Tag Archives: africatown

Marjorie makes new start in the Central District with boost hoped to help Seattle restaurant owners also own the space they call home

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Midtown Square

Moodie

The rebirth of Marjorie in the Central District after a twenty-month and nine-block move down E Union will be a restart for restaurateur and community advocate Donna Moodie and a new symbol for Black ownership at 23rd and Union.

Thursday, Mayor Bruce Harrell will be on hand to celebrate the opening of Marjorie in its new home in the Midtown Square development where Moodie won’t just own the Jamaican-flavored restaurant — she’ll be part of owning the commercial space the new Marjorie calls home.

The city has announced Marjorie will be the second small business in Seattle to take part in its Business Community Ownership Fund, a new first of its kind program hoped to give small business owners more control over rents — and their futures.

Seattle’s BCO Fund was launched in partnership with the Office of Economic Development and Grow America in a combined $20 million investment, “aimed at addressing the challenges of small business displacement and escalating commercial rents across Seattle neighborhoods,” the city says. Continue reading →

As loved ones and community seek answers and justice, Elijah Lewis remembered at Broadway and Pine

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Elijah’s mother Jenine Lewis at Sunday’s Broadway and Pine vigil (Image: Converge Media)

(Image: Converge Media)

A vigil protected by a ring of cars filled the intersection of Capitol Hill’s Broadway and Pine Sunday afternoon to remember Elijah Lewis.

Loved ones spoke of the 23-year-old’s work with the Africatown Land Trust and his tireless effort for causes to help communities across the city. In 2018, CHS featured Lewis as he spoke in Cal Anderson Park in a rally that drew tens of thousands of students and supporters for a march from Capitol Hill against gun violence.

Saturday’s shooting at Harvard and Pike happened a few blocks from the spot where Lewis took the stage along with other student activists five years earlier.

Sunday’s memorial came only hours after Lewis was gunned down in the apparent road rage shooting a block away Saturday night in an assault that also sent Lewis’s nine-year-old nephew to Harborview with injuries from the gunfire. Sunday, Lewis’s family spoke of the young uncle protecting his nephew during a hail of bullets in the attack  The child was treated and released by the hospital Sunday.

(Image: Converge Media)

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Africatown Plaza — a ‘cultural anchor’ against ‘the tide of displacement in the Central District’ — to break ground at 23rd and Spring

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(Image: Africatown Plaza)

A community groundbreaking ceremony Saturday will mark the start of construction on Africatown Plaza, the 100% affordable mixed-use development set to rise and fill in the southern end of the Midtown Square block with a project from the Africatown Community Land Trust and Community Roots Housing.

“Africatown Plaza will continue a legacy of community building on the site of the former Umoja PEACE Center, the grassroots, Black-led community organization where the Africatown Seattle movement began over a decade ago,” the announcement of Saturday’s event reads.

Africatown Plaza Groundbreaking
Saturday, February 05, 2022
12:00 pm
23rd and Spring

The groundbreaking will be emceed by TraeAnna Holiday and will feature DJ Zeta Barber, Javoeon Byrd of Awodi Drumming, performances of the Black National Anthem and a spoken word piece. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, Representative Kirstin Harris-Talley, Councilman Girmay Zahilay, and leaders on the project are expected to deliver remarks.

The organizations say the planned seven-story mixed use development is an extension of the partnership between Africatown and Community Roots that builds on their previous collaboration in the Liberty Bank Building at 24th and Union which opened four years ago in what many hope will be a model for equitable development in the Central District and Seattle.

Africatown Plaza is “an effort to build another cultural anchor and stem the tide of displacement in the Central District,” the organizations say. Continue reading →

Why this Central District development will have a new Black arts center — not a Bartell’s — at its 23rd and Union core

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The seven stories of Midtown Square along E Union (Image: CHS)

A new Arté Noir arts center will anchor the development’s 23rd and Union corner

Lake Union Partners has made a $70 million deal to sell two of the buildings it created around 23rd and Union just as the firm’s key development project at the corner is nearing the end of construction and will open with a challenging mission as a for-profit development shaped to try to address displacement and affordability concerns in the Central District. A new Black arts center now envisioned as the centerpiece commercial tenant in the building will help.

“My hope is that Midtown Square will be viewed as a project that was done with sincerity and purpose, and took an incremental step in helping to curb the affordability issue in the area and was the catalyst to welcome back people to the neighborhood who moved away years ago,” Patrick Foley of Lake Union Partners tells CHS. “At a minimum we want all people to feel welcome at Midtown Square.”

Construction is wrapping up on the project that now fills the site of the former Midtown Center shopping strip with a three-piece, seven-story mixed-use apartment development and plans for 428 market-rate and affordable apartment units, a quasi-public central plaza, and a huge underground parking garage.

Foley said the progress on Midtown Center is unrelated to the huge deal for LUP to sell off two of its four properties around the corner as it sheds both the 42-unit Stencil development at 24th and Union and 23rd and Union’s southwest corner The Central in a $440,000 per unit agreement with developer Prometheus, the largest private owner of apartment properties in the Bay Area, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal who broke the news.

Prometheus was originally lined up to acquire only The Central, Foley says, but made a strong offer for the smaller Stencil, too. The cash will help Lake Union Partners with a “philanthropy opportunity,” and other projects Lake Union is “working on in Seattle that have capital investment needs.” Continue reading →

Juneteenth 2021 in the Central District: Jackson’s Catfish Corner Grand Opening, Freedom March, Northwest African American Museum Jubilee

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Over the weekend, the City of Seattle reversed course and issued a permit for a small Juneteenth event in Cal Anderson Park on the one-year anniversary of the formation of the occupied protest zone on Capitol Hill. While many of the battles of last year’s Black Lives Matter marches have transformed into plans and initiatives at Seattle City Hall, 2021’s Juneteenth celebrations will again center equity and equality as Black communities across the Seattle area mark the holiday celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the United States.

By this time next year, the day will be an official Washington state holiday.

Below, we’ve featured the upcoming Juneteenth events in Central Seattle including where you can find the Seattle Buffalo Soldiers. We’ve also included pictures from last summer as thousands took to the street for the Juneteenth Freedom March across the Central District.

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Black Brilliance Research Project, born from Seattle’s Black Lives Matter protests, moving on without King County Equity Now — UPDATE

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One of the most concrete outcomes at Seattle City Hall of the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests is showing cracks and fissures. Monday afternoon, people working on the Black Brilliance Research Project said they have chosen to “part ways” with King County Equity Now, a coalition of Black-led organizations including the Central District’s Africatown that formed during the protests and rallies of 2020 and grew into a new nonprofit to end the year.

“We know that our liberation is intertwined, and we will continue to build alongside all people invested in Black liberation,” the announcement reads. “However, we do not have confidence in KCEN leadership’s current capacity and ability to bring this research project to the finish line in a way that meets the needs of our researchers and community and serves the best interests of the project’s vision and responsibility moving forward.”

Monday’s announcement is signed by Shaun Glaze and LéTania Severe, who have led Black Brilliance Research, and four other groups — Black Trans Prayer Book Researchers, Bridging Cultural Gaps Researchers, Sacred Community Connections Researchers, and The Silent Task Force Researchers — working on the project to document alternatives to policing and increased investment in social and community programs.

It comes as the city, King County Equity Now, and the research project have faced questions about the City Council’s legislative process to award the $3 million contract and a state audit exploring the transaction involving the city, King County Equity Now, and financial sponsor the Freedom Project.

The push for the project and the money to fund the research was part of the City Council’s 2020 budget rebalancing battle with Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office. That fight survived a Durkan veto with help from KCEN and Decriminalize Seattle’s pressure to maintain the community investment. Continue reading →

Amid progress on community ownership of Central District properties, plans for Africatown Plaza taking shape

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The early preferred massing concept for Africatown Plaza (Image: GGLO)

Africatown Plaza is coming to 23rd and Spring (Image: GGLO)

Africatown Community Land Trust is working to finalize plans for its 7-story project that includes about 130 affordable housing units on 23rd and Spring in the Central District with construction estimated to begin late next year.

While the broad project timeline hasn’t been affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, what has been altered is the developers ability to procure retail tenants, said real estate project manager for Africatown Muammar Hermanstyne.

“Retail is dying, no one is coming out,” Hermanstyne told CHS, adding that this has made it difficult to sign on specific Black-owned retail for the shop.

Being planned as more than 100 units of 100% affordable housing plus street-level retail and commercial space, the project will be built at 23rd and Spring on the south end of the site of the former Midtown Center. It will include around 130 affordable housing units, specifically for “those who have been displaced due to rising rents,” as well as several thousand square feet of retail space. The collaboration between Africatown Community Land Trust and Community Roots Housing is hoped to build on the success of the nearby Liberty Bank Building which opened two years ago in what many hope will be a model for equitable development in the Central District and Seattle.

The Africatown Plaza project is joined by a small ripple of progress in putting some key Central District properties into community ownership as efforts like the King County Equity Now coalition have increased the call for ownership and development opportunities for the Black community.

Community property progress
Later this month the city will likely move to transfer several important Central District properties to community ownership. After seven years, Fire Station 6 at 23rd and Yesler would go to Africatown, which will look to turn the decommissioned space into the William Grose Center for Cultural Innovation.

The center, named after a local Black pioneer, will look to serve as a technological hub of a community that hasn’t had as much access to the resources needed to be successful. Community organizer TraeAnna Holiday noted, for example, that she hopes children will be able to use 3D printers there they wouldn’t have had otherwise which could make them better candidates for local jobs. Continue reading →

Seven of nine Seattle City Council members pledge #defundSPD support

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(Image: CHS)

Seven of the nine Seattle City Council members say they will support the effort to reduce the Seattle Police budget by 50%, the key component of demands from activists and community groups after weeks of Black Lives Matter protests, marches, and rallies in the Pacific Northwest.

The important threshold would represent a veto-proof majority on any council action as the representatives shape major changes to the city’s budget in the face of predictions of a significant downturn in revenue due to the COVID-19 crisis — a rebalancing process planned to be finalized and voted on in the next two weeks.

CHS reported on Wednesday’s council budget committee session’s deep dive into SPD spending and the strong support for #defundSPD voiced during public testimony. Massively reducing spending on policing has been at the center of demands during weeks of protests and demonstrations around Seattle in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

“We’ve seen a lot of unrest over the last six weeks, much of it built upon generations of struggle for Black liberation,” activist and lawyer Nikkita Oliver said in a media conference hosted Thursday by the two coalitions driving the #defundSPD effort and a spending plan for the diverted funds “We are, though, at a very significant moment as this movement continues to grow and seeing the discussion of defund the police be more than a chant in the street.” Continue reading →

Independence Day in Seattle: A 4th of YouLie rally in the Central District as coalition marks win vs. ‘predatory development’

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Africatown’s Joy (Image: CHS)

On Saturday afternoon, organizers of the Africatown-led King County Equity Now Coalition are holding a “4th of YouLie” rally event at 23rd and Union to shift the narrative surrounding the Fourth of July.

“Fourth of July depicts the independence of the United States — not everybody was free. Our people of African descent weren’t free, were still slaves in that time,” organizer and Africatown ambassador Fynniecko Glover Jr. said. “So the July 4th, the Fourth of YouLie, is just saying that not all of us were free.”

The event will center around a teach-in with a series of speakers discussing the history and gentrification of the Central District neighborhood, according to Glover Jr., and there will also be a teen resource area and Black-owned businesses for people to shop at.

“23rd and Union historically is a significant intersection in the Black community,” Africatown Community Land Trust member Isaac Joy told CHS. “That intersection has been transformed, I think at really all four corners, in the negative with huge gentrification projects.”

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/fourth-of-youlie/

Friday, the coalition announced it had halted a “predatory” development of the former Keiro Care Center at 17th and Yesler. This coalition of ‘Black-led, community-based” organizations has plans to turn the property into a space that will “honor Indigenous and Pan-Asian communities.”

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With new energy — and demands — from Central District rally, second week of protest in Seattle begins — UPDATE: Elected officials join protest after burst of flash bangs on Capitol Hill

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Horse mounted protesters were part of the scene in the Central District

PJ (left) and Chaka Khan (right) were part of the Friday night protest and rally scene in the Central District (Image: Jake Goldstein-Street)

With reporting by Jake Goldstein-Street

UPDATE 7:48 PM: A calm but energetic protest became a chaotic mess in a burst of police firepower Saturday night. The situation came to a head around 7:40 PM as police were attempting to push a large crowd of demonstrators back from the frontline fencing and put National Guard troops in place. After reports of police grabbing umbrellas and moving on the crowd, an order to disperse was given, followed by pepper spray and a hail of loud flash bangs and designed to create explosions of smoke and fire to clear away crowds.

“You have been given an order to disperse,” a command officer repeated over the area’s public address system installed in recent days to help better communicate with protesters. Police were threatening the use of pepper spray and other “less lethal” weaponry if protesters did not comply.

Protesters were reported scattering from the scene and regrouping on nearby streets.

Multiple people were reported detained.

https://twitter.com/mmitgang/status/1269464025630466048

UPDATE 9:15 PM: Seattle Police reports that “several officers” were injured during the incident and that small explosives were thrown at police:

Image from a Facebook livestream behind the police line

Crowds have reformed and police and National Guard troops were back in place behind the barrier at 11th and Pine. Police announcements asked the crowd to “please respect” the barriers so that “First Amendment” activities could continue.

“We are committed to a peaceful protest,” the command officer said during the address. “Please respect the police lines.”

UPDATE 11:28 PM: A contingent of Seattle elected leaders has gathered at the protest in a visit to the front line. “Calling on @carmenbest @SeattlePD @MayorJenny to STOP this! Move the police line back to the barricade at least, dont spray, gas, flash/noise bombs,” council member Teresa Mosqueda writes. 43rd District rep Nicole Macri, King County Council member Girmay Zahilay, State Joe Nguyen, plus fellow city council members Dan Strauss, Lisa Herbold, and Andrew Lewis joined Mosqueda in the show of solidarity with protesters.

UPDATE 11:55 PM: After a request to Chief Best from the assembled set of elected officials, the line of police and Guard troops was moved back to create more distance between the groups and to give demonstrators more room.

UPDATE 6/7/2020 6:50 AM: The overnight hours following the Saturday night outburst saw no further large-scale police escalation of crowd control tactics but there were reports of at least one major protest-related arrest effort on Capitol Hill away from the 11th and Pine core.

SPD posted a brief on the Saturday night escalation that brought elected officials to the front of the protest in response and upped the volume on calls for Mayor Durkan to resign:

During the on-going protests in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, officers deployed blast balls and pepper spray to temporarily disperse the crowd after individuals in the group threw bottles, rocks, and incendiary devices broke through a fence line, and several officers were injured. Just after 7 PM Saturday the scene commander began warning the protesters at 11 Avenue and East Pine Street to stop pushing the barriers placed there. Some unidentified people in the group began throwing bottles, rocks, and incendiary devices at officers who had moved forward to push the barriers back to their location. The group refused to back up and officers deployed pepper spray and blast balls in an attempt to push the crowd back. The protesters moved back a block and officers were able to reset the barriers. Several officers were injured during the incident and two were taken to Harborview Medical Center to treatment of their wounds. There was no CS gas deployed during this confrontation.

https://twitter.com/AliAkinK/status/1269465342952308736

https://twitter.com/Omarisal/status/1269518097817325568

https://twitter.com/maggieangel19/status/1269509357072289792

ORIGINAL REPORT: A second Friday of actions in Seattle brought new demands and new calls for justice as thousands gathered in the Central District for a “teach-in,” a rally, and a march to the city’s protest core outside the East Precinct at 12th and Pine for another relatively peaceful night of chanting and anti-police demonstration..

“We’re creating these environments, these networks and we’re using our platforms. I don’t want to see nobody with over 1K of a follower not post this rally today,” one speaker said during the afternoon rally in the parking lot at 23rd and Jackson. “I don’t care if you got 200 followers. I want to see it on your social media.”

The rally — filled with speakers, community support, music and dancing, free barbecue, and, yes, protest horses — filled the parking lot at a rapidly changing corner of the Central District where a massive mixed-use development from Vulcan and.an apparent Amazon grocery store is rising across the street.

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