[TRU Research] Researching Kent / South King County?

[Stephen DeSanto]

Hi Katie. It's good to hear from you. I have time to help research.

Stephen


On Fri, Jul 16, 2021 at 1:48 PM Katie Wilson <katie at transitriders.org>
wrote:

> Hi Research & Data team!
>
> It’s been a while. I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the summer.
> At last night’s membership meeting we passed the resolution below, to
> explore organizing in South King County. As a few of you already know,
> there are reasons to be especially interested in the city of Kent, which
> has strong connections with Amazon (warehouses & Blue Origin) and a pretty
> crappy city council & mayor (though that could change somewhat in this
> election).
>
> If we are to plan a successful campaign in Kent or South King County,
> we'll need to do quite a bit of RESEARCH. Anyone game for helping out with
> this over the next few months?
>
> I don’t have a list of specific questions, but a lot of vague ideas. Might
> be good to meet up (in person even?) and brainstorm. Let me know if you’re
> interested!
>
> - Katie
>
> —————————
>
>
> Resolution #152 on organizing in South King County
>
> Proposed by the General Council
>
> WHEREAS with the Stay Housed Stay Healthy campaign, TRU has for the first
> time attempted to move legislation in cities outside Seattle, with some
> success; and
>
> WHEREAS through this campaign TRU has begun to build connections with
> organizations, community leaders and elected officials throughout King
> County; and
>
> WHEREAS many of the issues of the greatest importance to TRU members—
> including public transit and transportation, housing and homelessness— are
> truly regional; and
>
> WHEREAS there is in general much less grassroots organizing and
> power-building happening outside Seattle than within; and
>
> WHEREAS as Seattle as gentrified, many working and poor people and people
> of color have been pushed out to the rest of King County, especially to
> South King County; and
>
> WHEREAS the city councils in many King County cities are dominated by big
> business, landlord and wealthier homeowner interests; and
>
> WHEREAS it has always been the vision of TRU to expand beyond Seattle to
> become a truly King County-wide (at least!) organization; and
>
> WHEREAS it has also always been the vision of TRU to grow from being a
> relatively small group of dedicated activists to become a large, mass-based
> organization able to support more than just a couple paid staff, so as to
> be able to more effectively engage large numbers of members and coordinate
> large numbers of volunteers to win major victories; and
>
> WHEREAS achieving this will not happen without concerted effort, strategic
> planning and resources,
>
> THEREFORE BE IT
>
> RESOLVED to authorize TRU’s General Secretary and General Council to begin
> investigating potential for a 2022 organizing campaign focused in South
> King County and to develop one or more preliminary campaign sketches to
> bring to the next Membership Meeting for further discussion.
>
>
> Katie Wilson
> General Secretary
> Transit Riders Union
> https://transitriders.org
> 206-781-7204
>
> *The Transit Riders Union is a democratic organization of working and
> poor **people, including students, seniors, and people with disabilities,
> taking control over our own lives, and building up the power we **need to
> change society for the good of humanity and of the planet. We will **fight
> to preserve, expand, and improve the public transportation system in **Seattle
> and beyond, so that every human being has access to safe, **affordable,
> and reliable public transit.*
>
> *I also write opinions <https://crosscut.com/author/katie-wilson> for
> Crosscut. **Sign up for my newsletter here <http://eepurl.com/g_D3nf>.*
>
>
>
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