<div dir="ltr"><div>Hi Katie. It's good to hear from you. I have time to help research.</div><div><br></div><div>Stephen<br></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Jul 16, 2021 at 1:48 PM Katie Wilson <<a href="mailto:katie@transitriders.org">katie@transitriders.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;">Hi Research & Data team!<div><br></div><div>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).</div><div><br></div><div>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? </div><div><br></div><div>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!</div><div><br></div><div>- Katie</div><div><br></div><div>—————————</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span id="gmail-m_-8540201242547660609docs-internal-guid-89c706ec-7fff-229c-fbec-f0afbfeb96de"><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:700;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Resolution #152 on organizing in South King County</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Proposed by the General Council</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">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</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">WHEREAS through this campaign TRU has begun to build connections with organizations, community leaders and elected officials throughout King County; and</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">WHEREAS many of the issues of the greatest importance to TRU members— including public transit and transportation, housing and homelessness— are truly regional; and</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">WHEREAS there is in general much less grassroots organizing and power-building happening outside Seattle than within; and</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">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</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">WHEREAS the city councils in many King County cities are dominated by big business, landlord and wealthier homeowner interests; and</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">WHEREAS it has always been the vision of TRU to expand beyond Seattle to become a truly King County-wide (at least!) organization; and</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">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</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">WHEREAS achieving this will not happen without concerted effort, strategic planning and resources,</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">THEREFORE BE IT</span></div><br><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">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.</span></div><br></span></div><div><br><div>
<div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Katie Wilson</span></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font color="#666666">General Secretary</font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font color="#666666">Transit Riders Union</font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font color="#666666"><a href="https://transitriders.org" target="_blank">https://transitriders.org</a></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span><font color="#666666">206-781-7204</font></span></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font color="#999999"><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><i><font color="#999999">The Transit Riders Union is a democratic organization of working and poor </font></i><i><font color="#999999">people, including students, seniors, and people with disabilities, taking control over our own lives, and building up the power we </font></i><i><font color="#999999">need to change society for the good of humanity and of the planet. We will </font></i><i><font color="#999999">fight to preserve, expand, and improve the public transportation system in </font></i><i><font color="#999999">Seattle and beyond, so that every human being has access to safe, </font></i><i><font color="#999999">affordable, and reliable public transit.</font></i></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><i><font color="#999999"><br></font></i></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><i><font color="#999999"><span style="font-style:normal">I also write </span><a href="https://crosscut.com/author/katie-wilson" style="font-style:normal" target="_blank">opinions</a><span style="font-style:normal"> for Crosscut. </span></font></i><i><font color="#999999"><span style="font-style:normal">Sign up for my newsletter </span><a href="http://eepurl.com/g_D3nf" style="font-style:normal" target="_blank">here</a>.</font></i></div></div></div></div></div>
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