Share The Cities July 2021 Newsletter

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Welcome!

1. Seattle Elections
2. Upcoming Zoning Event
3. Working Groups updates
4. Solidarity Efforts
5. Nonprofit News

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Seattle Elections
https://kingcounty.gov/depts/elections.aspx

July 14
Vote center at King County Elections opens for Primary Election
Ballots mailed for Primary Election

July 15
Ballot drop boxes open

You can register to vote online or by mail until 8 days before an election or in-person through Election day. Registrations done by mail need to be received, not postmarked, by the 8 day deadline.

Follow @STCActionFund on twitter for our thoughts about the election. Discuss the election in the #electoral channel in our slack group.

Laura Loe, Share The Cities founder, will be speaking as part of Be:Seattle's
"Are Seattle renters being zoned-out of our city?" Building Tenant Power workshop on Wednesday, July 28 at 6 PM

Come learn about this wonky land use issue and how it is foundational to renters, housing stability and access to a right to housing.
Meet other tenants and let's build power together!

Register for the free Zoom workshop here: https://tinyurl.com/TenantPower-07-28
Invite your friends and neighbors via the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/249074519892264/

Share The Cities' Working Groups

Upgrade King County is developing a six month strategy to push for public broadband in King County and Seattle. We have so much more work than we can take on. It is pretty daunting. More volunteers needed. Thanks to former Mayor Mike McGinn and Rep. Drew Hansen for being guests at two of our recent meetings. We got a nice shout out on twitter from Hansen, too!

Affordable Talaris is developing community tabling and canvassing materials and would love your help talking to Laurelhurst neighbors. Thanks to Jessyn Farrell for raising the profile of the disaster about to take place on these 18 acres. Email affordabletalaris@gmail.com to help out. Our core goals are expanding and we want to explore how to birth a new urban village in Laurelhurst.

Housing Justice, Housing Stability and Ending Apartment Bans
Share The Cities collaborates with many organizations in Seattle to support housing justice, tenant rights and community stability. There's a vote coming up July 15 in Seattle about giving 6 months notice to tenants for rent increases. There's also been victories with the Stay Housed Stay Healthy campaign across King county.

Design Review
Seattle needs design review to work better for climate-friendly and inclusive communities. Thanks to Seattle For Everyone for convening a group to create an 11 page report with recommendations to fix design review. We can't wait to share our recommendations to a wider audience. They are posted in our slack group now.

Ballard-Interbay Industrial Lands is taking a summer break but we've assigned summer reading. Check out this page from Seattle's planning department. Public comment on the scoping phase of the environmental impact statement is happening now through August 9, 2021.

What a quick check-in to learn more about any of these efforts? Send us an email info@sharethecities.org.

Seattle's Urban Villages Racial Equity Analysis
Check out our advocacy document that includes a link to the report, the presentation and how to take action. This will be updated as future opportunities for public comment are announced. https://tinyurl.com/UrbanVillagesEquity

This report is foundational to our city's major comprehensive plan update -- something that only happens every 8-10 years. Really recommend you read all 40+ pages and look at the recommendations related to displacement, building wealth for communities of color and more! Send a quick "thanks" email to Councilmember Mosqueda for demanding this report be released.

Don't live in Seattle, but live in Washington State? Your city is probably going through a comp plan update process, too. Reach out if you want to get connected to your local process.

Divest SPD

It is time for Seattle Foundation to clearly and unequivocally commit to ending all donations to the Seattle Police. These donations contribute to programs which directly cause physical harm to people and there is no shortage of groups that would be able to do far better things with this money. Take action today and send this important letter. Thanks to the Divest SPD organizers for their amazing work!

Join us for two upcoming, fun Climate Actions!

Learn more from https://seattlecruisecontrol.org/

MON, JUL 19 AT 1 PM PDT
#CruiseFreeSalishSea Press Conference
Seattle Cruise Control - Smith Cove Park

FRI, JUL 23 AT 1 PM PDT
#CruiseFreeSalishSea Rally at Pier 66!
Seattle Cruise Control - Pier66

Our Story

After five years of rabble rousing as a collective, there were next level goals and dreams that couldn't be realized without turning into a non-profit. We launched Share The Cities Action Fund in February. It is our 501(c)(4) which allows us to engage in political advocacy, but means that your donation is not tax deductible.

We are excited to announce that we have found a fiscal sponsor for Share The Cities Community Education, our 501(c)(3) work.You will have an opportunity to donate to those efforts next month.

Community Education

Helping more people engage in civic processes through Workshops; Teach-ins; Panel Discussions; Community tabling and canvassing about existing conditions and potential policy paths without pushing a particular solution.

Action Fund

Political Advocacy; Electoral and Candidate engagement; Direct Action to Support Legislation; Mobilization through providing public comment scripts; Lobbying legislators

Check out our Website.
Learn more about Share The Cities.
We are grateful to our founding donors to Share The Cities Action Fund, our 501(c)(4) political advocacy efforts. We have raised $11,000 since April.

Please pay rent to the Duwamish, take action to defund SPD by at least 50%, and work with folks living outside in your community to make sure they are safe. Seattle Transit Riders Union Solidarity Fund buys propane, water, ice and food for neighbors experiencing homelessness.