Tag Archives: equitable development

Seattle City Council hits pause on votes over Equitable Development Initiative funding and delivery worker minimum wage rollback

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The Central District’s Africatown Plaza was awarded EDI funding for a community kitchen to be used by “local culinary entrepreneurs”

The Seattle City Council has pushed pause amid blowback over two separate legislative efforts that have rankled labor and equitable development advocates.

Tuesday featured a pullback on a proposal from Councilmember Maritza Rivera that would place a pause on Equitable Development Initiative funding for groups like the Somali Health Board, Friends of Little Saigon, Estelita’s Library, Tubman Health Center, and the Nehemiah Initiative.

Rivera is asking for a pause on the initiative’s 2024 funding until $53 million from previous years has been spent by the organizations receiving the awards that are intended for “projects that help root community in place, create greater cohesion, and lift up community entrepreneurship and community-driven development to fight displacement and create greater shared prosperity.”

The proposed pause on allocating the 2024 funding has brought swift condemnation from groups including the NAACP and criticism that the proposed proviso will not align with long-term investments that take time to develop like new community centers and meeting spaces. Continue reading →

Seattle City Council looks at Connected Communities pilot to ease affordable housing development by ‘community-based organizations’

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The Seattle City Council’s land use committee will discuss a proposal Wednesday afternoon that would create a new pilot program linking community organizations with developers to create affordable “equitable development” in neighborhoods across the city.

The “Connected Communities” proposal from land use chair Tammy Morales would create a pilot program that would run through 2029 or create 35 housing developments — whichever comes first — by pairing “community-based organizations with limited development experience” with nonprofit and for-profit developers “for development of low- and moderate-income housing with neighborhood serving equitable development uses,” according to a council memo (PDF) on the plan.

The program would ease the path for the projects by providing density bonuses “and other regulatory incentives.”

The pilot would “encourage equitable development, creating low-to-moderate-income housing ,social housing, and undo some of the damage created by historical redlining,” a briefing on the proposal reads.

Morales’s office says the program would also help solve some of the issues of funded equitable and affordable development getting bogged down by a regulatory environment “that can hinder, delay, complicate, and add cost to these projects.” Continue reading →

Communion now open in the Central District with BBQ shrimp and grits, Seattle Soul, and a healthy helping of equitable development

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Brown and Bomar

The first business in what many hope will be a wave of equitably developed new ventures in the Central District celebrated its grand opening over the weekend.

Communion R&B — that’s R&B for restaurant and bar — broke out the giant ceremonial scissors and cut the ribbon outside its newly opened home at 24th and Union on the street level of the Liberty Bank Building affordable housing development.

Here’s how veteran Seattle chef Kristi Brown explains the meaning behind her first brick and mortar restaurant:

Communion is a nod, an acknowledgment, an homage to where I come from: Lima beans & ham hocks; the sound of crackling cornbread in a cast iron skillet; boiled or sautéed cabbage (Napa cabbage, savoy cabbage, bok choy); meatloaf; fried chicken and mashed potatoes; sautéed greens and green beans; red beans & rice; spaghetti; pot roast; oyster stew; stuffed clams; fried pork chops; bamboo shoots, tofu and rice (rice and more rice!); grits; pok pok salad; potato salad; baked beans; barbecue; hamburgers. All of these are a treasure trove of food memories that connect me, and my son, to the legacy of my grandmother’s long, beautiful, brown fingers in doughs, forming and making pies, biscuits and dinner rolls. Only to watch her leave the house to play the organ right before preaching a sermon.

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Africatown gets $1M+ boost from Seattle’s first Equitable Development grants

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Africatown has been awarded a major grant as part of more than $5 million in funding for equitable development in Seattle.

“Seattle is facing an affordability crisis, which has displaced far too many and left behind many of our neighborhoods and businesses,” Mayor Jenny Durkan said about the grants. “To tackle these challenges, our City is investing in community organizations who are leading the way in creating true economic vitality and opportunity within Seattle’s most underserved communities.”

Africatown will receive $1,075,000 for “capacity-building” and “development expenses to include affordable commercial space to the Midtown affordable housing project,” according to the City of Seattle announcement of the award. Continue reading →