The Rainier Valley Historical Society hosts a rare Open House this Friday evening, November 7th between 6:00–9:00 p.m., during Columbia City's monthly BeatWalk event. Check out the RVHS's new window display honoring politicians with Rainier Valley roots.

From Director Mikala Woodward's article, "The Rainier Valley's diverse political roots run deep":

The 37th District has produced many firsts—the first African American in the State House (Charles Stokes), State Senate (George Fleming), and Seattle City Council (Sam Smith). Albert Rosellini was the first Italian American governor west of the Mississippi, breaking through the Catholic barrier four years before John F. Kennedy was elected President. Gary Locke was the first Asian governor on the mainland, and the only Chinese American governor the United States has seen so far.

Don't miss the opportunity! I'd never visited the RVHS because it typically is open for visitors only every Wednesday—Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m., or by appointment.

[Update: Apparently, when you create a display of pioneering Rainier Valley politicians, Rainier Valley dignitaries drop by to see it! Plus remarkable video of a self-waving flag. You read that right. Mikala tells all in Feeling Patriotic Yet?]

The Rainier Valley Historical Society collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets the history and heritage of Rainier Valley and its people, and promotes public involvement in and appreciation of its history and culture.

The Historical Society maintains an extensive archival collection of over 1,500 photographs of historic Rainier Valley, as well as newspaper clippings, maps, letters, artifacts, and documents depicting the Valley's development since 1853. The Historical Society is a wonderful resource for educators, historians, students, and anyone interested in the heritage of the Rainier Valley.

Rainier Valley Historical Society | 3710 S Ferdinand St 98118, (206) 722-2838, rvhsoffice

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(Photos by Columbia City Blog, available under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons license)

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Southeast Seattle residents Lee and Sachi LeFever make fantastic little videos that make it easy to understand complicated ideas.

What makes these films so disarming? Well, they’re paper cut-outs animated over a whiteboard, that’s what! And there’s Lee’s hint of North Carolina on the terrific voice-overs.

But all this is prelude. “We made this video… to help make sure our fans protect their brains during the scary Halloween season.“

WARNING: Not for the faint of heart.

Happy Halloween, Columbia City!

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Two weeks back, local blogger John Hoole published a long, illuminating piece on his The Hoole Intelligence Report called “NIMBYs of the fighting Southeast!” If you want to understand the contours of Columbia City/Southeast Seattle neighborhood activism or wanted to get involved in the community, this is a must-read.

And it’s going to get in front of a few more eyeballs now. Crosscut.com has picked up “NIMBYs of the fighting Southeast!” (adding the subtitle, “How an obsessed faction of residents drives the politics of an entire Seattle neighborhood”) and has it featured on their front page today.

Some quotes:

… the sensibility I found at the Columbia City Community Council perplexed and fascinated me. The more I looked, the more places I found it. The more closely I examined it, the clearer it became that the sensibility in question is a deep, cryptic strain of NIMBYism in Southeast.…

I have been surprised and troubled to find that, in a community famed for its ethnic, racial, and income diversity, one narrow worldview prevails among the small group of people who represent themselves as the leaders of South Seattle.…

The argument is that since social service providers are funded by the city, it’s in their interests to be the city’s stooges. As such, social service providers herd the poor, the addicted, and the criminal away from more desirable parts of the city and into Southeast.

Ultimately, “social services” is code for all kinds of interlopers and the problems they bring with them — each understood to be a product of the city’s negligent meddling and each representing a kind of intolerable compulsion. The city tries to force the poor to move to South Seattle, commuters to use the light rail, and drivers to give their cars the summer off. And meanwhile, the complaint goes, the neighborhoods are expected to display a meek acceptance — of views blocked by six-story buildings; of their accustomed parking spots hogged by new renters; of an inadequately staffed police precinct; of the crime they say comes with increased population density.… How about some more?

The opposition to social services in Southeast is categorical — the mission, organizational history, and performance of any particular organization are irrelevant.…

The very idea that a nonprofit might be a legitimate and useful representative for poor residents who don’t have the leisure and resources to organize on their own is inimical to the NIMBYs of Southeast.…

My experience with the CCCC bears out the anti-renter, anti-low-income bias of South End NIMBYs. Per the group’s bylaws, the geographic area the group represents follows the generally accepted boundaries of Columbia City, except in the northwest corner, where it veers dramatically inward to exclude the SHA’s mixed-income Rainier Vista development.…

In this way of thinking, an intuitive equation — most poverty and crime in a neighborhood equals most social services — is twisted into an outrage. The NIMBYs have made such a habit of demonizing social services that they’ve come to believe they cause poverty, crime, and low property values.

Above all, it’s this abdication of responsibility for the problem of poverty in Southeast that makes our NIMBYs NIMBYs.… And what passes for leadership is bemoaning the fate of the poor while actively foiling the groups in our community that serve them. Have you read this yet? Controversial? Start the discussion in the comments below.

NIMBYs of the fighting Southeast! (IMAGE by Columbia City Blog, available under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons license)

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