.

Bush Garden, together with the Bob Santos Community Room, will serve as a community living room, a third place of sorts, for socializing, celebrating, and education, and as a base for community organizing.

This new community gathering place will bolster that sense of community and camaraderie that the original Bush Garden exuded and that only comes with time and love.

Where was I?

The community glue to help us carry forward Uncle Bob's legacy of community organizing and sustain the community for the struggle for the long haul.

The EDI is also helping Interim CDA acquire an at-risk building in the historic heart of the CID, helping to keep land in community control and to keep low-income residents, culturally appropriate, community-serving small businesses and nonprofits in the CID where they belong.

We've been fighting displacement and gentrification for over 55 years and we are not going away.

We are proud to stand together with our brother and sister EDI organizations committed to the struggle to ensure our city does not balance the budget on the backs of BIPOC communities, but rather stands behind its commitments to invest in these communities.

Thank you.

Hello, good morning.

My name is Quynh Pham.

I'm the Executive Director with the Friends of Little Saigon, a place-based community development organization working to anchor the Vietnamese community in Seattle.

Over the past 12 years, Little Saigon has lost so many of our cultural, social, and economic assets in the neighborhood.

The only thing that is giving the community a chance is the ability to own and control land for our Vietnamese Culture and Economic Center, a highlight of the Little Saigon Landmark Project that is funded through EDI.

It is through this project that has given us hope for a brighter future.

EDI provided FLS with capacity building funds to lead the visioning, develop partnerships, and leverage other resources so that we're equipped to do the right thing.

And it was also EDI's pre-development funds that is allowing us to find a site and consultants to do things right.

But we've been on this journey for about six years, so it takes time and true investment in this process to produce the equitable outcomes that we're all looking for.

Our project is only made possible by those who advocated before us and alongside us.

The Friends of Little Saigon is also part of the Race and Social Equity Task Force, RSET, a coalition of leaders from the Central District, Southeast Seattle, and the Chinatown International District who represent neighborhoods historically redlined and at high displacement risk.

RSET was instrumental in the establishment of Seattle's EDI during a time where many of our cultural neighborhoods were facing extinction.

At its core, EDI's investment should reflect the city's race and social equity mission, and therefore we should continue to find ways to be accountable, but also expand and resource EDI proportionately to the growing need and realize these projects for our communities.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Ayaan Moussa.

I'm here standing with community and saying that EDI money is community money at its best.

It's money that not only develops our communities, but gives us a fair chance of developing what we want to see for our community.

We could say all day every day what's happening with this money, but I think we heard community members making it quite clear that this money takes time.

You cannot build a vision overnight.

It takes time.

And when you start questioning money that was for our community, you're letting us know what Seattle you want and who the teams are that you want.

When we talk about redevelopment, let's be quite honest.

The people that we're already developing are still going to continue to develop, and they're getting tax breaks all day, every day.

Again, this is our money.

I need our money to be our money.

We're not asking, we're letting you know.

We're also letting you know, don't get comfortable in your positions, whether you're our mayor or our council.

Get real uncomfortable with being uncomfortable and understand that community money is exactly that, community money.

We're not asking permission.

I repeat, we're not asking permission.

We're letting you know we're asking for accountability.

And we're asking for it in a real way.

Don't say something and then try to we your way back out of it.

You've done it one too many times.

Black people have over and over been told and retold something.

Natives have been over and over promised and re-promised Not this time, though.

We're letting you know the buck stops today, and we are getting our needs met, whether you like it or not.

And if it means we vote your behind out, be prepared for that.

I have absolutely no problem letting you know.

Some of you council people that are very comfortable, get uncomfortable.

And some of y'all are running.

Recognize we see you.

How you vote, how you move is going to tell us something.

That includes our nice mayor.

Times getting ready to be up for you too, my brother.

Times ticking.

Times of an essence.

So our money is our money.

Please, hands off of all of our money.

RESPECTED COUNCIL MEMBERS, MY NAME IS MIKE TULE.

I'M THE CEO OF UNITED INDIANS OF ALL TRIBES FOUNDATION.

AND I'M HERE TO TELL YOU THAT UTILIZING JUMP START FUNDS TO COUNTER THE CITY'S PENDING $250 MILLION BUDGET DEVASTATE IS A MASSIVE MISTAKE As we all know, the purpose of Jump Start was to fund initiatives such as EDI as part of the city's economic development plan.

That being said, let me say that we need to protect EDI's investments into our community, not eliminate or reduce.

EDI drives economic growth by and for local communities, especially those that past city policies marginalized for decades and decades on end.

EDI creates jobs, supports local businesses, and makes sustainable development real.

And just to give you a little bit of perspective, we were fortunate to receive EDI funds.

With these funds, we were able to complete the following important building tasks.

We were able to install much needed restrooms, added ADA water fountains, replace sewer line sections, replaced soffits, reinstalled all cavities needed within our building, replaced six set doors and large windows, added ADA motion sensor doors, outdoor LED lighting, replaced HVAC system, installed an ADA lift.

All of these items were not wants, they were needs.

Without these items, our building would have been closed today had it not been for EDI funds.

Please know that austerity does not work.

We must invest into our minority communities.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Ubah Gadere.

I am currently the Director of Investment and Fund Development for the Cultural Space Agency, a mission-driven cultural real estate development company that was chartered by the City of Seattle.

We are only two years old, and before that, I was the Division Director for the Equitable Development Initiative at Office of Planning and Community Development.

At OPCD, we implemented the Equitable Development Fund and anti-displacement policies to ensure communities of color who have been historically marginalized have a seat at the table.

This was co-created by the Race and Social Equity Task Force before the comprehensive plan update was finalized.

An equity analysis was done on the comprehensive plan update, and no matter what growth strategy the city was going to go with in 20 years, it was evident data showed that the communities of color were not going to be here anymore.

A vision that was written by the city itself included that.

And I want to say everybody's talking about racial equity.

That is a given.

But EDI has actually already accomplished a lot.

$100 million, 245 projects leveraged $300 million in less than four years.

One of the projects I was able to visit before I left is right here in Pioneer Square.

Chief Seattle Club, affordable housing, health clinic.

Do you know that you have to raise 50% of the non-residential before you even qualify to get housing money?

It was co-created by seven directors, seven directors.

in Seattle in partnership with advisory board and race and social equity task force.

Ethiopian community of Seattle is done.

Filipino community of Seattle is done.

Let's think about 2020 during the reckoning, three city owned properties was transferred to the black community.

Let's not forget, it's not about District 2, it's about Seattle.

And BIPOC communities, especially black and indigenous communities, cannot live in Seattle anymore.

And this funding is actually on the backs of We, as we were sitting in our ivory towers, virtual ivory towers, the community was organized and was deploying money when COVID hit.

So you're not going to come for our funding.

A bunch of affordable housing has been already done.

And this is your own.

Real estate doesn't wait for us.

And if you don't do an RFP process, if you don't push for the capacity building, how are they supposed to do the work?

They're developers.

They know what they want.

They vision this.

So I'm not going to continue talking about this, but this is about equitable economic development.

thank you so much and as my sisters here said the executive we are also coming for you my brother you represented district 2 before you became the mayor of seattle and you are up for the election next year we are organized as you noticed 3 000 people within a weekend wrote letters 200 people.

I waited for three hours.

I could not even speak.

So I'm going to leave it at that.

And I am going to invite one of the champions of District 2 and Council Member Morales to the pod right now.

Because Rainier Beach Action Coalition was one of those initial projects.

It needed $3.2 million to acquire their site.

We first gave them a million.

You're saying, why are they sitting on the money?

There's not enough.

So I'm not going to continue.

Come, come to the port.

And Council Member Morales.

Oh, yes.

And we have urban family.

Thank you.

Thank you, sister.

Won't be long before you.

My name is Paul Patu.

I'm part of urban family.

My wife and I run an organization in southeast Seattle.

My message So the council is simple.

Earth, wind, and fire.

Earth, wind, and fire.

EDI is really about the ownership of the earth.

It is the dirt beneath our ground.

It is what gives life.

and it stabilizes the people that live on the land.

Without Earth, where are we?

How will our families root?

My message to the council is do not be like the wind that is swayed to and fro.

Vote no on the EDI amendments.

The EDI initiative was formed for the people by the people.

We need that initiative to continue, the funding to continue to flow.

And last but not least, fire.

If you do not vote in favor of the people, the natural result is fire, a consuming fire.

My last thing is I want to leave with you a quote african proverb that has to do with how we treat each other how we treat the people in our village how we treat the least of us how we treat the least of us it is important beyond what the council decides that we continue to organize and we continue to put people in seats that will vote for the people's agenda.

It's important that we continue to come together like this, but not only when it's time to fight, but also in times of peace.

We need to be organizing every season, in and out of season.

We need to be ready to put people in place that will vote on our behalf.

Last but not least, this African proverb really touched my heart when I heard it, but it was basically about when a young person is not loved, he will burn the village down just to feel its warmth.

It's important that we pull together in this time and come together for the things that are important to our communities.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

It's great to be here joining this broad coalition of community members, organizations, advocates to demand that the city invest in our black and brown communities.

I know that these EDI partners have already discussed how and why their programs are important, why this particular program is important.

They've already discussed why their development projects take time and have already asked, I'm sure, why EDI is expected to produce faster than market rate projects.

They may even have asked why investments in communities of color is more closely scrutinized than public investment in South Lake Union or the waterfront or any other part of the city.

or why OPCD as a department is held to accountability in a different way than other city departments.

As a city, we have an obligation to be fair and consistent across programs and across departments, and we can't play games of divide and conquer like taking money away from communities and organizations that support people of color.

Seattle is the 23rd wealthiest city in the world.

It's the seventh richest city in America, according to independent research.

There are 54,200 millionaires living in Seattle.

That means there are over 54,000 people in this city with liquid investable wealth of over a million dollars.

There's also 130 centimillionaires.

Anybody know what that is?

Somebody who has over $100 million in investable wealth.

And by the way, we also have 11 billionaires in the city.

So we have all this wealth concentrated in our city, and the number of millionaires here is growing.

But over the last 10 years, we've seen the cost of rent almost double, and we've seen the number of people living in our streets skyrocket.

How is that equitable or fair or just?

And how does that even make sense?

Despite the significant increase in our city's millionaire population, our city is essentially facing bankruptcy in several key areas.

Our public schools are about to close, and our general fund has a $250 million deficit.

It pays to be rich in Seattle, and it is very expensive to be poor here.

it doesn't have to be this way when the council passed the jumpstart payroll expense tax in 2021 we brought in 248 million dollars and every single year since then we have relied on that fund to invest in the equitable development initiative and in green new deal initiatives and other programs that make the city livable for all of us if there's anything i know for sure It's that this city won't survive if we don't implement more progressive revenue in the city.

We are staring down the barrel of an austerity budget.

And what we learned this past week is that when budget cuts are discussed, programs that support black and brown communities are always first on the chopping block.

And that's not gonna stand.

I think we've all seen from this community from these partners, from our constituents, from the people who are living in this housing, the people who are taking advantage of the affordable commercial opportunities, the people who are using the childcare facilities that are built by these programs.

This is important work.

It's not frivolous, it's not extra, it's basic.

And this is what we should be doing with this funding.

So I want to thank all these community members for being here, for stepping into this fight for a better city for all of us.

We need the mayor and the rest of the council to show bold leadership and to demonstrate our commitment, our commitment as a city, the city of Seattle's commitment to not balancing this budget on the backs of our black and brown neighbors.

Thank you all for being here.

Thanks to all of you for fighting.

The fight's just starting, but I want to thank you all for being here, and we will continue this conversation throughout the rest of the year.

Thank you so much, everybody.

Thank you again to all the speakers and organizations and everyone who spent their weekends organizing.

That is the power of our community.

And thank you for showing up today.

It was early, it was chaotic, we love y'all, parking was a mess.

We are united in our call on the city and the mayor to not balance the budget on the backs of our communities.

If that's not clear today, I don't know how much more clear we can be.

We cannot continue the status quo that sets our communities up to be the first in line to get cut, but then the last in line for resources.

Hands off EDI, hands off Jumpstart Investments.

The city is watching, the community is watching, and we are urging our elected leaders to do the right thing.

This is being on the right side of history.

Thank you for your time today.

We will take some questions.

I'm gonna invite my executive director up here to help field some questions from the media.

If there are any questions.

We'll do five or six questions from the media.

Just, can you state your name, what media you're representing, and then your question?

I'm just here to be in solidarity with you all and to thank you for all of your hard work and to just Say thank you.

I don't know if you all are aware of what happened in March of this year when the Seattle City Council cut funds for victims of police violence.

It was a program that I was the program manager for and it put my family into a spiral of houselessness.

So I see a trend of the Seattle City continuing, as you all have continued to said, balance the budget off of the backs of BIPOC communities, off of community resources.

off of things that the community needs to have to live and thrive.

And so I just wanted to be here in solidarity, ask you all if you're aware of that and see if y'all are open to any levels of collaboration as it seems like we are both fighting for the same things.

And our speakers, you all can also speak to any questions that are asked organically.

Okay, Josh Cohen, Crosscutt, Cassie, PBS.

Obviously, Council Member Rivera responded to last Tuesday's big showing in public comment, but lots of folks also said that the new amendment that she introduced, it doesn't touch the funding, but it sort of has new reporting requirements.

Refer to that as burdensome.

I'm just wondering if somebody can expound upon sort of where the coalition is at on that new amendment and sort of why you're worried about it.

I actually find it really interesting that when it's communities of color that get the funding, we're always questioning them.

Why is that not the same for the taxpayer that you're giving funding to?

Because when you give a tax break, that's a speaking for itself.

So as much as I agree that there should be oversight, we need to be honest of who's not getting oversighted.

You have to understand, I think every person here explained to you in different ways the stages that the money is at for them.

Not everybody's at the same stage.

So when you look at it, what are we really looking at?

And if you don't have the staffing, what does that look like?

Does that look like that community that need the money don't get the money?

So we really need to be careful what we write and what we think before we start questioning native community members whose land you're still standing on and haven't given any accreditation to and black people who you've already promised money to that you have no intention of ever giving.

thank you auntie um i'll just also add that opcd and edi are already overextended and this level of like extra reporting and scrutinization could be completely bypassed by the edi team just giving a presentation to the city council and um our concern is that additional scrutiny and reporting on opcd and edi would eventually trickle down to more barriers for community Yeah, thank you.

Guy.

Guy, real strange.

So we've seen Mertz and Rivera blame misinformation for the backlash.

We've also seen other council members hold these 101 council meetings just to learn the basics of governance.

Do you think the new city council is not up to that?

Like, is out of their depth in terms of addressing the city's challenges?

And also, do you think, again, do you think they kind of see a double standard where they're willing to work with corporations who got the payout law, but they're not necessarily willing to talk to color in the same way?

Thanks, Dan.

Thank you.

That's a really great question.

Council Member Rivera was with the Darken administration when EDI and the SIF, Strategic Investment Fund, she was actually part of that.

There is no misinformation.

What has been written is right there.

So when people put things in place and do that, I think you need to either say, hey, I made a mistake and I wasn't informed.

All these projects have been asking for meetings with them.

and they didn't bother to meet with them or go visit their projects.

So that's what I wanted to say.

And I want to add, as far as the capacity building is concerned, developers, when they're in meetings, they're paid.

But these groups, they are talking about real estate.

negotiating for themselves, but yet they are not resourced to be there.

So all the capacity building contracts that are two years, OPCD and the executive can direct OPCD to actually push their money to the people who are doing the job.

Thank you, Uba.

Can I also add that the executive froze the RFP in January, and so it's not just the city council.

EDI has not been able to put money into the community, and that is a decision directly made by the executive.

The mayor.

The mayor.

Any other questions?

Mayor Bruce Harrell has frozen the RFP, everyone.

All right.

Are there any other questions?

All right, thank you.

I also want to add that this funding, this capital funding, pays for capacity building, redevelopment, $250,000 for redevelopment, $100 million for affordable housing.

Joaquin, you can speak to that.

It takes seven years for affordable housing projects in Rainier Beach to get access to Office of Housing Funding.

When the Ethiopian community of Seattle was ready to move forward because their community raised the money, we were told that they need to go back to the line and wait for seven years.

They didn't listen to them.

It took them five years during COVID and they broke ground last summer.

I'm going to pause questions actually.

Waiking from Africa Town Community Land Trust is here and he'll be our last speaker.

Good morning.

Can you hear me?

Can you actually hold it?

All right.

Can you hear me?

All right.

KY King Garrett, third-generation community builder from the Central District.

I currently serve as president and CEO of Africatown Community Land Trust and a founding member of King County Equity Now.

It's unfortunate to see the city council and mayor's administration moving in the same directions that we see happening at the federal government with the Supreme Court with attacks and trying to dial back policies and initiatives and interventions to bring some equity and to mitigate centuries and decades of systemic, structural, anti-black racism.

The question we have to ask is, is it one Seattle for us too?

Is it one Seattle a world-class city that's inclusive of the communities of the world that have made this city?

Or is it one class Seattle?

This is really what is at stake.

The small amount of resources and initiatives that have been established to repair harm are now under attack.

And We see that a number of these projects, many of these projects are black led projects, which are projects which are striving to make sure that our community can be a part of the future of this city as we have been a part of it for over 140 years.

So this really appears to be a significant policy step, policy direction back to the status quo of Jim Crow apartheid in Seattle.

And so is it one Seattle or maybe one black person left in Seattle?

That's what we're trying to figure out what these policies are about.

And it also, it seems to be a significant contradiction or complete opposite of what's said about the funding for police that are not able to spend their money and time, right?

What they call the ghost cops, right?

They're gonna advocate and allocate more money for them to have, even though the money they have hasn't been spent.

But yet, when it comes to community creating spaces which create safe spaces, which increases public safety, they take a completely different approach, contradictory.

So, you know, we heard a lot of the candidates City Council candidates come to us in community and said they're really gonna be focused on continuing to work to make sure that communities, all of our communities are included.

But again, it's when the rubber hits the road, the policies and striving to balance the budget on the backs of blacks, that the budget has been created in this country for 400 years is, again, seems to be anti-black and anti-inclusion and anti-progressive and anti-liberal or giving us the freedom to be in this community.

The failure to include all communities, to include our community in the economic opportunity, in the economic growth is the greatest threat to public safety and that has been demonstrated over time within this city where we see those who are most often victims and arrested as perpetrators are not thriving economically within the city.

So that's the purpose of Equitable Development Initiative.

I was a founding member of the Racial and Social Equity Task Force that helped co-create this initiative as a step, a step towards making Seattle more inclusive.

So again, I leave the city council to really consider much more strongly and the mayor, is it one Seattle for us too?

Thank you.

Again, thank you all so much for being here.

We just want to close by reading off the names of all of our speakers, organizations, and also all of our co-sponsors for today, many of whom weren't able to speak but wanted to show solidarity with us.

So we had the Duwamish Tribe, Cultivate South Park, the Khmer community, El Centro de la Raza, Interims, CDA, Friends of Little Saigon, Africatown, New Hope Missionary Baptist, Whose Streets Our Streets, United Indians of All Tribes, and Councilman Morales.

This event was co-sponsored by the Church Council of Greater Seattle, Communities Passageways, the Cultural Space Agency, Multicultural Community Coalition, Puget Sound Sage, SCIPTA, the Southeast Affected Development, the Transit Riders Union, the Wing Luke Museum, the Yeehaw Indigenous Collective, and 350 Seattle.

Thank you all so much for today.

Get home safe.