Connecting with Community Dinner
Join InterIm CDA for an evening to connect with our community. Please come share a delicious multi-course meal with new and old friends hearing stories of activism in the CID
Hi, friends! Well, it’s been a while (three years!), but the time has finally come for us to get together in person, share food together and be with one another. We can’t wait to see you. InterIm CDA’s annual community dinner is a chance for us to catch up, learn about Uncle Bob’s Place and other things InterIm CDA has been doing and to celebrate our strong history of activism in the community. We’ll keep the stage program short and the social time long since we know we’ve all got a lot of catching up to do with one another!
Joyale Seafood Restaurant: 900 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA 98104
Date: Friday, November 3, 2023
Time: 5:00 PM
Tickets: $100 (check back for ticket sales link later this spring)
RSVP by October 16, 2023 to Lynette Seigafo at lseigafo@interimcda.org
Coalition of CID partners celebrates approval of north and south stations as preferred alternative, reducing risk of community displacement
PRESS RELEASE For immediate release
Thursday, March 23, 2023
PRESS CONTACTS:
Christina Shimizu, Executive Director, Puget Sound Sage, 206-552-5508, chrissy@pugetsoundsage.org
Derek Lum, Advocacy and Policy Manager, InterImCDA, dlum@interimcda.org
Nina Wallace, CID Coalition, 360-305-0160, cidnohotel@gmail.com
Coalition of CID partners celebrates approval of north and south stations as preferred alternative, reducing risk of community displacement
WHAT: The Sound Transit board has approved the north and south stations for the West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions (WSBLE) project that Coalition of CID partners have advocated for.
Chinatown International District, Seattle, King County –
After a long and difficult fight to choose a preferred alternative, the Chinatown International District (CID) Coalition, Puget Sound Sage and InterImCDA are celebrating a major victory for securing the future growth and development of the CID neighborhood to be equitable, affordable, and a sustainable place for immigrants and working class communities of color to live and thrive for generations to come.
The coalition’s fight for a station location is rooted in the vision to maximize opportunity for equitable transit-oriented development, provide great transit options, stop the acceleration of gentrification, and for the survival of a community that has struggled for decades from racist policies and land grabbing encroachment. This decision is a critical step in acknowledging and repairing past harms.
“We extend our sincere appreciation to the Sound Transit board and staff, including Mayor Harrell, Executive Constantine and Council President Juarez for supporting north and south. We want to especially thank Councilmember Tammy Morales, for hearing our voices and concerns and being a vocal advocate against displacement and for inclusive transit oriented development,” said Christina Shimizu, Executive Director of Puget Sound Sage. “We are grateful for their willingness to listen and recognize the importance of our long-standing history and the need for access to regionally connected transit, affordable housing, and opportunities for culturally relevant equitable transit oriented development (eTOD) that do not accelerate gentrification pressures in the neighborhood.”
The CID Coalition, InterIm CDA, and Puget Sound Sage are committed to fighting speculative corporate development and displacement, and to ensuring that communities of color are centered in decision-making around transit and land use. “Good planning means something different for different communities,” Shimizu added. “A truly equitable and inclusive urbanism, and density done right, requires policymakers to listen to communities of color and trust that we know what is best for our neighborhoods.”
“InterIm CDA has been a community based organization serving the needs of the CID for 53 years,” said InterIm CDA Executive Director Pradeepta Upadhyay. “We endorsed the north and south station locations option after weighing the significant impacts on the CID and its property owners, businesses, community organizations, and residents. Based on our values, we believe this is the best option for the community. We thank the Sound Transit board for making the right choice, and look forward to working with the community and Sound Transit to make these options the best they can be for the CID.”
While the CID Coalition, Puget Sound Sage and InterIm CDA are celebrating this victory, they are also aware that their work is not done. The coalition plans to stay engaged and organized to ensure that the community benefits the most from the station: pedestrian improvements for walking and rolling, lighting, and wayfinding among other community benefits and mitigation connected to the light rail line as well as righting past harms. They will also advocate for a platform to connect Sounder to the South of CID station, expanded greenspace and protections for City Hall park, and access to culturally relevant, community based eTOD to provide much-needed affordable housing for the neighborhood.
“This win is only one step to repairing the harm and distrust in our communities, and the destruction that previous infrastructure projects have wrought on the CID,” said Monyee Chau of the CID Coalition. “The copious amount of labor that organizers have put in to protect our neighborhood is a testament to how deeply we all care for this community, and I have so much gratitude for everyone who helped us fight for this win. May we continue to make these conversations more accessible and inclusive of all the people that they affect, and move forward with collaboration and a commitment to ensuring that the Chinatown International District community remains a vibrant and thriving part of Seattle.”
About the CID Coalition:
The Chinatown International District Coalition is a grassroots, multiracial, multiethnic and multigenerational organization that works to promote social, economic, and environmental justice for low-income communities of color in the CID and Greater Seattle. They fight against displacement, gentrification, and the erasure of community history and culture.
About Puget Sound Sage:
Puget Sound Sage charts a path to a living economy in the South Salish Sea and Duwamish River Valley (greater Seattle) regions by developing community power to influence, lead, and govern. We ground our policies in grassroots organizing & community-based research with people directly impacted by systems of oppression and organizations serving BIPOC workers, their families and communities. Through the power of grassroots organizing, policy and advocacy strategies, and leveraging the influence of coalitions centering impacted communities, we have organized for and passed some of our region’s most exciting policies that promote climate justice, good jobs and equitable development in low-wage and people of color communities. Our campaigns and theory of change are rooted in intersectional economic & racial justice, which for us means organizing historically disenfranchised people and bringing them together to build power as a vehicle for social change.
About InterIm CDA:
InterIm CDA was created in 1969 and is a nonprofit affordable housing and community development organization based in Seattle’s Chinatown/International District (CID). Since 1969 InterIm CDA (ICDA) provides multilingual, culturally competent housing and community building services to those disenfranchised due to lack of English, low acculturation and poverty. Though historically ICDA’s focus was on the API community living in the CID, they currently serve about 5,000 unduplicated low-income limited English speaking individuals from Asia, Africa and America throughout the greater Puget Sound.
###
Seedling giveaway for the community today March 23 at Danny Woo Garden
Hope you can join us today for our community seed giveaway! Spring is here! See you at the Danny Woo Garden today at 1.
WILD Spring 2023: REGISTER NOW!
WILD Spring 2023 quarter is now open for registration!
Know a teen who wants to connect with their API culture and people in the CID, build their leadership skills, learn about environmental and food justice and earn a stipend or school service hours while doing so? Contact Malika Aiyer, InterIm WILD program manager to learn about the upcoming spring quarter and how to register to participate! Contact: maiyer@interimcda.org. Learn more about WILD on our website. [https://interimcda.org/wild/]. Get more details on spring quarter activities (arts projects, environmental justice/climate change, seed-to-plate activities in the Danny Woo Garden, adulting) in the flyers below:
InterIm CDA Statement for Light Rail
InterIm CDA statement of support for North and South station locations for light rail expansion
Sound Transit has proposed four options for a new light rail station to serve Chinatown-International District (CID). No matter the option, there will be massive impacts on the neighborhood affecting businesses, residents and all who utilize, visit, work and live in the CID. The options include the following:
1. A station on 4th avenue south near Union Station
2. A station on 4th avenue near the King County administration building “North Station”
3. A station on 6th avenue south near the INS building “South Station”
4. A combination of both options #2 and #3 “North and South options”
InterIm CDA statement of support for North and South station locations for light rail expansion
ATTN: Julie Timm
401 S Jackson Street
Seattle, WA 98104
Dear CEO Timm, Board Chair Constantine, and other leaders,
Sound Transit is currently working on a proposal that will significantly impact our CID community for 100 years. We were appalled by the way in which both the original 4th and 5th avenue options did not adequately address the displacement pressures in our community that will be generated over time from the new light rail line. Significant amounts of displacement pressures are inherent to light rail expansions. These options added to the burden through significant traffic disruptions, road closures, and dust from construction impacts. In the case of 4th Ave. South, roughly 9 to 11 years of impacts will surely harm property owners, businesses, community organizations, and residents. Some people will be displaced from the community because of these construction impacts. Our values lead us to write our DEIS letter with a focus on physical, economic, and cultural displacement, along with other concerns for the health, safety, and well-being of the community members we serve. When the North and South station options were revealed, we were intrigued based on our values and the topics above.
We saw the potential for these new station locations to remove damage to the CID compared to the 4th avenue station location. The potential TOD development opportunities could also help push back against displacement pressures in the area and possibly provide affordable housing in a community where many are either living in lower quality housing or simply locked out of the opportunity to live near the CID due to cost. However, we still had questions for Sound Transit staff about various details of these options and the process overall. After our discussion with Sound Transit staff, we have come to this conclusion.
InterIm CDA supports the Sound Transit board in choosing the North and South station locations to serve our CID community. We are making this choice because, based on our values, we believe this is the best option for the community.
· This combination maintains regional connectivity to all three Sound Transit lines, allowing CID community members to utilize the 1, 2, or 3 lines.
· This combination keeps the stations accessible to and serving the CID, providing access to light rail for community members.
· This combination makes construction duration significantly shorter with significantly less potential impact due to distance. This will harm fewer residents, businesses, property owners, and community organizations and help reduce one specific avenue for displacement.
· This combination allows for a significant opportunity for equitable transit-oriented development and open space, benefits direly needed that could be utilized by the CID community.
These options have the potential to reduce significant harm to CID. In combination with the equitable transit-oriented development opportunities, these new options significantly impact addressing displacement in the CID related to this project.
This does not eliminate our overall concern about physical, economic, and cultural displacement related to any light rail project in proximity to the CID or in addressing past harms committed to the community. Many other details still need to be addressed to make these stations optimal for the community. Sound transit must act on the fact that it is working in a community at high risk for displacement and its own racial equity commitments. We still believe that even if the North and South station locations are chosen, there still needs to be a strong mitigation and community benefits discussion which, amongst other items, implements a Community Based Affordable Housing and Affordable Commercial Space Framework.
We look forward to the next phase of the West Seattle to Ballard Link Extension project and are proud of the community for making its voice heard. Sound Transit must reduce harm while still providing transit benefits. Regardless of the station location chosen, we will continue to work with the community and Sound Transit, along with other government stakeholders, to produce the best outcome for the community.
InterIm CDA