People often ask me which key events, conferences and meetings I’ve attended over the years that have shaped the way that I approach urbanism: who I’ve reached out to, who I’ve listened to, and who I’ve connected with. *The “why” of this journey is complex and no list will tell the whole story of the spaces I’ve traveled while engaging in housing advocacy. Feel free to meet up with me to discuss anytime. Or look for links to podcasts below to hear me dive into this topic with more depth and nuance.
I moved to Seattle in late 2009 and joined a rock-n-roll band and tutored kids and worked on vegetable gardening. I didn’t really start engaging in weekly political advocacy till about 2015.
2009 — 2015
Volunteered with & participated in events by: Alleycat Urban Farming Collective, Community Alliance for Global Justice, Magnuson Wetlands Restoration, Treehouse for Foster Youth, Roosevelt Neighborhood Association, North East District Council , Green Party of Seattle, Black Lives Matter, Tent City Collective, People’s Academy for Community Engagement
Beginning Fall 2015
I started attending, watching and participating in City of Seattle’s public hearings about Land Use, Transportation, Housing, Environment, and Design Review. (Design review is one of the circles of hell). I began attending arm chair urbanism meet ups at bars, and getting one-on-one coffees with potential mentors, like former Mayor McGinn and former leaders from Great Cities, and there was even a flight to San Francisco to meet Sonja Trauss of SF BARF. I reluctantly joined the 43rd District Democrats. I got very involved with Sierra Club and began writing for The Urbanist.
There’s a big blur from January of 2016 till Fall of 2016. Things happened so fast when I began tweeting about land use policy.
Fall & Winter 2016
Volunteered with & participated in events by: HALA Community Focus Group, Sierra Club Seattle Executive Committee, University District Racial Equity Project, University District Conversation on Homelessness, Community Ownership Panel Discussion at Seattle Public Library, Design Review Meetings, Microhousing Walking Tour in the U District, Equity and Environment Initiative, Writing the City (a class at Hugo House taught by Charles Mudede) & more
Throughout 2016, I began to focus more on examining my personal privileges of class, education and skin color. I noticed a deep lack of intersectional urbanism on a national level. I was born in Bogota, Colombia and raised in a Spanish speaking intergenerational household. Living in Los Angeles and Chicago, I felt part of a strong and diverse Latinx community. In contrast, here in Seattle, I spend most of my time organizing and socializing with white folks. When I enter a space led by communities of color here, I am perceived as wealthy, white and it is important for me to acknowledge I have a great deal of class and education which leads me to deep biases. One of the most important set of meetings I attended in 2016 was representing Sierra Club Seattle in the Equity and Environment Initiative. In addition to reading the work of the EEI, I recommend that readers attend the People’s Institute Northwest Undoing Institutional Racism workshop.
January 2017
From 2015 to 2017 I studied the complex ways we decide who has a right to our cities. I want more people in Seattle to get engaged on land use issues and injustices. Writing articles for The Urbanist felt like important education work. In 2017 I began to hyper-focus on the land use changes and conversations happening in Seattle’s Chinatown International District. This neighborhood was facing a rezone under Seattle’s new Mandatory Housing Affordability framework. Regardless of this rezone the area faces intense development pressures related to being near multiple stadiums, near downtown tourist attractions, near transit, and it sure doesn’t help that our city has apartment bans in large swaths of the rest of the city.
Thinking I could use the CID as a symbol of this injustice, I showed up every other week to Seattle’s International Special Review District (ISRD) meetings. Some of the best organizing I’ve witnessed in Seattle is being done by Humbows Not Hotels / CID Coalition. “The Chinatown-International District (CID) Coalition is a grassroots group of community organizers dedicated to fighting displacement in the CID, centering the needs of the community in development decisions, and standing in solidarity with other groups who are fighting displacement”. I continued to attend ISRD meetings in 2017, and CID Coalition meetings. Ultimately I realized that the story of Seattle’s CID weren’t mine to tell… that my “teachable moment for land use” was going to have to be in a different part of Seattle.
Acronyms for Action: ISRD, April 7, 2017, What is the International Special Review District (ISRD)? by Laura Loe
Spring & Summer 2017
Two direct actions really stand out as inspirational for me in Spring of 2017. In both cases I risked arrest (Protest with SEIU 6; Chase Bank Action with 350 Seattle). While I consider myself a ‘practivist’ who focuses a lot on policy solutions, I think that direct action is one of the most important tools to get people in power to listen to people who are being oppressed. I reject respectability politics and believe people with wealth and skin color privilege must use our physical bodies to get the attention of those misusing their positions of power.
Other highlights from Spring/ Summer 2017… keynote speach for YIMBYTOWN 2017, attending and writing about community oriented housing at CNU for The Urbanist. During this time, I continued to attend countless public hearings about housing, transit, & tenant rights. I have stage fright, and the adrenaline involved in speaking publicly was so intense, I couldn’t sleep the night after I testified. In 2017, I finally became comfortable with public testimony.
Fall 2017 — early Spring 2018
Around this time, a fantastic group of people came together, many from the Neighborhood Action Coalition, attempted to jump start a movement for scaling up and streamlining cooperative housing in Seattle. It didn’t pick up enough steam and many of the organizers were struggling themselves with housing insecurity. I hope sometime in the next few years Seattle’s Co-op Housing Collective comes out of hibernation, or another group emerges to work on this critical housing solution.
On a national level, a few of us attempted to form a monthly “yimby conference call” but that lacked cohesion. Around this time, there was a discussion for a number of different groups to apply together for a large grant to form a national organization for land use justice, something I strongly believe there is a need for.
Another group that sprung up around this time was MOAR. We advocate in the City of Seattle to make it easier for people to build backyard cottages and basement apartments. Our group is thriving and growing and big things are ahead for 2019.
During May of 2018 I helped plan and promote 40+ events in 25 days with Red May Seattle. This introduced me to a lot of people in Democratic Socialists of America and other ‘left’ groups and thinkers in Seattle.
Summer 2018 to present
I have several “buckets” to my advocacy currently:
- I receive support from 80+ donors on Patreon that allows me to write, tweet, civic matchmake, engage in general land use education, and provide free consulting to other groups. I also spend countless hours talking to journalists. One goal I have for 2019 is to produce an “Acroynms for Action” podcast and zine.
- I founded Share The Cities in 2018. We organize around equitable transit oriented development along the Sound Transit light rail spine in North Seattle. In 2019, Share The Cities will become a non profit. And I’ll admit, this is all pretty daunting. Luckily I have some folks with experience who want to mentor me through this exciting transition! Share The Cities: Who we are, how we formed, & what the plans are for 2019… I’ll write about that in a future post.
- As part of the Mercer Mega Block Alliance, I represent Share The Cities. The alliance is working to change the existing Request For Proposal and future RFP processes for Seattle’ precious public lands.
- MOAR (backyard cottages) organizes people to write to council, show up to meetings and rabble rouse to get necessary reforms to make it easier to build granny flats, basement apartments, backyard cottages and more.
- Red May Seattle 2019 will be partially focused on equitable housing and socialist urbanism. I’m excited to participate again this year.
- Will Seattle host Yimbytown? A few of us are beginning the exploratory work to determine if we will host one day.
- Comprehensive Plan advocacy. We need to expand urban villages and rezone Seattle. Ensuring an equitable update to the “comp plan” will be an all hands on deck effort from groups throughout Seattle over the next 4 years.
Throughout the last 3 years I have attended events held by the following organizations: 350 Seattle, 43rd District Democrats, 46th District Democrats, Africatown-Central District, Alleycat Acres Urban Farming Collective, Artist Coalition for Equitable Development (ACED), Capitol Hill Renter Initiative, Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites, Community Alliance for Global Justice, Democratic Socialists of America Futurewise, Generations Aging With Pride, Got Green, Housing Now Seattle, Humbows Not Hotels / CID Coalition, LGBTQ Allyship, Lid I-5, Office of Planning and Community Development, Neighborhood Action Coalition, North East Seattle Together, No New Youth Jail, Puget Sound Sage, Roosevelt Neighborhood Association, SAFE in Seattle, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Seattle for Everyone, Seattle Pubic Schools, Seattle Subway, Sierra Club, Sightline Institute, Solid Ground, Socialist Alternative, Tech 4 Housing, Tenants Union of Washington, Tent City Collective, The Urbanist, Transportation Choices Coalition, Treehouse, Washington CAN, Welcoming Wallingford
2018 Speaking Engagements
Rail~Volution — panelist, podcast guest
Western Washington University “What Are Solutions to the Housing Crisis in Bellingham” — panelist
West Coast Intentional Communities Conference — workshop host
Sierra Club Washington State Chapter “Housing and the Environment: Panel Discussion” — panelist
U District Let’s Go Transit Talk: We’re in it Together — panelist
UpZones Episode 17 — podcast guest
Writing & Op-eds
Guest Editorial: Luxury Homes for Rich People or Housing for Everyone?
Laura Loe Bernstein & Myra LaraThe Case for Ending Apartment Bans
Laura Loe Bernstein (@sharethecities) & Henry Kraemer (@HenryKraemer)
Media Mentions
New Seattle earthquake study shakes hopes for park or housing atop Roosevelt Reservoir
The Seattle Times-Dec 2, 2018
‘Keep public land in public hands for public good’
CHS Blog (blog)-Sep 12, 2018
NIMBY, YIMBY, or just plain classism in Seattle?
MyNorthwest.com-Jun 29, 2018
Why Seattle homeowners may unintentionally promote segregation
MyNorthwest.com-Aug 2, 2018
Elizabeth Warren Introduces Plan to Expand Affordable Housing and Racist Zoning Practices
The Intercept-Sep 28, 2018
‘My Generation Is Never Going to Have That’
POLITICO Magazine-Apr 26, 2018
Find Share The Cities on twitter: @sharethecities. Donate on Patreon.
