In Other Neighborhoods

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