The group defiantly sat on the floor of the city council receptionist office at the end of the workday on August 24, chanting slogans in Spanish ("Listen, listen, we're in battle!") while highly agitated City Council Staff Manager Barbara Hadley admonished them: "You do not have the right to disrupt business."
"But we have the right to protest," mumbled Matias Barajas, who convinced his comrades to remain seated.
The activists, members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), showed up downtown with the intent of scheduling meetings with individual council members. Indeed, the feisty sidewalk liberation front arrived at City Hall this Thursday afternoon carrying a giant symbolic datebook, hoping to pen in the meetings. It's no wonder that the activists felt compelled to come downtown: Just a week earlier, after pledging to attend an ACORN community meeting on the 7700 block of Rainier Avenue South, several Seattle council members blew it off.
Once again, however, southeast Seattle neighbors got the cold shoulder from elected politicians. The group was only able to schedule one meeting (with--surprise, surprise--lefty Council Member Nick Licata, at 2:30 on August 31). In fact, besides Licata, the only people who even dared to venture out into the noisy receptionist area and meet the angry group were Council Member Richard Conlin, two staffers from Heidi Wills' office, and one from Judy Nicastro's office--none of whom scheduled a specific time. Wills staffer Katy Carter (one of the few who actually attended the August 17 community meeting) did tell the activists that the Department of Neighborhoods was planning to set up a meeting with ACORN. If and when that meeting happens, it would be a welcomed step.
In the meantime, the citizens were clearly disappointed with their MIA council members.
"I know you are busy," Barajas told Conlin, "but this is my job--to protest. And your job is to listen."
Actually, Barajas' full-time job is working as a welder for Travis Industries, and he was taking time off to bring his message downtown.
