Blog – Puget Sound Sage

What will the CID look like 100 years from now?

Puget Sound Sage is part of the GREAT for All CID coalition, a collective of BIPOC organizations, small business owners, grassroots groups, workers and tenants who come together to discuss equitable transit-oriented development and land stewardship in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

We envision a Chinatown-International District that remains stable and prosperous for our working class, immigrant and multiracial communities.

As a coalition, we call on the City of Seattle, King County and Sound Transit to undo the institutional harms of generations past that have seen the Chinatown-International District simply as a place to get through for other people, with little care for the people who call the neighborhood home. We call for a North South option for Sound Transit station location, which allows the neighborhood to grow and thrive for working class communities for the next 100 years.

The Chinatown-International District, like Seattle, should remain livable and affordable for communities that are poor, working class and whose labor and presence keep this city vibrant, cultural and authentic. Learn more about our vision here.

Check out our new website to read more about our vision for the future and how you can get involved, including upcoming advocacy and organizing opportunities. Our website is available in English, Chinese, and Vietnamese.

Seattle’s progressive tax revenue is DOUBLE what’s initially projected – what does it mean?

Since the progressive tax was first passed in 2020, revenue from JumpStart has been solely dedicated to funding critical community services with a long-term spending plan on affordable housing, climate resilience and equitable development programs. JumpStart has become the single largest source of funding for affordable housing in Seattle, accounting for $240 million of the Office of Housing budget between 2022 and 2023. It is also the only funding source for community environmental justice programs, and has become a major funding source in nearly 35 community-led projects intended to root families in place and fight displacement in a city with an ever-skyrocketing cost of living.

JumpStart is a progressive tax on big businesses, specifically those with at least $8 million in annual payroll. It was initially projected to make $227 million by 2024, but as we near the end of the year, it is poised to make $440 million.

Every budget season Mayor Harrell has attempted to take money made from the JumpStart revenue to rebalance the city budget. This incoming budget cycle Harrell plans to change the legislation altogether, changing JumpStart’s spending restriction so the City can use it to backfill the city’s general fund. With this, Harrell also plans to increase the budget of the Seattle Police Department by $60 million.

A drastic increase of this revenue means that the disparity between rich and poor in Seattle is greater than ever before. What is needed is not more policing or encampment sweeps, but a doubling down on investments towards social safety nets, equitable community-driven projects and climate resilience programs to make sure no one is left behind in the name of “progress”.

Puget Sound Sage, along with a broad coalition of progressive organizations, are advocating to stop this proposed legislation. Stay tuned for more updates on JumpStart during this budget season!

The Equitable Development Initiative officially launches in King County!

After four years of community led visioning, strategy, planning, and advocacy, our council members chose to invest in our communities. This fall, King County councilmembers motioned to release the $1 million already promised to the King County Equitable Development Initiative, and officially launch the Initiative.

Councilmembers spoke to the need to ensure the continuation of the program, and to find a permanent funding source to expand the Initiative. As Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda says, investment in Equitable Development Initiatives has “a multiplier effect of creating not only housing stability, but economic stability. Preventing economic and housing displacement for our community is good for the return of the county. It’s good for the health of our county population. And it’s good for the future stability of our region as a whole.”

What’s next? The passage at the King County Council is an important step in the right direction. The King County EDI Coalition will continue to advocate and ensure that the promises in the motion are fulfilled. Councilmembers need to secure long-term funding for the initiative, and we will be working to ensure they secure the necessary funding to expand EDI so our communities can bloom. $1 million for the Equitable Development Initiative plants the seeds, $100 million lets us bloom!

In this booklet, we highlight three stories from across King County:

Across King County, BIPOC communities are seeding equitable development projects in urban communities and rural communities. They are seeding housing, cultural, community centers, agricultural and conservation projects.

We share the stories of the Congolese Integration Network, the PNW BIPOC Farmland Trust, and Na’ah Ilahee Fund—to show the great need to support equitable development and root BIPOC communities in place across the county. Read the stories here.

A web version is also available to view! The stories we’ve included showcase the vision, determination, and challenges these projects face and how the King County EDI provides a foundation for these projects to grow. With a well funded King County Equitable Development Initiative, these projects can truly bloom!

Public Land in Public Hands: Housing, Transit, and Thriving Communities

Editor's Note: This blog was originally published by PowerSwitch Action. Puget Sound Sage is an affiliate organization of PowerSwitch Action (PSA). We re-posted the blog in full because of the great content and insight provided by Christina Rosales, PSA's Housing and Land Justice Director. Our Executive Director, Christina Shimizu, was part of the group that visited Vienna and Berlin in Spring 2024.

Check out the original blog post here.

Learn about our Community Stewardship of Land Framework here!

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Public Land in Public Hands: Housing, Transit, and Thriving Communities

By Christina Rosales, Housing and Land Justice Director, PowerSwitch Action

Earlier this year we brought a delegation of housing organizers and elected leaders from across the country on a trip to Vienna and Berlin to learn about community-controlled housing models. After meeting with city officials and tenant organizers, touring different social housing projects, and gaining practical guidance, we returned home with three big lessons:

1. 1. Put land in public hands
  2. Let people govern it
  3. Make it high quality and beautiful

Months later, the folks who came with us to Vienna and Berlin are putting those lessons into practice across our network. Here are some of their reflections from the trip and updates from campaigns they’re working on in their cities:

Laying the groundwork for social housing in Chicago
Our affiliate Grassroots Collaborative is a member of the Illinois Green New Deal (ILGND) Coalition, which helped to secure a $115-$135 million Green Social Housing Revolving Fund earlier this year. Santera Matthews, coordinator for the ILGND Coalition, joined our trip and noted how the experience gave her a deeper understanding of the power of municipalities to invest in the common good.

In Santera’s words, “seeing the energy-efficient homes in Seestadt [a new neighborhood development on publicly-owned land] and hearing from campaigners fighting to expropriate Berlin’s largest landlord showed me what’s possible when communities build people power. This trip inspired our work to continue to push for green social housing in Illinois, ensuring sustainability and equity go hand-in-hand in our campaigns. We’re committed to building on these lessons to transform housing for all.

Now, Grassroots Collaborative and the ILGND Coalition are building momentum around a set of policies and practices for implementing the social housing revolving fund that would ensure social housing is defined clearly as housing for public good. It would provide the community with control over who the housing is for, where it’s built, and ensure it stays affordable to the coalition’s base.

Going up against corporate landlords and real estate groups in Colorado
For the last year, United for a New Economy (UNE) has been educating members and coalition partners about the role of corporate greed in driving up rent prices. They have used strategic research and creative actions to help them make that connection. Instead of targeting elected leaders such as the governor or legislators, UNE has explicitly named the role of corporations and industry groups in blocking tenant protections. Earlier this year, after extensive advocacy, tenant organizing, and policy work, UNE helped to win For Cause Eviction, a major victory for renters across the state.

In Berlin, organizers with the Deutsche Wohnen & Co. enteignen (DWE) campaign shared how they have built a popular narrative that corporations are to blame for the city’s housing problems. Carmen Medrano, executive director at UNE, said the trip confirmed for her the importance of narrative strategy. In Vienna, government leaders and residents agree that everyone should live in high quality, healthy housing — as a result, policy is made in line with belief. In Berlin, DWE organizers have shaped a clear narrative that Berliners can hold corporations accountable and co-govern to make sure that housing meets their needs. “In Colorado, we’re focusing on the narrative that our communities need housing to thrive, that it can be beautiful, and that our policies and public dollars can and should support that,” said Carmen. Next for UNE is their ongoing fight to win a cap on rent increases from the largest, most influential corporate landlord in Colorado, Greystar, which can then set the standard for other landlords.

… and in California’s East Bay!
For years, our affiliate East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) has been organizing to ensure that public land serves public good, from fighting for affordable housing to having a say in development projects that impact surrounding communities. They’ve supported tenant organizing efforts across the region, established a tenant union in Contra Costa County, and helped to win a Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Ordinance earlier this year in Concord. In Oakland, EBASE and the Oakland United Coalition have been mobilizing residents to ensure that the sale and development of the Oakland Coliseum is done with community input and feedback.

Kristi Laughlin, EBASE’s deputy director of campaigns, noted that Vienna shows what is possible for housing, neighborhoods, and cities when they’re designed to be beautiful, abundant, and centered around peoples’ needs. “It is amazing that almost 70% of the population in Vienna lives in some form of social housing, and that folks of diverse economic backgrounds all live together, achieving ‘social mixity’. I loved the value that Austrian leaders placed on social cohesion. They understood that having people from all walks of life live together and play together helps build bonds that ultimately strengthen social ties and democracy. Since coming back, here at EBASE we are doing more to educate ourselves on social housing and what it means for our context. We see an opportunity to advocate for affordable, community-owned housing at the Coliseum site."

Putting public land in public hands for transportation, housing, and more in Nashville
“People in Nashville are stressed the f#ck out,” said Michael Callahan-Kapoor, deputy director at our affiliate Stand Up Nashville (SUN). “I think a lot of it comes from trying to survive in a city that needs us, but doesn’t take our needs seriously.” Michael reflected on his time in Vienna and Berlin, noting that “it just feels different when people and their needs are at the center of a project’s planning, design, and investment decisions. Building mixed-income housing next to childcare, cultural spaces, pedestrian and bike paths, parks and playgrounds, small businesses that serve the community, transit hubs, and quality schools profoundly shifts the social cohesion of a neighborhood. We know things will look different [in Nashville], but experiencing this firsthand has broadened my horizon of what is possible as we work on repurposing public land for community needs and dreams."

SUN is a leading member of Shift Nashville, a newly formed coalition working to change how community needs are heard and prioritized, particularly when it comes to decisions around public land. The coalition is currently organizing around a transit referendum on the November ballot, which would overhaul the city’s transportation system and provide an unprecedented opportunity to invest in community priorities. Shift Nashville is focused on winning equitable access to a quality transportation system, but is also about community decision-making and control of public land. The coalition is pushing for community input on a development plan that would ensure affordable housing, good jobs, climate-resilient infrastructure, public green spaces, and more.

Transforming agricultural work with farmworker-led coops and land trusts
In California’s Ventura County, our affiliate Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) has been supporting farmworker organizing for years, helping to create a Farmworker Resource Program and fighting alongside leaders and workers to win a farmworker living wage. Now, in one of the country’s top agricultural regions, workers and organizers in Ventura are envisioning a new future for the industry, one that is restorative, just, and driven by farmworker-led cooperative and land trusts.

CAUSE, Líderes Campesinas, and Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project have been working in partnership with farmworker leaders and advocacy groups to explore ways for farmworkers and communities to own and steward their land collectively. Their recent report highlights policy recommendations to achieve this vision, as well as the possible intersections between public conservation of land, sustainable farming methods, and healthy, thriving communities. Lucas Zucker, co-executive director at CAUSE, remarked that “Vienna showed us what is possible with political will and resources,” and that “Berlin reminded us to be bold, joyful, and push the boundaries of the ways our organizations are structured in the US to allow more organic leadership.”

Building the muscle and mechanisms for community stewardship of land in Seattle
Several years ago, recognizing the ongoing displacement of BIPOC communities in Seattle and King County as growing tech companies drew expensive development and highly-paid workers, Puget Sound Sage developed a framework and body of work around community stewardship of land (CSL). This framework calls for campaigns and policies that enable community groups to collectively own and steward land and housing. Christina Shimizu, executive director at Sage took inspiration from Vienna’s emphasis on using dedicated revenue to support its robust housing system. The Viennese model of housing associations building beautiful communities is similar to what Sage envisions for community stewardship of land.

The CSL framework, which echoes values found in Vienna’s housing system, has shaped Sage’s work in developing and winning the creation of the Equitable Development Initiative for the City of Seattle and King County. These initiatives provide resources to community groups that are building housing and cultural spaces to help preserve community roots.

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Our delegation to Vienna and Berlin left feeling inspired and energized, with a vision for a housing system designed with people and communities’ needs front and center. These lessons will continue to inform and show up in campaigns happening in cities all across our network. We know that community control of land and housing is central to our vision of multiracial feminist democracy and economies, where everyday people govern our shared resources and have a say in the decisions that impact our lives.

The Call for a Free Palestine is a Call for Freedom Everywhere

At Puget Sound Sage, we organize for a living economy where Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities thrive and live in a sustainable relationship with land. Our purpose is rooted in a belief that justice for workers, climate and land are inextricably tied and that solidarity with Indigenous and colonized people is what directly challenges the continued exploitation of our people and our planet. Guided by these fundamental principles and the belief that all people deserve dignity; we join in Solidarity with the people of Palestine.

We fight for a world where land is not a commodity to be owned, dominated, and used to exploit others, but rather where the world’s precious gifts are shared amongst us all. Amidst racialized capitalism and settler colonialism, we know that economic violence and physical violence are used to maintain land and resources only for the few. This is true on Duwamish and Coast Salish land, and it is true in Palestine.

On a strip of land roughly the size of Seattle, 25,000 tons of explosives, the equivalent to two nuclear bombs, have been dropped, killing more than one in every 200 people in Gaza, half of whom are children. Last week, Seattle’s City Council joined cities across the nation in passing a resolution calling for a ceasefire. Thousands of people across Washington state have protested the genocide committed by the Israeli government. It is time for our Congressional representatives to listen to the pleas of the overwhelming majority of their constituents demanding a permanent ceasefire, an end to all military aid to the Israeli government, and to condemn the root causes of this moment: the ongoing Israeli apartheid and occupation of Palestine.

Seattle is home to many of the world’s largest multinational corporations like Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing, Google and Expedia that directly supply arms to Israel and profit from Israel’s apartheid, brutal settler colonialism and the continued bloodshed of Palestinian people. We lift up the Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions to End all Complicity and Stop Arming Israel and affirm the Palestinian-led movement calling for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) to stop the flow of billions of US dollars from fueling the Israeli war machine.

Standing with Funders for Ceasefire, Puget Sound Sage also “envisions a world where Palestinians live with freedom, dignity, and equality, with true safety for Palestinian people and Jewish people and a just peace in the region. In the face of so much pain and suffering, we call forth our deepest sense of humanity and justice, to build this possibility together, because we know that none of us are free until all of us are free.”

Join us now to take action against genocide and Tell Congress to End Complicity with Biden’s Genocide.

A Free Palestine is Worker Justice

Israeli bombing assaults on Gaza, which have occurred more than four other times before the latest assault, have targeted factories, warehouses and industrial facilities, pushing more than 45% of Palestinian workers into unemployment and more than 81% of Gazans into poverty. In recent weeks, Israel has attacked vital infrastructure including electrical generators, solar energy units, and more than 70 industrial facilities, resulting in 182,000 lost Palestinian jobs. So long as Gaza remains under the siege and occupation of Israel, there is no justice for workers.

A Free Palestine is Climate Justice

The Israeli war on Gaza is an environmental disaster on top of an existing environmental disaster. Clean water, clean air, food security, open space, and uncontaminated soil are core environmental rights that Israel has been denying Palestinians for decades and is now making worse through bombardment of Gaza. As staunch proponents of environmental and climate justice, we must demand that the rights to access, steward, and preserve environmental resources for future generations be returned to Palestinians through an end to the occupation.

A Free Palestine is Land Justice

Beginning with the mass dispossession and displacement of Palestinians, in what Palestinians call the Nakba (“catastrophe”) in 1948, Israel has used armed violence and economic violence to remove Palestinians from land their families have stewarded for centuries. The Israeli war on Gaza is yet another Nakba, which has displaced more than 1.68 million Palestinians through Israel’s ‘evacuation order’ and continued carpet bombing of all of Gaza.

We know that all our struggles for liberation are interconnected – our struggles to fight displacement and rectify dispossession in King County are addressing the same root systems of oppression as the Palestinian struggle for freedom. We envision a world of just and lasting peace and safety for Palestinian, Indigenous, Black, People of Color, Muslim and Jewish people. Our liberations are bound in each other; none of us are free until all of us are free.

art by Natalie Hinahara

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.