After weathering a budget scare, Seattle’s Equitable Development Initiative is growing, with $22 million in new awards aimed at combating displacement and anchoring communities of color.
This installment of housing notes contains mix of high and low notes, but we’ll kick things off with story that hits the upper octaves. After years of hardwork, Africatown Community Land Trust and partner Community Roots Housing broke ground on their plaza project at 23rd and Spring in Seattle
Community engagement continues to inform design plans for new developments at 23rd and Union in the Central District Last summer more than 200 volunteers participated in a painting project that transformed the empty parking lots and shuttered buildings of Midtown Center into the Imagine Africatown Pop-Up Plaza. The project announced
Lake Union Partners’ mega-project will bring the most sweeping change yet to an intersection with a complicated past. In 2009, a group of artists, journalists, and community activists erected an open air photography and audio recording installation on an abandoned lot on the corner of 23rd and Union. Simply called
Supporters hope that the building represents a future in which the African-American community can heal from losses suffered during the controversial “Weed and Seed” years. Last week’s ribbon cutting for the new Liberty Bank Building in the Central District featured an impressive list of influential Seattleites as speakers. Even
This is the second part of a two-part series. The first part is here. When we live in an environment which is dominated by ideas and actions that are contrary to our well-being, then we have to design spaces and places that are conducive to and promote our well-being. —Wyking
A year has passed since Africatown Community Land Trust acquired a twenty percent ownership stake of the land parcel at 23rd and Union in the Central District, and during this time Africatown has been busy designing its future. Fundamental to Africatown’s design approach is the creation and facilitation of
The fate of much disputed MidTown Center may finally be decided. Lake Union Partners closed the deal yesterday on the coveted property with a $23.25 million bid. Moreover, the developer agreed to sell 20% of the parcel to the conservation non-profit Forterra who has partnered with Africatown with the
Everyone who cares about affordable housing and equitable, community-driven development should be paying attention to 23rd and Union in the Central District. The developments around that intersection showcase a variety of approaches to affordability, community involvement and equitable development. Taken together, the projects and the organizations behind them are some
Right before snow coated the Emerald City’s streets on Thursday, more than a hundred housing advocates gathered at the Central Library to hear a panel titled “Building Affordability Through Community Ownership”. Councilmember Mike O’Brien and Puget Sound Sage Director Rebecca Saldaña (who was just appointed 37th Legislative District
Central District residents filed into Washington Hall auditorium on Monday to hear about four mixed-use projects and focus on maximizing the community’s benefit from each. The event was named Imagine Africatown Update after the grassroots Africatown campaign that has emerged around Black empowerment in Seattle. Thinking long-term, host K.