Hi John,

No 350 Eastside Community Meeting this month.  We hope you will be enjoying all the love and leisure, and summer fun that August brings your way.

 

Third Act – Bill McKibben

Good news on the climate front: our combined pressure across the movement seems to have helped bring Joe Manchin around, and the US Congress is on the edge of enacting its first actual legislation to deal with global warming

We have a lot to do -

Immediate news: a coalition of 120 groups, including Third Act, is delivering a petition to the White House on Tuesday asking him to declare a climate emergency. Mr Biden has said it's a possibility, so let's make it a reality: it would give the president increased powers to take fast action.

We're on a roll--and when you've got momentum, you need to keep pushing. Here's an easy way! 

Thanks,
Bill

 

Move Redmond

Let’s Move Redmond, an Open Streets event on Saturday, September 10^th from 11am-3pm!

We are hiring for two positions! Are you passionate about equitable access to transit? Do you think about intersectionality when it comes to mobility justice issues? Do you like connecting with community members? Join us as our next Community Engagement Coordinator or Membership and Development Manager! Learn more here and apply.

 

Eastside For All

History of Exclusion on the Eastside

Aug. 10, 5:30-6:30pm - virtual event

Part of Eastside For All's Housing Justice Series: Your Voice Matters

 

REGISTER
Join us for a deep dive into the history of East King County through a racial equity, transportation, and affordable housing lens. The past and the present are connected; we will explore the ways that past practices, policies, and laws have contributed to the housing struggles and inequities communities face today in Eastside cities. Over the next few months our cities will make decisions that will affect our communities for years to come. Let’s talk about the things we can do right now to make a difference for ourselves and future generations.

PRESENTERS
Chris Randels, Founder, Complete Streets Bellevue
Guillermo Rivera, Housing Justice Organizer, Eastside For All

 

Planning for Just, Sustainable, and Inclusive Communities

An East King County Welcoming Week Event

Friday, Sept. 16, 12-3pm

Redmond City Hall: 15670 NE 85th St Redmond WA 98052

 

Our region is embarking on Major Comprehensive Plan Updates alongside a range of other important decisions including affordable housing, economic development, transportation, environmental impacts, and more. How are racial and cultural equity principles being applied in framing needs, identifying solutions, and investing in our communities?

 

What's possible in our cities and communities? Who decides, and how?

We welcome Dr. Julian Agyeman, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. Dr. Agyeman's keynote presentation on "just sustainabilities" will spark discussions and connections at this gathering of passionate community leaders from diverse sectors, identities, and experiences.

 

Dr. Agyeman believes that "what our cities can become (sustainable, smart, sharing and resilient) and who is allowed to belong in them (recognition of difference, diversity, and a right to the city) are fundamentally and inextricably interlinked. We must therefore act on both belonging and becoming, together, using just sustainabilities as the anchor, or face deepening spatial and social inequities and inequalities."

Julian Agyeman, Ph.D. FRSA FRGS is a Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. He is the originator of the increasingly influential concept of just sustainabilities, which explores the intersecting goals of social justice and environmental sustainability, defined as “the need to ensure a better quality of life for all, now, and into the future, in a just and equitable manner, whilst living within the limits of supporting ecosystems.”

 

Lunch provided from 12-1. The program begins at 1:00 followed by optional networking time from 3-4pm.

 

The keynote presentation will be livestreamed and recorded for those unable to attend.

 

Space is limited. Register today.  Note: This event is targeted to Eastside Councilmembers, legislators, business community members, planners/commissioners, city staff, equity/environmental advocates, community-based organizations and leaders of color. As the event gets closer, we’ll share a link to view the livestream (and recorded) key note speaker’s presentation. 

 

Other news from Eastside For All

We've been highlighting the news that Redmond became the first East King County city to pass important "first step" renter protections as we advocate for the more robust protections passed in other jurisdictions (King County, City of Seattle, Kenmore).

On July 19 the Redmond City Council heard testimony from renters in crisis, local advocates including Eastside For All, Eastside Legal Assistance Program, the 45th District Democrats and other members of the Stay Housed Stay Healthy coalition. They voted 6-1 to pass these important protections:

· 120 days notice for rent increases above 3%, 180 days for increases above 10%

· A cap on move in fees equivalent to one month’s rent, payable in installments

· A cap on late rent fees at 1.5% of monthly rent

· Social security number cannot be required to apply for a rental home, helping to ensure that immigration status is not a barrier to housing.

Redmond follows both Kenmore and unincorporated King County, which implemented these protections and more earlier this year and last year, respectively. These protections benefit everyone—not only tenants—by helping to stabilize our communities.

Vanessa Kritzer, City Council Vice President for Redmond, said, "In a time when many in our community are facing housing instability and unforeseen rent increases, I am glad our council could implement some common sense tenant protections that will give renters more time to plan their lives when rent increases, reduces the burden of move-in and late fees, and ensures that anyone can access housing regardless of immigration status. To support more predictable

policy across our jurisdictions, we focused on using the ARCH recommendations and policy already passed by King County and Kenmore to guide the language in our ordinance.”

 

350 Eastside Online fundraiser - SAVE THE DATE!

September 18, 2022

4-5:30 pm

 

FEEL THE POWER

 

350 Eastside is commissioning an engineering study to assess the feasibility and impact of embarking on an aggressive, equity centered, rapid decarbonization pathway, in line with the urgency of the climate crisis we face, for the residents of eastern King County.  This information is of interest to local officials, environmental organizations, religious and other justice non-profits in the area, as well as members of the East King County Public Utility (EKCPUD) campaign. 

 

EES Consulting (the engineering firm 350 Eastside is working with) has already completed Phase 1 of the study. We are now seeking funding ($75,000) for the second phase of the study which will assess:

• A pathway for a rapid transition away from fossil fuels and scale-up of a resilient, renewably-generated electrical grid;
• Policies, practices, and methods to ensure a just and equitable transition to a lower carbon future for the residents of East King County
• The “nuts and bolts” of running a new utility company, including the specifics of acquiring PSE’s infrastructure; start-up costs; financing, obtaining and pricing electricity to supply customer’s needs; ensuring supply; and service delivery certainty.

 

 

This virtual fundraiser is another step in securing the needed funding.

 

Special guests and further details to come!

 

Can’t wait for the fundraising event to donate? Help us launch Phase 2 of the engineering study outlined above by donating now by clicking on this link. Thank YOU!

 

Friends of Sammamish Valley update

On June 26, the King County Council declined to vote on the latest iteration of the Adult Beverage Ordinance and sent it back to committee.  This action effectively killed the legislation.  The Ordinance would have opened protected King County Rural Area zones to alcohol manufacturing and retail outlets that primarily serve urban customers, increasing urban sprawl in violation of the Washington State Growth Management Act that requires municipalities to protect the Urban Growth Boundary.  Concerns included increased emissions from vehicle trips and pollutants from cars and people causing damage to King County farmland, watersheds and wildlife habitat. 

 

350 Eastside was a strong voice in the broad environmental coalition that was instrumental in defeating the legislation. Friends of Sammamish Valley, who leed the effort, thanks the 350 Eastside organization as well as all the individuals who spoke up. It often requires grassroots organizations banning together to get wins and our collective effort to defeat this legislation paid off!

 

A prior and similar version of the Adult Beverage Ordinance was unanimously invalidated by the WA State Growth Management Hearing Board in January 2022. King County continues to challenge that decision in the Court of Appeals and at the Hearings Board, so there is still much work to be done. King County needs to pass legislation that keeps urban serving manufacturing and retail facilities inside the Urban Growth Area. More information on the ongoing effort to protect King County's Rural Area and Agriculture zones from urban sprawl can be found at  GoFoSV.org.

 

Stop the Money Pipeline (STMP)-upcoming equity and organizing trainings

Why Equity and Organizing trainings? Not only is challenging the legacies of racism, colonialism and patriarchy the right thing to do from any moral point-of-view, but we know that can only win if we build a multiracial, intersectional movement that is powerful enough to take on Wall Street.

One of the biggest barriers to winning is racism, patriarchy, and other systems of oppression – and how they show up in our organizations and prevent us from building the power we need. As such, these workshops are designed to not only help us be better people and better organizers, but to run better, more effective campaigns as a result.

 

Things to know about the Equity and Organizing Training Series

· These trainings will be led by Ericka Taylor. Ericka is the Popular Education Manager for the Take on Wall Street campaign of Americans for Financial Reform. Immediately prior to joining Take on Wall Street, she served as a Co-Director of DC Working Families Party. Ericka has over 25 years of experience in popular education, organizing, and advocacy, including serving on the boards or steering committees of the National Organizers Alliance, Progressive Technology Project, YouthAction, Western States Center, National Priorities Project, La Clínica del Pueblo, and Jews United for Justice. Ericka is also a regular review contributor to NPR Books, and her writing has appeared in Willow Springs Magazine, Bloom, and The Millions.

· These trainings are designed to support white-identifying organizers in furthering their anti-racism and anti-oppressions skills.
If you identify as BIPOC or as multiracial and would like to attend, you are welcome to do so; however, please note that the trainings are particularly geared to supporting white organizers in developing the skills required to dismantle white supremacy and other systems of oppression in their own organizing and organizations.

More on this: We are not making this an exclusively white caucus space, as the STMP JEDI Team recognizes that white supremacy and oppression can also be perpetuated by people of color. However, we also recognize the emotional labor that BIPOC folks often disproportionately take on when doing anti-oppression work with white organizers. To that end, we will strive to ensure that the trainings are beneficial to all that attend. 

· The workshops are designed to be sequential and to build on one another. To that end, we encourage you to attend all of them. However, if you can only attend two or three, we encourage you to still join us.

 

 

If you have any questions about the workshops, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Alec - on behalf of the STMP JEDI Team*

 

Poor People’s Campaign

On June 18th the Washington Poor People's Campaign came together virtually, locally, and in Washington DC for the Mass Poor People's and Low-Wage Worker's Assembly and Moral March- the largest gathering of poor and low wealth people in the history of the nation. During the same week the interlocking injustices of systemic poverty, systemic racism, militarism, ecological devastation, and false narratives of religious nationalism were worsened by the Supreme Court. The Court undermined the Indigenous Rights, Reproductive Rights, Miranda Rights, the fight against climate change, the separation of church and state, gun safety laws in sweeping decisions that will hurt people living in poverty and low wealth.

 

Our campaign calls out this systemic violence from the Supreme Court and the WA PPC continues to demand that Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray lead their colleagues in ending the legislative filibuster and passing legislation to codify the right to an abortion, expand the power of the EPA, honor treaties with indigenous nations, and other policies needed to bring about a Third Reconstruction.

 

Contact Senator Cantwell and Senator Murray now to demand that they end the filibuster.

 

Links:

· Recording of the Mass Assembly: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18/

· Statement on Roe: https://kairoscenter.org/press-releases/statement-from-the-kairos-center-repairers-of-the-breach-the-poor-peoples-campaign-a-national-call-for-moral-revival-on-the-supreme-courts-reversal-of-roe-v-wade/

· Call to Action: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sqd-Ur9NN3TNIiJ75VJn6e5BTbYnRyAvUDo8cXfWdZI/edit?usp=sharing 

 

Enjoy,

Emily, Lin, Lynn, Marilyn, Phil and Sarah

350 Eastside