Seattle City Council Community Economic Development Committee 2/7/20

Well, good evening, everyone.

Thank you for being here this evening.

The February 6, 2020 meeting of the Seattle City Council Community Economic Development Committee will come to order.

It is 5.06 p.m.

I'm Tammy Morales, Chair of the Community Economic Development Committee, and joining me are Council Members Salant and Lewis.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

So I want to thank everyone for being here tonight.

This committee meeting, we will be hearing from community members and from small businesses who are impacted by programs and policies of the city.

And my hope is that we will be learning what we're doing right in serving community well.

and what we can do better to support the work of our neighbors and our small businesses to make sure that we're increasing the prosperity of our community members.

So I want to thank everybody for being here.

We did want to have this meeting in the evening time hours so that our community members could be here.

So thank you for accommodating a later meeting.

Before we begin, I want to remind folks that if you have specific policy suggestions for the folks who will be joining us at the table, we are excited to hear them, but it's not required.

What we really want to hear from you is just your experience working with different city programs and policies and have a conversation about what was helpful, what's getting in your way of the things that you're trying to do for your community.

You know, what do you think would work better?

And, of course, if there are particular tools that you think we should consider to help you do your work better, we want to hear about that so that we can really try to build community wealth.

This is our second meeting of this committee.

The first committee we heard from the Office of Economic Development, from the Office of Arts and Culture, the Office of Civil Rights.

and the Equitable Development Initiative of the Planning and Community Development Department.

Those are the departments that fall within this committee.

And the real theme for the year for this committee is going to be about what we can do to build community wealth so that folks stop getting pushed out of the city.

And we're talking about our residents and our small businesses.

So that's to give you some context of what we're really hoping to do through the conversations we're having in this committee.

So I will now open the floor for public comment.

If you've signed in, then you will have two minutes.

We'll accept public comment for 20 minutes, and speakers are asked to begin their comments by identifying themselves.

I'll call up a few names at a time, and you will have two minutes.

So the first name, we have Yvette Dinesh.

Did I say that right?

Curtis and Solomon.

That will be followed by Andrea Copayne and Melissa Purcell.

Greetings Councilmember, welcome aboard Tammy.

Thank you.

Some of you may know me from prior council meetings where we were speaking on homelessness.

However, in this capacity, I'm with Rainier Beach again, and I'm with the Organization of Community-Owned Real Estate Development, which is about community land trust, community banking, community owning property in which they live so they will not be displaced.

I'm not going to expound upon that because the brainchild behind this is Curtis Brown, who's right behind me.

I want him to speak on that as well.

It's also Solomon, who owns Cafe Evoli, which is where we hold most of our meetings.

So come on up, Curtis.

Come on up, Solomon.

Did you guys sign up as well?

Andrea, is that okay if Solomon goes before you?

Okay.

You will be joining us at the table soon anyway.

Okay.

So yeah, we started a coalition, a little group a few months back with the leadership of Curtis Brown and others in the community that have been talking about how we can combat gentrification in South Seattle.

We've seen a lot of progress in the Central District and we don't want to be left behind.

So we put together this organization to help put the awareness out there to people in the community about how to invest their money and also collaborating with other organizations that are already in that community working on developments such as RBAC and a few others.

So our whole agenda is to, again, spread the awareness.

We've put together a framework that surrounds some of the key topics combating gentrification and also allowing people in the community to own the community and make their community their home.

And one way to do that is by accessing to capital.

So we put together a plan and we're hoping to present that to people in the community within the coming months and also hope that we can get some support with the city on how to deploy that.

So that's where we're at with that.

Yeah, I'm right there.

Great.

Thank you very much.

So next, we have Andrea Copaine followed by Melissa Purcell.

Thank you, committee chair, committee members.

Thank you especially for elevating this issue on behalf of our communities.

So Bird Bar Place is a community service organization in the CD that helps to support low-income families.

But we're also part of this community development work in that we build a capacity of smaller community-based organizations.

which we consider our sibling organizations, who are helping to build community as well and accessing the system, shifting systems in order to build community wealth.

And one of the things that we have discovered as a coalition is that it can be quite challenging when we interact with city departments several at a time to do this work to understand the varying perspectives on how each department interprets rules and policies.

And so for instance, we're dealing with OH, OED, DCI, and OPCD.

And while it's incredible to be interacting with them individually, there are different ways in which they're interpreting policies.

And it would be useful for our community organizations if they were to do an examination of those policies and get an alignment.

It would be less costly for us in time and money from the community side, especially as an external stakeholder.

One of the things that we've been looking at is how do we fortify our communities in order to build collective, have collective ownership.

So our community-based organization, our churches, but also our small businesses.

One of the successes we had in our community is Earl's Shop.

He's been around for 28 years.

On the surface, yes, he's a barber shop, but he's an institution in our black community.

The organization itself, his business, has formed a fabric in our black community.

We were creative with OED and our community organizations in helping to have that business thrive.

And so we would like to sit down as community members, community organizations with those four departments to talk about the successes we're seeing in community and sharing that and how we can work together.

what mechanisms can we use like EDI and working across communities.

We've been working with our neighboring communities and the Yesler community and the Crescent Collaborative to make that go, and we've been successful.

And we want to be able to work with those departments to do that.

Thank you very much.

Next is Melissa Purcell followed by David Sable.

Hello.

Thanks for having us here today.

It's nice to see you.

Congratulations.

My name is Melissa Purcell.

I am the business agent for IATSE Local 488. We are the film crews that do commercials and web content and films and TV, et cetera.

I'm also part of the Film Music Coalition.

We were in here earlier last year for budgeting.

We understand that there is a reorganization of the Office of Film and Music within the OED, and we just want to make sure that in that reorganization that we are communicated with.

We've been in meetings.

We are being folded into the process now, but what's important to us is that The jobs of our industry that film jobs and economic opportunity have been waning in recent years, and we need to make sure that we stabilize those things and we support those things so that as we start partnering with more and more people and bringing in more stakeholders, that we're certain that everybody's getting a living wage job from those industries, as well as that in the workforce development that is being done, which is a fantastic thing, we need to make sure that there's an industry for them to get into.

So we're not just training folks that are then going to leave to Portland or to Atlanta or to Los Angeles.

So I just look to find out more information from ARTS and OED together and how those two are working together because it's still not real clear how ARTS is working together.

working in that reorganization.

We think of it straightly as an economic OED situation, sort of for-profit and non-profit entities, and where those various sectors mash together.

Great, thank you very much.

David will be followed by Curtis Brown, and then Jaguna.

Did I say that right?

Thank you very much.

My name is David Sabe.

I have three hats that I wear.

I am a labor organizer from the Guild of Symphony, Opera, and Ballet Musicians, which is a Seattle-founded union.

It's 25 years old.

Founded here, it's thriving.

It's a wonderful thing.

I'm also a small employer and have a company called Seattle Music that's basically been involved in the recording of 200 film scores in Seattle.

As Melissa's counterpart on the music side, I was part of the initial founding of the Music Commission and the document that was generated in 2004 with James Keblis and others, and also after that on the Arts Commission for six years.

And I believe that I think that the vitality of the sector can best be served with a vital music commission that is definitely in the OED side that is in the for-profit side.

And the art side, which I value tremendously in my life in the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, it's very important for us to maintain the dichotomy because the focuses are totally different.

And I think that's my main point that I would like to put across.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Sorry, I keep dealing with the glasses.

Curtis and then Jaguna.

Hi, I'm Curtis Brown.

Sorry, Curtis, if I could remind you to speak into the mic so the Seattle channel can capture it.

This is the first time I've ever done this, even though I'm a 54-year Seattle resident.

I'm just here today, along with our group, just to let you know about community-owned real estate and development.

We're taking a different approach.

Why?

The nonprofits have done a great job.

They've done such a great job that their balance sheets are exceptional.

I run a nonprofit in Southeast Seattle, too, and my balance sheet is wonderful.

But the balance sheet of our community members is not.

So our goal is to pull the resources of our community members and start to buy up real estate in the area.

The only way we can stop gentrification and displacement is to own the real estate itself and develop it.

The problem is the residents of our community.

We're not the richest of people.

So we're working on two initiatives that are really important for this council to understand.

One is we're going to create a leveraged fund.

is one of the problems is people do not understand that you can actually go out and borrow money to invest.

So we're actually going to create a leveraged fund where families can borrow up to 10 times the amount that they invest and then be able to invest that back into real estate projects in South Seattle.

The second aspect of the initiative is guarantees.

And the guarantees is the part where this city can play a huge role.

If we can create guarantees for people's investments, then they're no longer investments, and you can help us reduce these security law issues.

So one of the things as City Council, I really want you to focus on how you can create guarantees to our investors, thus they're no longer investors, and we can reduce our overhead and cost for capital.

So there's a number of things that we're doing.

We're really excited, and we're surveying the community now, and we're actually planning on having them start saving investment accounts as early as May, June.

And I'm working really hard now on raising the money for the leverage fund so they can actually borrow from it.

And again, what I'm hoping to work closely with you on, on creating some guarantees from the city so they're not actually called in investments.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, Curtis.

Jaguna, am I saying that right?

Thank you.

We'll be followed by, oh, Solomon, you've already gone.

So Quinn and then Jamil.

Hello, my name is Jaguna Gishoro.

I'm with the African Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest.

And one of the main missions of the organization is to promote the economic development of local African immigrant communities, primarily through small business development.

And so we're very familiar with the challenges facing African-owned small businesses in Seattle, particularly in the Central District in South Seattle.

A lot of my work is in Southeast Seattle with African-owned businesses that deal with struggles related to access to capital, capacity building, and the forces of displacement.

And so we find that there are a lot of promising programs in Seattle and King County.

However, there's often challenges in getting the knowledge to the business owners in our community, to tailoring those programs to their needs so they can participate and take advantage of those programs.

and then to walk them through that process.

And so we find that there's increasing need for programs that are innovative in getting access to capital for our communities.

There's increasing need for the funding to support those in the community who are giving the technical assistance and building capacity for the community who are from the community.

so that these initiatives that are of great motivation and sound great can actually be implemented.

We need a lot of implementation on the ground, particularly in Southeast Seattle.

One of the projects I'm involved with is the Multicultural Community Coalition's Opportunity Center.

And so there's a lot of potential to this program, but the organizations affiliated still do need the support and capacity to take full advantage.

And so I would just encourage the city to work to provide the funding and also the study of the needs and the barriers facing our communities.

Because often there's a gap in terms of the data and the identification of the barriers and what it takes to overcome those barriers so that these programs are indeed effective.

But I think the assets are in the community.

However, the people in the community doing the work need to be supported and resourced so they can do that work effectively.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Quinn Fum and then Jamil.

Good evening.

My name is Quinn Pham.

I'm with the Friends of Little Saigon.

I'm also on the EDI Interim Advisory Committee.

So I'm here to just really talk about how EDI has been a great program and the Little Saigon Landmark Project, a community-driven, mixed-use community project is supported through that.

Although it's a great program, the current amount of funding is not enough.

It's not enough to fund current projects and it's not enough to fund future projects.

And so I urge you to think about opportunities to increase that source so that we can provide support for future projects within the community as well as fulfill projects that are in the pipeline.

Five million dollars right now, that can hardly fund one project.

So having over 20 projects on the EDI pipeline, it right now looks somewhat impossible for a community to fulfill any of those dreams that we have in the neighborhoods we want to support.

And in addition, This was mentioned earlier, there should be better collaboration amongst different departments when you're working on a mixed-use project, working with the Office of Housing, EDI, OPCD, OPCD, All the departments, there's too many acronyms, I'm going to skip them all, but SDCI particularly as well.

There's a lot of process and a lot of strenuous time that community members are investing in.

And that takes away from what they are currently doing within their own programs and to fulfill their projects.

Not only do we ask for better collaboration amongst the departments, but better streamline of processes so that our projects are prioritized and put through the pipeline much more quickly over maybe like a private project or a project that is not community driven.

And lastly, these mixed-use projects combine both housing, commercial and community uses.

And so there should be opportunities to further support opportunities for ownership within the community, such as lease-to-own models or commercial condos and master leases by nonprofits that have a mission to fulfill community visions.

Thank you.

Great.

Thanks very much.

And Jamil Suleiman is going to be our last speaker, unless there's anyone else who wants to sign up.

Oh, can you, Lakeisha, can you help them, please?

Thanks.

Go ahead, Jamil.

Cool.

Thank you.

I will be speaking at the end panel about film.

But what I would like to say, so my name is Jamil Suleiman.

I'm a filmmaker, performer, writer here in Seattle, Washington.

I'm based in South Seattle.

And I own a film company.

called Indie Genius Media, and we've done a lot of content for the city, for the mayor, mayor's office, Seattle Music Commission, South Seattle Emerald, local publications, nonprofits, galas, and things of that nature.

We're a young film company in Seattle.

We know a lot of young filmmakers in South Seattle, mostly filmmakers of color, who are not attached to any kind of union or anything like that and don't have any connection to these industry jobs that are kind of being spoken about earlier.

And so what I'm really here to do as kind of a new person in that industry is to advocate for our voice to be, you know, kind of put up front in a lot of ways.

We hold those narratives that are really important and we're trying to help change the narrative.

But if we're not heard, we won't be able to do that.

So there is money coming in for film and music and for film and television in the city.

And we'd like to see the support for communities of color, particularly in our voices, in our narratives.

And My company is one of the very few OMWBE certified businesses making us a minority owned business.

So when other businesses can subcontract out, we check a box for them.

And so they're able to kind of get that quota filled.

A lot of young filmmakers of color, they don't know about that.

They don't know how to navigate that.

We need some kind of structure to help folks bridge the gap, get into the industry and to support filmmaking, particularly in South Seattle.

So thank you.

Thanks very much.

Okay, we have two more speakers, Patricia Allen and Mark Jones.

Hey, good evening.

I'm Patricia Allen.

I work at Chief Seattle Club, and I oversee the National Coalition to End Urban Indigenous Homelessness, which we're launching this week, which I'm really excited about.

I also work with the Native Works Program, which is a micro-entrepreneurship program in Chief Seattle Club's organization.

I'd say something that's very important for us is that intersectionality between sovereignty and identity And something that's a little difficult for a lot of grassroots organizers and tribal communities is understanding, having a very clear definition of sovereignty in terms of what land we're on, but also who are the right advocates to speak on behalf of the communities.

So when we have art, being taken place in public places, as well as when we have ground blessings or any types of events where we're inviting tribal communities.

Sometimes we end up getting very tokenized, like, oh, this person is the speaker of all tribes or of all nations and regions.

It's very important to have accountability to check in not just with tribal leaders but elders and community that we trust because many times people are really exercised beyond their capacity as well as sometimes the people who are speaking might not necessarily have that consent from the whole community.

And so for us, it's really important to empower them as well as really be able to value the worth of the artists that are putting a lot of dedication in art and really micro-entrepreneurship within our community is something we're working really, really diligently on.

And so acknowledging kind of those little complex layers within our community and our identity.

Thank you.

And Mark Jones is the last speaker we have.

Hi, I'm Mark Jones.

I've been working with some of the people in this room.

Obviously, I sat by Curtis, so that's a hint.

And one of the things that I've been paying attention to for a number of years and been particularly focused in the last few is that We have a lot of technical help, technical solutions.

And I'll use Reverend Martin Luther King's term, what we don't have necessarily present in our communities is beloved community.

So he talks about in the aftermath of the violence, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, right?

What the thing I've been paying attention to in our work together is what are the principles?

What are the behaviors?

What is what is the education, the training, the awareness that allows us to live well together and therefore we can begin to thrive?

So I look at some of the some of the affordable housing things we've done.

it hasn't necessarily solved the problem in that the capacity for people to actually thrive has not increased.

And my research and my understanding is that people thrive when they understand how to be together.

So I haven't been able to find in the city yet a place that is like, I get it, right?

So this is kind of my first outing to you to say, if we can work through relational and cultural with these technical solutions, we will succeed.

So that's it.

That's great.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

And thanks to everybody who came up to speak.

Sorry, let me get to my script.

What's next?

Okay, thank you.

So I will conclude public comment and we will now move on to our items of business.

For the rest of the night, we're gonna hear from, as I said, community members and small businesses in three different round tables.

So first we'll hear from folks who are participating or trying to participate in the Equitable Development Initiative, followed by small businesses, followed by arts and film.

So with that, I'd like to call up the first group of folks, Wyking Garrett, Dr. Jeffrey Perkins, Derek Lum.

Yeah, okay.

LaKeisha, will you please read item one into the record?

Karen, do you want to come up for this or do you want to just stay with the business?

Okay, great.

Come on up.

Equitable Development Roundtable on Building Community Wealth, Briefing and Discussion.

Great, hello everyone, thank you for being here.

So I would like to start, if everyone could just introduce yourselves, the organization you're with, and to begin the discussion, if you wouldn't mind sharing one thing that's worked with the city, one success, something that you think has worked well, and then we'll have the conversation about what else we might be doing.

Shall I begin?

Sure.

I'm Dr. Perkins, and I'm representing the Duwamish Tribe on Cecile Hansen and their Duwamish Tribal Services and the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center.

We recently received the EDI grant.

which was a blessing to purchase the adjoining property in order to expand the parking lot and make the safe streets safer.

But I also like to say before I begin that, to your comment, you all really are doing a great job.

The city council people in Seattle, Mayor Jenny Durkan, you're dealing with a complex variable.

It's called human behavior.

That is the most difficult behavior to change.

But I have to say, the city has stepped up to the plate, and you all should be applauded for the effort that you have succeeded.

The equity development initiative that started about two years ago is a success.

It has made the visions of dreamers like Mr. Joaquin come true.

He has believed in his vision for years, and I'm aware of it, and I applaud him for his steadfastness to make it come true.

I think that the city can continue these initiatives with economic development.

This is a growth area.

It's going to continue to be that way with the viaduct being torn down.

It has to be new growth and economic opportunities in West Seattle and all other cities.

There must be inclusion.

So, with that, having said that, and thank you all for the great work that you are doing.

We received that grant to purchase the property next door, and we're in the process of securing it to tear down the house and expand the parking lot.

It's a safe street initiative to make West Seattle, West Marginal Way, a safer highway.

It is a very dangerous highway to try and cross.

Through our city council members, we were able to get a line item in the mayor's budget in order to get SDOT to start the feasibility study, and SDOT is working on it.

SDOT have already made some tremendous changes by merging the lanes from four lanes into two as you approach the longhouse, and you know what I'm saying because you've been there.

Now it's getting safer, so it's a work in progress.

And I appreciate the city for setting up the EDI initiative.

And I know there's many good things that's going to come if we all continue to work together.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Good evening, KY King Garrett, President and CEO of Africatown Community Land Trust, third generation community building, the Central District.

Thank you for the invitation to come and continue to add to this conversation around how Seattle can be a place where the rhetoric is made reality.

We hear a lot about shared prosperity, raising social justice, equitable development.

And by the numbers, we see a lot of things still going in the opposite direction.

With that said, I think that The city played an instrumental role in making the Liberty Bank project happen as one that showed that another path is possible.

bringing people back and keeping people in the community that were vulnerable to displacement due to the high cost of rent and also for the businesses that were mentioned earlier.

Again, that's a a lot of work to still be done around actually getting ownership into the community of it by community-based organizations.

And I think that the EDI is also a step in the right direction.

As was said earlier, the pool is not at a size to meet the need, but there's a model there that can be scaled up.

And so I think the city has been played a role in establishing some models that we now need to scale to meet the demand in the community.

Thank you.

Derek?

Hello, my name is Derek.

I'm an interim CDA policy analyst.

So I really appreciate being invited here today to talk about community development.

And so one thing that has gone well is that this You know, none of our housing developments would have happened without the city's support.

And so we do appreciate the city for supporting us building affordable housing in our community.

We also appreciate the existence of the EDI fund.

It's very good for our communities.

However, You know, as others have said, like, there's not enough to go around and meet the true need in the communities.

But we appreciate the work that CE does and we hope to see it expanded and continued.

Great, thank you.

So this is really just intended to be sort of an open discussion about what you feel is working and what we could be doing better.

So I'll just ask a couple of open-ended questions.

And I'll start by asking what development challenge do you think the Equitable Development Initiative is trying to solve?

And, you know, Is it working?

What are some other issues that are coming up?

Clearly the lack of funding to meet the need is one issue, but what are we trying to solve with this program?

And what else can the city do to support community organizations who are trying to own their own land, who are trying to have ownership over this development process?

We've had several folks making comments about the need for capacity building and technical assistance.

What would it take to make sure that our community members have the capacity they need to do this work well?

I would like to comment on a reality that just recently occurred about a year ago as I was pursuing the research in West Seattle.

One of the huge gaps that I noticed was lack of transportation, public transportation to the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center, safe public transportation.

Currently, there is none.

We did, we captured near car accidents when people trying to walk from a mile and a half one way and a mile and a half in the opposite direction, whether from Highland Avenue or under the West Seattle Bridge.

It's dangerous.

Mayor Jenny Durkan had set up the Ride 2 pilot program and it was discontinued recently, even though it was doing very well.

So right now, it's back to the status quo that there's no public transportation, no safe way people can get on the bus and come to the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center.

And as long as there's no public transportation, the tribe cannot compete or participate.

They are not participating in the economic development boom that's going to continue with the tourism industry.

The RAD II van, you could catch the water taxi, which I demonstrated it several times with other people as well, from Coleman Dock to Seacrest Park, and then the app on demand, RAD II Blue Van, was there.

You could call it and reserve it.

It took people to their homes, to the longhouse and everything, at the same cost of the Metro fare.

There's another bus that's running, the Waterfront Bus, that's basically funded by WestDOT.

It's a state-funded entity, but it does not include the Duwamish Loan House, which is also a mismatch, a gap, in terms of equity, in terms of people getting there to spend their money like they do at the other museums around this city.

You can get on any bus or sometimes walk in downtown Seattle from one museum to the other, But in West Seattle, without public transportation to and from safe public transportation to that longhouse, it creates an economic disparate treatment towards the Native Americans, the first people of Seattle.

They've been here since the Glacial Ice Age.

When I was working with the architect, we did a tour.

There are actually glacial erratic rocks he pointed out, stuff that are evidence that they have been here for over 10,000 years.

The T107 project proved it, Herring's House Park across the street.

But it's dangerous trying to cross that street from one side to the other.

We just had a drone made on the website, theduwamishtribe.org.

Look under support and then go down to advocacy.

You'll see two drones.

One is a before SDOT got involved and the others, and the other is after the progress that's being made.

It's a progress that must continue.

If people are going to feel safe, we have, SDOT has merged the lane where not even a school bus can park in front of the Longhouse.

So it's a good start.

Nobody's putting nobody down.

But we have to look at the need for transportation and get that van service back.

or get the waterfront West dot funded state project involved in coming to that longhouse like it goes to every other place in West Seattle.

And that will help to close the gap.

Thank you.

Yeah, so that's important, just making sure that all of these systems are connected.

And as we're talking about how we build up a neighborhood, making sure that people can actually get to the neighborhood is going to be a critical part of that.

Thank you.

Either of you want to talk about what you think EDI is intended to solve?

What's the development challenge?

And is that how it helped you get through that challenge?

Well, as a member of the Race and Social Equity Task Force, which is a collaboration between multiple communities, the Central District, Chinatown ID, and Southeast Seattle, EDI was initially attended to address the effects, compounding effects, residual effects of past government and private sector policies and practices that disenfranchise certain communities and populations.

And so definitely the central district red line and the black community was a part of that.

HB 1918 recently that was passed last session in the state legislature identified and documented that capital projects, you know, government capital projects have negatively impacted, you know, our communities and this is a national phenomenon.

One of, a couple of issues, so that's what it was intended to do.

I think that's, you know, to help with acquisition of property, to address the commercial space build out because that's not supported by the Office of Housing Funds.

I think that it's being leveraged for both of those uses in the finite amount that it can.

A couple issues that have been challenges with the city.

One is that, The city is—someone spoke to it earlier—fragmented in its departmental approaches and presence in the community, which causes people a lot of problems.

respond to a community-based issue or raised issue or initiative, then it begins to take on a top-down approach that is disconnected.

Sometimes, for example, there was just a meeting, I think, Impact 2020 at Langston Hughes that was organized by the Department of Neighborhood to look at the impacts, I guess, of displacement and things of that nature to start a conversation about it.

This conversation started a long time ago.

We're already in the action phase.

So it's like, Okay, so now the Department of Neighborhoods taking the lead on addressing these.

I mean, I was, and there was three other events happening that same day, and so that is one issue.

There was an attempt at an IDT interdepartmental team between OED, neighborhoods, arts and culture, and whoever else, and I don't know how that.

that broke up, but again, that becomes a problem for the community, because it breaks up, and they start putting funding in certain places, and it disorganizes certain initiatives, and I don't know if that's intentional or not, but that's been problematic.

Also, the passing of the upzoning.

Without a robust mitigation strategy and so now our community was historically a very high ownership community and now it's being replaced with you know strictly just Rentals in affordable housing like Liberty Bank and people that own property are being Are having taxes raised and as the zoning value, you know, the upzone increases the value of the property, there are fixed incomes.

Not only that, there still is redlining in the community because our community is not allowed access to capital to actually redevelop.

The only opportunity that's really being presented to capture any value from the property is through selling it, right?

And then someone else actually comes in and captures more value by putting, you know, four or five of the new units that sell at $800,000 where the community members can't afford.

So the only way the community is allowed to come back, people with roots, primarily is through subsidized housing.

So that's an equity issue.

So the disparity, the wealth gap is continuing.

So whatever black population you may have in 10 years at this trajectory would all be limited primarily to affordable subsidized housing projects.

I think another thing is the MFTE and HALA, so the multi-family tax exemption, and the HALA affordable units are really not affordable to most people.

So that needs to be, I think, changed, because you have projects like the Vulcan project on 23rd and Jackson.

advertising affordable units at, you know, $1,200 for a studio and $2,400 for like a two or three bedroom, which is not affordable to most people.

Exactly.

So those are a couple key issues that I think need to be addressed and can be addressed at the policy level.

So a more robust mitigation strategy for existing property owners to have access to redeveloping or keeping their property stronger on MFTE or HALA, which is incentivizing private developers to build what's still not affordable to a lot of people.

Thank you.

Before I go to you, Derek, I do want to acknowledge that Council Member Herbold is here.

Thank you.

So I'd love to hear from you.

And then I do have a question about community ownership of land, because that's something we've heard over and over again already.

So go ahead, Derek.

Yeah, and I would like to echo similar points to you, Viking.

So a major issue that Interim and other people in our community face is we try to buy land, and then we get outbid.

We just don't have the capital to challenge a private developer who can put, you know, when we have 5 million, they got 10 million.

And then a lot of times, like, we can't do it.

And so we need to help to be able to purchase land and compete with these guys.

Another big issue...

is along the lines that White King brought up.

There were two unjust upzones in the international district in 2012 and 2017. And there was not sufficient mitigation plan.

There was a little bit of mitigation, but it was nowhere near sufficient and slayed the stage for what we see today, which is the potential for large amounts of property to be bought up by speculative developers.

and then built on and a large flood of people all with upper end incomes coming to the neighborhood at the same time, which upsets, you know, drives up rent and does not give people time to, you know, adjust to things.

And so that is a major issue and it needs to be addressed at the city policy level.

One other huge opportunity that's been missed that we would like to not miss going forward is that each one of these affordable housing project developments is, you know, 30, 40, $50 million.

So that's a lot of wealth and economic opportunity to actually, you know, close wealth gaps, et cetera, et cetera.

But what we found is that there isn't sufficient systems, technical assistance in place to make sure that the contractor, when you think about everything from the legal transactions to the architectural design to the contractors and subcontractors and workers, A lot of that money is leaving the community, and that money should stay in the impacted community to actually create the economic opportunities that we're speaking about, because again, the large majority of it is not.

And so once again, it's putting our community in a position of somewhat of an exploited resource, meaning someone else is benefiting economically the most off of our marginalization and even the attempt to fix the marginalization, but it perpetuates through the process.

And so we need some significant resources put in place to have culturally responsive business development support, access to capital for contractors.

And also, again, we found the same issues when it came to the small businesses that wanted to go into the spaces that again don't have access to the capital and new construction presents greater challenges for micro entrepreneurs and small businesses with the tenant improvements and things of that nature.

So I think we need some very focused resources for the community organizations to deal with that.

The situation with the flower shop which we were able to just help rally and save, but she was negatively impacted by the construction on 23rd.

And so again, we don't have that resource capacity in the community to, we're just like kind of running off fumes and doing it on the love.

And then when resources are allocated, they go to, large institutions that are not in the community, right?

So if we're gonna build programs around business development, again, these things should be rooted in the community-based organizations that are led by our communities that are supposed to be served.

Can I piggyback off of some of the things he just said and this gentleman right here?

First of all, when you look at the problems here, These problems are systematic nationwide in areas where there's slum and blight, loss of manufacturing jobs.

But there are programs that are working in other parts of the country.

I just saw on 60 Minutes a couple of weeks ago where they had a similar program dealing with tenants and people were getting land and property and affordable housing and mortgages and Chase set up some kind of problem.

So this is what I like to add to Ms. Morales' agenda.

Can the city with this new economic development initiative also look at some best practices around the country that can be adapted to the Seattle model that's dealing with marginalized people to keep them in their homes on their land and get them land and property.

I know there's working projects out there and I think that it would benefit the city to look at what other people are doing about these problems instead of trying to be a lone person that's going to fix it all without considering what can work and be adapted to the Seattle area.

They had in the Seattle Times the other day, it showed King County is one of the biggest places of multiculturalism in the world right now, in Seattle.

And this is the richness.

It would be nice, I think, if the city considered getting linked up with academia.

and professional researchers and do a nationwide best practice or looking even overseas to see what other countries with similar population and issues are dealing with with so many influx of newness into their communities.

Dovetailing off these other comments, let me just say that we in the ID have noticed that the city sometimes has a hard time distinguishing between like your normal affordable housing provider and a like community-based affordable housing providers.

So we have seen money, we have seen money and resources go to affordable housing providers, not from our community, to build projects in our community.

And we think that money would be better placed with community-based organizations such as us, Friends of Little Saigon, other people.

It happens over and over again.

And even goes, sometimes housing money goes to private developers who are doing affordable projects, you know, 60% AMI, bare minimum stuff.

And so we are a lot more accountable to our community, we know our community better, and the money should be routed to community-based organizations which are from and serve and are accountable to their community.

And do you think those sorts of things are happening because of familiarity, because of perceived capacity differences, or what, do you have a theory there?

So I've been told before, in some cases, it's like a cost per unit thing, like because they're what's called vertically integrated, their cost per unit is very low.

And I think also there is a familiarity thing going on too.

I mean, I think that speaks to the institutionalized piece of this.

If, in fact, the wealth and our capital was maldistributed for, you know, three to four hundred years, there's no way that we're going to have the same balance sheet as the people who, you know, benefited and received what was supposed to be our capital and wealth.

So there has to be bold, significant, and focused interventions to disrupt the status quo, which keeps us in a marginalized position.

And so that has to be raised.

Otherwise, you'll just keep perpetuating the same problem if you say, well, this group has more capacity to do X, Y, Z. But in actuality, they don't have the capacity and the competencies to serve the community in the ways that it needs because many of these entities have been growing the whole time our community has been deteriorating.

Can I say another thing, Mr. Morales, based on what both of them just said?

One of the missing variables is the ability for when these things are done, Poor people will spend money in their communities.

Therefore, when you look at economic development, those dollars, by staying in the community, are going to circulate in the community.

Therefore, it's going to create more jobs also for marginalized people.

And therefore, more money will come back to the communities.

Whereas if a private developer take it all, get their money, they're gone.

So I think that this is another variable that the EDI should look at the propensity to generate income from the people themselves internally and that money would therefore circulate in the community and that's the way it was when there was segregation and redlining of people of color into their own communities.

The dollar stayed in their community.

They were able to set up small shops in the central district.

A lot of them flourished as restaurants, nightclubs, across the board, even social fraternities and church groups.

So these are some things, since this is about community economic development, there's a great potential for job development with these new initiatives, for the money to stay in these communities and circulate in these communities.

And I think that would benefit the city and the neighborhoods as well.

Well, I couldn't agree with you more.

I do think it's important.

That's part of what we're hoping to help raise in this committee throughout the year is the conversation about the fact that we have the purchasing power we need to make successful businesses in our communities.

We don't have to go outside of our community to find the capacity, the expertise, the knowledge, the understanding of how to make things successful.

We just need to shift the way we're doing things a little bit so that we can make sure that that kind of investment happens.

And in turn, one more point since we mentioned about circulating dollars.

We get that transportation right to West Seattle along West Marginal Way that people can come with this lucrative tourism industry that drops off billions of dollars annually in Seattle.

As long as there's no transportation to the Duwamish Lone House and Cultural Center, those Native Americans are going to be left out of this economic boom.

But if the transportation was available, They can build their own with by the tourism industry like all of the other shops and centers and museums in downtown Seattle.

And therefore that will be more money.

They make them less dependent on donors and others in the long term.

So I think that transportation is a major variable for marginalized groups.

or spaces in Seattle that are not in the immediate downtown zone.

With the new development along the waterfront, that will be a reality.

The convention center alone will be employing about 6,000 people as soon as it's built.

And I'm proud to say I signed off with the developers for the convention center.

And because of the jobs, they're already training people for the hospitality jobs.

We have to look long term in terms of what these new initiatives can produce in terms of people getting jobs and economic wealth being recirculated in these communities.

And that will start Seattle into the 21st century.

To that point, I just want to those jobs.

have to allow the people to actually live in the city as well.

And if people are going to build wealth, they're going to be looking towards home ownership.

So I just want to lift up the need to focus more on also expanding the pool of resources for affordable home ownership opportunities in our community and in the city.

And lastly, as far as business development, resources, etc.

We've been working to make the fire station, to access the fire, former fire station 6 on 23rd and Yesler as a innovation hub and business resource center and that has been moving very slow.

It was one of the original EDI projects and there's still meter made vehicles being parked there that produce no economic, no cultural, no value that's consistent with the central area commercial revitalization plan or any other of the previous central area plans.

And so that's really a blight that I think we need to remove and activate that space for a higher and better use ASAP.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you so much.

Since I learned of this relatively new model six months ago, I've just been taking every opportunity I can to talk about it.

You may already be aware, but because of a change in the federal tax code, I think in 2017, there's this new investment product called the Community Investment Trust that Mercy Corps has created to be replicable in other jurisdictions.

And basically, it's a proprietary investment product owned by Mercy Corps, but specifically built for application by other organizations in other jurisdictions.

It is designed to meet the needs and desires of low to moderate income families.

The first project is in Portland.

And it will provide 300, it's basically a way to crowdsource fund real estate.

So you can pull together hundreds of people in your community to make a $10 to $100 contribution per month.

Low dollar investments, $10 to $100 per month.

And it has short and long-term results for those investors from the community through an annual dividend.

And the first project right now is in East Portland.

They're providing 300 to 500 families with a long-term investment opportunity.

in a commercial retail building in their neighborhood.

And this project was taken on under threat of redevelopment of a small sort of commercial mall that folks wanted to be able to keep the local businesses in place when there was apparent interest in selling the property to an investor.

Over time, the $450,000 in initial equity provided as debt to purchase and improve Plaza 122 by Mercy Corps and to impact investors.

The CIT program will track outcomes and impact on three multi-reinforcing levels, individual family level, the property tenant level, and the community level.

And the goal is to be a powerful tool to inspire and enable people to improve their own financial well-being as well as their community's health and prosperity.

In addition to the low dollar investments, and short and long-term results for the community investors through an annual dividend.

There's guaranteed protection from loss for investors through a direct pay letter of credit from a bank.

And then there's the capacity building that we talked about earlier.

They provide a curriculum for moving from owning to owning offered in five languages covering budgeting, goal setting, and risk and return.

So I keep sharing this with folks.

I know there are folks in the executive who are aware of this model, but I think it would be a really fantastic thing to work with the EDI program to see if we can make something like this a component of that program so that we actually have property and community ownership.

Thank you.

Well, I'm sorry to say that our time for this piece of the evening is wrapped up, but I want to thank you all.

I've taken lots of notes, so I'm going to probably following up with you to see any final comments.

My final comment, we would like to meet with, have the director OED come to the community.

I think we've had really, the OPCD staff has been really working hard.

They've been very helpful.

And I know there's been transitions at OED and it's really not clear.

how they're really gonna implement and invest in a strategy that produces some vitality for our commercial businesses in the Central District and probably other places as well.

But that is something that is, we need a real plan that is working with OED.

Great.

Thank you.

I'm happy to help facilitate that.

Yeah, my final comment is just that we need to adequately and more than adequately mitigate displacement in our community.

And we need to do this for residents, we need to help struggling businesses, and we need to do everything we can to make it so our community is not displaced and our community benefits from the giant wealth of this city.

Great, thank you so much.

My final comments would be, as I said earlier, this is a great program and it has room for improvement and I applaud you all for setting it up and to keep it going and for seeing what the community has to say and for people who have been out there in the trenches, not sitting in an office or somewhere.

We're in the box.

We're not outside the box.

Real change agents are in the box because that's where the problems are.

And here's an opportunity for you to listen to what we have to say and where these gaps are.

And this program has great potential to fill those gaps.

And we appreciate it very much.

Thank you.

We are encouraged by the new council formation.

We think the time is now.

Welcome to the new members and let's go.

Let's go.

Thank you very much.

Okay, so we'll move to the second item on the agenda.

I'd like to call up our second group of folks.

Karen Torrey, Solomon Doobie, oh, Erin Adams is not able to make it tonight after all.

Somebody else was gonna come, was gonna join us.

It's going to do that.

And she took advantage of the opportunity.

Oh, time win?

I'm kidding.

Yeah, I think I was like, oh, we still have a quorum here.

That's so cool.

Hi, thank you.

Hello.

All right, so as I said, oh, do you need to read the item into the record?

Small Business Roundtable on Building Community Wealth, Briefing and Discussion.

Great, thank you, Lakeisha.

So if we could do some quick introductions.

Introduce yourself, what organization or project you're representing, and we'll go from there.

Hi, I am Karen Toring, representing the Black and Tan Hall, which is a cultural space, a private business created for the purpose of creating a container for community space where art can happen and good food and good jobs.

My name is Solomon Dubey.

I am the owner of Café Vole down in South Seattle on Rainier and Holly.

It's much more of a community space than anything else.

We have seen so much diversity in that community, so much change in that community.

Tammy herself is frequently at it a lot.

And I'm here today to represent someone as young as myself.

So this is a great opportunity to see somebody young like myself at the table to voice my opinion and my concerns that I can, yeah.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Tam Nguyen and I'm a small business owner for the Taming Tree Restaurant right in Little Saigon District.

And so I'm here just want to share some of the challenges and thing that I think the city of Seattle can help small businesses to thrive, to be successful, and to be more inclusive in our community.

Thank you.

So I'm looking at my questions and realizing that I seem to have a bias in my questioning around ownership.

So I'm gonna start with those and then please, if there are other issues that you think we need to be talking about, let us know.

So the first question is how did you or how do other businesses find their space and how can the city help with affordability of their space?

Oh, I found my space in 2014. And it was just with the ambition to start a business.

The family that owned that space was of an immigrant descent.

And they were looking for ways out of the business because it wasn't working for themselves.

And so with my ambition, I walked up there and with little money, no money at all.

literally just started a conversation and convinced them to sell me the business.

And that transition, in getting into that space and transitioning into, it was at that point a grocery store.

And- I used to go to that grocery store.

Right up the street.

And he would say, it's gonna be a cafe someday.

And I'd be like, mm-hmm, yeah.

But seriously, it was, you know, and I had that ambition to turn that space into a coffee shop, but I didn't know how.

It wasn't until maybe my third year just engaging with people in the community, folks like Karen, and just telling everybody my dream and my idea that I was able to crowdsource at that time because, you know, right after college, I didn't have the best of credit, but just the dream and the idea that what I wanted to do.

And so we did a crowdfunding campaign, raised some funds, and people in the community were really on it.

And we used that funds to transition the space into the coffee shop.

I literally, you know, hammered all the nails and painted the walls and did whatever it took to really turn that place around.

But there's, yeah.

And now it's a bustling little corner of the neighborhood.

Yes, it is.

Very nice.

Yeah.

That's where I'm at today.

Anybody else?

Well, for the Black and Tan was founded by three longtime community activists and artists, Ben Hunter, Rodney Harrell, and Tariq Abdulla.

And they had a vision for a space where equity was real, which is why we're not a non-profit, because equity is ownership.

And so we wanted to create a business that really was, that held our values as people who've lived in the South End for a really long time.

that provided cultural space where people feel welcome.

As a long-time resident of the South End, there are literally places along the Rainier Corridor where I just don't feel welcome.

No matter how inviting or how well-lit or what they have going on there, there's just something about those spaces that say in very unspoken ways, maybe not you, And so our partnership, and it's roughly 27 active partners, most of which who live somewhere within a two mile radius of the space that we're trying to open, who felt the same way that this, because of displacement, because of all of the things that have happened in our neighborhood, that we wanted to create a space where people that look like us, you know, had our values, you know, felt welcome and engaged.

And over the last three years, you know, the partnership has been working to create that space, create that vision.

That's great.

Thank you.

So our family restaurant, we started in 2004. The reason I want to set it up, because I just want to make sure that our community have a place that we can call home for people to come and enjoy our food, our culture, and create a space that, you know, we can give the employees to have a healthcare, to have a a good wage and to have a place that's safe for them to work at, to be proud of, to be working in this industry.

And we have been doing that since 2004. And we don't own the property, we just been renting it.

And since then, we wanted to find a way, how do we, as small business owner, to create we have been creating these institutions for the community, for the community to come and enjoy.

How do we sustain, how do we be able to be there, not being kicked out by developers who are going to come and snap the property because we are a hub for people to come.

So it is a challenge for our community as a whole, but for my family personally, that we've been trained to be kicked out by the landlord because developers are eyeing and thinking of buying and I think they put on sale for that property right now.

So a lot of customer come and talk to us and we have no answer.

We said we don't know when we'll be out.

So it is a threat to our community as a whole, for our family, as small business owner.

So that's why I'm very glad that the City Council have this, create this opportunity for us to share some of our challenges and find a solution.

How do we do it?

And I have a couple of solutions that I want to share with you later on when it's come to that time.

Well, I will ask that next, but I do want to know first, do you own either the land or the building that you're both renting as well?

Not at this time.

And you know that you know, our motto is an anti-gentrification motto.

It is directly pointing at the displacement of small business owners and folks like us who, you know, I'm imagining when you mentioned, you know, you don't know where you're gonna go, probably not gonna be in the city.

You know, and that's what everybody is holding on to that doesn't own their property.

is that your next move is gonna be out of town.

That's the only place where you can have that kind of affordability.

And people all over town are holding their breath.

You know, because of property owners who are seeing, you know, their property values increase and, you know, the opportunity to sell, you know, from a developer that, like the previous panelist said, can outbid them, you know, two to one.

So even if you can scrape up the money, there's always the chance that, you know, someone else with more money is going to be able to come in and take your dream away.

Right.

To piggyback off that, that's, you know, one of our biggest challenges.

Like, I cannot continue to invest into my space, and I need to invest in my space to, you know, expand capacity.

But the second I decide to continue to put money into it, the landlord says, cha-ching, and then now his value of his property rises, and then my value as a tenant just is out that window.

So, you know, A five-year lease doesn't work if I put all my money into it.

Something like an ownership model and maybe even a partnership model would be more beneficial because then I can invest my money into my property or into my space and then know that in the next 10 to 15 years that I'm still going to be there.

I'm going to be sustainable and gone from just surviving to thriving.

Exactly.

And a lot of immigrants face that same challenge and a lot of people of color face the same challenge every single day.

And some people don't know.

Now there's a lot of people that pour all their money into a space and then Like you said, next day, don't know where they're going to be.

No, no.

And the reason that we are no longer tenants in 5608 Rainier was because of that very same thing.

It's like we were blessed to also be, you know, part of an EDI cohort.

Shout out to the, you know, the EDI initiative, it has been incredible.

I hope we get a chance to sing their praises a little bit more of the staff.

But the partners basically decided, you know, that because we have this money from the city, we consider ourselves stewards of that money.

And, you know, as stewards of, you know, these resources, you know, because it's all of our money, we have to be smart about it.

And we can't make tenant improvements on a building that they're going to snatch away from us.

That's just, you know, it's just not good business.

So you mentioned a partnership.

I wanted to ask about other tools that are out there.

It sounds like you have some ideas.

We know about long-term leases, about real estate investment cooperatives, which I think might be what you're talking about with Curtis, public development authorities that could own the assets on behalf of the city and sort of master lease to community for at least permanently affordable commercial space.

So I'd just be curious to hear if what you think of any of these tools or if there are other tools that you are thinking of to improve the ability of community members to own the properties they're in.

So when we start our business back in 2004, that's before the up zone in our neighborhood.

And when the city upzone, they didn't have the mitigation planning to foresee of the problem.

And we informed the city that when you upzone, we'll be kicking out.

They were kicking us out.

Once the upzone is approved, and we want to know what the mitigation is, the cities didn't have it.

And it's still now, they don't have it.

And before the city want to, you know, I think that policy need to have an ending.

So when they do that, we know that we'll be kicking out at any time.

And once the zoning upzone, we got, We got different folks coming in, telling us, hey, what are you going to do?

They're going to buy out this space.

So we work with different community, different developers in our community.

We try to engage with them, to inform them, hey, would you want to go in to develop in our community?

What are the things that you're going to do to include the small businesses to provide affordable rent?

Or how do you sustain the fabric of our community?

Because once we are out, you have broken the fabric of this community that we've been building.

they engage, we keep, they keep talking, talking, and then once they develop, they no longer talking to us.

And the rent on those development is just like a market rate.

So, so they are, you know, we talking about gentrification and for the small business owner, We are gentrified, and even though we spend a lot of energy, resources to engage with these developers, these developers receive funding from the city.

These developers receive the money from the King County.

And some of them, they are not from Seattle.

And I can name you them, those names, if you want to know.

But they are not from here.

And as the White King pointed out, these are the folks who grab the money, take advantage of this opportunity, and they leave town and leave it for us to deal with the problem.

But they put our brown faces on the brochures and, you know, and the slide decks and the presentations.

So my proposal, one of the proposals that I think is really benefit for a small business owner are lease to own.

Since the city funding the resources to help the small business to be thriving, to sustain in their neighborhood.

If you already give the funding to this developer, ask them, find figure out your financial situation so that you're going to condemnize this retail for a small business owner to go in and lease to own.

Because we don't have the upfront money to buy it, but we're going to pay over the time, and we're going to become owner.

Once we become owner, you know we work hard.

And all the business owner right here, we work hard.

And we never give up.

And so when you say that you want to engage the community to make sure that the community be thriving, I think that's a key thing is to let them lease to own so that they can own the property, they're going to protect the property, they're going to make sure the property safe and thriving in our community.

Because without that policy, when you develop property, there's a lot of loopholes.

But when we engage with the community so that we can point out a loophole, for example, you know, that lease to own, So I've been talking to all these developers, but I said, well, I'll hand tie because there's a restriction that we cannot do anything with the retail space.

I said, well, you know, retail space is on the ground floor.

Don't you have a foundation to build?

Don't you have the infrastructure around that foundation for that ground floor to be a workable space?

So it's rebuilt.

Why can't we go in with affordable brand or lease-to-own opportunity?

They said they're hand-tied.

So I think that's another policy that you guys can look at to say, hey, if you're going to do it, You guys need to figure out your financial strategy, how do you include this list to own policy into our community, especially that you receiving the funding from us.

From the city, yeah.

Go ahead.

Oh, no, I was going to piggyback off that.

You know, him and I were both on the advisory council years back for commercial affordability, and I think, you know, we need to relook at that and maybe designate somebody in OED or somebody that can go there and advocate for those that speak a different language, for those that don't understand the system.

and be able to help navigate how to negotiate these deals or set up some sort of structure so that businesses can go into a retail space and with full confidence that they are, you know, that they're protected.

And I think that's another issue and we've talked on SBAC about You know, some of the issues that are faced through tenant improvement and things like that, and I think that there's a lot of confusion when it comes into how that process works.

I know some folks understand it, and that's great, but there are a lot of people out there that don't understand it, and I think that's where the support is needed.

Or even just having one of the things I've heard a lot is, you know, having maybe a template lease agreement that can be translated into other languages so that, you know, some folks can have documents in languages that they understand.

You know, what I've heard from some of the communities whose first language isn't English is that a lease document, a contract, all of the, you know, lending documents are hard to navigate if you

don't speak the language.

And you can get bullied from landlords.

Yeah.

I've gotten bullied from my landlord.

You know, we had an agreement from our landlord.

We had an agreement before I moved in, before I turned that space into the coffee shop.

And, you know, he just now is talking about, I don't know what you're talking about.

Never offered to sell you the space.

And, you know, that's frustrating for me because here I was with a little bit of money that I had and I turned around that space and Sure enough, you know, maybe my misunderstanding as well of how to properly put together that proposal, but not having somebody on my side to protect me was very, very upsetting.

And somebody mentioned earlier the city acting as a guarantee to investors, particularly where city dollars are invested.

For example, the EDI funds that we've received.

And it, you know, there is a lot more just muscle that the city can provide when, you know, community resources are at stake and help us, you know, sort of either put these, you know, these developers and landlords at ease and, you know, there's some backing of somebody bigger than us as small business owners.

That's one way the city can help and support.

And we've seen that just working with the EDI staff.

I cannot believe the origami Celtic knots that they've twisted themselves into doing this very creative thinking to help us get our business off the ground in a stable and safe way.

It's been really, There have been times that I've hung up the phone with staff and just went, whoa, what just happened?

Because, you know, that out-of-the-box thinking was things that we could never imagine.

But you have those resources and that knowledge and the staffing, you know, to do that exploratory stuff.

You know, we're running our businesses, and in the case of Black and Tan, you know, 85% of us have full-time jobs while we're trying to launch this business.

So, you know, we need the, you know, people who, you know, have the resources to do the research, to look at the trends, to look at models, to do the studies, so that we, you know, we have something, some ground to stand on.

One thing I wanted to add was, you know, I drive up and down Rainier almost every day from and home to work.

And I always notice that there's small little micro business districts that rarely get looked at.

And the majority of them are people of color, immigrants that are in those spaces that don't know how to leverage the city support.

And so, like, I want to see how we can support them, you know, from here on out and say, like, okay, like, how can we incubate those areas?

Because sooner or later, there are spaces that developers are looking at and will look at and say, oh, you know, this place is being underutilized.

But in fact, it's not being underutilized, it's being utilized by the community.

they don't have the resources to uplift that and build the infrastructure that they need so that they can be in a new establishment and a new building and then thus compete with others from down the street that are developing and such, because they will be affected and they are being affected.

That's great.

Well, there's a lot of work to do, clearly, and I'm definitely interested in talking to you all more about some different ownership models and what we might be able to do to facilitate some something a little more robust for folks.

So if you want to make any final comments before we bring the next group up, council members?

Go ahead.

Oh, no, I'm fine.

Thank you.

I think, well, again, I want to thank you, the city council, to have this opportunity for a small business owner to come and share the challenges.

But I think that if one more thing that we can do for small businesses is, I have experienced firsthand that, you know, Even non-profit organization require small businesses with number of certificates that unreasonable certificate for us to do business.

I give you one example is we need to clean the hood of our restaurant.

And we renting this space from a non-profit group.

They require this small business, because I prefer to work with a small business owner to do the job, to maintain our restaurant.

But small business owner been asked to provide different certificate, different kind of insurance, different kind of commercial bonds.

that small business owner, they don't even have.

And they said they never heard this before.

And so, you know, we scheduled these people to show up.

They said, oh, you cannot go into the building because you don't have a fall prevention certificate.

No one has that.

I've been asking around until there are big company who has a lot of, you know, this big company, they've been around for a long time, and they are not minority owned.

They are not small businesses.

They have all kind of certificates, so Even this non-profit that I'm working with, that I'm renting from, they prevent the small business owner to go in and take the business that I want to share.

So to me, that is a dilemma.

And so very frustrating that even right now, I'm trying to get a small business owner to come in to get a bid.

They make it so hard for me to bring a small business owner to go in because they say, oh, you don't have this certificate.

You are not bonded to do this and do that.

And it become, I feel like, okay, I'm a small business owner, I want to support other small business owner, but they, this nonprofit, supposed to work with me, but they are not allow me to do this.

Yeah.

I mean, that speaks to the sort of structural problem that we have here, right?

There's all these layers that get inserted for, I'm sure, very good reasons.

But if it's keeping our small businesses from being successful, then we need to maybe unwind some of that and see if there's a different way to do it.

Yeah.

It's almost like policy redlining.

Yeah.

I had like a whole page of stuff that I wanted to say, but I'll keep it to this.

I want to support the policy alignment and interpretation comments that were made earlier.

I mean, yeah, it depends on who you're talking to and which office at what day.

Because, you know, Sally don't work on Wednesdays, you know, and Joe is there on Fridays.

and the cross-departmental chatter.

So an opportunity to speak to multiple departments and have them come to us instead of us having to come downtown.

The opportunities to participate in large health insurance.

As small business owners, we want to provide living wage jobs.

That's more looking like 60, 60,000 a year.

And then you got to pay insurance, health insurance, that kind of stuff.

So opportunities to participate in larger groups, which brings your costs down.

And then just safety without militarization.

Right?

You know, I want the people that come to the Black and Tan to feel safe, but I do not want to be over-militarized, you know, under the guise of safety.

Thank you for that.

Very good.

Yeah, so for myself, you know, again, like I mentioned in the beginning, it's a great deal for me, as young as I am, being a person of color, to be at this table and many other tables that I've had a chance to be at.

And I think, you know, it's intertwined when you think about economic development.

in the youth and I think, you know, the kids are being undervalued.

I think it's important to also address some of the social issues that kids are facing in the Seattle Public School District because, you know, someone like myself can get told that I will never graduate or someone like myself can get told that I can't go to college, but yet I'm here today.

And so, you know, I think there's another aspect to this that also needs to be addressed.

Definitely.

Thank you so much.

Can I just inject just one last thing?

Sure.

Public safety in our community is so horrible that prevent the businesses to thrive.

And so, you know, because of different agency brought different services in our community without mitigation, so there are a lot of a problem with public safety.

Our businesses, our community businesses got broke in many times, and we bring this up too many times from the very beginning before they bring these services in our community.

We inform them, we ask them for the plan for the mitigation, but there's no plan.

And we are suffering right now.

The community are afraid to come to pay, to go to businesses.

Thank you.

Yeah, I know that that's an issue that we need to keep addressing.

We need to wrap this table up.

Yeah, we've got 20 minutes for the last group.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I just want to flag my interest as it relates to Karen's point about different answers from different contacts at the city.

The Office of Economic Development created a citywide advisory team specifically supposed to deal with that issue.

So it's supposed to be across all departments.

So we need to find out what's working, what's not working with that.

And to the point related to damages to businesses associated with crime.

We heard about impacts to businesses associated with city finance construction.

Again, the Office of Economic Development is piloting a business stabilization fund that is supposed to help businesses deal with those unanticipated impacts.

I think we really, I want to find out what's working and what's not working with that intervention as well because it is intended to do that.

It may be an instance of it's not, it doesn't have sufficient resources, but we should find out more.

Thanks.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you very much.

So I'm going to call up the next group.

So the last group of folks are Beth Takakawa, Lady Scribe, Jamil Suleiman, and Kamal Patel.

Hello.

Likisha, please read into the record.

Art and Film Roundtable on Building Community Wealth, Briefing and Discussion.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you so much for being here.

I am going to ask us to go around and introduce yourself, your organization, or the work that you do so that we can get this started.

And I'm looking forward to our conversation.

Beth, you want to go ahead?

I'll start.

I'm Beth Takakawa.

I'm the executive director of the Wing Loop Museum in the Chinatown ID.

We are a cultural anchor and an economic driver in the neighborhood.

I know you only have a few minutes, but I thought your question was really good to ask about what is an example has worked with the city.

And I, too, want to give a shout out to the whole EDI initiative.

And maybe starting before the formation of EDI, on the policy level, I appreciate that the Race and Social Justice, Race and Social Equity Task Force that the city invested in working with three different communities.

And I don't know that we would, we don't have the resources on our own to work together.

So it was the DPD at the time and the Office of Civil Rights that worked with us, and so we worked on the comp plan, and we didn't have experience with doing that, but even the language that was used in the comp plan, and then it led to the formation of EDI, that is The other thing I really like is the Office of Arts and Culture, the Building Arts Space Equitably, which a lot of members of our community are involved in.

The goal to try to develop an army of people who are professionals at the intersection of arts and commercial real estate is very bold.

And again, somebody actually didn't just talk about it, but they invested in it.

Having said that, so the army is ready, you know, but we need experience.

And without opportunity, you can't get experience.

So that will come next.

Thank you.

We're just doing intros, right?

Yes.

Okay.

I have a little presentation too, so should I just say who I am and then get back?

Yeah, for now just, yeah.

My name's Kamal.

I'm a designer, digital technology as well.

I work at the City of Seattle, King County, various corporations as well.

Thanks.

Thank you.

I'm Lady Scribe.

I am the founder of the Seattle Sound Music Awards.

And I am the daughter of Charco, who owned the first black modeling agency in the Pacific Northwest on the corner of 23rd and Jackson for over 30 years.

So we're just happy to be able to be heard today.

Thank you.

My name is Jamil Suleman.

I am a filmmaker, performer, and youth worker from South Seattle, and I am the co-owner of Indie Genius Media.

Well, thank you.

So again, I have just a couple of open-ended questions, and I'm just interested in hearing from all of you about your experience trying to work with the city, or just for your industry, what we need to be doing to help support the work that you do.

So that's the question, the first question, how can we support artists and filmmakers to stay in the city?

I know you talked about this a little bit, just the industry kind of leaving the city of Seattle over the last 20, 30 years.

And what does a thriving economy look like for artists and creatives and filmmakers?

And how do we make sure that we are providing the sort of infrastructure and support so that those folks can continue to stay in the city?

Just to echo a lot of what a lot of other folks said up to this point, we're dealing with essentially the same kind of issue, which is displacement.

As a filmmaker in South Seattle, we are constantly, every story that I'm covering, whether it be for the city or whether it be a nonprofit, it's always about displacement and the lack of jobs.

So that's the story that's being told.

That's the story that we're covering as filmmakers.

I'm hearing that there's a lot of money now, hopefully, coming into the creative circles of Seattle.

And the disconnect from my experience, and again, I've worked with the city, I've worked for the mayor's office, I've worked for Seattle Music Commission, There's so much bureaucracy, and there's, similar to what Y.

King said earlier, top-down disconnection, that anything really effective gets washed out, and it looks just really ineffective.

I don't know how to put it other than that, and I'm not trying to be particularly offensive.

It's just that I work for the city, and I'm like, I have clients who are a small business who are more responsive than the city, than the mayor's office even.

And you're paying me money to make your content, to put it out there, and it doesn't even go out.

You just wasted taxpayers' money to make content.

We'll make it for you, but it's unfair to us and you guys and the taxpayer that none of this is being, so there's a lot of, There's a lot of issues with these organizations, and I know they're underfunded and people are maxed out.

I don't think we need another mixer.

Those are great, but it's time to really actually invest in the communities.

And I will say this, we're super short on time.

It's almost absurd to even try and pack this in, but I will say that a lot of the youth of color that I've worked with as a youth worker in South Seattle, create video, create film.

They create the most innovative film coming out of Seattle.

They're getting the most views, they're getting the most attention, they're getting pulled to Los Angeles, they're getting pulled everywhere else.

They're not being invested into here, in their own region, and that's what we're hoping to see.

Hopefully we will start to see real programs, getting young people of color in the union, getting them in the union at a young age in high schools that they have a job that they can come out and get into.

So there's a lot going on.

We lost film years ago to Portland and Vancouver, and we chose up on tech.

and that kind of allowed other cities to kind of take the lead on that because they didn't have big tech to invest in.

So, but now everybody wants to come back to Seattle.

So it's simultaneously exciting and exhausting at the same time, just trying to balance it all.

And we've worked, you know, we've worked alongside a lot of you, y'all, you know.

So, you know, it's just, I think it's about, ensuring that our voice is put forward and that the resources are there, they're consistent, and it's not just a placation.

You know, a lot of times it turns out to kind of be like, yeah, come to the meeting, talk for a few minutes, and then I'll see you in a year.

Come to the next meeting, talk for a few minutes, I'll see you in a year.

And nothing really tangible gets done.

So I'm hoping we can really, you know, figure that out and get people involved on the grassroots level.

Thank you.

I know I wrote my little thing too, so I'm trying to combine this.

But I do want to say that outside of the awards, that I am just a Seattle resident.

We were pushed out.

My mother lost her home.

I was raised in Mt. Baker.

She was also priced out of her business at 2214 South Jackson.

So she doesn't even go in that area anymore.

I remember contacting the developers and asking if they would be willing to do some legacy space so we can just occupy something in there.

And then once they heard that, what we wanted, they just disconnected and stopped returning any calls and emails.

You guys do have the ability to occupy Southeast Seattle, and that's definitely what we want is a creative space to be able to, you know, create.

We are always in different clubs.

This is our seventh year producing a red carpet L.A.

level award ceremony, right?

But we're making other clubs that have no interest in dealing with black people, right, or any minorities at all.

They just want the liquor, right, and the sales to keep it open.

So we're dealing with that.

We have to come into these spaces, produce our show, and be treated a certain kind of way.

But that is just like what we've succumbed to and we're used to in Seattle.

As far as resources, I was thinking, like, you know, like I said, I'm just a resident.

I don't know all these agencies and all that.

And so I'm like, how do we get plugged in?

And if I'm Black Seattle and I'm not a part of Africatown, like, I just want to know, like, where, well, hey, White King, you know, I know him, but my neighbor doesn't.

You know, I just moved back to District 2. I was forced out South, Federal Way, Kent, and just was able to come back home.

You know, and just to see how my city has changed and the dynamic, it's hurtful, you know, and not even to have a black voice on the council.

Me and you talked, I met you, and I actually said out loud and put it on our social media that I really do believe that you do have our best interest in voicing what black owners, whether it's business owners or homeowners, you know, because we are literally in fear of being erased.

seriously, and our youth are too.

So the Seattle Sound Music Awards was not Seattle Hip Hop Awards on purpose, because I come from grunge.

I love Heart and Def Leppard.

But I realize my kids are listening to hip hop and all these young people who are doing R&B and singing.

And I'm like, OK, y'all, we can put together something to acknowledge you, right?

But we were not acknowledged in the Seattle Sound, what's known globally.

And I want that to change.

I really do want Seattle Sound to reflect urban music makers, right?

Black music makers.

And our platforms, you know, we encompass everyone.

But they're all urban music makers.

who get no love in, you know, any of the nightclubs, you know, nothing, any nightclubs to keep in mind that play hip-hop or R&B are being sanctioned with fees and, you know, insurance rates go up.

So a lot of the owners...

Wait, say that again?

Yeah, insurance rates go up if they're playing R&B and hip-hop.

Their license for liquor gets patrolled, like, okay, why are you playing this music?

To the point where they deter us from even booking with them.

They're like, nope, sorry, we can't because, you know, it's hip-hop.

And I think that's something that hasn't been discussed.

And then just...

The short and sweet of it, I was thinking, with a couple of community members, a line of business credit for small businesses and artists and entrepreneurs, despite their past personal credit, right?

So if the city could help us get funding, right, and get us in a position to fund our projects with a line of business credit, then we can also move on with that with workshops and tangible resources that are training on credit restoration, right?

So now you guys say, we're not looking at your past personal We're gonna go ahead, because the city, like he said, is already, have lost already money, right, doing stuff.

Why not take a chance on, you know, us, and give us that line of credit, along with the support to walk us through how to restore our credit, keep a tracking, you know, so you guys can actually see the growth of our credit, right?

and then be able to introduce how to purchase, you know, real estate, and because we don't know the funding available, we don't know how, the steps.

But why don't you guys open up an office in Southeast Seattle, you know, where you can also host these type of meetings close to us?

Because we don't, they're not checking emails.

If I would have missed an email, I would have missed this, right?

So it's like, how are we getting our voices out?

We're not, you know, even advertising to the community that this is for.

You know, if they would have known, they would have been here.

I promise.

You know, it's just how do we...

I'm so emotional.

How do we talk to the last of Seattle that is there?

Black Seattle struggling.

It is hard.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

And we will definitely do a better job next time.

We are talking about trying to have these sorts of meetings in the districts, you know, throughout the city so that people don't have to come downtown at 5 o'clock to try to talk to their city council members.

So I appreciate that.

Hi, thanks.

So I'm going to talk as a designer in the technology world.

A lot of the problems facing us is that we're mostly faced with extractive business models as a designer.

So the things we're building and designing are extracting wealth from the communities we're trying to support.

So what we want to what we're trying to do as designers in general is organize around more regenerative business models, ones that don't just throw things in the garbage, like a linear economy, but that kind of think of waste as a resource in our communities.

And so I want to name three main projects with two strategies.

One is procurement as a way to build wealth in communities.

So large institutions like hospitals and universities and large businesses buying from businesses of color and helping build wealth there.

And that's a project with the city of Seattle that I'll explain in a second.

And the second is that moving from a linear economy to a regenerative one with a just transition framework so that those resource wealth goes back to the community that it's from.

So the first project with the Office of Economic Development is what I'm a designer on with Story Two, a community, a cooperatively owned, POC owned design agency in Seattle, working with Bobby Lee at the Office of Economic Development.

We are building something called the Connective, and Lakeisha was there, Africatown, Avol.

And we basically are doing a co-design methodology to design a procurement tool to help large institutions buy from these small businesses of color.

But that procurement piece is really important because it's an anchor strategy.

It's using community wealth or community wealth to build community wealth.

A model that we're also looking at, this is a separate project, is called the Boston Ujima Project.

And they basically are using community ownership to create an entire circular economy around food, from the compost system, to the farms, to the growers, to the restaurants, and then back to the waste, and back to the farm.

U-J-I-M-A.

So we're using that model on Vashon Island right now and physically building a digester that is going to be community owned by the Vashon farmers.

It digests food waste, turns it into compost water and biogas.

That is actually going to be charging a truck that will move the water to a community owned land trust farm called Matsudo Farms on Vashon.

And then that will go to a school, which will buy the food, and that waste will go back to the digester, and you have a complete circle.

What I'm proposing is that we basically do the same models in Rainier Valley.

And they have the largest farm in Seattle.

They have the Rainier Food District going on, obviously RBAC.

So how do we replicate those models?

And we're already doing it through King County's help and Seattle.

So thank you.

Did you, is this for us to pass out?

I'm sorry, I didn't.

Okay.

Yeah, you can look at those graphics too.

Okay, thank you.

Apologies, I didn't.

That's great.

No, that's all right.

But yeah, my email's on there as well.

Terrific, thank you.

And remember, procurement is a key piece of that whole puzzle.

Yeah.

Beth, did you wanna?

Well, I did want to say what a thriving economy would look like.

First of all, I really appreciate that artists in the arts is at this table and the topic of building community wealth.

One thing that we know is all the communities of color that we've kind of banded together and we're where we are because of redlining.

And now that we've built our communities, now we're the ones most in danger of getting pushed out.

And one thing is that there are historic cultural assets in every one of our communities.

And, I mean, it's assets that we have to harness.

The thing about the arts is that oftentimes our artists and arts is not looked at as arts, it's looked at as diversity.

And so the arts has to be redefined, because a lot of the artists from our communities are the ones on the cutting edge.

And so what is artistic excellence?

What is the arts?

A lot of change has to take place.

So you've all mentioned you know, the need for resources, the need for technical assistance, for lines of credit.

I wonder if there are other, Jamil, you talked about, you know, needing to invest in young people.

Can you talk a little bit more about what you mean when you say resources and what that would look like?

Yeah, I think there's three real tangible things that we can do, like right away, and the city can get acting on.

One is, One is getting union training for youth of color in high school, in film.

So whether it be their SAG card if they want to be an actor, whether it be a production kind of union.

A lot of young people of color love to create content, but they're not thinking about it in a way of having a sustainable career path.

They're just hoping they'll blow up and go viral.

But my 12-year-old son says.

Right, exactly.

Until then, they're working at McDonald's or whatever.

So we need to give them a career path that that is in their passion field allows them to continue to do what they want and to build their skill sets.

So having union trainings for them would be great, especially if they're young, young people coming out.

I mean, you know, it'd be great to have PAs getting, you know, youth of color being PAs on film sets, right?

So that's one thing.

The second thing is if you are a filmmaker or creative of color in South Seattle or Seattle, you might have a business license.

If you do, you probably are not OMWBE certified, which allows you and grants you access to a list where businesses and local government and nonprofits can then source you and say, okay, yeah, we can actually, you know, because there is some quota involved in some of this stuff.

So if we can get, these production companies and individual freelancers to get themselves OMWB certified, that would assist them a lot as well.

And then finally, with a bunch of creative coming into Seattle, there's a lot of professionals of color already in the industry, but we're scattered all over the place.

And a lot of times it might be required for a production to hire people of color or women on board or on set.

So what we need is a roster to some extent, a structured one that maybe even is facilitated by or partnered with the city of these creatives of color who are, you know, gaffing, lighting, sound design, you know, so people can go to them.

Like if a big studio wants to work with more women, behind the glass, so to speak, so directors or writers or things like that, they have a roster that they can access locally.

So those three things would be huge.

It would take a lot of work and a lot of organizing, but you guys are so good at that, as we can tell.

Well, and you talked about, you know, having a business license but not knowing that the next step might be to get this certification, which I think is a really important point.

And, you know, my experience knowing a couple of DJs who are becoming popular but are still giving away their CDs instead of charging for them, just the understanding of You're trying to run a business, like you're an artist, but if you're trying to actually make a living out of this, then there's some things that you need to know about how to run a business.

Right.

And providing that kind of technical assistance as well.

Ventures does that, is an organization that does that very well.

you know, they can't do it by themselves.

And they kind of take a lot of weight.

So giving them assistance, yeah, I think another thing too is assisting programs that already exist.

I mean, I would hate to recreate the wheel and kind of rob people of the work that they've been doing.

So maybe doing some research and finding out who's already doing this stuff, give them some more incentives.

I just wanted to say the point of running the business, that is where I wanted to make sure that I explained it well, that the line of business credit, not a grant.

The reason being is because we need this business credit in order to do the things moving forward.

We need our personal credit to be, you know, in order to move forward.

That hinders a lot of us.

And we don't have, we're trying to self-diagnose, learn how to, you know, we don't have that and run the business and, you know, applying for all these resources, hurting your credit, you know, but we have the resources here to lend, you know, and train.

So therefore, you know, our kids, they need to be, just like you said, in high school, those are the things, those are the ages, even as young as middle school when it comes to taking care of your credit and what that looks like, right?

You know, even farm to table, like, you know, I tell my kids all the time, I don't even know if you can grow anything if it was a natural disaster.

You would be still looking for Wi-Fi, you know?

Like, for real, like so.

For flaming hot Cheetos.

Right, you know?

So it's like, We're not, you know, we're talking about it, but we're not giving those tangible resources that people can just say, okay, this is it.

You can direct a person to, you know, a website or you can have a form, but no one is really going back to that and training themselves.

But if we can come to a place that's organized that says, oh, even if we come in and just pick up the pamphlet, right?

or come in and ask the question, you know, and figure out and talk to someone who's designated to, you know, us, right, and say how to grow our business or, you know, our credit, what can we do.

That would.

gives so much empowerment too, right?

Instead of feeling voiceless, we can't do this, we can't do, you know, we don't have a grant writer, we don't know how to access these funds.

But I think that is just so important because it's like, sure, you want money?

Here, let's give you this.

But you're not telling me and helping me grow my business credit or my personal credit.

we wanna buy homes here, we wanna live here.

You know?

Absolutely.

We are out of time.

I'm sure we could carry this on for a long time.

Thank you all for coming, for staying late, for sharing your experiences and your stories and your expertise.

This is the beginning of a conversation.

So, you know, as I said before, my hope is that we use this committee as a platform for having these conversations and sharing information and understanding better.

what we can do to make sure that folks stop getting pushed out and are able to stay and thrive.

Should we bring food next time?

I will see what I can do.

So if there are no more comments, questions, this committee is adjourned.

Thank you very much.