This is really shoddy reporting. The Dearborn Coalition extracted an unprecedented contract with benefits for Little Saigon, surrounding neighborhoods, low-income renters, and the workers who will build and operate the project from a developer who was inclined to give none of that, and the Stranger gives the headline to folks who think they should have gotten more from him? How?

@ 1) We've written about this project several times before, and in last week's issue we wrote about the contract. This article is about the state of the neighborhood.

Neither the proposed project, nor the project mitigation as found in the “agreement” and the current DPD recommendation, address the core issues that have concerned our communities from the beginning.

These unresolved issues include the size of the project and the traffic it brings to the surrounding roadways, the big box formula retail character of the project and lack of sensitivity to the multi-ethnic community into which it is being placed, permanent jobs to people in the surrounding communities (as other CBAs guarantee), and the failure of the developer to adequately mitigate project impacts.

Continuing opposition to the project comes from Interim Community Development Association, the International District Housing Alliance, Squire Park Community Council (which includes parts of Little Saigon), over 20 Vietnamese grassroots organizations, many other neighborhood and small business organizations, and advocacy groups such as the Seattle Displacement Coalition and Real Change.

While the agreement is a milestone for labor interests, it mostly formalizes verbal promises that the developer has made to the City since before the Coalition was formed. The four signatory organizations in fact receive the bulk of the agreement’s financial benefits.

More importantly however is the use of the street vacation dollars to pay for project mitigation and public benefits. The Coalition worked hard to get the City to promise that these monies paid by the developer would be earmarked back to our communities as a community redevelopment fund to better prepare us for the impacts of the upcoming South Downtown rezoning.

Instead those monies are now being used to pay for impact mitigation and public benefits that the developer should be paying for separately according to the City’s own street vacation policy.

In effect, this agreement sets the stage for a big developer give away and deprives our communities of millions of dollars.

dude, pull your head out. been to a Target lately? they are hella diverse. and i'm stoked to not have to go to Factoria (where the customer base is more diverse than most stores in Seattle). AND i already shop in that hood. it's not like i'm gonna get my Pocky fix at Target, or stop eating Pho cause i'm having a slurpy.

why can't the diverse asian, hispanic, black and white communities that live in that area have a Target? is it because Target's not "authentic"?

bullshit. decent, well designed products for everyday living are useful to everyone, regardless of ethnicity.

"Dude, pull your head out." Ever worked at a Target? Would you want one replacing your place of business?

...and do you want to live two blocks from one ?

Target, "hella diverse" ???

Ummm, I've been to most states across the continental US and every Target is the same.

Ever go to a Starbucks in Seattle?
And a Starbucks in Portland?
Starbucks in Texas?
Minnesota?

And, pray tell, where does/did the diversity come into play.

It goes back to the same 'effin thing. No one goes to Paris to see a Wal-Mart and people aren't going to the ID (and area) for a Target.

As someone who grew up in a bland bland bland Las Vegas, that is one of the things I immediately loved about Seattle: its truly diverse shopping, economy, culture and people.
You can still get all that run of the mill mass manufactured crap, you just have to drive/BUS further from the city core to get it. Boo Hoo.

Yeay. I have been waiting for this development for the past two years. Can't happen soon enough. Why should I have to leave my neighborhood and shop in the 'burbs? I would rather shop where I live. This project will help do that.