We don’t have confirmation from police yet but Central District activist Wyking Garrett of Umojafest Peace Center says that a situation at the old Horace Mann school Friday afternoon has resulted in arrests.
According to police radio dispatches, SPD was called to the school now leased by private operator People’s Family Life Center Friday afternoon for a report of a group of people who refused to leave the premises after a meeting was canceled.
Garret tweeted the following message about the situation at 3:26p:
——If I understand correctly, certain protestors were claiming that the banks somehow went out of their way to support the “gentrification” of the CD, in some nasty attempt to hurt African American home owners. I think there are sufficient CD residents of African American linage, to feel the same impact of this economic down turn as the rest of us. I also wonder if those that actually sold their homes when the market was hot, are bemoning that choise?
——-Hard economic times effect all of us, and I do not see how protesting at a private school is going to make that situation better for any of us. Make it tough enough and that private school may relocate to a safer location, leaving that wonderful building vacant, and to be maintained at tax payor expense again.
The building is pretty much vacant (3 students enrolled after 1 year) and maintained at taxpayer expense ($100,000 from City of Seattle to pilot program that basically duplicates programs at SVI, Goodwill, Seattle Central, Center for Career Alternatives, etc.) . Compare this use to Phinney Ridge Center and University Heights Center. This is NOTt effective utilization of space or resources for maximum community benefit.
Couldn’t the church group have piloted this program in their church? Can we really afford another failed attempt in the name of the youth by people who are completely out of touch with the youth they claim they are going to help?
Help youth be more productive and they will be less destructive and the community can benefit from their genius. Listen to the youth, they actually make sense http://youtu.be/rBNrSOUdAGY
http://www.centraldistrictnews.com/2010/11/16/horace-mann-to
Excellent points. I have been disappointed in the lack of use at this building, especially after the city’s big investment in it. I know it takes time to build a program, but I swear- the only time that building is well used is when a big group of volunteers turn out to work on it.
Where did you find Work it Out enrollment info?
Occupy Seattle uses a process for approval of all actions called the General Assembly. These actions were not approved or even known of by the General Assembly. Approved items are here: http://occupyseattle.org/document/pending-and-past-ga-propos
Just because someone says they are Occupy Seattle, doesn’t mean they are.
Wyking Garrett likes living off the city and being a drama queen. But the city needs to stop this habit of giving away old schools to whatever groups has a supposed problem. It was groundbreaking and radical when the folks who formed El Centro did it, a farce when Garrett and company did it at Coleman (it took the adults to come in clean that one up and get NAAM off the ground) and it will be a joke if they let this one go down.
The old “activists” need to step aside and let the young people do their thing.
Let’s all commit a crime today and act like it is some kind of social movement. Then let’s provoke the police and work towards escalating tension and violence in our city.
Look everyone! I’ve joined the occupy team.
I know, this is not the point of the news bulletin but this really caught my eye.
“The building is pretty much vacant (3 students enrolled after 1 year) and maintained at taxpayer expense ($100,000 from City of Seattle to pilot program that basically duplicates programs at SVI, Goodwill, Seattle Central, Center for Career Alternatives, etc.) “
omg, omg, OMG! When is this craziness going to stop? Who in the school district is accountable for this? Does Susan Enfield even know?! When Garfield is overcrowded, there is a school building barely a block away that is vacant? When SPS is facing incredible budget cuts, and even to the point of considering cutting the school year short because of funding (this was a real topic of discussion at the end of a panel discussion at the League Of Women Voters on Nov.1. http://www.seattlelwv.org/…) they have money to spend on this program at a vacant school?!
I cannot understand and it outrages me that a group is getting over 100K/year to run a program with 3 people in it. Maybe, and probably, I don’t know all the details but I sure hope someone is looking into this.
Did Silas Potter have his hand in this one too?
ok. I stand corrected. The money of 100K is not from SPS, but from a Seattle neighborhood matching grant. However, SPS still owns the school and i hope is taking into account what progress is being made with the program. I think it has good goals, but on the outside, seems to be floundering. any input would be welcome.
And in regards to the occupy seattle movement there? Puh-leeezze. Please, don’t make their jobs harder.
I am so underwater right now. I wish the banks would give someone a big loan to buy my house so I could get out of here.
lost their space but unfortunately not done annoying the CD.
That is the point and issue of contention as outlined here http://youtu.be/rBNrSOUdAGY. This group should be on an episode of EXTREME HOARDERS. There are more classrooms than students!…I think they misinterpreted the meaning of “smaller classroom sizes.”
Don’t be mad at the whistleblowers, be thankful for them. This is a disservice to the youth, neighborhood and Black community. Failures like these give others a sense of justification to throw their hands up and say…”see we gave them the resources to do something” when in reality they give the resources to those who do nothing over and over and the result is underdeveloped people who make up an underdeveloped community that is unsafe due to self destructive activities of its underdeveloped members.
Why is there always money and resources for ineffective initiatives (solutions that don’t solve) dealing with issues/problems in the Black community? And why are those who say they want change most often in support of status quo?
I see your point, but I think aligning yourselves with the occupy seattle movement is not the way to go. Unfortunately, its getting a bad wrap. Do you want that for your organization too? Be smart about it.
I think your mission for the UPC is great. Rather than have the kids protest, have them produce positive work to make their point. That will go a long way.
Mostly what I got from your video is “I want..” and “we deserve…” just because a place is empty. Why? What work/creative accomplishment/positive humanitarian deed have you done that would make anyone – the general public, Seattle Public Schools, Work It Out, or any other yet to be named group – feel that this is needed for you to continue the good work you are doing?
In other words, do and show good work. The WHY of your work will show through and you will easily convince others to expand your mission. Demanding it, with nothing real to show, will get you nowhere fast.
This one is undereused too, and we all know how it was basically given away.
It would be great to see the Work it Out program find a way to engage and collaborate with the UPC program and youth. They have excellent programming that could add value to WIO.
I personally believe public funds should be used for collaboration and inclusion- the more the merrier! Perhaps the UPC youth could contribute to the “sweat equity” I know the WIO staff has/does put in through service activities to maintain the space…
Sounds like it could be a “win-win” situation to me. By the way, these young people in the video link above are brilliant!
QUESTIONS
1. Who Founded Washington State?
2. Where Black People quarantined to The Central Area, or segregated?
3. Which so called racial groups are indigenous to the country called America?
QUESTIONS
Please research the above stated questions you answer them questions correctly, you will be able to distinguish who is a colonizer (part of a criminal settler colony) and who rightfully belongs here in the Central Area.
Why did UMOJA take Horus Mann?
1. Because the people known as “Work It Out” are misusing it. They have received over $100,000 (from the Department of Neighborhoods) and more space than they can use.
2. They refuse to allow other community groups to come in and share the building.
3. The group we are talking about is called “Work it Out” they are members of a church called The People’s Institutional Church. They have 6 students and no full time teachers.
4. We have over 300 youth we work with. We have never received a grant as large as $100,000. We have never had a building as large as The Horace Mann building. However, we continue to provide programs that compliment the interests of the youth we work with.
5. Schools are a organizing point for families and communities. When you move a school you destabilize a community. TT, Minor was closed and given to a white group from outside the community. Meany was given to NOVA a white alternative school.
6. On November 11th 2011 at 3:00pm at the Horus Mann School we attended their meeting and explained to them our concerns. We had about 40 people with us. Many of the people who came with them stepped in our direction and encouraged them to work with us, still they refused.
7. It is clear that we have a vision for the future and they have a vision from the past.
We have the interest of the youth, while they have the interest of the planless and landless.
8. We have watched invaders take Madison, Union and a large portion of The Central District, and we will not allow them to continue this conquest of our home.
9. We have spoken with the mayor (Mike Mc Guinn) as well as council members to explain to them how this building is being misused and misappropriated. Still they have made it clear that it will take the people to liberate this learning center and all institutions that have been stolen from the people.
10. As of today November 12, 2011 they wrote in THE FACTS NEWSPAPER that they intend to put a church in THE HORUS MANN bldg. The central District has almost as many churches as it has businesses. The people who represent the future do not see how this will contribute to the future of our children.
Article 26 (OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS)
Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.
Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Stand with us to liberate this educational facility to use it for the purpose which Horus Mann (the father of public education) would want it to be used for “to teach Freedom, Justice and Equality to the Human Family of The Planet Earth.”
We celebrate this day in which The Human Family rejects poor education and stands as one to advocate EDUCATO (a Latin word meaning to bring out what is within).
We understand that our oldest ancestors in this country tried this so called indoctrination counterfeit education and have received nothing but homelessness, hunger, slavery suffering and death also were beaten and killed by the ones who advocated this.
So we found that the only people who will grant our human right to education is HUMAN’S.
So anyone who opposes our right as stated above “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children“ is inhuman and working against the good of humanity.
AMEN
You sound like the 1%. Or just the movement police.
Do we have to ask your permission to pass gas as well?
There are many many many police. Most of them are in people’s
heads. If you really understood what this was about you would
be standing with us.
“Remember when you open up your mouth your brain is on display”.
I don’t see anything in your display case?
AMEN
Why did UMOJA take Horus Mann?
1. Because the people known as “Work It Out” are misusing it. They have received over $100,000 (from the Department of Neighborhoods) and more space than they can use.
2. They refuse to allow other community groups to come in and share the building.
3. The group we are talking about is called “Work it Out” they are members of a church called The People’s Institutional Church. They have 6 students and no full time teachers.
4. We have over 300 youth we work with. We have never received a grant as large as $100,000. We have never had a building as large as The Horace Mann building. However, we continue to provide programs that compliment the interests of the youth we work with.
5. Schools are a organizing point for families and communities. When you move a school you destabilize a community. TT, Minor was closed and given to a white group from outside the community. Meany was given to NOVA a white alternative school.
6. On November 11th 2011 at 3:00pm at the Horus Mann School we attended their meeting and explained to them our concerns. We had about 40 people with us. Many of the people who came with them stepped in our direction and encouraged them to work with us, still they refused.
7. It is clear that we have a vision for the future and they have a vision from the past.
We have the interest of the youth, while they have the interest of the planless and landless.
8. We have watched invaders take Madison, Union and a large portion of The Central District, and we will not allow them to continue this conquest of our home.
9. We have spoken with the mayor (Mike Mc Guinn) as well as council members to explain to them how this building is being misused and misappropriated. Still they have made it clear that it will take the people to liberate this learning center and all institutions that have been stolen from the people.
10. As of today November 12, 2011 they wrote in THE FACTS NEWSPAPER that they intend to put a church in THE HORUS MANN bldg. The central District has almost as many churches as it has businesses. The people who represent the future do not see how this will contribute to the future of our children.
Article 26 (OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS)
Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.
Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Stand with us to liberate this educational facility to use it for the purpose which Horus Mann (the father of public education) would want it to be used for “to teach Freedom, Justice and Equality to the Human Family of The Planet Earth.”
We celebrate this day in which The Human Family rejects poor education and stands as one to advocate EDUCATO (a Latin word meaning to bring out what is within).
We understand that our oldest ancestors in this country tried this so called indoctrination counterfeit education and have received nothing but homelessness, hunger, slavery suffering and death also were beaten and killed by the ones who advocated this.
So we found that the only people who will grant our human right to education is HUMAN’S.
So anyone who opposes our right as stated above “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children“ is inhuman and working against the good of humanity.
AMEN
“If you disagree with me you are not human”. Classic AMEN. Aside from being a raging lunatic, I almost respect the concepts you espouse. But I’m pretty sure allowing you to qualify who is human and who is not would be pretty dangerous. So I discount you opinion antirely and declare that you are yourself not human. This is certainly true as it is spoken by the All Knowing Know It All. Me.
Amen –
Have you ever heard the phrase “The pot calling the kettle black”? It is an idiom used to accuse a person of being guilty of the very thing of which they accuse another.
Pot – meet Kettle.
@Linda
Three students = school? That’s not even a class.
Don’t you think it would have been a better use of resources to pilot their program in their church building?
Then if their program was successful and outgrew their church building they could seek more space.
Also you should familiarize yourself with:
Covenants
Redlining
Predatory Lending
Lastly, the situation will be better for everyone if the building is activated in a way that adds positive culture and activity to the community thus making it safer.
@coffeecup thanks for having an open mind. I am assuming you live in the neighborhood.
And thank you for highlighting the need for us to better communicate about our activities and successes to the community.
Have you attended the Umoja Festival & Parade which provides 30-40 jobs per summer for youth in the neighborhood to develop hands on experience with project planning/management, sales and marketing skills?
Here you can see some history of other programs.
http://www.centraldistrictnews.com/2010/12/01/christmas-tree
UmojaFest P.E.A.C.E. Center is a positive force in helping at-risk youth discover and develop their potential.
@ perspective –
“Don’t you think it would have been a better use of resources to pilot their program in their church building?”
What is the church they are affiliated with? I can’t seem to find that info on their webpage or any of the articles written about them.
“Lastly, the situation will be better for everyone if the building is activated in a way that adds positive culture and activity to the community thus making it safer.”
Well said. I could not agree more, nor could most of the people here in the CD. Black, white, yellow or green. The key is finding a way to work with them and not against them. You do that and you both will succeed – tenfold. But teaching kids to protest, with out just cause, is wrong. If WIO was awarded a neighborhood matching grant of 100K they did’t get it because they had a sit-in. They, somebody, wrote a full fledged grant application, had proof of matching funds/and or work hours and submitted it it successfully.
Sure, it probably boils your blood to see a building essentially vacant, when you have a vision for what could be. But use that energy – have your kids/students learn to apply for a grant. A neighborhood matching grant. Its not as glory filled, and immediately satisfying as a rap song, but I bet they will A. learn a lot of valuable skills, and B. make a bigger statement. Then they can write the coolest song ever about how they persevered and won.
Teach them to collaborate, not instigate.
And, lose Amen to your cause. He/She is not doing you any favors.
“Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research”
-Malcolm X
If you do not know the history of something or someone than you will not understand the nature of it’s existence. The history is of NAAM is so corrupt, that to lie on them would be an act of mercy.
However most of us would rather have twistory, than true history. After you have internalized too many lies, I guess you start believing them. NAAM is a institution built upon a false premise. Does the jewish holocaust museum in DC have condominiums within it?
QUESTIONS
-Why does the museum close at 4.30pm?
-Why is there a church in the Black Museum?
-Why is a FBI agent the Director?
-Who thinks this is a good use of public funds?
I see Wyking has arrived.
How about this, buddy? When you present the deeds to all the land that has been “occupied”, showing your ownership, we’ll stop regarding you as a lunatic who is a drain on the city pension fund.
Until then, don’t you have a lamppost to scream at somewhere?
It is completely disingenuous to state ” Meany was given to NOVA a white alternative school.” NOVA was forced out of the Horace Mann building and moved to Meany, much to the dismay and horror of the Nova students. And, I am not white and I went to Nova after I failed out of Garfield for truancy, mostly. Nova is a Seattle Public Schools alternative school located at Horace Mann since the 1970’s! Nova was FORCED out, evicting your supposed white kids from the center of the CD and forcing them out of the hood. I’d think you’d be happy that happened from the tone of your post!
” We have watched invaders take Madison, Union and a large portion of The Central District, and we will not allow them to continue this conquest of our home.”
Wow. You’re a profound racist. Invaders? Welcome to how the Japanese and the Italians felt when the black population moved in to what was once their neighborhood. The CD is no longer majority black. Why? Because during the housing boom folks took the money and ran from the houses they inherited from their grandparents, and sold to white folks. Welcome to how how the hood had evolved over time – one group giving way to another, until what you have is a true melting pot. Stow your nasty racism. It’s outdated and tired.
AMEN!
So true. Nova didn’t ask to be moved. In fact, students, staff and parents voiced their concerns over the closure of Meany and other schools and programs. They testified at meetings, petitioned, sent letters, had meetings, went to the press, rallied and marched…
Hey Amen– Nova shares the Meany building with the SPS Secondary Bi-lingual Orientation Center- a program for recent immigrants. They didn’t want to be moved from QA or displace Meany either.
My point is not to indict or criminalize the NOVA students. Rather my point is to highlight the lack of resources available for specific populations such as BLACK YOUTH in the Central Area.
I don’t have any wicked vindetta against NOVA.
The majority of kids who go to NOVA are white? Correct or incorrect?
I want to see everyone be able to have their fair share of resources. These resources include space, budget and the right to education.
No racism only reality.
The racism is the barrier’s that are thrown in the way when people have to go above and beyond the call of duty to share a building in the community that they call home.
PEACE
This title is directed to the people who come in the community and only interact with us 3rd or 4th generation residents when they call the police.
Or the people who go and complain to neighborhood council meeting’s instead of talking to the kids they call loiterer’s. If there are not enough community programs, where do we expect to find them?
I am looking for the people who want to find new solutions to old problems. If we keep doing what we have been doing. We keep getting what we have been getting.
PEACE
After reading the article and postings here, it is obvious that Garrett is trying to usurp the name of a movement that has some support. To say that OS is protesting at Mann is very misleading.
The people protesting identified themselves as members of Occupy Seattle, used OS methods of organizing (such as the People’s Mic and some popular chants) and were staying at the OS camp.
I’ll change the headline to reflect that protesters were from Occupy Seattle and Umojafest instead of implying that the action was coordinated and endorsed by the OS process. However, it would not be accurate to remove OS entirely, since the action was clearly tied to it (amid disagreement or not).
And Amen!
what in the hell are you talking about. Did you flunk out of 5th grade history? Black folks didn’t come to the CD by choice any more than Italians or another European ethnicity came to this country. The reason that most European descended people left the CD originally was because they developed the incomes to do so during segregation when black people couldn’t get the same jobs. additionally, the CD was redlined just like other ghetto neighborhoods in American at the same time period.
the only reason that rich white people (not poor white people) are in the CD is because property values shot up forcing poor people both black and white but mostly white out of the neighborhood. Thats called gentrification and institutional racism.
amen.
Wrong Lucascrtr!
Nobody was ever forced out because the house values went up. This fear mogering horse crap has been the prime dribble for years. Of course we all saw the storm trropers comming through kicking down doors and throwing peopke out.
What happened is that the area had a one of the largest middle class back home owners in the US. When the LA gangs arrived the middle class black moved because the police did nothing to stop the crime, containing it here in the CD, to keep it from spreading to other Seattle neighborhoods. Thse middle class blacks did not want their children to be shot by gangs or racially profiled by the Police because they lived in the CD. They had good jobs and owned their homes. They sold and moved to other parts of Seattle, Bellevue and South King County where there were no gangs.
Back then the middle class white and blacks got along well in the CD! Education and economic commonality is what brought the races together here. The poor uneducated black who also lived here hated the new white and the middle class black alike. No different than poor uneducated whites hating middle class whites and blacks in predominatly poor white neighborhoods. It was not a racial clash but an economic and educational difference that has been the root of clashes.
SEATTLE YOUTH RALLY TO PROTECT PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING
FROM PRIVATIZATION AND CONDOS
by Leith Kahl
The downsizing and privatizing of education in the US is a brutally physical process. Perhaps nowhere was this more clear than in Seattle´s Central Area on Veterans Day, when a crowd of young people refused to leave a public meeting about the future of a public school building at 24th and Cherry, which has sat vacant since the end of 2008. Police were called to eject the public from the building, and one youth and one community elder were arrested and charged with “tresspassing” and “disorderly conduct”.
An advertisement in the The Facts Newspaper had clearly invited the general public to this meeting. The meeting called by the leaders of an organization called “Family Life Center”, a ministry of Peoples Institutional Baptist Church, which also sometimes does business under the name “Work It Out”.
This entity was awarded a lease on the building by the Seattle Public School District about a year and a half ago, even though their lease bid was neither the highest bid, nor was it a bid that contained any committment to the school district to use the building for any purpose relating to public education. Their were other bids which did offer such an explicit committment, including one from the nearby Umojafest Peace Center which has a track record of turning blighted buildings into vibrant centers of community programming with almost no budget at all.
The United For Youth Coalition, a coalition of which the Umojafest Peace Center is a member, called upon its members and supporters to attend this public meeting and voice their concerns, which they did. When the “Work It Out” entity reacted to the presence of these youth by first cancelling the meeting, and then asking the Seattle Police Department to eject the public from the building, the Coalition responded by staging a protest on the sidewalk immediately outside of the building. Some members of Occupy Seattle and other local groups also attended both the meeting and the protest which followed it.
In the significant time that has passed since the “Work It Out” entity was awarded the lease on the property by the school district, the impressive building and the grounds around it have continued to sit fenced, empty and vacant, except for a few occasional days when work parties of volunteers organized by the Umojafest Peace Center were allowed into the building by “Work It Out” officers to perform the grunt work of cleaning up the facility. Although the “Work It Out” entity holds the lease and the keys, it has no budget of its own sufficient to pay for the lease that was awarded to it, and is only able to make the payments on this lease by means of a public grant of over $100,000 that it is recieving from the City of Seattle´s Department of Neighborhoods. The “Work It Out” entity has also recently announced in The Facts Newspaper that a religious organization will be moving into the building.
The Seattle Public School District has already established its reputation for privatizing public buildings this year, and for doing so in a manner that has become infamous for intrigue and cronyism. The most well know example was the controversial sale of Martin Luther King elementary school to a private religious organization, which in turn was issued public funds with which to purchase the now vacant and derilect school. (See Seattle Times article June 5th, 2011 “State investigates Seattle district´s sale of MLK school” – seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015242396_mlk06m.html ).
As a matter of fact, the Seattle Schoold District even has a page on its website dedicated to the “property leasing and sales of closed school buildings”:
http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?sessio . “The Seattle Public Schools leases out portions of operating school buildings, closed buildings, and conducts sales of surplus buildings from time to time”, this website proudly proclaims.
The very idea that a public school district would use the term “surplus” to describe any of its facilities at a time when prisons and detention centers are still being rapidly constructed throughout the country displays a certain degree of contempt for the public trust that has been invested in this school board. The recent financial scandals that have led to the termination of former superintendent Goodlowe Johnson and the arrest of the scam artist Silas Potter further illustrate the school districts contempt for that public trust.
Is this pattern now repeating itself yet again in the case of the Horace Mann school building?
Why would a building leased to a private organization at public expense proceed to sit vacant for over a year and a half? The reason why becomes apparent, even to the amature investigator, when we simply examine who sits on the “Work It Out” project´s steering committee (workitoutseattle.org/staff.html).
This ten person committee nominally claims to include eight members of the Peoples Institutional Baptist Church community, including Jocquelyn Duncan and Charelyn Stennis (daughters of the late Bertha Jinkens), Charisse Cowan Pitre (an associate professor of Teacher Education at Seattle University), Erin Fleeks (a staff member at the Central Area Senior Center), Loris Blue (Vice President of enrollment at SCCC), and local Seattle DJ Guy Davis.
There are, however only two members of this committee who are directly connected to the Seattle ruling class power structure and the investment capital behind it. These two are Kristen M. Link and Sheryl Frisk, Investement Associate and Vice President, respectively, of a real estate investment and trading firm called LEXAS Companies (www.lexascompanies.com).
LEXAS Companies publicly describes itelf as “a private real estate investment company that creates value in quality projects with distinct competitive advantages” organized to “strategically select geographical areas, submarkets, product, and cycle timing to create superior risk adjusted returns”.
The company website goes on to state the following about its “KEY EXECUTIVE TEAM”:
“The LEXAS Companies is lead by Joseph Strobele, a former senior executive of Legacy Partners and Lincoln Property, Co. along with John Midby, also Chairman of The Midby Companies, a Las Vegas developer with over 40 years experience in developing a diverse array of assets. Additionally, our company recruits, develops and retains only the most highly skilled and experienced professionals. Together our long term experience in several geographical markets along with our expertise in the development field has resulted in an array of successful projects in the Puget Sound region and has poised us to expand even further.”
LEXAS Companies describes its Vice President Sheryl Frisk thusly:
“In the capacity of Vice President, Sheryl Frisk is responsible for the acquisition and management of income producing projects for The LEXAS Companies and its subsidiaries. Sheryl manages all phases of operations of the real estate process, from locating and acquiring assets to the repositioning and disposition of investments. Sheryl serves as the key liaison with banks, investors, and Board of Directors on all aspects of the projects she develops. Sheryl is responsible for managing project specific sales teams, construction companies, consultants, and administrative and on site employees.
“Prior to joining The LEXAS Companies, Sheryl worked for the Seattle Monorail Project as the Right of Way Acquisition Manager. She was responsible for development processes including contract negotiation, managing all acquisition, property management and relocation contractors, as well as coordinating with land owners, tenants, and city officials. Sheryl’s background in land acquisition, development, property management, construction and mechanical contracting give her a keen understanding of the acquisitions and development process making her a positive asset to our team.”
LEXAS Companies is clearly not in the business of educating young people. It is in the business of deriving profit from real estate investment transactions.
Peoples Institutional Baptist Church is an old, venerable, and relatively respected institution in the Central Area, but it does not and never has weilded power within the the downtown city machine or within the world of major investment capital. Anyone who thinks that PIBC, on its own, is capable of developing the Horace Mann building is not thinking realistically. In this case, the church is being used as a pawn by LEXAS Companies, a tool with which to occupy a space on the real estate chess board which the school district is either unable or unwilling to protect for the benefit of our children.
In this writer´s opinion, the church will only be useful to LEXAS until the real estate market and the political climate are ripe for LEXAS to make its move to develop the site into high priced and profitable condominiums, just as the Housing Resource Group corporation has done with 90% of the space inside of the old Coleman building, a small corner of which is still laughably touted as the “Northwest African American Museum”. Until then, LEXAS just needs the “Work It Out” steering committee to maintain a pretense in the media that some community activity is taking place under its auspices, while ensuring that the building itself remains empty and fenced off.
That is the reason why the ministers of “Work It Out” believed they needed to summon the Seattle Police to eject members of the public from a publicly advertised public meeting in a public building on Veterans Day of 2011. They are loyally protecting the real estate interests of downtown investors who are unlikely to ever reward them for this favor.
Peoples Instututional Baptist Church can change this course of events by directing its ministry to unite with the Umojafest Peace Center and the United For Youth Coalition to actually produce public programming in this public space for the benefit of the young people who need it most.
In the meantime, people of good moral fibre should continue to support the Umojafest Peace Center and United For Youth Coalition in their efforts to protect this valuable public resource from the opportunistic and creeping acid of private investment capital. The United For Youth Coalition´s position on the matter is excellently presented in a youtube video at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBNrSOUdAGY .
Leith Kahl
2 Samuel 7:2 See, now I dwell in a house of cedars, but the ark of god remains outside in a tent.
SO what your saying is that there were no poor people in the central district prior to gentrification? And everyone just got along? what a bunch of horse shit – why did the BPP chapter start up in the CD along with numerous other neighborhood anti-poverty organizations? And lying to yourself by saying the “nobody was forced out because housing values went up” just plain disregards the rules of economics. what kind of fool are you?
Hey im all for class war: poor people don’t want middle class (and increasingly upper class) residents in their neighborhoods. People have a right to community autonomy.
by the way, don’t write comments when your blazed late in the night- your spelling and sentence structure looks like shit.
Ahh the censor is at it again.
“lucascrtr” I have lived in the CD for nearly 30 years.What I wrote is factual, I lived it and so did others. Your ignorance is so very apparent, making it up as you go along, and taking a limited approach to any kind of social or literary research. Being a shallow reactionary and showing bottomless ignorance is no way for you to go through life.
Please take time to address the questions in my previous comment instead of eschewing them in favor of claiming my gross ignorance.
Was the CD subject to redlining and segregation?
Why did multiple anti-poverty organizations and the second chapter in the country of the BPP start up in the CD?
Why did black people move into the CD in the first place?
Why has the percentage of black folk in federal way and seatac jumped enormously over the last 10 years while the Central District and Seattle’s other black communities have shrunk considerably?
Simply claiming that you lived in a neighborhood for several decades means nothing about your ability to interpret information. There are some crack heads on my block that have lived here for 30 plus years- maybe I should ask them too..
you apparently have no grasp on what entails racism.. racism is segregation, police brutality, higher unemployment rates, worse employment opportunities, ect.. ect.. these things are institutional. Can you say that the middle class white population in the CD experience these things? I doubt it..
On the flip side of your scenario:
I joined this neighborhood a couple of years ago. The many Asians, Blacks, and people of all nationalities that live in my neighborhood are parts of why I chose to live here. I prefer multicultural neighborhoods to monochromatic ones. There were other considerations such as preferring to be a city dweller and having the best freeway access in Seattle. I patronize the businesses in my neighborhood regardless of the race of the owner or employees. I plan on making the CD my long term home.
I like to walk. I say hello to all my neighbors even after month’s of never saying hello in return. Perhaps we’ve met previously? Are you the black neighbor who never says hello to me or my girlfriend and on occasion has directed the garden hose at us as we pass by? Are you the gentlemen who’s threatened to harm me or my property because I don’t look like you? I encounter way more racism than I distribute. I think I’ve met you. I feel your stink-eye.
You can try Eyes, but Lucas is certian he is ejemukated and others are not. Another victim of the school system.
Black folks in the CD have not been forced out of their houses or lost them en-masse when property values skyrocketed. If so, you’d see hundreds losing their houses due to unpaid property taxes, but you don’t. What you see is (a) black folks who chose to sell houses they mostly inherited, for a windfall, who then moved to other locales with the money. As my neighbor, a black, lifelong CD resident in her 50’s said when she sold, “I’m buying a nice house in Kent and my grandchildren don’t have to get raised in the CD and go to the bad schools I went to and get shot at.” Or, (b), folks who borrowed against their mostly inherited houses enormously, counting on the property values to keep going up so they could still sell at a profit, lost that gamble. White people did the latter as well, all across the nation.
The argument that white people buying houses in the CD, causing values to rise, forced others out only works if the corresponding rise in values hurt long term homeowners’ pocketbooks with exorbitantly higher property taxes. Or if you’re talking solely about renters. There is no evidence that unpaid, high property tax bills caused mass sales or foreclosures in the CD.
And to the poster who said that Nova kids are mostly white – all alternative schools in SPS are mostly utilized by white students and always have been. That is a cultural issue more than a color issue. When I went to Nova (and I am not white) the kids in trouble at Garfield across the street just dropped out. The kids from Roosevelt bussed to the CD to Nova to try to save themselves from dropping out. Again, it’s a different cultural value, not an exclusionary process.
I think you nailed it del, thanks for some factual history!
your forgetting about renters. when housing costs go up, typically rents rise too.
What? Follow the rules of society and file for grants? In this day and age they think it should be widely accepted to just point, say “I want that now”, and get what they want. If they don’t then damn the man! If I am wrong then please post proof you attempted to follow the proper procedures and were denied without cause. Thanks in advance for showing your proof.
When we call the police? Why would you EVER give a reason for someone to call the police on you or your family? I have tried to interact with my neighbors who have lived here for many years and they look at me like some blight on their land! How about you welcome ME to the neighborhood because I am a poor HUMAN regardless of my skin color? Wake up
AMEN