SOUTHEAST SEATTLE The Southeast District Council (SEDC)—long plagued by infighting and race and class-tinged rancor over who's allowed to participate in the neighborhood committee—has finally gotten its shit together. After months of meetings that digressed into name-calling and physical confrontations, the council passed a measure on October 24, which democratized the membership process to allow groups like the Horn of Africa—previously kept off the deadlocked council—to have voting power in the neighborhood group. "I don't know that this has solved everything," says SEDC President Leslie Miller. "[But] my hope is that we can now put this membership fight to rest and bring on members who have waited to join us for a year. We've got work to do." (Nominations for group representatives are scheduled for November.) For now, Miller says, SEDC is hoping to tackle issues like housing, transportation, public safety, and the southeast Seattle job market. —JS