CHAZ/CHOP: Autonomous No Cop Zone and Commune Declared In Seattle - Render unto Warlord Raz what is owed to Warlord Raz

[Dr. Sexbot]

The reason they're targeting Starbucks is because Starbucks gave 10k to the Seattle Police Foundation last year. (Link to Seattle-PI careful theres lots of ads and autoplay.) The Gaurdian tried to make a hit list of companies that protestors can get mad at about donating to police organizations, including Amazon and Microsoft and Starbucks.

Seattle-based Starbucks is an active donor to the Seattle police foundation and has a representative on its board, according to the report. The Starbucks Foundations, the retailer’s non-profit arm, also recently donated $25,000 to the NYC police foundation.

WTF, $10k is what, like 1/4 or 1/5 of a single cop's payroll? Hardly an amount worth freaking out about. (When you figure in the cost of the services they provide when someone Karens out or a junkie is found in the bathroom for the 4th time this week, that sounds like a pretty sweet deal for SB to me.)

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

Cat lives matter! All Cats Are Beautiful!
The optimist in me wants to believe the "we stand with the movement" is code for "We're on your side please don't burn our cafe down".

As Vaclav Havel put it:

The slogan is really a sign, and as such it contains a subliminal but very definite message. Verbally, it might be expressed this way: “I, the greengrocer XY, live here and I know what I must do. I behave in the manner expected of me. I can be depended upon and am beyond reproach. I am obedient and therefore I have the right to be left in peace.” This message, of course, has an addressee: it is directed above, to the greengrocers superior, and at the same time it is a shield that protects the greengrocer from potential informers. The slogans. real meaning, therefore, is rooted firmly in the greengrocers existence. It reflects his vital interests. But what are those vital interests?”

 

[GatorWrasslin]

Cat lives matter! All Cats Are Beautiful!
The optimist in me wants to believe the "we stand with the movement" is code for "We're on your side please don't burn our cafe down".

If I had a business on Capitol Hill that had living things in it I'd be putting BLM all over the place because I wouldn't want any cats stomped. I'm surprised they didnt use a completely black cat in the picture to really let everyone know not to peacefully protest them.

 

[Μusk]

We are going to build a wall, and CHAZ is going to pay for it!

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

If I had a business on Capitol Hill that had living things in it I'd be putting BLM all over the place because I wouldn't want any cats stomped. I'm surprised they didnt use a completely black cat in the picture to really let everyone know not to peacefully protest them.

I would move the cats to an undisclosed location in the suburbs too though.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

And dont forget that lawsuit is in the wake of the City Council Monday spending the whole 86million dollar emergency fund. But dont worry because theyll get more money from the insane payroll tax and defunindg the police. Also, there's the group lawsuit against the city pending from the business affected by CHAZ. I had one of many meltdowns about all of it here.

What the fuck did they spend it on? A PMC to keep all the council members and the mayor safe?

 

[AnOminous]

As Vaclav Havel put it:

Vaclav Havel was talking about living under an oppressive government that, while it was evil, would to some extent honor the social contract. These people are putting up groveling signs hoping to appease a batch of ravenous apes who, if they had their way, would not create anything like a civilization, but would burn absolutely everything to the ground, even their own homes.

 

[spiritofamermaid]

The reason they're targeting Starbucks is because Starbucks gave 10k to the Seattle Police Foundation last year. (Link to Seattle-PI careful theres lots of ads and autoplay.) The Gaurdian tried to make a hit list of companies that protestors can get mad at about donating to police organizations, including Amazon and Microsoft and Starbucks.

Seattle-based Starbucks is an active donor to the Seattle police foundation and has a representative on its board, according to the report. The Starbucks Foundations, the retailer’s non-profit arm, also recently donated $25,000 to the NYC police foundation.

Also they're smashing Starbucks because its there and corporate and why not, they really showed those police again.

Of course each one of these assholes will go work for Starbucks when they need a job because where else are you going to health insurance (even if youre just part time) and have no skills in a terrible economy? Plenty of people just get a part time job at starbucs for a few months when they need a prescription or haven't seen a doctor in a while or something or if they get laid off and have kids because giving insurance to as many wrkers as possible was one of old CEO Howard Schultz's personal projects.

The image of my father immobile on the couch, after his accident, stayed with me. So did the fear of not having healthcare. Not long after he passed away, in 1988, Starbucks became one of the first companies in America to give health insurance to all its employees—including part-time workers, a benefit that was unheard of at the time, especially in retail.

Edit because I forgot one more source I wanted to link to explain why protestors are going after Starbucks, the heavily socialist South Seattle Emerald had a long article about it. But jokes on them because the money was supposed to support SPDs implicit bias training according to Fox Q13.

Even liberals get the bullet too.
Aka, you reap what you sow.

 

[Sped Xing]

Will any of this sour the corporate love affair with passive-progressive woke signalling?

 

[Dante Alighieri]

What the fuck did they spend it on? A PMC to keep all the council members and the mayor safe?

NGOs they or their friends and family work for.

 

[heathercho]

Vaclav Havel was talking about living under an oppressive government that, while it was evil, would to some extent honor the social contract. These people are putting up groveling signs hoping to appease a batch of ravenous apes who, if they had their way, would not create anything like a civilization, but would burn absolutely everything to the ground, even their own homes.

I mean these people literally pissed and shit their way through NY's CHOP. That's how these filthy fucking apes live, want to live and would have everyone living.

 

[GatorWrasslin]

Here is how the Seattle City Council is going to spend that money:

Spoiler: Emergency money spending

Monday’s COVID-19 relief bill appropriates $67 million from the city’s emergency fund and $19 million from the city’s revenue-stabilization fund (nicknamed the rainy day fund) this year for the following purposes:

• $32.6 million for rent assistance and homeless shelters
• $18.1 million for grocery vouchers for immigrants and refugees
• $14.5 million for small business assistance
• $13.5 million for grocery vouchers for others
• $3.6 million for child care assistance
• $2.3 million for affordable housing providers
• $1.1 million for mortgage counseling and foreclosure prevention

Durkan separately has proposed using $29 million in emergency funds to help plug the city’s 2020 budget hole. The council is is still reviewing the mayor’s budget rebalancing package but is likely to approve that strategy.

The emergency and rainy day funds today hold a combined $128 million. Taking $86 million for COVID-19 relief and $29 million for budget rebalancing will leave the former with $0 and the latter with $13 million.

And then they just gonna sit back and wait for all those cool Amazon tax bucks to flow in because theres nothing that could go wrong with this. The city council is so confident that the all the companies in Seattle and all the companies around the world that are stupid enough to hire a highly paid remote worker in SEattle will pay that they've already earmarked the money:

Spoiler: Magic Amazon money spending

The JumpStart tax is expected to raise at least $214 million annually and Monday’s resolution describes how the council intends to spend the money.

In 2021, the council’s priorities will be:

• $86 million to replenish the emergency reserves
• Remainder:
  • 75% to preserve city services, support low-income, immigrant and homeless residents
  • 20% for COVID-19 relief
  • 5% for administration

In 2022 and beyond, the council’s priorities will be:

• 62% for low-income housing, housing designed to combat displacement in neighborhoods like the Central District and affordable homeownership
• 15% for small business assistance and worker training
• 9% for Green New Deal programs
• 9% for community-led development projects
• 5% for administration

Whenyou remember all the violent words from Sawant don't forget that council president is starting to adopt the struggle/seige mentality, too:

Council President M. Lorena González pushed back against that reasoning in a letter and in remarks Monday. In a letter to Durkan, González wrote she would refuse to “be held hostage” by businesses threatening to leave the city.

“We are choosing bold action as opposed to kicking the can down the road in hopes that some other elected body will show up to rescue us,” she said.

"be held hostage" "bold action" "rescue" - these people see businesses and comapnies as some sort of enemy or invader. Do they want CHAZ citywide, a cityscape of wilting plants and graffitti? Don't they understand thse business give people jobs and money to buy homes and pay taxes? Amazon employees over 50,000 people in Seattle, and more than 53k in the region, more than Microsoft. Does the city council thinkthis is an army of 50k soldiers that they need to snuff out?

 

[AnOminous]

"be held hostage" "bold action" "rescue" - these people see businesses and comapnies as some sort of enemy or invader. Do they want CHAZ citywide, a cityscape of wilting plants and graffitti? Don't they understand thse business give people jobs and money to buy homes and pay taxes? Amazon employees over 50,000 people in Seattle, and more than 53k in the region, more than Microsoft. Does the city council thinkthis is an army of 50k soldiers that they need to snuff out?

Yes, of course.

 

[Meat Target]

Here is how the Seattle City Council is going to spend that money:

Spoiler: Emergency money spending

Monday’s COVID-19 relief bill appropriates $67 million from the city’s emergency fund and $19 million from the city’s revenue-stabilization fund (nicknamed the rainy day fund) this year for the following purposes:

• $32.6 million for rent assistance and homeless shelters
• $18.1 million for grocery vouchers for immigrants and refugees
• $14.5 million for small business assistance
• $13.5 million for grocery vouchers for others
• $3.6 million for child care assistance
• $2.3 million for affordable housing providers
• $1.1 million for mortgage counseling and foreclosure prevention

Durkan separately has proposed using $29 million in emergency funds to help plug the city’s 2020 budget hole. The council is is still reviewing the mayor’s budget rebalancing package but is likely to approve that strategy.

The emergency and rainy day funds today hold a combined $128 million. Taking $86 million for COVID-19 relief and $29 million for budget rebalancing will leave the former with $0 and the latter with $13 million.

And then they just gonna sit back and wait for all those cool Amazon tax bucks to flow in because theres nothing that could go wrong with this. The city council is so confident that the all the companies in Seattle and all the companies around the world that are stupid enough to hire a highly paid remote worker in SEattle will pay that they've already earmarked the money:

Spoiler: Magic Amazon money spending

The JumpStart tax is expected to raise at least $214 million annually and Monday’s resolution describes how the council intends to spend the money.

In 2021, the council’s priorities will be:

• $86 million to replenish the emergency reserves
• Remainder:
  • 75% to preserve city services, support low-income, immigrant and homeless residents
  • 20% for COVID-19 relief
  • 5% for administration

In 2022 and beyond, the council’s priorities will be:

• 62% for low-income housing, housing designed to combat displacement in neighborhoods like the Central District and affordable homeownership
• 15% for small business assistance and worker training
• 9% for Green New Deal programs
• 9% for community-led development projects
• 5% for administration

Whenyou remember all the violent words from Sawant don't forget that council president is starting to adopt the struggle/seige mentality, too:

Council President M. Lorena González pushed back against that reasoning in a letter and in remarks Monday. In a letter to Durkan, González wrote she would refuse to “be held hostage” by businesses threatening to leave the city.

“We are choosing bold action as opposed to kicking the can down the road in hopes that some other elected body will show up to rescue us,” she said.

"be held hostage" "bold action" "rescue" - these people see businesses and comapnies as some sort of enemy or invader. Do they want CHAZ citywide, a cityscape of wilting plants and graffitti? Don't they understand thse business give people jobs and money to buy homes and pay taxes? Amazon employees over 50,000 people in Seattle, and more than 53k in the region, more than Microsoft. Does the city council thinkthis is an army of 50k soldiers that they need to snuff out?

First of all, what authority does Seattle have to force Amazon to stay? Why can't Amazon just say "the hell with this"?

 

[Tismguide]

"be held hostage" "bold action" "rescue" - these people see businesses and comapnies as some sort of enemy or invader.

They talk a big game to play to their base and justify their taxation as some sort of stopgap moral right until Full Communism can be implemented. I find it interesting that the language is one of entitlement, going so far as to characterize companies warning them they may go elsewhere as "be[ing held hostage]" rather than emphasizing the benefits the tech companies realize by being in Seattle (lol) and that these taxes are just the cost of doing business.

Tech is a good scapegoat because they are (or are perceived as) new money and you can always find some autist who'll say/do something impolitic (or who can be portrayed thus) to justify shitting on them. This is bread and butter for The Stranger. In general the dynamics of blue cities with a substantial tech sector remind me of the whole old rich/new rich dynamic, with lesser nobility having institutional power and wanting a cut of the new money. As much as they try to spin this as rich vs poor, it's really old money vs new, with the former forming an alliance with the working poor and throwing them a bone sometimes.

This budget is a great example of this. On the surface, it's all gibs for the poor, but I suspect most of it will end up going to grift (aka "green new deal"):

NGOs they or their friends and family work for.

Oh, here's the grift.

First of all, what authority does Seattle have to force Amazon to stay? Why can't Amazon just say "the hell with this"?

They absolutely can, and have threatened to do so in the past, but moving your HQ is a hassle, and enough of their employees are woke idiots for the mobs who hate them to go along with it. This will have an effect though, even if it's less dramatic than a sudden move -- they'll invest more in outlying areas, satellite offices, etc, and funding moderate candidates for city council.

 

[AnOminous]

First of all, what authority does Seattle have to force Amazon to stay? Why can't Amazon just say "the hell with this"?

It's more or less what they're going to do.

Seattle: "First we're going to steal your money and then you get nothing in return, we will just give it to the terrorists burning down your offices."
Amazon: "Fuck that, we're out of here."
Seattle: "REEEE! REEEE! Help help we're being 'held hostage!'"

 

[Balr0g]

"Held hostage"? I guess Ms Gonzalez knows all about that since the rioters showed up at her house and demanded she bow to theior demandsof defunding the police. Amazon should look for a new city to set their HQ. Makes me wonder how Seattle will look once their golden goose is gone

 

[NoReturn]

Here is how the Seattle City Council is going to spend that money:

Spoiler: Emergency money spending

Monday’s COVID-19 relief bill appropriates $67 million from the city’s emergency fund and $19 million from the city’s revenue-stabilization fund (nicknamed the rainy day fund) this year for the following purposes:

• $32.6 million for rent assistance and homeless shelters
• $18.1 million for grocery vouchers for immigrants and refugees
• $14.5 million for small business assistance
• $13.5 million for grocery vouchers for others
• $3.6 million for child care assistance
• $2.3 million for affordable housing providers
• $1.1 million for mortgage counseling and foreclosure prevention

Durkan separately has proposed using $29 million in emergency funds to help plug the city’s 2020 budget hole. The council is is still reviewing the mayor’s budget rebalancing package but is likely to approve that strategy.

The emergency and rainy day funds today hold a combined $128 million. Taking $86 million for COVID-19 relief and $29 million for budget rebalancing will leave the former with $0 and the latter with $13 million.

And then they just gonna sit back and wait for all those cool Amazon tax bucks to flow in because theres nothing that could go wrong with this. The city council is so confident that the all the companies in Seattle and all the companies around the world that are stupid enough to hire a highly paid remote worker in SEattle will pay that they've already earmarked the money:

Spoiler: Magic Amazon money spending

The JumpStart tax is expected to raise at least $214 million annually and Monday’s resolution describes how the council intends to spend the money.

In 2021, the council’s priorities will be:

• $86 million to replenish the emergency reserves
• Remainder:
  • 75% to preserve city services, support low-income, immigrant and homeless residents
  • 20% for COVID-19 relief
  • 5% for administration

In 2022 and beyond, the council’s priorities will be:

• 62% for low-income housing, housing designed to combat displacement in neighborhoods like the Central District and affordable homeownership
• 15% for small business assistance and worker training
• 9% for Green New Deal programs
• 9% for community-led development projects
• 5% for administration

Whenyou remember all the violent words from Sawant don't forget that council president is starting to adopt the struggle/seige mentality, too:

Council President M. Lorena González pushed back against that reasoning in a letter and in remarks Monday. In a letter to Durkan, González wrote she would refuse to “be held hostage” by businesses threatening to leave the city.

“We are choosing bold action as opposed to kicking the can down the road in hopes that some other elected body will show up to rescue us,” she said.

"be held hostage" "bold action" "rescue" - these people see businesses and comapnies as some sort of enemy or invader. Do they want CHAZ citywide, a cityscape of wilting plants and graffitti? Don't they understand thse business give people jobs and money to buy homes and pay taxes? Amazon employees over 50,000 people in Seattle, and more than 53k in the region, more than Microsoft. Does the city council thinkthis is an army of 50k soldiers that they need to snuff out?

Allow me to translate those "budgets".
Emergency spending:

Monday’s COVID-19 relief bill appropriates $67 million from the city’s emergency fund and $19 million from the city’s revenue-stabilization fund (nicknamed the rainy day fund) this year for the following purposes:

• $32.6 million for rent assistance and homeless shelters that we and our friends run. We know they're cheap and we can pocket most of the money because homeless drug addicts don't actually use them. They'd prefer to burn shit down and do meth in their tents.
• $18.1 million for grocery vouchers for non-citizens
• $14.5 million for small business assistance; we will be the arbiters of what counts as a "small business"
• $13.5 million for grocery vouchers for citizens
• $3.6 million for child care assistance that will go to childcare systems we control
• $2.3 million for landlords, not the actual tenants
• $1.1 million for administrative positions that are helpful to no one. We all know that money would be better spent just giving directly to people who need to pay their mortgage, but then we wouldn't get a cut.

Magic Amazon Money:

In 2021, the council’s priorities will be:

• $86 million to replenish the emergency reserves we just spent
• Remainder:
  • 75% to preserve city services (us), support low-income, and non-resident "residents" also we define what "support" constitutes. Offering counseling to people who will never use it and funding that position at 6-figures a year totally counts.
  • 20% for COVID-19 relief however we define it
  • 5% for us

In 2022 and beyond, the council’s priorities will be:

• 62% for low-income housing, housing designed to combat displacement in neighborhoods like the Central District and affordable homeownership. Hang in there two years you poor fucks! Should have thought about that before becoming a non-immigrant!
• 15% for small business assistance and worker training (diversity training totally count, see the six figure statement above)
• 9% for Green New Deal programs that our friends run
• 9% for community-led development projects. Paying $100,000 for a statue to a friend of a friend is community development. Don't question us you racist.
• 5% for us

 

[Jigglyjogglers]

They absolutely can, and have threatened to do so in the past, but moving your HQ is a hassle, and enough of their employees are woke idiots for the mobs who hate them to go along with it. This will have an effect though, even if it's less dramatic than a sudden move -- they'll invest more in outlying areas, satellite offices, etc, and funding moderate candidates for city council.

I have this feeling they'll just step up the timetable on more gradual moves. They've been working on getting these satellite headquarters established, once one is they'll just start gradually transferring more and more of the day-to-day operations there while gradually eliminating positions at the Seattle office.

 

[GatorWrasslin]

Kiwis sorry about all the text below, but this is a special kind of Seattle insanity. I went way down this path this morning and watned to share. Its kind of subtle and tough to figure out whats happening but in a nutshell a Black-led coalition is kicking a women's shelter with 75% POC out of a former Japanese old folks home and demanding to be given ownership of the building because the coalition says the building "makes sense" for the Black community. And its working.

From the Puget Sound Business Journal behind a paywall unfortunately:

Spoiler: Black Lives Matter more than domestic abuse victims

Homeless shelter provider Mary's Place left a Seattle building after only about two months when a Black-led consortium demanded the owner of the Central District property transfer the lease to the group.

The owner, Bellevue-based Shelter Holdings, said it has put its plans to redevelop the former Keiro Northwest nursing home property, 1601 E. Yesler Way, on hold. The company said this will allow it to explore the possibility of a sale, at cost, to a community-based organization.

Japanese Americans founded Keiro in the late 1970s. Shelter Holdings bought the property late last year for $11 million and began planning a mid-rise, 285-unit mixed-use apartment building.

Mary's Place said it spent about $250,000 to make the full-block property a shelter and moved in in May. The shelter moved out June 30, the day before the Black-Led, Community-Based Housing Insecure Consortium said it wanted to move in.

"This site makes sense as a focal point of the resurgence of the Black community... as it is adjacent to the iconic Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute and one block from the Black-owned Bryant Manor Apartments and Pratt Fine Arts Center," <a href="seattle/search/results?q=Wyking Garrett">Wyking Garrett</a>, president of the Africatown Community Land Trust, said in an email to the Business Journal.

He noted the Black community is "reeling from the economic effects of decades of systemic racism and now COVID."

The consortium includes the Africatown trust, which acquires and develops land in Seattle to empower and preserve the Black community.

Fourteen families were living in the Keiro when Mary's Place vacated the property. Mary's Place said all were moved to other shelters that the group operates.

Mary's Place said in an email it vacated "because the building's future was uncertain (so) we prioritized the privacy and stability of our guests..." The building is now empty.

The consortium had told Mary's Place in an email that it would ensure the transfer of the property to the consortium would be "smooth, peaceful and seamless" for residents of the shelter.

Mary's Place said it is "open to partnering with a Black-led community-based organization to provide shelter services in the building" and noted that more than three-quarters of the people it serves are people of color.

The consortium's demands came in mid-June in emails generated by the website of King County Equity Now, which Africatown sponsors.

"Predatory developer Shelter Holding's presence, development aims, refusal to accept proposals by Black-led community-based organizations, and decision to collude with Mary's Place – a white-led, corporate-backed nonprofit that's neither rooted nor based in the Central District – is always unacceptable, particularly in these times. We will not stand for it," states the email to <a href="seattle/search/results?q=Eric Evans">Eric Evans</a> of Shelter Holdings and Mary's Place Executive Director <a href="seattle/search/results?q=Marty Hartman">Marty Hartman</a>.

The email said Shelter Holdings must invest $5 million in the Keiro property for "short-term activation of the space by the consortium," and attend a forum on how the company "can and must serve as a true ally in support of equitable development on this property and more broadly."

Garrett said Africatown wants to use the building as a shelter and "maximize community impact, healing, restoration, economic empowerment and anti-displacement."

He added the group is launching a community planning process to create a development vision that honors groups that have been displaced from the Central District. These include Native American, Japanese and Pan Asian and Black communities.

The first meeting is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. July 29. People can register <a href="https://us.commitchange.com/nonprofits/5343/events/2462" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

The email generated by the King County Equity Now website also states that Mary's Place must "terminate Hartman or she must immediately resign."

It went on to demand that corporate funders of Mary's Place must be halted until Mary's Place "interrogates its predatory practices, reflects on this instance and implements responsive structural change."

The email called on Amazon, which developed a Mary's Place shelter in a new office building, to reallocate existing Mary's Place donations into the consortium for near- and long-term development of the Keiro property.

Africatown's demands came as a surprise to Shelter Holdings. The development company was copied on an April email from Garrett to elected officials asking them to work with the land trust to help transfer ownership of Keiro to the Black community, including providing capital to buy the property.

But the first time Shelter Holdings said it had direct contact with Africatown was June 15, and the following day the form emails started arriving.

Shelter Holdings said it is awaiting a specific capital proposal from Africatown on the purchase of the property. That will determine the next steps, Shelter Holdings said in an email.

Garrett said Africatown was encouraged that Shelter Holdings decided to halt development of the Keiro property and sell it to the Black community at cost.

"We think that Shelter Holdings can be a leader in their industry in divesting from projects in our community that accelerate displacement and perpetuate the current Jim Crow apartheid socio-economic reality, to make space for a new normal rooted in equity," Garrett wrote in an email.

Three years ago, Africatown with support from the nonprofit Forterra, <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/05/23/developer-buys-midtown-center-partners-with.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">struck a deal with a private development company</a>, Lake Union Partners, to acquire a fifth of the large Midtown Center development property at 23rd Avenue and East Union Street in the Central District.

Around 130 units affordable housing are planned. Garrett said financing has been lined up, and the project is moving toward a fall 2021 groundbreaking.

More recently, the city of Seattle said it will transfer the decommissioned Fire Station 6 at 23rd Avenue and East Yesler Way to Africatown, which is planning a cultural enterprise and innovation center named for Black pioneer William Grose.

The fucking audacity.

Spoiler: History lesson and thoughts

Some history - Seattle has a Chinatown which is more now like a Viettown or Cambodiatown, but up until the 1940s it was Japantown, aka nihonmachi. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor the first west coast internment camp was on Bainbridge Island and all citizens of Japanese descent had to give up their homes and business and off to Bainbridge Island or Idaho or other locales they went. When the war ended and these Americans were set free, they came back to Seattle to find Chinese immigrants occupying their homes and business and there was nothing they could do because part of getting China to be on the US side in WW2 was the US repealing the 1943 Exclusion Act opening the door wide open for Chinese immigration. So all these Americans of JApanese heritage come out of the camps in the mid 1940s and find they have nothing to come home to in Seattle. So these Americans rebuilt their communities and started their own support networks and institutions like Keiro NW. Keiro was specifically set up to care for elderly Japanese abroad and Japanese Americans. While this Black-led coalition can claim that this is a Black area all they want, the truth is Keiro was just up the street from the Seattle Buddhist Church and Japan Cultural Community Center and the location of the yearly Bon Odori festival and that other communities and cultures besides just "Black" have lived here for generations. Keiro closed last year because of economic troubles. Which leads us to these choice bits from the article:

Japanese Americans founded Keiro in the late 1970s. Shelter Holdings bought the property late last year for $11 million and began planning a mid-rise, 285-unit mixed-use apartment building.

Mary's Place said it spent about $250,000 to make the full-block property a shelter and moved in in May. The shelter moved out June 30, the day before the Black-Led, Community-Based Housing Insecure Consortium said it wanted to move in.

So Mary's Place shelter spent dollars and then the Black coalition ssaid "we want that" with no warning. THey started calling the building owner company "predatory" and just demanded that they give the building to this coalition.

Africatown's demands came as a surprise to Shelter Holdings. The development company was copied on an April email from Garrett to elected officials asking them to work with the land trust to help transfer ownership of Keiro to the Black community, including providing capital to buy the property.

But the first time Shelter Holdings said it had direct contact with Africatown was June 15, and the following day the form emails started arriving.

For all of their talk about Black areas of the city, it sure seems like these areas were simply taken from Jews (Central District) and Asians (Japantown/Chinatown) in the first place. Now they're just demanding these buildings, entire fucking buildings! - just be given to them and too bad about the women's shelter, it was managed by white people anyway and so fuck that. There is so much insanity to sort out from that article that I dont even know how to start.