After 15 years in Belltown, Real Change is moving to First Avenue and Main Street in Pioneer Square. Unless the developers and their allies stop us.
Since Real Change went weekly in 2005, the number of vendors we serve has more than doubled. Over that time, our award-winning journalism has led to an 81 percent increase in annual circulation. In 2010, Real Change will likely hit the million-papers-sold-annually mark.
We are the organization that stands up for those who have nothing. Last year, we changed the landscape on the jail issue with a grassroots campaign that took on race, class, and inequality. This year, we are standing up for the poor again by fighting the criminalization of poverty.
Time and again we've seen that when times get tough, cities get tough on the poor. Seattle is no exception. The long-running recession has brought more than 20 percent downtown office vacancy rates and, with the collapse of the housing market, undermined the condo boom that has so altered the downtown landscape in just a few short years.
Councilmember Tim Burgess, in political alliance with the Downtown Seattle Association, has trotted out the "incivility" argument and introduced legislation that blames panhandlers for the decline of downtown fortunes.
Until Mon., March 29, downtown leaders such as the DSA's Kate Joncas have been careful to differentiate between Real Change and "aggressive panhandling," and have spoken only of our positive impact upon the community.
Truth will out
Things change. The Pioneer Square Community Association has asked Mayor McGinn to join them in attempting to block our move to First and Main, at the heart of Seattle's "Historic District." For the full text of their March 29 letter, see our blog at realchangenews.org.
I never imagined that our move to Pioneer Square would bring controversy, much less engender a game of political hardball that directly pits developers against homeless advocates.
Just a few weeks ago, Pioneer Square Community Association Interim Director Leslie Smith eloquently testified at a public hearing in favor of Burgess' panhandling measure.
"I think that in Pioneer Square we understand the distinction between homeless and aggressive solicitation. Aggressive solicitation hurts business ... and there is a distinction, and people understand the difference between lots of homeless people around and lots of people hanging out on the street, and people engaged in behavior that's aggressive and dangerous."
That distinction, apparently, has collapsed, and the truth is out. To some, homeless people are just homeless people, and are unwelcome in our communities under any circumstances.
When I visited our new space yesterday, construction was progressing nicely. The framing for the two new bathrooms in the Michael Garcia Vendor Learning Center was complete. The shower room on the second floor had been gutted to make way for our kitchen. The smell of new construction was in the air.
It smelled like hope and dignity.
Real Change isn't looking for a fight, but standing up for the poor means standing up for ourselves. We need you to stand with us. Your generous gift to the Spring Fund Drive ensures our future success, and is critical evidence of the broad community support that makes our work possible.
The future we see
Our move to Pioneer Square lays ground for a strong future. Real Change's new two-floor location will:
* Create a bright and sunny new vendor learning center, named in memory of former vendor and staffmember Michael Garcia.
* Offer the space we need for classes and additional services to vendors that increase their experience with community and success.
* Increase efficiency for staff by placing vendor services and newspaper production on separate floors.
* Offer the room Real Change needs to thrive and grow for at least the next five years.
* Save money on rent with a lower cost per square foot than if we remained at our current location.
The move date is May 24, and we need your help to make it all happen. Our goal is to raise $200,000 for our Spring Fund Drive.
The time for this capacity boost is now, and with your help we can get it done and get it done right.
The year 2009 was a rough one. Many of you have already heard the story: We hit the wall, and years of running beyond our capacity became a crisis that could not be ignored. To those outside, the news was always a surprise. "You look like you're doing great," they'd often say. In most ways we were.
During this time, we embraced a more grassroots, direct-action style of activism, with sleep-outs and civil disobedience at City Hall and a ballot initiative to stop a new jail. Circulation grew by 19 percent in 2009 alone. We won prestigious journalism awards. We changed the landscape on the jail issue with a grassroots campaign that took on race, class and inequality.
Meanwhile, we outgrew our office. Our technology infrastructure got older and crankier. Staff burnout became a serious issue. The bumps along our road became more frequent and harder to handle. We had no cushion to absorb the blows.
Over the year, we wrestled with the change that was needed. We hired an Operations Director to strengthen internal management. We strengthened fundraising, cut expenses, paid off debt, and made critical investments in staffing and infrastructure. We created systems and found efficiency.
At 15 years, we are a community institution. Grassroots support of our work, because we asked, grew by 39 percent, and we have recommitted to using those resources as effectively as possible by investing in their proper administration.
Gifts from individuals in 2009 came to 63 percent of total income. Nearly all our other income was from newspaper sales. In that year 844,876 papers were sold, putting more than a million dollars back into mostly empty pockets.
We transform lives, we take risks, and we tell the truth. We are becoming what we need to be.
Stand up for hope
As we enter 2010, Real Change is out of crisis and operating with a very different sense of the possible. The Pioneer Square Community Association, without so much as a phone call to say hello, now threatens the progress we've made, the stability we've achieved and the future we are imagining into existence.
Real Change must raise $200,000 before the end of June to keep the momentum moving, and your support for our work