The controversy around the plans for the old Chubby & Tubby site on Rainier Avenue reveals the outlines of a struggle for the soul of Rainier Valley. At first glance, it would seem that CASA Latina, a non-profit with the mission of "empowering Latino immigrants by providing educational and economic opportunities," would fit nicely into the loudly praised diversity of the Valley. The organization must soon leave its Belltown location at Western and Battery where it has leased space from the city since 1998. With the aid of a city grant, CASA Latina would purchase the Chubby & Tubby site and consolidate its programs into a permanent home.
Currently CASA Latina dispatches between 25 and 100 people each day into temporary jobs. But it is much more than a job referral agency. CASA Latina also has placed over 400 homeless people into permanent well-paying work and helped countless others recover back wages. Through its women's leadership training, adult ESL (English as a Second Language), counseling and other educational programs, CASA Latina also gives people "the tools they need to raise their standard of living and become productive members of the Seattle community."
Opposition to the Chubby & Tubby site falls into two camps. In one camp we find the immediate neighbors who fear a recreation of the current day labor free-for-all at their site in Belltown. With the loss of thousands of downtown housing units and hundreds of blue collar waterfront-related jobs and a corresponding increase in homeless shelters, soup kitchens and hygiene centers plus the free-ride bus zone, Belltown has a high concentration of truly destitute homeless people including some with alcohol and drug disabilities in desperate need of services and housing.
For over 60 years the intersection of Western and Battery has been an open-air labor market where prospective employers drive by and pick up workers for everything from unskilled yard work to temporary construction jobs. The Millionair Club's labor-ready program two blocks away from CASA Latina's Belltown site capitalizes on this phenomenon. Latino immigrants who themselves are not necessarily homeless have come to this location, too, looking for work. CASA Latina started its day labor program in order to organize Latino workers and provide for safe and dignified interactions between employers and workers. However, other day laborers that are not part of CASA Latina, compete by undercutting wages. Some of them are drunk and disorderly. Even though these people are not part of CASA Latina's program and would not follow it to a new location in Southeast Seattle, this is what the neighborhood residents fear.
In the other camp are the leaders of the Rainier Chamber of Commerce. Their vision for the Valley, first articulated by chamber president Darryl Smith, calls for upscale retail stores, offices and high-end apartments in 4-to-6 story buildings, where a wealthier population will supposedly live and work without use of cars, due to proximity to the light rail station at McClellan. The Chubby & Tubby site would be a grand gateway aimed at counteracting the Valley's alleged downscale image in the eyes of potential investors.
Despite the fact that Casa Latina provides jobs, counseling and other services to a population of Latinos that make up a significant percentage of the Southeast Seattle population (about 8 percent), the scions of the business community were outraged that the city was willing to provide funds for CASA Latina at this location. Given that 40 percent of all Rainier Valley residents are foreign-born, one wonders why the Chamber would cast such a negative light on a program that serves immigrants.
At a highly charged community meeting on February 15th at the Mt. Baker Community Club, neighbors of the proposed site, organized into South McClellan Action Committee (SOMAC), shouted down supporters of CASA Latina and charged that the facility would bring increased traffic, public drunkenness, more crime, and predation on children waiting for school buses near the site. We certainly can empathize with citizens who might have felt blindsided by Casa Latina's plans. No prior notice was given either by the city or CASA Latina.
However, to suggest that Latino men are prone to drunkenness, disorderly conduct and more likely to attack children or women waiting for the bus, tips perilously close to racism. Statistically speaking rich white men perpetrate more sex crimes and drink excessively more than any other group. One speaker for SOMAC claimed that CASA Latina is "dumping their garbage on us."
Despite the overt hostility of some surrounding neighbors, opposition from area business leaders is more troubling to us. They seem to believe that Rainier Valley's best interests lie with development that replaces rather than reinforces the existing character of the community. Yes, Southeast Seattle needs economic development but it must be tailored to the interests, needs, and skills of the folks who live here. Lacking that, any reinvestment by the city or private investors can only translate into gentrification and displacement. We're already losing long-time residents, especially people of color, due to impacts from Seattle Housing Authority's HOPE VI projects and Sound Transit. More of that and the diversity we all profess to value will be nothing but a memory.
As long as we go on demolishing low-cost housing right here in the Valley for another condo or shopping center, there will be more homeless on our streets - not castaways from Belltown but growing numbers dispossessed from our own neighborhood including families with children. As long as we lack community-based drug and alcohol treatment for those in need here in the Valley, there will be more folks acting out on our streets.
CASA Latina provides jobs, services and educational opportunities to help new immigrants get off the streets. But it also is aimed at empowering the Latino community and developing and implementing larger strategies to overcome poverty and homelessness.
As such, Casa Latina could do a lot for the Valley to help retain and bring in a broad array of services and housing this community desperately needs. In contrast to high-end retail shops that don't cater to the broad spectrum of our community, (and that pay notoriously low wages), CASA Latina represents precisely the kind of "economic development" we need.
"Outside City Hall" is a monthly commentary from the Seattle Displacement Coalition. R[[In-content Ad]]
