Podcasts about Little Saigon

For Memorial Day, we have stories of conflict and devotion, and how they are told through memorials.A well-known memorial in Washington, DC, pays tribute to the US service members who lost their lives in the Vietnam War, but few memorials honor the Vietnamese who fought alongside them, or the hundreds of thousands who came to the US in subsequent years. A new memorial project in the "Little Saigon" neighborhood of Dorchester in Boston aims to do just that. Also, Chile's biggest carnival is kicking off at full speed. As many as 150,000 people have traveled to the northern Chilean town of Arica to participate. But this is not your typical carnival. Most of the dances and music come from Bolivia for a celebration of Indigenous Aymara, Quechua, and Afro-Chilean identities. And, Yaroslav Simkiv has played the trumpet for over 50 years and is a recognizable figure in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Several times a day, he plays his instrument from the towering mayoral building in Lviv's main square to announce the time of day. But these days, Simkiv has taken on a more serious role — bidding a musical farewell to Ukraine's fallen soldiers.Listen to today's Music Heard on Air. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Fifty years ago, thousands of Vietnamese refugees arrived in America with little more than the clothes on their backs and memories of a homeland left behind. In the second of this three-episode series, we explore how they transformed themselves from displaced people into one of America's most vibrant communities.

There's an area southeast of Lake Merritt that's lined with abandoned buildings, boarded up storefronts, vacant lots, and decrepit warehouses. The neighborhoods here, Clinton and San Antonio, are some of Oakland's oldest. Although there are also beautiful Victorian houses, long-established churches, and several thriving immigrant communities, including a stretch of Vietnamese establishments known as Little Saigon, this area has suffered from disinvestment and high crime rates for decades – why? Answering that question requires a trip through more than a century of Oakland history – from the Gold Rush up through the Urban Renewal era and beyond. Exploring this story illuminates not only the problems of these neighborhoods, but helps explain the rise and fall of entire cities. “The leading edge of development follows the wealthiest residents,” according to Mitchell Schwarzer, the author of “Hella Town: Oakland's History of Development and Disruption.” In this episode, Schwarzer unpacks that diagnosis, and what it means for older neighborhoods left to crumble as investors chase new frontiers. This conversation was inspired by Schwarzer's work with the San Antonio Station Alliance, a campaign advocating for the construction of a BART station and transit village. For photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/not-on-the-wealth-corridor/ Don't forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: eastbayyesterday.substack.com/ Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

In the first installment of a three-part series, we explore the chaotic final days of April 1975, when thousands of South Vietnamese citizens desperately sought escape as North Vietnamese forces closed in on Saigon. You'll hear firsthand accounts from both sides of this massive evacuation, and from those who were part of the waves of exodus that followed.

In November, Orange County Congressman Derek Tran became the first Vietnamese American to represent Little Saigon in Washington, D.C. Tran barely defeated Republican incumbent Michelle Steel, helping Democrats flip three California House seats from red to blue. Scott and Marisa talk with Tran about representing a very purple district and his father's harrowing story as a refugee after the Vietnam War.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we discuss McSweeney's new quarterly issue: McSweeney's 78: The Make Believers, featuring writers of the Vietnamese diaspora. We are joined by contributors and guest editors of the issue, Thi Bui and Vu Tran, as well as McSweeney's Quarterly Editor Rita Bullwinkel. You can learn more about their work in the episode description below.During the episode, Thi, Vu, and Rita mention upcoming events in celebration of this issue. You can learn more about these special events at the links below. We hope to see you at one of these!Asian Art Museum | San Francisco | May 1 | 3:45 pm Natasha Reichle, Associate Curator of Southeast Asian Art, leads a special curator's choice discussion with McSweeney's 78: The Make Believers co-guest editor Vu Tran and contributing author Doan Bui.Tenderloin Museum | San Francisco | May 1 | 6:00 pm A block party in the heart of Little Saigon. Readings by Vu Tran and Doan Bui, plus a DJ set by Topazu.University of Chicago | Chicago | May 15 | 5:00 pm Co-editors Vu Tran and Thi Bui will be joined by fellow contributor Isabelle Pelaud for a reading and celebration of the issue's publication.This conversation originally took place April 7, 2025 and was recorded via Zoom. We hope you enjoy entering the Mind of a Writer.AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOMEMore about The Make Believers:In McSweeney's 78: The Make Believers (guest edited by Thi Bui and Vu Tran), ten writers of the Vietnamese diaspora write from the eclectic hodgepodge that is their shared imagination of what it means to be "Vietnamese." Packaged in a beautiful foil-stamped cigar box (with art by Bui on each and every surface), and including two booklets, one menu, and a glossary of broken Vietnamese, the work in this issue spans from highbrow to lowbrow, proper to naughty, logical to absurd, and painful to funny. Published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, its contributors work across perspectives and multiple languages. In this completely singular, nothing-else-of-its-kind anthology, these artists write (and illustrate!) from a place of collective loss and joy.Featuring work by: Doan Bui, Thi Bui, H'Rina DeTroy, Anna Moï, Hoài Huong Nguyen, Vaan Nguyen, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Bao Phi, Paul Tran, and Vu Tran. Order your copy of McSweeney's 78: The Make Believers here.About our guests:THI BUI is a writer and artist from Viet Nam, California, and New York, now planting roots in New Orleans. Best known for her graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do, she has also been a longtime educator in public high schools, a professor of comics, an organizer and artist-activist, an ambivalent sculptor and puppeteer, and a fledgling screenwriter. She received a Caldecott Honor as the illustrator of her first children's book, A Different Pond, by Bao Phi.VU TRAN is the author of Dragonfish and a forthcoming novel, Your Origins. His other writing has appeared in publications like The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007: The Best Stories of the Year, The Best American Mystery Stories, Ploughshares, and Virginia Quarterly Review. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Born in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam, and raised in Oklahoma, Vu received his MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and his PhD from the Black Mountain Institute in Las Vegas, and he is an associate professor of practice in the arts at the University of Chicago, where he directs undergraduate studies in creative writing.RITA BULLWINKEL is the author of Headshot and Belly Up, a story collection that won the Believer Book Award. She is a 2022 recipient of a Whiting Award, the editor of McSweeney's Quarterly, a contributing editor at NOON, the creator of Oral Florist, and a Picador Guest Professor of Literature at Leipzig University in Germany, where she teaches courses on creative writing, zines, and the uses of invented and foreign languages as tools for world building.

For years, Seattle’s Little Saigon neighborhood has been struggling with crime, public drug use, and concentrated homelessness. Little Saigon’s problems got worse during the pandemic, and it’s taking a toll on the community, especially neighborhood businesses. Now, there’s a grassroots effort up and running to make Little Saigon safer. It’s a project called Phố Đẹp. We visit the neighborhood to talk with Quynh Pham, Executive Director of Friends of Little Saigon. Link to apply for an e-bike voucher. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For years now, members of Seattle's political establishment have been trying to fix one particular street corner: 12th and Jackson, in Little Saigon. This corner is an example of what city leaders call "hot spots" — tiny sections of the city that are home to disproportionate amounts of crime and disorder. A report by the city last year found there were more than a hundred crimes targeting people and overdoses - mainly from fentanyl - at or around 12th and Jackson over a one-year period. And it's been this way for years. Leaving residents and business owners in this historically Asian-American community begging for help from the city. KUOW's Will James wanted to know: What's driving the crisis on display at 12th and Jackson? Why has it persisted for so long? And is there a solution to these problems that seem so intractable? Will spent months visiting this corner and getting to know some of the people who congregate there, trying to answer these questions. Read the full story: Fentanyl fuels a persistent ‘hot spot’ at Seattle’s 12th and Jackson. What will it take to fix it?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There was an officer-involved-shooting in West Seattle. The Seattle City Council signed off a new plan to build workforce housing in SODO. An outreach team from a group called ‘We Deliver Care’ will begin operating in Seattle’s Little Saigon neighborhood. There’s a fake jewelry scam going around Arlington. // LongForm: GUEST:Deputies with the King County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) are sounding the alarm over a lack of staffing. Mike Mansanarez, the president of the King County Police Officers Guild, joined "The Jason Rantz Show" on KTTH on Tuesday -- breaking down the staffing numbers and speaking on law enforcement being used for a political agenda. // Quick Hit: DOGE is working to cut waste in Social Security.  

On this episode of the California Now Podcast, host Soterios Johnson dives into the best of Sacramento's food, culture, and outdoor scene with three expert insiders. First up, Johnson is joined by Benjy Egel, the food and drinks writer for The Sacramento Bee. Egel explains how the area's agricultural abundance helps fuel its thriving farm-to-fork dining scene. “So much of the U.S.'s produce comes from the Sacramento region and the Central Valley as a whole, and so we have this wealth of tomatoes and asparagus and even caviar here in the region,” says Egel. He then dives into where to grab some local good eats, from neighborhood favorites in Little Saigon to Michelin-starred joints in Midtown. Next, Johnson is joined by Ashley Shult Langdon, author of Mildly Scenic, a trail guide to Sacramento's Lower American River. The outdoor enthusiast and longtime Sacramentan describes what aspects of the river continue to surprise and delight. “Just within a 10-minute walk from the city, you can feel like you're out in the wilderness,” says Langdon. Langdon gets into her favorite spots and the family activities that visitors can enjoy along the lower half of the American River.    Last, Johnson talks arts and culture with Hillary Louise Johnson of Sactown Magazine. The seasoned writer discusses Sacramento's growing creative landscape. “There's such a density of public art [in Midtown], in part because Sacramento's pretty mural-crazy,” says Johnson. She then goes on a culture-fueled walking tour throughout the city's artsy neighborhoods with stops for coffee and shopping along the way.

The City of Seattle is closing a park in the Little Saigon neighborhood due to rampant crime and drug use. Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett asserted that extra cost from tariffs will mostly be paid by other nations. Joy Behar says she could be friends with a Trump supporter. Guest: KIRO News Radio’s Luke Deucy on the Tesla’s burned and having a knife pulled on him. // Big Local: A fight at Southcenter Mall’s food court prompted a shooting false alarm on Saturday night. Horses made their way through Puyallup. Everett PD is struggling with staffing shortages. // You Pick the Topic: A Starbucks manager says he was discriminated against for being straight. A ‘Love is Blind’ star left her partner at the altar because he wasn’t liberal enough.

(The Center Square) – King County Metro is resuming bus services at a Seattle location that became an increasing public safety concern at the end of 2024. King County Metro closed bus stops along 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street in Seattle's Little Saigon neighborhood on Dec. 16. The department previously told The Center Square that the area was flagged as a safety concern for riders, transit operators and facilities employees. Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxx Read more: https://www.thecentersquare.com/washington/article_391602a0-f08b-11ef-a6db-73123fd2125f.html

Mandatory lunch time for kids? // Should cell phones be limited in schools statewide // Little Saigon calling for help // GUEST: Chandra, parent of the West Seattle High player who was concussed by a Garfield opponent after the buzzer in a recent game // SCENARIOS!

Little Saigon's first Vietnamese American representative was sworn in today. The reasoning behind Governor Newsom's executive order on processed foods. LAist food editor Gab Chabran offers a foodie forecast for 2025. Plus, more. Support The L.A. Report by donating at LAist.com/join and by visiting https://laist.comSupport the show: https://laist.com

In this bonus episode, Deqah and Vanessa have a much-needed conversation with Erica Allen-Kim about her new—must-read—book, Building Little Saigon: Refugee Urbanism in American Cities and Suburbs, about Vietnamese American-built landscapes and cultural heritage. In this interview, Deqah and Vanessa dive deeper into themes from her book to explore the role that Vietnamese Americans played in physically and socially shaping their ethnic neighborhoods in American (and Canadian) cities and suburbs. They discuss how refugee and immigrant communities adapted urban spaces to meet their needs, the importance of Asian American preservation efforts, community advocacy, and legacy preservation, and the challenges these communities face today to remain extant.  Erica Allen-Kim is an Associate Professor in the University of Toronto's Department of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Her newest book, Building Little Saigon: Refugee Urbanism in American Cities and Suburbs, is out now and available for purchase!   Credits:  Your hosts are Deqah Hussein-Wetzel and Vanessa Quirk. This episode was edited by Deqah, Vanessa, and Skyler Ficklin. Mixing by Connor Lynch. Our music is by Adaam James Levin-Areddy.  Urban Roots is a project by Urbanist Media, a non-profit dedicated to preserving place through story. Even though we do need money to keep going, we try not to spam you with ads. Instead, we add the occasional giving plug, encouraging our listeners to support us by giving. Anything helps, even $10 or $20. Please consider sending us a donation via ⁠Venmo⁠ or ⁠Paypal⁠.  *Want to give big? Consider sponsoring a bonus episode. Email us at: urbanrootspodcast@gmail.com Follow us on IG at ⁠urbanrootsculture⁠ and on YouTube (⁠Urban Roots podcast⁠). Have a thought or question – drop us an e-mail

This holiday season, we're sharing our favorite episodes of 2024. Producer Jessica Kariisa's pick is our episode featuring San Jose's Story Road Night Market in the Little Saigon neighborhood. This episode first ran on Oct. 18, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

4pm: Biden says he supports a congressional stock trading ban // Metro driver killed in stabbing on bus in Seattle's University District // King County Metro cites safety in closing Little Saigon bus stops // Seattle Times bids farewell to Dave Ross & Colleen O’Brien // Diaz releases statement after being fired as Chief // Redacted details of the report published by Publicola // We had AI write a song with the words of their letter… // Hornets apologize for taking back gift of PS5 from 13-year-old fan following on-court Christmas skit

Around 3:00am today, a King County Metro driver was fatally stabbed near the 4100 block of University Way in Seattle’s U-District. At a press conference this morning, King County Executive Dow Constantine said that the loss is being felt by everyone in county transit. "We are not always able to keep what's happening out on the streets away from the transit that operates on those streets," said Constantine. "We are doing everything that we can, and will continue to ramp up our efforts, to make sure that transit is safe for everyone. Including, especially, for our brave operators who are out on the streets every day." Greg Woodfill is the local president of the Amalgamated Transit Union #587. He said he’d like to see more regional resources dedicated to transit safety. "I don't have all the answers. This is a difficult, societal problem. What I know is that we're not doing enough," said Woodfill. "This is bigger than Metro, this is bigger than Seattle, this is the whole community that we serve." The attack comes just a couple days after Metro cut service to a cluster of stops around 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street in the Chinatown International District because of ongoing “safety concerns.” For the latest, Soundside was joined by KUOW reporter Ann Dornfeld, who attended a press conference with transit and public officials in Tukwila this morning. Guests: Ann Dornfeld, reporter on the KUOW investigations team. Related links: KUOW - King County Metro bus driver killed in fatal U District stabbing King County Metro cites safety in closing Little Saigon bus stops | The Seattle Times Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What’s Trending: Seattle is considering imposing a capital gains tax, but economists warn it could lead to wealth flight. A New York Times columnist concedes that Trump’s victory wasn’t due to ‘misinformation.’ A group in Seattle is trying to preserve a historic apartment building in Seattle’s Little Saigon neighborhood, which has become plagued with crime and drug use. // Big Local: The city of Lynnwood is stepping up police patrols amid an increase holiday retail thefts. Bellevue police officer Kevin Bereta is suing the State of Washington over serious injuries he suffered in a motorcycle crash while on duty. A suspect was arrested in Bellevue for allegedly vandalizing a piece of “pride” artwork. // A person in California tried to dress up as a bear and stage a fake attack in order to get the insurance money.

A 37-year old man remains in custody at King County Jail at this hour, held on $2 million dollars bail. He's awaiting charges connected to the stabbing of up to 9 people in Seattle's Chinatown International District and South Jackson street on Thursday and Friday.   While setting bail, the judge noted the suspect had a warrant out for his arrest and a history of multiple felonies, including robbery, theft and attempted burglary. A police spokesman described the attacks as random assaults. Several victims were hospitalized with multiple stab wounds.  CID and Little Saigon community members and business leaders are speaking out after the attacks, saying the community needs more law enforcement and social services support to deal with problem areas like 12th and Jackson – where residents have long complained of safety problems due to crime and rampant drug use. Quynh Pham is the Executive Director of Friends of Little Saigon, a community development organization focused on the Vietnamese community in the Chinatown/International District, and spoke with Soundside's Libby Denkmann. Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. GUEST: Quynh Pham - Executive Director of Friends of Little Saigon RELATED LINKS:  $2M bail set for ‘unprovoked' mass stabbing suspect in Seattle - Seattle Times Seattle Chinatown International District mass stabbing: What we know - Seattle Times  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

VOA mời quý vị khám phá sự tham gia sôi động của cộng đồng người Việt trong cuộc bầu cử Tổng thống Mỹ 2024, một trong những cách thức mà họ khẳng định vị thế và thể hiện lý tưởng phục vụ xã hội. Chúng ta sẽ có dịp lắng nghe tiếng nói của những cử tri gốc Việt tại Quận Cam, nơi mà lá phiếu của họ không chỉ là quyền lợi cá nhân mà còn là cách để thể hiện sự quan tâm đối với những vấn đề như nhân quyền Việt Nam và mối quan hệ Việt-Mỹ. Hãy cùng VOA tìm hiểu những câu chuyện và quan điểm đa dạng từ cộng đồng gốc Việt để cảm nhận tầm ảnh hưởng và sự chuyển mình của họ trong đời sống chính trị Hoa Kỳ. Xem thêm: https://bit.ly/voatvfb4 Ở California, người Việt dấn thân vào sinh hoạt chính trị sôi động mùa bầu cử. Những cử tri này lên tiếng về Việt Nam bằng cách đi bỏ phiếu ở Mỹ. Tranh cử ở Little Saigon trở thành điểm nóng tranh quyền của quốc hội Hoa Kỳ. Phụ nữ có thể làm tổng thống Mỹ? Cử tri gốc Việt ở Quận Cam nêu nhận định. Người nhập cư Việt Nam và con cái họ chia rẽ về chính sách biên giới của Hoa Kỳ. Bầu cử Mỹ là tốn kém nhất thế giới.

VOA mời quý vị khám phá sự tham gia sôi động của cộng đồng người Việt trong cuộc bầu cử Tổng thống Mỹ 2024, một trong những cách thức mà họ khẳng định vị thế và thể hiện lý tưởng phục vụ xã hội. Chúng ta sẽ có dịp lắng nghe tiếng nói của những cử tri gốc Việt tại Quận Cam, nơi mà lá phiếu của họ không chỉ là quyền lợi cá nhân mà còn là cách để thể hiện sự quan tâm đối với những vấn đề như nhân quyền Việt Nam và mối quan hệ Việt-Mỹ. Hãy cùng VOA tìm hiểu những câu chuyện và quan điểm đa dạng từ cộng đồng gốc Việt để cảm nhận tầm ảnh hưởng và sự chuyển mình của họ trong đời sống chính trị Hoa Kỳ. Xem thêm: https://bit.ly/voatvfb4 Ở California, người Việt dấn thân vào sinh hoạt chính trị sôi động mùa bầu cử. Những cử tri này lên tiếng về Việt Nam bằng cách đi bỏ phiếu ở Mỹ. Tranh cử ở Little Saigon trở thành điểm nóng tranh quyền của quốc hội Hoa Kỳ. Phụ nữ có thể làm tổng thống Mỹ? Cử tri gốc Việt ở Quận Cam nêu nhận định. Người nhập cư Việt Nam và con cái họ chia rẽ về chính sách biên giới của Hoa Kỳ. Bầu cử Mỹ là tốn kém nhất thế giới.

Night markets have exploded in popularity over the past few years in the Bay Area. Many local downtowns and shopping districts have invested in night markets as a way to regain the foot traffic of the pre-pandemic years.  In this episode, we go to the Story Road Night Market in San Jose's Little Saigon neighborhood to eat some delicious food and talk about whether night markets are here to stay. Links: Bay Area Night Markets Fall Guide Apply to be our intern! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#116: Alex takes a walk through fentanyl hell and talks with some people holding crack pipes and torches. Seattle's Little Saigon neighborhood is experiencing unprecedented drug activity - great fodder for right wing media pundits and politicians who are quick to blame but have no solutions. Meanwhile, local residents go on with their day.

  A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists.   Important Resources QTViet Cafe website Instagram Facebook Register for QTViet Cafe's 8 Year Anniversary Bilingual Letter for a Free Palestine (English/Viet) Transcript Cheryl Truong: Good evening! You were currently tuned in to APEX Express. I'm your host Cheryl Truong, and tonight is an AACRE night. What is AACRE, you might be asking. Comprised of 11 grassroots, social justice groups, the Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality Network — AACRE — leverages the power of its network to focus on long-term movement building and support for Asian Americans committed to social justice. Speaking of AACRE groups, APEX Express is proud to be a part of the AACRE network. Tonight. We have some special guests from a collective near and dear to my heart. Hải Võ and Jean Jean Phạm from QTViệt Cafe. QTViệt Cafe is a project of Asian refugees United, which is one of the 11 Asian American social justice groups within the AACRE network. Hải, do you want to kick us off by introducing yourself? And QTViệt Cafe?  Hai Vo: Co chào mọi người! Hi everyone. Thanks Cheryl for inviting QTViệt Cafe to be here today. My name is Hải. I go by my name. It means ocean in Việt. And just so excited to be here today. , I'm part of the Queer Trans Việt Cafe Collective. We are a cultural organizing hub by and for queer and trans Việt folks for our freedom and liberation. And we do that through the creative arts, ancestral life ways, and, connecting intergenerationally with our parents, our elders, families, and friends. We'll be celebrating eight years, and I've been a part of it in the beginning when Mơ asked me to help advise and start the project. What started out as an idea to essentially really bring us together and meet other queer and trans Việt people, and with a little bit of SEED funding from the Impact Hub and Youth Impact Hub Oakland project and fellowship, we've been able to not just grow our numbers, but also really more importantly, My healing and then our collective healing.  Just so grateful to be here. And I'm just so excited that Jean, you can join us. Jean is just amazing all around, such a thoughtful intuitive person, designer, friend, just all around beauty of an artist. Thank you for introducing me to the world of visual art and just so many things that you've just been exploring over the years. So, yeah, I'll pass it over.  Jean Pham: Oh my god, thanks Hải. That's honestly too generous. And thanks for inviting us here, Cheryl. That's really awesome that we have this opportunity to share about QTViệt Cafe and our work. My name is Jean. I use they/ them pronouns. I've been a part of of QTViệt Cafe since 2018 when I first moved here to the Bay Area and honestly was looking for queer and trans Việt Namese community, which although I grew up in Orange County, I have always found it very difficult to relate and find other QTViets I've been a part of the various programming and events that QTViệt has put on, including our Healers and Artists cohort. I think my role in QTViệt Cafe is honestly to just , go with the flow. I try to make myself available as much as I can. I try to help with designing things. A big cornerstone of QTViệt Cafe is repairing our connection with our ancestral and cultural heritage in a way that still celebrates and maintains our queerness and transness at the forefront. A lot of this I found has been through the culinary arts, which to me was a big point of growth. Literally using taste and smell to connect us with memory and feeling and healing. QTViệt Cafe is honestly such a special place here. It started in Oakland here in the East Bay, but we have members all across the Bay Area and even outwards in different states and locales. So it's been a pretty amazing journey to see how vast the QTViet Cafe network has expanded and definitely excited to talk about it. So yeah, I'll just check there. Again, thanks for having us.  Cheryl Truong: Thanks so much for sharing that, and especially the culinary aspect of QTV, I think is really what makes y'all so, so special. And honing that ancestral connection through food, too, is something I noticed that you all do , extremely well. Hai brings up that we're celebrating eight years of QTV at Cafe, coming up very, very soon, which is such a long time to celebrate trans and queer Việt Namese magic. I want to know what does this milestone mean to you, maybe it tastes a certain way, maybe it smells like nuoc mam or something like that. Jean Pham: Yeah, eight years is a long time. I think it's longer than any relationship I've ever had. , I've always found the QTViet Cafe such a beautiful, open space. It's very different from any organization I've ever been a part of. There's been times when, I've been overwhelmed and had to step away, but I've always just been invited back and I've been given that grace to be as involved as I want to. There's something we practice it's called penguin theory where we try to support the inner penguins like who you know move in advance of work but also have space for us to be modular. We built this bastion of work here in a Bay and I've eight years I think really to me starts or begins this journey of connecting with a greater diasporic queer and trans Việt Namese collective. So, last year was a big points in our journey as QTViet cafe, because we were able to. a fundraise and take about a dozen members to go back to Việt Nam and connect with Queer and Trans Việt Namese in Saigon. And that was just honestly, such like a unbelievable thing. Totally out of my imagination that we were able to do it. But now it really peaks our imagination of yes, , there's queer and trans Việt Namese people all over the world. Next year marks the 50th year since the Việt Nam War had ended, and there's diasporic queer and trans Việt Namese all across the U. S., but also France and Germany, Australia, Japan. We were able to form these meaningful connections here in the East Bay, but I think what I'm thinking about now is how do we take these lessons we've learned in community building and creating our own traditions and connecting with other locales, like in the queer and trans people in Australia , LA or New York or Texas of which, they do exist. There are other collectives, queer and trans Vietnamese there, but, how do we further unite the different threads of Diasporic Viets, and so it's kind of a very hard question to answer, but I think, again, we have such a strong organizing and magic that I think People that we connect with, they get why does work is important and it's what's what's needed right now. To build these strong points of relationships and solidarity across different locales internationally and outside of our own safe collective spaces. Hai Vo: Yeah, I resonate with everything that Jean shared. I think for me, eight years of continuing to gather and to organize and to be with one another means that the vision of a cultural healing hub, by and for queer and trans people to learn our ancestral ways, to be creative with one another, to heal with our elders still resonates like it still matters. I'm getting emotional about it because I just been thinking a lot about, this question. We're approaching 10 years and even 12 years. And I keep asking myself, as a queer Việt person, am I more free? Am I more liberated? I think I want to be asking myself that question deeply in the next phase of my life. Having gone through a journey on my own to explore my own gender, sexuality and be more loving of my trans femness and explore my art around food and food waste and being a diasporic cultural food worker, but also explore my eco- femme writing and erotica. Those things are really exciting for me, but also when we started QTViet Cafe, I came to peace with potentially being estranged from my parents. I noticed that a lot in our community, like that's a possibility. After my mom passed in 2018 and inviting my dad to, you know, I've invited my parents every year to come to QTViet, they haven't. Me inviting my dad to bring a picture of my mom for the altar. For me, like, okay, that's the cultural organizing piece. But deep down, I just really wanted to celebrate my mom and I just wanted my dad to be there. And to like witness how I've grown, witness my friends and family, witness the chosen family that I've built over time. And my dad came and my dad stayed through the program. My dad donated. My dad could have chosen not to go.  My dad could have left the program. My dad could have not donated. If anything, he could have probably done a lot of things Not in support of what we do. And not to say that this happens with every person or every family, but I think that for me, that's the power in trying to heal our relationships with ourselves and our families and with each other. Every year I hear more struggles, as queer and trans Việt people, and I also hear more joys and liberations, and so I think for me, yeah, eight years means that, we still are surviving, and we are still thriving any way that we can. Whether that's through our foodways, our practice of trying to continue the language, whether it's connecting on our different art forms, I'm hopeful. Eight years means being more of ourselves, and it means being able to experience one another being more of ourselves.  In my relationship with my dad, I've been able to be more honest. I see my dad as more honest, and I hope that by doing this cultural organizing work and arts as a way to practice healing justice, I want more of us to see each other as human. Queer, trans, Việt-ness is not a sickness or a disease. But also our parents are more than that role, that they're humans who experience war and trauma and are also healing too. And so, I think, that's a big part of what eight years means to me. Eight years also means we have, like, hundreds of recipes. I still haven't written out all the recipes, but in my mental Rolodex, we have lots of recipes, lots of songs, lots of poems, visual , art pieces, photos, videos. We just have so much art that expresses the queer trans Việt experience, especially the diaspora. I'm excited to, create more of it and also help archive that and document that and celebrate that as we approach, 10, 12 years and into the farther future.  My example is specific to my dad, but I think that we all heal in different ways with ourselves and our relationship to body and spirit, our relationship to other family, other friends, how we relate to each other, how we relate to the world. I see that in, in every one of us. Jean Pham: Everything Hai is saying is so important and beautiful. The landscape that QTViet formed in eight years ago was in many ways very different from now. There's a lot more shift in their communities too. Eight years ago, for example, I grew up in Orange County. Little Saigon, outside of Việt Nam, it's the densest Việt Namese population, where in San Jose, it's like the largest Việt Namese populations outside of Việt Nam . Still at their core like very deeply conservative locales. And, it's one of the reasons why I was seeking community in the eight years since then I think we've seen a kind of a shift. Our generation of Việt Namese diasporic students, descendants, inhabitants, we're challenging the politics, reckoning of, what does it mean for us, who descendants of refugees, people who hold all these different complexities, who also struggling to find our own space, what does it mean for us to, create and shape our own worlds, or to even resist against some of the things we were taught. I've been in QTViệt Cafe for most of my 20s, and I really feel the collective has honestly raised me in many ways that changed me for the better. I remember, one of my first QTViệt Cafe meetings, everyone was just cooking. I came in, like, on time. I was coming from a very different environment in terms of political organizing, where it's very we have a set agenda, everything's really disciplined. In QTViet Cafe spaces, we spend most, like, an hour or two just kind of checking in with each other, making sure everyone just felt okay and present, and able to move. A big part of it is still just being in community, cooking with each other, sharing recipes, and that's so central to the work. It's a slower pace, but I also felt like it's also ingenuous. It's really about building relationships and families. So many of us have complicated relationships with our blood families and. within QTViet Cafe spaces, sometimes we do talk about it, and sometimes there is space for us to explore that form of hardship, but people just understand. If we come in a space as a queer and trans Viet, there are certain experiences that are almost unfortunately, , universal, or you can just deeply feel. And everyone just almost telepathically holds that space for each other in a very, like, beautiful way. Cheryl Truong: You bring up how last year you were all able to go to Việt Nam, to the motherland. What is the landscape there? Like politically, emotionally, spiritually. Jean Pham: Yeah, last year we went in October, it was almost a week before Halloween I believe, and we had been preparing for this journey for half a year and it was actually delayed. Originally there were plans for , queer and trans Việt Namese. to go Việt Nam together in 2020. But because of the onset of the lockdown, these plans were not scrapped, but just put on pause until we could travel in a meaningful and safe way.  I would say the landscape in Việt Nam with the queer and trans, community we met, it was a big shock to me. It was, very loving, you know, like When I told my parents I was going my mom sent me this large message about how dangerous Việt Nam is, it's like a third world country, that people are gonna try to scam me or steal my belongings and that I should always be on guard, that even my friends can't necessarily be trusted because they might be fooled too. And I didn't necessarily believe her all the way, right? I think I thought she was being a little bit just overprotective. And when I met people in Việt Nam, no, it was like the exact opposite. Everyone was very curious, where are you from? Why are you here?  We met with a collective called the Bạc Xỉu Collective. Bạc Xỉu is a type of Việtnamese coffee. I thought it was interesting that both our collectives are named after community spaces that revolve around coffee. The Bạc Xỉu Collective were very, like, loving and open to us. They were just so curious that our group existed. A lot of them practice the art of drag, but they also had members who were involved with very different art forms, pretty similar to us. I think one of the questions I was trying to reckon with was, what does it mean to explore your queerness and transness, when you're not confronted with whiteness in the way that we are as people living in America. Obviously, white supremacy is global, but I felt it's such a new way to be queer in Việt Nam, if that makes sense. One of the highlights from meeting the collective was one of the first nights when we had rented this apartment suite and we invited a lot of the locals to come over and we just had a nice little kiki moment. We had brought over gifts. Hải is always very hospitable and gracious and prepared. Hải brought this entire suitcase full of seeds of gifts of prints of artwork that we had created and we exchanged it with them and they also just had a moment where we went around in a circle just shared who we are. It was bilingual. I was really nervous. I was like looking up on Google Translate, how to say something very, it was just like, Hi, my name is Jean. I'm from California. This is something I know how to say, but I was just so nervous in the moment that I was using Google Translate for it. But everyone was so nice. Local people in Việt Nam can speak, especially young people have a level of fluency in English so we were able to communicate pretty effectively, despite some of the language barriers. But I remember they were just interested and wanted to learn more. I honestly wish I could have stayed longer and just been in that moment forever.  I think the last thing I'll add: we just had a little like cute little party moment and I was like, what music do I put on? And so I just put on my regular music that I put on for, folks at home, like all like the gay boys and stuff I hang out with. And I just found that everyone, like Rihanna is universal. Like you put on Rihanna and no matter where you are in the world, people will freak out which I thought was so hilarious.  Hai Vo: A thousand percent agree. I loved everything that you shared, Gene. That question around, yeah, I love that you brought up that question.  As someone who grew up a part of my life in the diaspora, white supremacy and whiteness, it's just, it just happened. It's just every day. Most of the Bạc Xỉu Collective is a lot younger than our group. Most of the country actually is very young. I think a good percentage, if the majority of the country is under 25. I bring that up because I think that there's a level of a cultural revolution happening around art in general in Việt Nam in my experience in the last, let's say last like six years that I've been going almost every other year. And then to be able to meet other queer and trans Viet folks who were born, grew up there, live there, to hear them say things like, Yeah, I want to do drag and I want to do drag forever and this is what's going to free me and liberate me. , that's like very inspiring. I think in many ways, those of us who grew up here or, had time here in the diaspora, whiteness kind of, distracts, makes distractions, , and so , to, hear these young queer, Việt, local folks be so adamant and, and really, , trying, like, they're going to shows, they're making their own shows, they start doing their own events, asking for tickets and working with local shops and local bars to make their dreams happen. The one maybe kind of interesting thing that I want to share that I thought about in your question, Jean, is we met Bạc Xỉu Collective at a time when I went back, with Mơ, also part of QTViet Cafe, end of 2022. And up until that point, I had done visits back starting 2018 after my mom passed and, I wanted this trip to be a bit of a pre trip, kind of a research trip, and getting ready for the bigger trip with the dozen of us that Jean mentioned,. So, the night after we landed, we were introduced to the Bạc Xỉu Collective. A lot of these local Việt drag artists started this collective because they were in houses that had folks who were other than Việt, of them white European folks, and so they just were like, we want to create our own all Việt drag house, and do this show all in Việt. You know, make it bilingual, but centered on Việt-ness. , I think that's what we're trying to do. In the diaspora. I think there's different nuances in the places, but to be able to hear a queer drag Việt show Mostly like 95 percent Việt, and for most of the the space that we were at, was mostly Việt, I was like, oh, this is what it feels like to be at home. It was both and both comforting, exciting, my creative curiosity was going, but also there were moments where I was like, I don't understand that, you know?  I think they experienced their own challenges as artists over there , in trying to center their Việt-nesa and then we have our challenges here too. but they have a lot of freedom and access and connection to their Việt-ness because that's our motherland. During our time there where I was able to bring, parts of our altar that we bring and we practice here as part of our gatherings to honor our ancestors and, It was interesting, before that kiki that Jean mentioned I was asked if I could share about the altar, and then for some reason, I think at the end of the night I realized I didn't share, and then after we danced and catwalked, Some people started leaving. Some of the collective members, noticed the altar, and then they started bowing and recognizing Chị Phụng and Xuân Diệu, and they were wondering who put it together.  I think it was just me noticing them knowing what this is, where I didn't have to explain. Them just honoring them, just taking a minute, like, it was like a minute of our hundreds of minutes that we had together that night. But I just started getting emotional and crying that night because this is a moment where I don't have to explain. There's my kin who get it. And they looked at me after and they're like, well, you're crying. And I'm like, yeah, I'm crying because this practice, this ritual I feel only a few of us get it in the diaspora. What seems so special here in the diaspora is actually just very normal.  They were like, yeah, this is what I know about Chị Phụng and you should look up these other queer ancestors that I didn't know about. And I'm like, oh my God, this is one of the reasons why I wanna be here. So better understand our people. They were like, yeah, look at this up. Look at this up. Like look this, look up this person. Two nights later when we had our show together, we brought elements of the same altar, but Bạc Xỉu also brought things. They brought, their contributions and offerings to the altar, and food. It was a collaborative ritual that we had together and before the show as part of the hype up and the prep. We got to cúng mǎ to honor our ancestors and I'll never forget that moment to be able to practice ritual in addition to the show where we're sharing our expressive creative arts. Everyone knew the importance of why we were doing that and that we come from a deep lineage of queer trans, have probably paved the way and fought for their existence and for our existence to be here. I think that spiritually, that's a way that I felt like I was able to connect over there. I'd also say in your question, Cheryl, I think the last time I heard the the government approves same sex marriage. I would say culturally, it's a whole other story. I think because of colonization, imperialism, um, queerness and transness has been erased. And so I think that why it's so important for us to do this work in the diaspora because, our parents and our elders, they have left a motherland and so there's a gap in culture and understanding, and, it's a harder struggle to justify that actually, no, we have queer, trans, Việt history, and we come from a lineage of queer folks, and I think that for me that cultural work is so important because by sharing the history of our people, by sharing our creative expression, by sharing the struggles of, who we are both here in the diaspora and also in Việt Nam. And a lot of those struggles are around the same things. Family acceptance, belonging, economic justice, employment, , access to resources, access to healthcare, jobs. Those things are actually very similar , in my meeting, in my connecting with queer folks there. Those systems that are, creating those struggles are the same, like they're the same capitalist, Corporate imperialist systems. What I'm hopeful for is that what we're doing as queer and trans Việt folks in the diaspora, connecting with queer and trans Việt folks who are in Việt Nam know– I want to imagine a world without borders. For me the art and the creativity and trying to transform the struggles that we all experience as queer and trans people to stories and actually life ways of resilience. I'm hoping changing hearts and minds. Will ultimately transform practice and policy. The government might be saying one thing, but at home, it's actually a different story. That's why our work is important to try to change heart and minds. I want to get to a place where my dad would be like, okay, yeah, same sex marriage. My child and their friends, are members of the community who are respectful and joyful and wanting to contribute to society, just as much as our, just as much as our queer trans, Việt ancestors have to. Cheryl Truong: Thank you so much for bringing us here, Hai.  You've highlighted some really important point. Colonization capitalism, white supremacy. These are, systems of oppression that while they manifest differently, as you say, they are global in nature and. In escapable and then impact is both here in America and also in Vietnam.  The motherland, like the forces at play are very much the same. I really appreciate the insights that both of you have shared, especially in response to Jean's extremely evocative question about what it means to explore queerness and transness when you're not confronted with whiteness. Hai,, your story about the altar and Bạc Xỉu Collective connection to ancestral practices and rituals. They're embracing of our trans and queer Viet histories. And how. How it creates this deep sense of kinship. I think these are powerful reflections. The diaspora. You know, as you say. As a result of imperialism and capitalism.  Makes us a bit disconnected from these wisdoms at the motherland and what you share truly clarifies. And sharpens. What's up the forces at play and the vast systemic issues that we're confronting. But also, it really deepens my admiration for. The extremely revolutionary work that QTVIet Cafe is doing to bridge this gap and are in our world, filled with borders.  Okay. We're going to take a quick music break. But stay tuned. We'll be right back.   Cheryl Truong: And we're back. You were listening to apex express on 94.1, FM KPFA and online@kpfa.org. You were just listening to change the world by baby Chris.  We are still here with Hai Vo and Jean Pham from QTViet Cafe. For the first half of our show, we were reflecting on what eight years of QTV at cafe means and also learning. And also about the trip that they took together as a collective to Vietnam last year to learn more about trans and queer. Experience of local Vietnamese of local Viet. And of course, as the artists that they all are, they created a film about it. Let's get back to the show.  Speaking of changing hearts and minds, tell me about this documentary that you all created when you were in Việt Nam.  Hai Vo: I think the idea started because, so my parents and my brother left as boat people in 86 and I was born In Iowa in 87 after being sponsored by a Presbyterian Church. I went for the first time to Việt Nam when I was 7 and again when I was 12. I remember my parents were obsessed with camcorders. I don't know if you all have this but, there's still so many VHS tapes that I think I need to digitize, But I think the spirit of homeland trips being documented in my family is such a thing.  When I was thinking about this trip, 2018, when I started coming back when I was 12, it wasn't until 22 years later, when I was 34, that I came back after my mom passed. Going back, I was , curious about how people document their experience going back to the homeland and these days with reels and social media, people doing daily blogs and just all the things, I was curious. But I think there's an element of that kind of old school, just document everything. And then coming back here a few weeks later, just over dinner, just see everything unedited. Um, so, yeah, that was part of the inspiration and then fortunately, 1 of our collective members, and, and members Tracy Nguyen and folks with the Sunkist SunKissed,they've been documenting the QTViet Cafe experience since the beginning, really.  So much of what's on YouTube and online of our work is, through their documentation. Basically was like, Sal, I don't have a lot of money. We don't have a lot of money, but here's a little bit of money that I fundraise so far and we can keep fundraising as part of the collective effort. What do you say about trying to document this experience with us? I think what's so powerful about the collective is by it for us. Knowing that Sal and other folks who practice videography and film are already part of the collective and are already interested in a trip, I think, it's easier to share and connect on the goal of connecting with other queer and trans folks.  We've never done a trip like this and then two, we've never documented a trip like this. Everything was new. And we were going into it. We had like ideas of how we wanted to film this and there were some proposals and we Filmed some of the activities that we had before the trip like some of our planning retreats and some of our fundraising events. Sal did some interviews of how we felt before in all the feelings of like anxious and excited, nervous. And I ultimately was just like, Sal, here's our best agenda, here's like a guide of what each day will look like. Ultimately, I want to give all of us a creative permission just experience this trip and to let's do our best to document it. And as long as we're truthful and honest. As long as we can just share our full humanhood, whatever happens on the other side, I think will be amazing. After that, it just had a little bit of relief knowing that. Honestly, we were inspired by Videos that other queer trans folks were doing in Việt Nam. It's like abstract and editorial and like voiceover and like, it's just like, just put it out there. That was part of our inspo. I think just as much as, our identities and sexualities and gender are fluid, I wanted to encourage, the film and documentation to be just as fluid. Fortunately, we had folks who were filming and doing sound, and with the support of , everyone in the collective, we're all taking photos and doing videos. We're, hoping to just share honestly and report not just our experience, but also share the struggles that we experienced as queer and trans people, the struggles that queer and trans people, in Việt Nam experience to the power of what it means to collaborate together and, um, do something historic and do a first event there ever. we hope to share our post trip reflections of what it's meant for us.  Jean Pham: Yeah, it was just like a fun process for us to take upon this trip and each of us in our own way, document it. QTViet Cafe has different disciplines of artists– filmmakers, photographers, writers, dancers, and so forth, that one of the things we were also asked to do was, to take our own photos and to share it throughout the entire process.  For me it was a different experience because this is my first time going to Việt Nam. My parents came here in 89 and I was born in 95. I guess if you're not a part of the diasporic Việt Namese American population, there are certain, like, ideas held about Việt Nam that some people from the older generation have about, Việt Nam as , a socialist country. And also, like, what it means for people who are refugees to be reckoned with, how their country has transformed. And so I've never gone back to Việt Nam because my parents honestly thought this is like a lost country. It's not home for us anymore. And so a lot of ideas about Việt Nam and what it is now, we're, Reproduced and given to me and of course, like it's a lot of unpacking too, right? Because I honestly don't believe a lot of these held ideas that they have about Việt Nam. And it was important for me to want to experience that. Việt Nam for myself, in a way where I could truly see what the country is and not in a way that necessarily demonizes it or even romanticizes it. A lot of like diasporic poetry and art and writing I feel kind of like hinges or teeters that like point of almost romanticizing their ancestral country. And I think it's important for us to unpack all these like held beliefs and biases. In college, I did a lot of poetry, slam poetry, and I always recognized the language barrier is a big part of access, not being able to fully understand or communicate with our parents is a tension that many like second or third generation Americans face. The way that I think QTViet Cafe interacts with that is pretty ingenious, but also very, what one should do, which is just simply to learn the language. We need to teach each other the language so that we can communicate with each other in Việt Namese. That was another big part of our preparation too.  Some collective members. held Việt Namese classes for us to talk to each other, talk to locals, talk to other queer folks. And also the language is important because as much as we have our own lingo and slang as queer and trans communities here, so do they in Việt Nam, in Việt Namese. With the documentary, not everyone has the same experience, right? For me, it was my first time. So I was trying to visit places where my parents grew up, trying to see the city from my own eyes. Some people had a lot more connection with Việt Nam and had visited it, Việt Nam and Saigon many times before. So in a documentary, there are certain members of the collective that have like more keyed interviews that kind of talk about that difference because even within our collective, we're not monolithic in terms of our experiences and you can see the different ways like we're shaped by it.  I think the last thing I'll share with you is definitely, and Hai, and I kind of talked about this. It's in conversation pretty often, but a lot of eateries, Việt Namese restaurants in the US are kind of stuck in time because a lot of them are, restaurants that are Staffed and created by diasporic Việt Namese refugees. The food has like definitely developed a lot in Việt Nam. And so has the language. It almost feels like, you know, us in a diaspora, us here in California, we're in like a time bubble. And going to Việt Nam breaks that. And lets us experience what does Việt Nam look like now in like 2024, 2023. Now that it has like modernized. You know, most people, most queer and trans Việt Namese people we've met were either in underground economies or they're gig workers or they're freelance workers. I think there's a lot of parallels between the ways that queer and trans people move here and also in Việt Nam. Although there is definitely like that point of us visiting Việt Nam as Americans. or people who have American passports, there is a class dynamic to it. So yeah, it, I would say part of the complication is There are things we were trying to resolve within our own bodies by going back to Việt Nam, but also things we had to reckon with, like the differences too, and how, I think for me, one of the most jarring things was realizing that in Saigon, there are provinces or like neighborhood, entire neighborhoods that are home to just people who immigrated out from their countries and had access to a larger degree of wealth and who are actively perhaps displacing Saigonese locals and realizing that if I wasn't careful, then these are structural issues that can be created if we don't examine our place like in context. Yeah. And I'll check there. Yeah.  Cheryl Truong: Thanks so much for sharing Jean and Hai. That's just about all the time we have left tonight. For those interested in seeing the premiere of their Đồng Quể documentary, learning more about QTViet Cafe. And or celebrating eight years of queer trans Viet magic, please join QTViet Cafe on September 1st in Oakland, California. They will be having an exciting celebration. ? Hai, how can people learn more? Hai Vo: Yeah, we're excited to invite everyone to our eight year anniversary. We're premiering Đồng Quể, which is the film of their Việt Nam trip. We are planning to have it, on Sunday, September 1st. 5 to 9 at Firehouse Oakland in Chinatown. And, yeah, we're live on the tickets and registration.  It'll be up on our IG, @qtvietcafe, it'll be up on our Facebook, it'll be up on our website. Folks can also subscribe to our newsletter too via our website. Yeah, September 1st, Sunday, evening time, 5 to 9, Chinatown at Firehouse in Oakland.  Cheryl Truong: Thank you all. So thank you both so much for being here for coming on the show. And for our listeners, please join us September 1st at the firehouse in Oakland. You hear all of these stories, these intimate details at Jean and Hai have shared with us income to live. For those interested in learning more. QTViet Cafe's socials Facebook, Instagram website, all that good stuff will be in the show notes as well as a link to their registration form. As well as their bilingual letter for a free Palestine. That was written in collaboration with members of QTViet Cafe, the Dallas, Asian American historical society, and also various other community supporters. This letter is bilingual. It starts off with dear family. And is meant to catalyze an intergenerational conversation about Palestine. Everyone has a different relationship story to our families and lineage, so this resource is a conversation starter so please check it out.  It'll also be in the show notes.   Thank you all so much for listening and I'll see you next time. .  Apex express is produced by Miko Lee, Paige Chung, Jalena Keane-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar. Shekar, Anuj Vaidya, Kiki Rivera, Swati Rayasam, Nate Tan, Hien Nguyen, Nikki Chan, and Cheryl Truong   Tonight's show was produced by me, cheryl. Thanks to the team at KPFA for all of their support. And thank you for listening!  The post APEX Express – August 22, 2024 – 8 Years of QTViet Cafe! appeared first on KPFA.

Send us a Text Message.Chinese entrepreneurs in the 1970s as well as refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia transformed an area on the city's north side by opening restaurants, bakeries, pharmacies, and social service agencies. Today we're discussing Chicago's Little Saigon with author Erica Allen-Kim.Building Little Saigon: Refugee Urbanism in American Cities and Suburbs by Erica Allen-KimBuy it from the publisher: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477329719/Show your support of the show for the cost of a coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/chicagohistoryLeave me a voice message - just click on the microphone in the lower right corner here: https://www.chicagohistorypod.comUp your cocktail or Sodastream game with Portland craft syrups!https://portlandsyrups.com/collections/all?sca_ref=1270971.MO4APpJH1kAffiliate Links (anything you buy  through these links - not just this stuff - helps benefit the show at no additional cost to you):BOOKS:Building Little Saigon: Refugee Urbanism in American Cities and Suburbs by Erica Allen-Kimhttps://amzn.to/3X1MxvyToward a Framework for Vietnamese American Studies: History, Community, and Memory by Linda Ho Peché, Alex-Thai Dinh Vo, et al.https://amzn.to/3WXx3IBAfter Rain: A Vietnamese Refugee Family Story by Hoành Phonghttps://amzn.to/3yzjVQC (Paperback)https://amzn.to/3LY3Vej (Kindle)or FREE with Kindle UnlimitedWant to read hundreds of books for FREE every month? Try Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/4dInhRbChicago History Podcast Art by John K. Schneider (angeleyesartjks  AT gmail.com)Gear used in the recording of this podcast:Shure MV7 Microphone: https://amzn.to/4aN8Xo6Zoom H6 Recorder: https://amzn.to/3y0wWh0Support the Show.

It's a kid-run business bound to please the sweet tooth in Dorchester. WBZ's Jay Willett has the story.For more, ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio.

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Team Common is currently working on our transition to a weekly show. We'll be back this summer with new episodes. In the meantime, here's one from our archives. Boston Little Saigon is one of the city's four official cultural districts as designated by the state. Located in Fields Corner in Dorchester, the district was officially designated in 2021, but to its residents, Little Saigon has been an anchor for Vietnamese culture in the region for decades. To learn more about the district's food and experiences, and its place in the New England Vietnamese community, The Common toured Little Saigon with Annie Le, board president of Boston Little Saigon. This episode is part of WBUR's Field Guide to Boston, a station-wide effort to help you connect with the city's communities. Take a look at the team's trip around the district here: Greater Boston's daily podcast where news and culture meet.

Hai dân biểu liên bang Hoa Kỳ vừa ra nghị quyết lên án chính phủ Việt Nam về vi phạm nhân quyền. Nghị quyết này được giới thiệu nhân dịp đánh dấu Ngày Nhân quyền Việt Nam 11/5, một nỗ lực pháp lý được Quốc hội Hoa Kỳ thông qua cách đây 30 năm nhằm kêu gọi Hà Nội cải thiện nhân quyền. Xem thêm: https://bit.ly/voatvfb4 Tin tức đáng chú ý khác: Chiến hạm INS Kiltan của Ấn Độ cập cảng Cam Ranh. Giá vàng tại Việt Nam biến động mạnh sau khi lập kỷ lục. Ra mắt sách ‘Bức Tử VNCH, Kissinger và 8 Thủ đoạn nham hiểm' ở Little Saigon. Philippines quyết ngăn Trung Quốc xây ‘đảo nhân tạo' ở Biển Đông. Netanyahu: Cuộc chiến vì sự tồn tại của Israel ‘chưa kết thúc'. Ông Putin bất ngờ thay Bộ trưởng Quốc phòng. Kim Jong Un thị sát các nhà máy vũ khí giữa lúc Triều Tiên lên án sự giám sát của phương Tây. DJ Hàn Quốc dùng nhạc sôi động quảng bá Phật giáo trong giới trẻ.

Having learned nothing from the tragedy of Seattle's occupied protest zone, so-called leaders will wind up with blood on their hands. The Washington State Democratic Party sells its endorsement to Bob Ferguson for $1 million. Little Saigon deli owner faces fines for frequent graffiti. Governor Kristi Noem somehow tops her dog murder story. 

In this podcast episode, Tim Hutchinson and Jordan Giusti discuss their experiences and insights from engaging in disciple-making and church planting efforts in the Los Angeles area, particularly focusing on the vibrant and diverse community of Little Saigon among the Vietnamese population.They share encouraging stories about local and international impacts, emphasizing the importance of collaboration among local laborers and the broader Christian community to address the immense spiritual needs in Southern California.The conversation also highlights how their ministry strategies are informed by and integrated with biblical principles, aiming to foster a broader participation in the Gospel and spiritual growth across various unreached groups in the region.

“In 2017, VOX Kitchen opened in the heart of Little Saigon, bringing the ‘Chifa' culinary movement —a fusion of Chinese and Peruvian cuisines—to Orange County. The award-winning restaurant entered into 2024 with an expanded kitchen and dining room, new menu … Continue reading → The post Show 570, March 23, 2024: VOX Kitchen, Fountain Valley, with Founder & Executive Chef Viet Nguyen Part Two appeared first on SoCal Restaurant Show.

“In 2017, VOX Kitchen opened in the heart of Little Saigon, bringing the ‘Chifa' culinary movement —a fusion of Chinese and Peruvian cuisines—to Orange County. The award-winning restaurant entered into 2024 with an expanded kitchen and dining room, new menu … Continue reading → The post Show 570, March 23, 2024: VOX Kitchen, Fountain Valley, with Founder & Executive Chef Viet Nguyen Part One appeared first on SoCal Restaurant Show.

Wide Open Walls faces criticism over Lunar New Year murals in Sacramento's Little Saigon. Also, Rep. Katie Porter discusses why she is a candidate for U.S. Senate. Finally, author of “Judith Letting Go” and how to approach death. Wide Open Walls Lunar New Year Controversy is known for putting artists in the spotlight, by showcasing vibrant murals throughout Sacramento streets. But the organization is coming under fire for its latest murals surrounding Lunar New Year in the city's Little Saigon community - accused of cultural inaccuracies and not including Asian artists. Hannah Ross is a journalist with Solving Sacramento - a journalism collaborative that partners with CapRadio - and shares her reporting with local artists and city officials, as well as some possible solutions. Wide Open Walls CEO David Sobon sent a statement to Insight that says in part, “We stand behind the fact that, when compared to other mural festivals in the country, we feature one of the most diverse portfolios of participating artists, including many API artists, Black, LatinX, non-binary, LGBT, women, and more. This diversity is central to our mission and ethos…We realize in this particular instance, we could've done better in the planning stages and we're committed to making those changes.”  Senate Candidate Rep. Katie Porter Democratic Congressmember Katie Porter joins us on Insight as part of our series of conversations with the candidates for U.S. Senate. Rep. Porter, according to polls, is in a neck-and-neck race for second place with Republican Steve Garvey, and is looking for a way to differentiate herself from him and frontrunner, Congressmember Adam Schiff (D) as the top two candidates move on to the general election in November.   Author on How to Approach Death How can talking about - or even preparing - one's death give it meaning as a part of life, and increase compassion for those who are approaching the inevitable? That is the subject of a new book called Judith Letting Go by author Mark Dowie, who remembers his six-month friendship with poet Judith Tannenbaum as she made her decision to “let go.” Mark joins Insight to talk about experience with Judith and learning how to approach death, ahead of an event on Sunday, Feb. 18 at Capital Books.

On today's show, Legal Lionel discusses the Fanni Willis Sex Scandal and Hunter Biden's Gun Charges. Later, Senator Janet Nguyen discusses Senate Democrats rejecting the Republican Amendment on Felony Theft once again. GUEST 1 OVERVIEW: Lionel, through his Nation, covers world and national news and issues, dissecting and exposing them without preconditions and preconceptions. He provides deep political analyses, revealing the truth with a priority on unvarnished historicity. He engages in critical thinking elevated to an art form and offers words of wisdom from the last of the renaissance polymaths. He is known for his honest, funny, and unapologetic discussion as a renowned legal and media analyst, sesquipedalian, and veteran talk radio pioneer. He is nonpareil and sui generis. For more information, visit https://lionelmedia.com/. You can also find him on YouTube: @LionelNation Twitter/X: @LionelMedia. GUEST 2 OVERVIEW: Janet Nguyen is an American politician who serves in the California State Senate. A Republican, she represents the 36th district, which includes coastal Orange County, Little Saigon, and parts of Los Angeles County. She previously was a member of the State Senate for the old 34th district from 2014 to 2018, before narrowly losing reelection to Tom Umberg. GUEST 3 OVERVIEW: Scotty Saks hosts Sovereign Radio each Saturday morning on News/Talk 1470 KYYW. Scotty isn't afraid to analyze controversial topics surrounding the media, U.S. and global economics, finance, and business.    

Banh Khot Crispy Vietnamese bit-sized mini pancake, often eaten as a snack or light meal, and consumed with stacks of green leafy vegetables and herbs, and sweet salty fish sauce. Cha Gio rolled with shrimp, ground pork, and taro. (Egg Rools) Banh Knot Lady started during the pandemic Tony and his mom had to close his tattoo shop and her nail salon. First day was Mother's Day, selling about 400-500 pieces of Banh Khot. The following week they sold double. @023, they found themselves meeting with the owner of the prolific Asian Garden Mall, considered by many as the epicenter of Little Saigon. After a fortuitous

Các cựu quân nhân Hoa Kỳ từng tham gia, góp sức trong các cuộc chiến để đem lại hoà bình và bảo vệ sự tự do, được vinh danh khắp nơi tại Mỹ trong ngày lễ dành cho cựu quân nhân ngày 11/11 năm nay.

To learn more about Dorchester's Little Saigon, WBUR's The Common host Darryl C. Murphy and visited the area with Annie Le, board president of the cultural district.

Boston Little Saigon is one of the city's four official cultural districts as designated by the state. Located in Fields Corner in Dorchester, the district was officially designated in 2021, but to its residents, Little Saigon has been an anchor for Vietnamese culture in the region for decades. To learn more about the district's food and experiences, and its place in the New England Vietnamese community, The Common toured Little Saigon with Annie Le, board president of Boston Little Saigon. This episode is part of WBUR's Field Guide to Boston, a station-wide effort to help you connect with the city's communities. Greater Boston's daily podcast where news and culture meet.

On this Tuesday topical show, Crystal chats with Tanya Woo about her campaign for Seattle City Council District 2. Listen and learn more about Tanya and her thoughts on: [01:06] - Why she is running [02:02] - Lightning round! [12:49] - What is an accomplishment of hers that impacts District 2 [17:13] - Housing and homelessness: Frontline worker wages [19:36] - Homelessness: Involvement with opposition to SODO shelter expansion [25:15] - Public Safety: Alternative response [27:08] - Victim support [30:52] - City budget shortfall: Raise revenue or cut services? [36:02] - Small business support [39:16] - Childcare: Affordability and accessibility [40:28] - Bike and pedestrian safety [45:59] - Transit reliability [48:02] - Difference between her and opponent As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Follow us on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find Tanya Woo at @votetanyawoo.   Tanya Woo My family immigrated to Seattle in 1887. I grew up on Beacon Hill, worked at our family business in the Chinatown International District and now live in Rainier Beach. I've seen how South Seattle has changed. I've seen what happens to neighborhoods that don't have a voice and are expected to just live with bad city policies. I want to change that, and that's why I'm running for Seattle City Council. I spearheaded the renovation of my family's building, the Louisa hotel, that provides small business space and workforce housing. Twice a week, my Community Watch walks around Little Saigon, Nihomachi (Japantown) and Chinatown trying to make our streets safer for everyone, which includes our unhoused neighbors. My work against government discrimination in the Chinatown International District has taught me a very important lesson: the only time people in South Seattle are heard is when we make those in positions of power listen.   Resources Campaign Website - Tanya Woo   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review show and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Well, I am very pleased to be welcoming Tanya Woo, Seattle City Council candidate in District 2, to the program. Thank you so much for joining us, Tanya. [00:01:04] Tanya Woo: Well, thank you for having me - I'm really excited to be here. [00:01:06] Crystal Fincher: Excited to have you - and just wanted to start off by understanding why you chose to run and why now? [00:01:14] Tanya Woo: Yes, and so this comes from a long history of work in the Chinatown International District, as well as being a lifelong resident here in District 2. Just seeing the effects of the pandemic on our community, as well as seeing all of these high-impact projects that are happening around the Chinatown International District these last four years - and realizing that the district is really fighting for its life, basically. And so we were fighting for a seat at the table, we were fighting to amplify voices and to be heard - and realizing that the best way to get a seat at the table is to fight for it and to run for it. And so after a lot of discussion and a lot of encouragement, I decided to throw my hat into the ring. [00:02:01] Crystal Fincher: Excellent. Well, as we get started on this show - I mean, we do candidate interviews a lot - we're adding a new dimension into the interviews this year, which is a lightning round before we get to the rest of our regular conversation and discussion. And so just a number of yes or no questions, that hopefully are easy, or super one-answer choice questions. So we'll just run through this and then get back to the other questions. So this year, did you vote yes on the King County Crisis Care Centers levy? [00:02:31] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:02:32] Crystal Fincher: And this year, did you vote yes on the Veterans, Seniors, and Human Services levy? [00:02:37] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:02:38] Crystal Fincher: Did you vote in favor of Seattle's Social Housing Initiative 135? ... In February. [00:02:43] Tanya Woo: I may not have voted for that. I may not have voted for that one. [00:02:53] Crystal Fincher: Okay. And in 2021, did you vote for Bruce Harrell or Lorena González for Seattle Mayor? [00:03:00] Tanya Woo: I did not vote in that election. [00:03:02] Crystal Fincher: Okay. Okay, so I guess that covers - let me find that - so City Attorney. Last year in 2022, did you vote for Leesa Manion or Jim Ferrell for King County Prosecutor? [00:03:17] Tanya Woo: Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I don't know which elections I voted for, which ones I did not vote for. [00:03:21] Crystal Fincher: Okay. [00:03:22] Tanya Woo: I'll have to pull up my record to answer. [00:03:23] Crystal Fincher: We will skip the... [00:03:26] Tanya Woo: I am so sorry. [00:03:27] Crystal Fincher: It's fine, it's fine. We'll skip the rest of those. We'll go to the other questions. Do you rent or own your residence? [00:03:34] Tanya Woo: My husband owns the residence. [00:03:36] Crystal Fincher: Okay, are you a landlord? [00:03:39] Tanya Woo: My family is a landlord. [00:03:41] Crystal Fincher: Okay, would you vote to require landlords to report metrics, including how much rent they're charging, to help better plan housing and development needs in the district? [00:03:50] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:03:51] Crystal Fincher: Are there any instances where you would support sweeps of homeless encampments? [00:03:59] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:04:00] Crystal Fincher: Will you vote to provide additional funding for Seattle's Social Housing Public Development Authority? [00:04:06] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:04:07] Crystal Fincher: Do you agree with King County Executive Constantine's statement that the King County Jail should be closed? [00:04:18] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:04:19] Crystal Fincher: Should parking enforcement be housed within SPD? [00:04:28] Tanya Woo: Oh. I don't think I've ever really thought about this one. Probably yes. [00:04:43] Crystal Fincher: Okay. Would you vote to allow police in schools? [00:04:51] Tanya Woo: I think that's up to the schools. [00:04:52] Crystal Fincher: Do you support allocation in the City budget for a civilian-led mental health crisis response? [00:04:59] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:05:00] Crystal Fincher: Do you support allocation in the City budget to increase the pay of human service workers? [00:05:03] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:05:04] Crystal Fincher: Do you support removing funds in the City budget for forced encampment removals and instead allocating funds towards a Housing First approach? [00:05:13] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:05:14] Crystal Fincher: Do you support abrogating or removing the funds from unfilled SPD positions and putting them towards meaningful public safety measures? [00:05:24] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:05:24] Crystal Fincher: Do you support allocating money in the budget for supervised consumption sites? [00:05:33] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:05:34] Crystal Fincher: Do you support increasing funding in the City budget for violence intervention programs? [00:05:40] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:05:41] Crystal Fincher: Do you oppose a SPOG contract that doesn't give the Office of Police Accountability and the Office of Inspector General subpoena power? [00:05:54] Tanya Woo: Do I oppose it? Yes. [00:05:56] Crystal Fincher: Do you oppose a SPOG contract that doesn't remove limitations as to how many of OPA's investigators must be sworn versus civilian? [00:06:05] Tanya Woo: So sorry, can you repeat the question? [00:06:09] Crystal Fincher: Sure, sure, sure. Do you oppose a SPOG contract that doesn't remove limitations as to how many of OPA's investigators must be sworn versus civilian? [00:06:21] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:06:22] Crystal Fincher: Do you oppose a SPOG contract that impedes the ability of the city to move police funding to public safety alternatives? [00:06:32] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:06:33] Crystal Fincher: Do you support eliminating in-uniform off-duty work by SPD officers? [00:06:45] Tanya Woo: Such as traffic control? [00:06:49] Crystal Fincher: That would fall under one if they're off-duty, I think, yeah. [00:06:54] Tanya Woo: I do not oppose it, so. [00:06:56] Crystal Fincher: Okay. Will you vote to ensure that trans and non-binary students are allowed to play on the sports teams that fit with their gender identities? [00:07:07] Tanya Woo: And this isn't - do I oppose it? [00:07:09] Crystal Fincher: No - will you vote to ensure that - [00:07:10] Tanya Woo: Oh, sorry - okay. [00:07:10] Crystal Fincher: - trans and non-binary students are allowed to play on the sports teams that fit with their gender identities? [00:07:18] Tanya Woo: Oh, I think that's a conversation we have to have with the sports teams, but I would be in support of it. [00:07:25] Crystal Fincher: So when you say conversation to have with the sports teams - if they voted against it, would you support that? [00:07:31] Tanya Woo: I think we have to support - yes. [00:07:33] Crystal Fincher: Okay, so you would support-- [00:07:35] Tanya Woo: If the sports teams voted. [00:07:37] Crystal Fincher: Sports team said that they couldn't play, then they couldn't play. [00:07:40] Tanya Woo: If they had good reason. [00:07:41] Crystal Fincher: Got it. [00:07:42] Tanya Woo: 'Cause I think every sports is different. [00:07:44] Crystal Fincher: Will you vote to ensure that trans people can use bathrooms or public facilities that match their gender? [00:07:51] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:07:52] Crystal Fincher: Do you agree with the Seattle City Council's decision to implement the JumpStart Tax? [00:07:58] Tanya Woo: I'm so sorry, going back to the gender one - their stated gender or their perceived gender? [00:08:04] Crystal Fincher: Whatever gender they identify as. [00:08:06] Tanya Woo: Okay, yes, then - we need to ensure that it's served - okay. [00:08:10] Crystal Fincher: Do you agree with the Seattle City Council's decision to implement the JumpStart Tax? [00:08:17] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:08:17] Crystal Fincher: Will you vote to reduce or divert the JumpStart Tax in any way? [00:08:29] Tanya Woo: That's a very complicated question. [00:08:31] Crystal Fincher: Okay, we can leave it as - it's complicated, it's not a yes or no - and we can get to that. We have plenty of time to talk about this in the other questions, so we can cover the details of that. [00:08:41] Tanya Woo: Okay great. Yeah - that's a lot of -- Oh, go ahead. [00:08:45] Crystal Fincher: Are you happy with Seattle's newly built waterfront? [00:08:50] Tanya Woo: Yes, I love the direction it's going in. [00:08:52] Crystal Fincher: Do you believe return to work mandates, like the one issued by Amazon, are necessary to boost Seattle's economy? [00:09:01] Tanya Woo: And that's the three days a week, right? [00:09:05] Crystal Fincher: Theirs is three days a week - whatever, you know, if they're mandating a return and not work from home in whatever form that would be. So it could be three, it could be five. [00:09:15] Tanya Woo: I think yes. Oh, okay. I think it's great to start with three. And then, of course, the willingness to work with families where that could be a barrier - where there's any barriers involved. [00:09:26] Crystal Fincher: Okay, so do you think - I mean, do you think the mandate is necessary or is that it's on a case-by-case basis and-- [00:09:33] Tanya Woo: Well, I think it's necessary to revitalize the downtown area. I know there's a lot of barriers for some people not being able to physically return to work - I think case-by-case in those situations should be allowed. [00:09:48] Crystal Fincher: Gotcha. Have you taken transit in the past week? [00:09:52] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:09:53] Crystal Fincher: Have you ridden a bike in the past week? [00:09:55] Tanya Woo: No. [00:09:56] Crystal Fincher: In the past month? [00:09:59] Tanya Woo: No. [00:10:01] Crystal Fincher: Okay. Should Pike Place Market allow non-commercial car traffic? [00:10:11] Tanya Woo: Oh, I know that is being talked about right now. I think it'd be nice to not allow it, but I know some of the business owners want it - so I think definitely let Pike Place Market decide on how they want to proceed. [00:10:30] Crystal Fincher: Should we accelerate the elimination of the ability to turn right on red lights to improve pedestrian safety? [00:10:44] Tanya Woo: For all red lights? [00:10:45] Crystal Fincher: Yes. [00:10:47] Tanya Woo: Okay. That would add a lot of needed infrastructure. I would support that, but I think we'd have to put together a plan to be able to carry that out. [00:11:03] Crystal Fincher: Okay. Should significant investments be made to speed up the opening of scheduled Sound Transit light rail lines? [00:11:15] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:11:16] Crystal Fincher: Have you ever been a member of a union? [00:11:20] Tanya Woo: No. [00:11:20] Crystal Fincher: Will you vote to increase funding and staffing for investigations into labor violations like wage theft and illegal union busting? [00:11:31] Tanya Woo: Would I support putting money into investigations? [00:11:35] Crystal Fincher: Increasing funding and staffing for investigations into labor violations like wage theft and illegal union busting? [00:11:42] Tanya Woo: Oh - yes. [00:11:43] Crystal Fincher: Have you ever walked on a picket line? [00:11:46] Tanya Woo: No. [00:11:47] Crystal Fincher: Have you ever crossed a picket line? [00:11:49] Tanya Woo: No. [00:11:50] Crystal Fincher: Is your campaign unionized? [00:11:53] Tanya Woo: They have the option to do so, but I do not believe so. [00:11:57] Crystal Fincher: Okay. If your campaign staff wants to unionize, will you voluntarily recognize their effort? [00:12:02] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:12:03] Crystal Fincher: Are any of the staff employed by your businesses unionized? [00:12:14] Tanya Woo: If, are my staff employed by businesses unionized? [00:12:18] Crystal Fincher: Any staff employed by your business unionized? [00:12:22] Tanya Woo: No. [00:12:24] Crystal Fincher: If they wanted to unionize, would you voluntarily recognize their effort? [00:12:28] Tanya Woo: Yes. [00:12:30] Crystal Fincher: Well, look, that's the end of the lightning round - you survived, it's wonderful. [00:12:34] Tanya Woo: Okay great - these are always rough because I feel like sometimes issues are so complicated and there's a lot of gray - it's not always black and white - but yeah, that wasn't so bad. [00:12:45] Crystal Fincher: Which is why we have a robust conversation in front of us to talk about all of that. But I want to start out for - helping to give people a feel for what you prioritize and how qualified you are to lead, which a lot of people see throughout the community. Can you describe something you've accomplished or changed in your district and what impact that has had on residents? [00:13:08] Tanya Woo: Yes. Three years ago, during the pandemic - when there were a lot of pandemic racism, anti-Asian hate happening - our businesses were forced to close down throughout the city. And a lot of people were uncertain and just confused about what was happening, especially in our communities of color. I helped start a group called the Chinatown International District Community Watch. We saw there was a lack and a gap in services between the hours of 6pm and 6am - and that was the time when many of our streets, because of the stay-at-home mandate, it was just a ghost town. And so we wanted to make sure that people felt supported, that our small businesses felt supported in the Chinatown International District - which includes our housed and unhoused neighbors and residents. And so we started like this alternative to policing group that kind of just went through the three neighborhoods - Little Saigon, Chinatown, and Japantown - and just made sure everyone was okay. We believe that building trust between our unhoused neighbors and those who are there at 12th and Jackson engaged in the illegal markets were okay. We always believe that trust was the best way to de-escalate the situation. And they wanted to build connection and build relationships with people to help connect people to resources and to just be there. We wanted to give hope to our seniors and to our small business owners who were working through the pandemic. And so wanted to let them know that we were here and available if they need help - we did senior escorts. We also did something regarding self-defense training, which mainly focused on situational awareness - many in the Asian culture, people don't - there's not a lot eye contact, people are not looking around when they're walking. And so there are a lot instances where our seniors were unfortunately being attacked - we had a hate incident happen within the CID. And so we wanted to be there to show support for the community. And it's been three years and we're still going strong. We kind of segued into different sections. There was a couple of large encampments that had grown in the first, second, or third year. And we started doing outreach and engagement in the encampments - getting to know our unhoused - we saw who was doing what, we saw the [unintelligible] who were engaged in the sex trade, who was engaged in the illegal markets. But we wanted to make sure that people who needed services and help were also being heard. So we were actively going into the encampments during that time - and now that those encampments have been resolved, we're going into Little Saigon area and 12th and Jackson with water bottles and meals. And trying to make that connection - that community cares, we want people to be okay. And we've done things where we've had to administer Narcan and CPR. And we really see that there's a need here. And so I believe that we're very, very slowly - there are many success stories - people who have found housing come back and say hi to us, and they invite us to see their homes. Many people who we have connected to other services, like brought to the hospital - helped bring to the hospital - have come back to thank us. And just seeing that we're making a difference in people's lives, I think brings me worlds of happiness. And so-- [00:17:03] Crystal Fincher: Now-- [00:17:03] Tanya Woo: --that was-- oh, go ahead. [00:17:05] Crystal Fincher: Oh, no, go ahead, finish. [00:17:06] Tanya Woo: Oh yeah, and so that's one of the things I'm really proud of and excited about - that this is continuing. [00:17:12] Crystal Fincher: Excellent. Now talking about homelessness, one thing called out by experts as a barrier to the homelessness response is frontline worker wages that don't cover the cost of living and that impairing the response. Do you believe our local nonprofits have a responsibility to pay living wages for our area, or that this is a problem with the response? And how can we fix it if it is a problem with how the City bids for contracts and services? [00:17:39] Tanya Woo: Yes, I agree we have to pay a living wage and that is a huge barrier. I mean, even if - there's a huge turnaround in a lot of our nonprofits and our services - we have amazing people who are moving on and that turnaround, especially with caseworkers, is a bit detrimental to further relationships with many members of the community who need behavioral health services, addiction treatment, who are partnered with people to lead them through the journey from being unhoused into finding housing. And how important is that we pay a living wage to case managers so we don't see that there's a huge gap in services and that people are being missed or forgotten. And in other service sectors, I think there has to be - we have to meet those needs because the best way to fight homelessness is to prevent it. So especially with City contracts, there has to be - now that many City contracts are being renegotiated - to get a cost of living wage and also a percentage to match, for every single year going forward, the increase in the cost of living. I think that has to be comparable to other cities, other markets that we're seeing. And we have to make it a priority because we have to put people first, and we have to allow people to be able to live here and work here, as well as be able to negotiate these contracts so that they are fair. And also we have to make other, look at other things as well in terms of City contracts - I think trying to employ more minority businesses in City contracts, as well as female businesses, in terms of the larger contract picture is also very important. [00:19:36] Crystal Fincher: Now, you were involved in the opposition to the proposed - it was nicknamed the "Megaplex" - but a services complex for the homeless there. And I think there were legitimate issues raised over the past several years about the CID residents being left out of discussions about what infrastructure is being built and developed, and mitigations or lack thereof. And the CID and its residents experiencing hardships and consequences out of proportion to people in other parts of the city, and that being a growing frustration - and then this happens and it feels like they're repeating the same cycle. While that's competing with the need to provide supportive housing, and to providing behavioral health treatment and services, and places where people can go and be, and offer these services. So if the right place or the right way to do it wasn't with that, what is the right way and the right place to do it? [00:20:41] Tanya Woo: So first off, I want to make it very clear, we're not against the shelter. We were not against behavioral health services. We just wanted a seat at the table. This comes in a long line of historical high-impact projects that received no community input. And we're looking at I-5, we're looking at Sound Transit, we're looking at the stadiums, the Seattle Streetcar - all high-impact projects that have been detrimental, has really affected our community - but there was no community engagement or outreach. And so in the case of this shelter complex, the lease was signed in May, but the community was not notified until September for a facility that was supposed to open in November, December. And we asked, you know - there's something called the Racial Equity Toolkit that we have provided the City that dictates or advises on how to do that community outreach and engagement - and something that we desperately need and would like to see carried out. And so if King County and the City had started community outreach and engagement back in May, this would not even have been an issue. And so basically in September, when we were first notified during a public safety meeting that only contained a few of us, we were asking around - Have you heard about this project? - and no one's heard about it and people were confused. And so we reached out - and we were a community in crisis - and none of our elected officials showed up for us. And so that's why we started protesting, was because, you know, protests that are loudest are the people who are not being heard. We went to King County, we went to City Council meetings - and we realized there are a lot of barriers for how communities of color, especially non-English speakers, communities of refugees and immigrants can engage in the political process. We requested for a translator ahead of time - we're told no, we had to bring our own - and then translation only goes one way, only goes towards the City councilmembers, it does not go back towards the community. And so we were just standing up in between breaks, yelling at the community members - this is what's happening, this is what people are saying. And that's emblematic of what's happening in the entire district. There is just not very much outreach and engagement and we definitely need more of that, we would like to see the table. There were a whole lot of issues that we would like to have been addressed. For instance, there should have been a good neighbor agreement between the community and the shelter that should have been in place when the shelter had opened back in 2020. And there should have also - we were seeing these encampments that were right outside the doors of the shelter - and last year, there were about seven homicides in the CID. I believe all but one were within the encampments. And so we were also asking for safety for our unhoused neighbors and wanted to enter a discussion with a public, a safety plan for everyone, including our unhoused neighbors. And we can go on and talk about all the reasons, I guess, that we wanted that discussion, engagement - and instead of giving that to us, they just decided to cancel the whole project and no one was happy. [00:23:59] Crystal Fincher: Well, and so I guess that's my question - and so if you are in favor of providing services and doing that, where do you think they should be sited in the district? [00:24:11] Tanya Woo: I think that area would have worked, but what we needed was that outreach and engagement. We were getting no information. We were holding our own town halls and reading off what we knew based on media and - of course we had our facts wrong 'cause no one was telling us what was happening. And that was basically - this is why I'm running - we wanted a seat at the table. And it's not gonna be given to us - we have to demand it. [00:24:42] Crystal Fincher: So would you be supportive of starting a new process with that site as the goal, but with the appropriate amount and type of authentic community engagement and collaboration? [00:24:55] Tanya Woo: Yes. And that's all we wanted - was that community engagement and collaboration. And we've historically have not gotten it. And so we feel like our community, that CID community, has suffered from the lack of investments and the lack of attention. [00:25:14] Crystal Fincher: I gotcha. Now I also wanna talk about public safety - and starting talking about alternative response - in other jurisdictions around the country, and in our own region and King County, have rolled out alternative response programs to better support those having a behavioral health crisis. And Seattle is stalled in implementing, which is one of the most widely-supported ideas by Seattle voters and voters in District 2 - which is standing up non-police public safety issues and solutions. What are your thoughts on these and what are your thoughts on civilian-led versus co-response models? [00:25:51] Tanya Woo: Yes. So I believe that Community Watch is a great example of alternatives to policing. And also there are a lot of organizations who do a lot of great and important work in community - We Deliver Care, LEAD, REACH, Co-LEAD, JustCARE - throughout the years that I would love to see grow on a larger scale and be able to support the entire city. I know they have little pockets within the city where they're doing this amazing work and it's working - and I would love to see more of that. That alternative to policing model is present, it's there - we just need to put City funding and City support behind it. So I also believe, like Health One, which pairs a case worker, case manager with a response team definitely needs to be expanded. Having more case workers out there should be a priority. Having case workers with officers should definitely be explored - and so I do support that model. [00:27:06] Crystal Fincher: Gotcha. Now, a lot of times we hear people talking about what victims would want, but in survey after survey and talking to victims directly and BIPOC communities - the community in District 2 is largely at-risk for violence at greater proportions than other places in the city - but largely they say two things. They first wanna make sure that what happened to them doesn't happen again. And they want support - better support - through the systems. We've had business owners in the City of Seattle talk about - Yeah, I can call police, it takes them a long time to respond. But even if they come, it's not really helping me move forward. But something like a victim compensation fund or more support or something like that would happen. - How do you think we could better support victims of crime in the city? And how do you think that might change the overall feeling of safety? [00:28:04] Tanya Woo: Yes. So for example, there have been about 14 robberies in the Beacon Hill, Rainier Beach area - mostly targeting Asian American seniors, but they're targeting young and old people as well. And so in those instances where they're targeting non-English speakers, we're seeing that not only are people not reporting in a timely manner, but they're not reporting at all - because that structure has not been put in place to help our immigrant, refugee, non-English speaking community. There's one survivor who I met recently who was severely traumatized by this experience - this person can't sleep at night, they have nightmares, and it's very obvious they need a lot of support. But that support structure has not been put into place, especially if you're a non-English speaker. So we were working with this person on connecting them to agencies to help - they have a $5,000 Harborview bill that they have to pay, working two jobs each, as well as dealing with all this trauma. And so we need something in place to help survivors, especially the refugee non-English speaking immigrant community members, to have access to these services, to be able to get assistance in paying their bills, or assistance in being able to get therapy, or other help that they may need. And that's - navigating the process is very difficult. Also - with these 14 burglaries - the community was not notified. I don't know why they waited until 14 to get the word out. Even now, we're not entirely sure what the circumstances are. We know that for one instance, this person was followed from King's Plaza - but how do we stop these from happening by watching out for each other? Especially if these are starting out at King's Plaza or other grocery stores, how can we allow for these marketplaces to keep an eye out for each other and make sure that they're not being followed? Just getting the word out is very difficult, and I wish there'd be more City agencies working with our nonprofits and organizational partners who are in these communities to get the word out as well as to help connect survivors to resources. So I agree that there is a huge lack, but I think we really need to work together to build upon what we have. [00:30:52] Crystal Fincher: Now I wanna talk about the City budget - and the City of Seattle is projected to have a revenue shortfall of $224 million beginning in 2025. Because the City's mandated to pass a balanced budget, the options to address the deficit are to either raise revenue or cut services. What approach are you going to take? [00:31:13] Tanya Woo: Ah, I think we have to look at the entire budget and define metrics of success for every single agency and making sure that there are results. We put so much money into KCRHA, which is the Regional Homeless Authority, but there is no metric for success, we don't know where this money is going - well, we have a general idea, but we don't know what the results are. How many people are they housing? I know right now they're going through a process where they're trying to come up with a system similar to that, but I would like to see something done for all government agencies. I mean, for any of us who have ever applied for a grant, we know how arduous it is to just basically name every single line item, and then be accountable for it, and then also show the results to be able to close out that grant. I think we have to hold all our agencies to that same level. [00:32:10] Crystal Fincher: So does that mean that that might be an area where you'd look to cut? Is that what you're saying? [00:32:16] Tanya Woo: Or not cut, but to maybe move around - see what programs are successful, what are not successful, and then invest in the programs that are showing results. [00:32:26] Crystal Fincher: So given that, if the money is just shifted and we're still dealing with a big budget deficit, how would you move to fix that? [00:32:38] Tanya Woo: Ah, then we'll have to look at - so we have to look at our priorities and really focus on those. And so I think it's looking at the overall budget - and yes, I guess, moving money around does equal cuts and other things, but giving a real clear picture of where the results are and moving the money to where the results are, I think, should be the priority. [00:33:09] Crystal Fincher: Okay, I think I've read that you're on record opposing a lot of the new revenue proposals and options. Is that correct? [00:33:17] Tanya Woo: Well, I wanted to see what the Progressive Revenue Task Force was going to put out. And I believe they gave a list of recommendations, and three is moving on to further legislation. And so I do not oppose any of the recommendations so far, but I want to see where the legislation - what the legislation looks like before making a final determination. [00:33:46] Crystal Fincher: Okay, so jury's still out, depends on what ultimately happens. So at this point, is it fair to say that you are not a strong supporter, or won't be leading any charge to implement new revenue, and may be a vote in support or in opposition? [00:34:02] Tanya Woo: Well, from my understanding - the three things that are being pushed forward are just continuations of things that are currently in place. And so I just want to wait and see. [00:34:15] Crystal Fincher: Well, the capital gains tax would be one, or a CEO tax would be another one, expanding the JumpStart tax. Yeah, so those ones are not currently in place. So are you looking to limiting what you would do to things that are already in place, or would you support something potentially beyond that? [00:34:37] Tanya Woo: Oh, I would want to see - I think some of them were not considered - I think the legality of each is being considered. So I probably would not be an advocate for any particular tax currently. I just want to see what legislation gets pushed forward before making determination of which I'm supportive or opposed of. [00:34:58] Crystal Fincher: Okay, so if that doesn't shake out and there isn't any new revenue, how would you propose doing things like supplementing victim services, or increasing public safety, or increasing homeless services that need new revenue? Would that just have to be offset by cuts in other areas, shifting to more higher priority areas on your agenda? [00:35:26] Tanya Woo: Yes, I think it's looking at the budget in its totality and seeing where we can make those cuts and how these programs could be successful because I believe they're in place - we're not reinventing the wheel here - we're just supporting and being able to help build capacity of some of these organizations and nonprofits, as well as I think - communication, outreach, and engagement is really important and making sure that communities of color know what's available and have access or even knowledge of these resources. [00:36:01] Crystal Fincher: Gotcha. Now, I want to talk about small businesses and the economy. You are a small business owner. Seattle and District 2 have very diverse businesses. Seattle has some of the largest corporations in the world headquartered here and some nearby, and also just a vibrant and diverse small business community - which is very important to our local and regional economy and just how the city is developing and feeling. What is most important - what would you lead and do to support small businesses in your district? [00:36:40] Tanya Woo: Yes, my family has been involved with a lot of small businesses. My grandparents had the Moon Temple Restaurant that they worked at for 32 years. Then my parents used that to help fund and open Seattle's first Chinese bakery, the Mon Hei Bakery in the Chinatown International District - I grew up in there, in the bakery, doing odd jobs for 50 cents an hour. And then later my dad - because we were able to build that intergenerational wealth through these small businesses, able to buy the building that the bakery was in. And so realizing how important our small businesses are in terms of being the social center for many community members, also being a safe haven for community as well. And making sure that we have that economic engine to help provide good paying jobs and allowing for many communities to stay in place. And so I think we have to be more proactive versus reactive. We had the broken window fund that really helped a lot of businesses, but the application process was a bit cumbersome and a lot of people who did not understand it. And so I think it'd be nice to have these, like City of Seattle service stations - I know Othello has one, the U district has one - but to have some in locations where small businesses can have access to be able to get their questions answered regarding City resources and being able to get City grants. Now, many of our small businesses are dealing with graffiti and the City will send notices to our small businesses demanding that they pay a fee every single day that that graffiti remains in place. And so having access to government to be able to, to, I guess, push back on these notices, as well as to get help in terms of how to access resources, and also to just basically address their concerns. I know at 12th and Jackson, there is a huge illegal market there, as well as many people using fentanyl - and that's really affected the business community. And so how do we interact with local government and agencies to bring light to this issue, to get more attention, and possibly work with community in trying to resolve and help people. [00:39:16] Crystal Fincher: Now, I also wanna talk about childcare, which is really important. And we recently received news that childcare is now more expensive than a college education - which has a devastating impact on families. Do you have plans to fix this? [00:39:32] Tanya Woo: Yes, I think the City could do a lot to help, I guess, childcare businesses to grow and to help with permitting process for childcare businesses to get started. And looking at - and just basically working in partnership with the childcare business community - figure out what the barriers are in place to provide more childcare. I think also helping accessibility - not only physically, but financially. And also helping with choices, so people are not having to drive across the city to be able to access good childcare options. I think that's something we need to work in partnership with not only businesses, large and small, but also with what families need. So I think there's a lot of work we can do in that area. [00:40:27] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Also wanna talk about transit and transportation. Pedestrian and bicycle safety has been atrocious. Pedestrians and bicyclists are not currently safe. What would you do to improve that? [00:40:42] Tanya Woo: Yes, I know there's a lot of traffic calming measures that community has been asking for, but SDOT has not been able to put in place. And so trying to find out what those barriers are and - within SDOT itself - be able to implement these traffic calming measures. There are many promises that have been made in these last 10 years and many projects - communities really excited for - that have not been implemented. So I think it's really holding agencies accountable and finding out those barriers are to get through that. And looking, especially in South Seattle, our traffic death numbers have not, pedestrian traffic death numbers have not gotten any better - and I think they're getting worse at this point. So is there - I know there's a lot of discussion groups, a lot of people who are really passionate about this issue - but how do we draw everybody in and make these things happen? And I've heard the frustration where people are - We're gonna go out there and paint that sidewalk ourself, or we're gonna put that planter in - we can't wait for the City to act. - and so how do we allow for these community projects? I know there's been a lot of speed bumps that have been helpful. How do we look at other traffic calming measures and make them happen is of paramount importance. [00:42:02] Crystal Fincher: It is, and I guess, what I'm getting at or what I'm wondering is - there have been a lot of promises made by SDOT, and the City, and various politicians and promises to bring change and it hasn't happened. So how exactly can you hold, what will you do to hold SDOT and your other colleagues accountable if you were to make it onto the council - as well as the mayor - to get action in District 2? [00:42:33] Tanya Woo: Yes, and I think that's the big question that a lot of people are wrestling with. And I think it's just getting down to - what are the barriers? Is there a lack of staffing? Or a lack of permitting - is the permitting process the barrier? Is there a community engagement process that needs to be done? And being able, I think, trying to understand what that barrier is. Is it just not a priority? [00:43:02] Crystal Fincher: If it is an issue of priority, how do you overcome that? [00:43:06] Tanya Woo: I think we have to make it a priority - it's lives on the line here - and we have to draw everyone in. And I know a lot of people have a lot of suggestions, like we need better lighting and that's a bigger infrastructure issue - putting that in place. And there's discussions regarding the traffic signals and cameras, especially. But I think there's a very divided community in terms of how to attack the situation, but I think it's going to have to be a - it's all-of-the-above situation - but I think it's getting SDOT to act is the biggest barrier. And if SDOT doesn't have the capacity, how can we give them the capacity or allow for community members to step in and to help? [00:43:53] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, definitely allowing community members to step in and act would be good. Unfortunately, SDOT is not that fond of that in many instances, if it's not already part of a pre-planned program. A lot of it seems to be coming down to right-of-way and investment in car infrastructure versus bike and pedestrian infrastructure. And so parking spaces - that type of infrastructure and space that could be used to provide safe facilities there - would you vote to eliminate parking spaces in order to provide safe infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists in your district? [00:44:30] Tanya Woo: Yes, I think that is a - I support that, but I think that's a community-by-community approach. I know for the Chinatown International District - that many people using bikes go through there, yet it's also part of the downtown core where parking is a huge importance, especially since there are many seniors there who cannot utilize the bike lanes or who need those handicap parking spaces. And so I think it's a community-by-community approach and definitely having those discussions is important, but it's a larger picture of how do we - it's growing pains we have - we haven't planned for the city to grow so quickly. So how do we fit that in into our communities? How do we bring in Sound Transit, Metro to offer more consistent schedules? Metro just got some schedules cut and with ST3 coming into place and that discussion happening, we have to involve and look at not only ST3, but bike lanes and draw Metro in on the discussion for a larger planning for the next couple of years so that we set ourselves up for success. [00:45:57] Crystal Fincher: Gotcha. Now transit reliability is becoming an increasingly pressing issue with staff shortages and other challenges creating ghost buses, missed buses, canceled trips, eliminated routes and trips - and it is jeopardizing transit ridership, jeopardizing so much in the city. Now Sound Transit is a regional body and King County Metro is a county body, but what can the City do to help stabilize transit reliability? [00:46:33] Tanya Woo: I think we have an aging workforce that's not being replenished. And so how do we go about that is a good question that needs - I think we need to talk about. Also, I think a lot of - there's a lot of public safety concerns that I think permeates through all of our issues, especially with hearing from - people going to, children going to school being on buses and seeing a drug use happening, as well as drivers having to deal with a lot of behavioral health issues or unhoused residents trying to stay warm or on their buses. And so how do we work together to promote the feeling of safety? And I think it's also looking, trying to offer more routes, more options and choices for people to be able to take the bus and have that system work. I know like a lot of people don't find it reliable because they always complain like - We're waiting longer than we feel like for buses to show up and then there's three or four buses at the same time that shows up - and how do we look at, make sure there's more consistent consistency and more options for people. [00:48:02] Crystal Fincher: Gotcha. Now a lot of people are trying to make a decision about who they're gonna vote for, about who aligns with their values. What do you tell them in order to help them make their decision between you and your opponent? [00:48:17] Tanya Woo: Yes, and so I've spent my whole life working towards a lot of the issues that I feel are huge priorities for the city - to provide more housing. My family actually went and we - have the Louisa Hotel - recently redeveloped and opened right before the pandemic. We have 84 units of workforce housing, which only charges people a percentage of their income so no one's forced to pay rent they cannot afford. I think we need more of that in the city and I know how to build. And we have about 20 units working with our organization called Housing Connector to be able to house the formerly unhoused, and that organization also pairs people with a caseworker to help partner through their journey from - into finding housing. And I think that's a really important project that many people - or many, I guess, apartment owners - should get involved in. I helped start Community Watch, which I feel like is a great model for alternatives to public safety. And so I see that there is a need, and we have to act, and so I've gone out and done that. We go into our unhoused community - try to bring services and connect people to resources. And so I have a lot of on the ground experience - I'm embedded in community within our encampments, I see firsthand the trickle down effects of policy, and I also see displacement and gentrification - which is something I've been working against my whole life and trying to protect our communities of color from that. And so I know what it's like to be in a community that feels like they're not being heard. To see a community, I guess, being on the list of one of the most endangered neighborhoods of the nation - a list we're not proud of - but we have to do more and we have to act to make sure that no other neighborhood gets put on that list in the City of Seattle and how do we get our neighborhood off that list is really important. So I'm a person of action. And I'm in community and I hear the gunshots every single night where I live - I live in the Rainier Beach area, I work in the CID, I go to the CID and I hear gunshots there and I realize public safety is so important and not a topic that's being addressed by our current councilmember. I agree that police need to be reformed, but we need - my group, we were in place of a shooting and we are not equipped to be able to deal with that and so for that, we absolutely need a police department. But we need a police department that's culturally competent and that will prioritize de-escalation. And so having that in place, I believe, is really important - in partnership with community investments with the community, as well as we need more after-school programs for youth, our community centers, our libraries, and our parks to resume the programming that they had pre-pandemic. And so I think there are a lot of actionable items that can be done to help empower people that could be done that's not currently being done. So there's a lot of work in certain areas that I would like to help implement and those will fall in the three priorities, like with public safety, homelessness and housing, as well as transportation. And so as a movement of action and want to help amplify voices of community and make sure that our communities of color are not forgotten, especially in a district where there is a lot of diversity and we should celebrate that. And so part of the reason why I'm running is because I've seen all this in the last four or three - many years - I've lived here my entire life, I know the communities. And we have to act, time for action is now - we can't just talk about ideology and debate amongst each other about what will work and what not will work - and in the end, not coming to solutions. And this should be a priority - going to solutions and problem solving, and especially making sure that the perfect solution is not an enemy of a good one. [00:53:09] Crystal Fincher: Well, gotcha. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to share with us today, candidate for Seattle City Council District 2, Tanya Woo - much appreciated. [00:53:19] Tanya Woo: Thank you - have a good rest of your day. [00:53:21] Crystal Fincher: You too. Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks, which is produced by Shannon Cheng. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on every podcast service and app - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

On this week-in-review, Crystal is joined by Chair of Sierra Club Seattle, long time communications and political strategist, Robert Cruickshank! They discuss a poll showing that Seattle voters want a more progressive City Council, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction overseeing more and more school districts in budget crisis, gubernatorial candidate Mark Mullet getting financially backed by charter school advocates, and Bruce Harrell's ethnic media roundtable not going very well. The conversation continues with the possibility of a $19 minimum wage for unincorporated King County, internal drama within top brass of the Seattle Police Department, and reflection on a consent decree ruling that ends most federal oversight of SPD. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Robert Cruickshank, at @cruickshank.   Resources “Ending Youth Incarceration with Dr. Ben Danielson of AHSHAY Center” from Hacks & Wonks   “Poll: Seattle voters want new direction on City Council” by Josh Cohen from Crosscut   “State will keep fiscal tabs on three cash-starved Washington school districts” by Jerry Cornfield from Washington State Standard   “WA Supreme Court sides with state in suit over school building costs” by Dahlia Bazzaz from The Seattle Times   “Big checks for a pro-Mullet PAC” by Paul Queary from The Washington Observer    “Harrell asks for better relations with ethnic media” by Mahlon Meyer from Northwest Asian Weekly   “King County looks at $19 minimum wage in unincorporated areas” by David Gutman from The Seattle Times   “King County Councilmembers propose $19 minimum wage for Skyway and White Center” by Guy Oron from Real Change   “Seattle police chief's alleged relationship with employee prompts inquiries, roils department” by Ashley Hiruko & Isolde Raftery from KUOW   “Judge ends most federal oversight of SPD, after 11 years and 3 chiefs” by Mike Carter from The Seattle Times    Find stories that Crystal is reading here   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Tuesday topical show and our Friday week-in-review delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. If you missed our Tuesday topical show, I welcomed Dr. Ben Danielson, director of AHSHAY (Allies and Healthier Systems for Health and Abundance in Youth) Center for an important conversation about ending youth incarceration. Today, we're continuing our Friday week-in-review show where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome back to the program, friend of the show and today's co-host: Chair of Sierra Club Seattle, long-time communications and political strategist, Robert Cruickshank. [00:01:19] Robert Cruickshank: Thank you for having me back again, Crystal. It's always a pleasure to be here reviewing the week with you. [00:01:23] Crystal Fincher: Always a pleasure and I wanna start out talking about a poll that came out this week, sponsored by Crosscut - an Elway Poll - showing that voters seem to want a more progressive City Council. What did this poll reveal? [00:01:38] Robert Cruickshank: It's a really interesting poll. Crosscut's headline says - Seattle voters want a new direction on the City Council - but if you dig down with the poll itself, it's clear that there's strong support for a more progressive direction. One of the questions they ask is - Who are you more likely to vote for? A progressive candidate, a centrist candidate, or no opinion. The progressive candidate, 49%. Centrist candidate, 37%. And no opinion, 14%. That actually matches pretty closely some of the results we saw in key City Council primary elections last month. In District 1, for example, District 4, District 6 - you saw pretty similar numbers with a progressive candidate getting close to or around 50% and a more centrist candidate getting somewhere between the upper 30s and low 40s. We have a poll, we have the actual election results from the primary - now that doesn't guarantee anything for the general election. But evidence is starting to pile up that - yes, Seattle voters do want a new direction and it's very likely they want to be a more progressive direction. We've lived for the last three years - certain media pundits and media outlets, like KOMO or The Seattle Times, pushing really hard this narrative that Seattle wants a right-wing turn, Seattle's fed up with a progressive City Council, we're fed up with homelessness, we're fed up with crime - we want to turn to the right, darn it. The poll results and the election results last month just don't support that argument at all. Yes, voters are unhappy and voters are looking at what the progressive candidates are saying and thinking - Yeah, that's how we want to solve this. Yes, we want to solve homelessness by getting people into housing. Yes, we want to solve crime by having all sorts of solutions - including alternatives to policing, alternatives to armed response - to help address this problem. And I think that some of the media outlets and Chamber of Commerce and others, who keep pushing this Seattle-wants-to-turn-right narrative, are just trying to will a story into existence, try to will that reality into existence - but voters are making it clear they're not going along with that. [00:03:28] Crystal Fincher: It really does make some of the rhetoric that we hear over and over again sound like astroturfing, sound like a marketing project - because like you said, over and over again, these election results and these polls just repeatedly tell a different story. For example, we've talked on this show before about stopping with just - Hey, are you happy with the way things are going or are you dissatisfied? And if people say they're dissatisfied, there's been this assumption - that means that they want to get rid of progressive councilmembers and progressive policy. And that has never borne out in the data. One of the questions - On the issue of homelessness, if you had to choose, what approach should have the higher priority for city government resources? One option is: Moving the tents out of parks and public areas and moving their occupants into temporary shelters - which is a nice way to say sweeps - 41%. The other option: Developing permanent housing and mental health services for people experiencing homelessness - 55%. This is not controversial - we've been talking about this on this show for quite some time, lots of people have - these are serious policies backed by evidence and it just makes sense, right? And it makes you question how deeply invested are people in the narrative that Seattle is fed up and they want a really punitive law and order, harsh lock-'em-up approach to things - that just doesn't play out. What we're gonna see in this general election, as we've seen before - it looks like we're anticipating some of the same type of communication, same type of commercial, same type of mailers trying to use those same tired depictions of homelessness as if the people who are homeless are the problem and not the fact that they don't have homes to live in. And Seattle sees that. They see that over and over again. And what we see is there is this attempt, especially around public safety rhetoric, to make it just very flat. Either you want more cops and you support cops and Blue Lives Matter and all of that, or you hate safety and you love crime and you don't want anything. And just making it either you're defund or this Antifa radical, or you're wanting more law and order on the streets. It just doesn't turn out that way. People want serious solutions. We've been doing the same things over and over again. And the public is begging these people to keep listening, but it just doesn't work. Like you said, a plurality here prefer a progressive candidate - 12 points higher than a more moderate candidate, as they put it - conservative wasn't a choice in here. Centrist and progressive - as is the way in Seattle - the way things are usually discussed. Also, when they asked about priorities - How are they evaluating candidates for City Council? It's really interesting. The top answers were: Do they support creating a new department for non-police emergency response, Do they support city funding of substance abuse treatment for people in public housing - both of those at 72%. If you're in the 60s, that's automatic win territory. 72%, it's - how wild is it that this is not on the top of everybody's agenda? Then we move down to - looking at the lower end - the lowest, actually, was: Supporting a three-year moratorium on the Jumpstart tax - that actually made people more likely to vote against someone for voting against a moratorium on that tax, which we've seen the Chamber float and other allied business interests trying to siphon some of that money or reduce the tax that they're paying. And voters are clearly saying no. And people who advocate for that are going to be hurt by taking that position in this general election. So this is just really interesting. One of these questions: Support for Bruce Harrell's agenda. One, I want someone to define what that agenda is - great to ask that in a vague way - what does that mean? And I would love for people to talk - when they talk about the mayor's agenda, Bruce Harrell's agenda - define what that is. I think that's a tougher task than many people might assume at first glance. What else did you see here? [00:07:38] Robert Cruickshank: There are a couple of things that stood out. You talked about taxes. They asked - How should Seattle cover a budget shortfall? 63% want a new business tax, 60% are willing to tax themselves - this just bolsters the point you just made that, contrary to what the Chamber wants, there's no support out there for slashing business taxes. We want to tax the rich more. And so that's another reason why progressive candidates are going to do well. Something you said resonated about the astroturfing. And you see these efforts to try to create outrage about different public safety issues. We saw some of that this week, where Sara Nelson had a stunt press conference in Little Saigon - which is facing issues, and the community of Little Saigon deserves to be heard and deserves to have their needs addressed. That's not what Sara Nelson was there to do. She was there to have a press conference stunt where she could stand there with Tanya Woo and say - Where's Tammy Morales? Why isn't Tammy Morales here? The answer is, as Tammy Morales explained, Tammy wasn't invited because Tammy was also at the Transportation Committee hearing in City Hall doing her job and asked where's Sara Nelson? The answer is Sara Nelson's out grandstanding. She's also the same person who's floating things like moratorium on the JumpStart Tax, floating things like sweeps and crackdowns on visible drug use. Sara Nelson somehow snuck into office in 2021 and thinks somehow that the City is supporting her agenda - whatever that might be, whatever right-wing cause she has at the moment - that's not where the electorate is right now. And I think that's all they have - are stunts - because their actual agenda is unpopular. And I think you're going to start seeing - as a campaign heads into the heat of the general election, the same playbook we've often seen from more centrist candidates. And Jenny Durkan was an expert at this - of just bear-hugging progressive positions, making themselves sound more progressive than they truly are - to try to get elected because they know that's what the electorate in Seattle wants. And then once in office, the mask comes off and they turned out to be the Chamber candidate that they always were. So that's something that the actual progressive candidates are gonna have to watch out for. And voters are going to need to be very careful in discerning between these candidates. Who's just mouthing the rhetoric that they think is going to get them elected? And who's a genuine and proven commitment to these ideals? - Who's really fought hard for taxing the rich? Who's fought hard for affordable housing? Who's fought hard to get services and shelter to people who are unhoused? - rather than people who are just maybe grandstanding on it because they think that's how they're gonna win. [00:10:00] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and I think you bring up a really important point. It is that discernment. Some of the justification I've heard for people who are very invested in the "Seattle has taken a right turn" try and retcon the justification - well, voters wanted a conservative business owner and they really want that perspective on the Council. They want someone who's gonna knock heads and get tough. But people so easily forget - that's not at all how Sara Nelson ran. Sara Nelson ran as an environmentalist, as someone who wanted to reform the police department - those were her top-line messages in her communications. She wasn't talking about being a business owner, she was not talking about being tough on crime - she initially started that in the very beginning in the primary and that fell flat. And so they switched up real quick and all of the communication looked like it was coming from a progressive. They used the word "progressive" 72,000 times - Oh no, we're the real progressives here. And it didn't turn out that way. And as you said, once she was elected, the mask came off and we continue to see this over and over again. The moderate playbook, the conservative playbook is to mimic progressive. It's to use that same language. It's to talk about issues in a similar way. Leave yourself a little wiggle room to not commit, to not give a hard and fast answer to something so that when you are elected, you can say - Well, I didn't exactly say that - or - I didn't take a position on this. And we see this over and over again. I hope it doesn't happen again this time, but there's going to be a lot of money spent to try and do this again. And at some point we just have to say - We've seen this before and we've had enough, and we want people who are seriously engaging in how to solve the biggest problems that we face. Because Seattle voters are really frustrated - they are fed up, but fed up with not being listened to. I do congratulate this poll for going beyond just the - Are you happy and unhappy? - and asking the why - What direction do you want to go into? What policy solution do you prefer? And as I suspected, the answers are very enlightening and give you an eye into what voters are really thinking and considering. And I hope all of the candidates - and the electeds who aren't even on the ballot - take heed. I also want to talk about school districts - right now, just as school is starting over again - facing budget crises and just a world of hurt. What's happening here? [00:12:28] Robert Cruickshank: As schools are starting across Washington state this year, there are some schools where teachers have gone out on strike, mostly in Southwest Washington - places like Evergreen Schools in Vancouver, Camas in Clark County - and that's worth watching and we're supporting teachers. In addition, we're starting to see an even more ominous trend of districts needing the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, OSPI, to actually oversee their budgets. They need OSPI monitoring because they're in such deep financial straits, primarily because this Legislature continues to underfund our schools. The Legislature doesn't give schools enough money to cover their basic operations, especially in an era of inflation. And so you have at least three school districts that we know of so far, Marysville, La Conner, Mount Baker - these are all in Northwest Washington - are under OSPI oversight for budgets. It's the most, at any one time, in several years - since at least a great recession. OSPI is quoted as saying this is unprecedented. And they don't think it's gonna stop there. It's just the tip of the iceberg - as more and more districts face problems, as federal stimulus money goes away, as levy equalization dollars start to drop, as regionalization money - which is designed to help districts afford to pay teachers what it actually costs to live in their community - that starts to go away from the state. The state continues to underfund special education. And just this morning before we went on air, we saw the State Supreme Court ruled against the Wahkiakum School District in Southwest Washington, their case where they were trying to get the state to be held responsible for the cost of school construction. The Supreme Court said - No, the state and local governments, local districts are gonna have to share that - even though it takes 60% of voters to approve a school bond for construction, those often fail. And small communities like Wahkiakum, small logging community on the Columbia River, don't have the property tax base to keep their schools in good repair. So what we're seeing is the Legislature, and now the Supreme Court, continue to hand blow after blow to local school districts. And this is alarming, not just because it leads to cuts and even school closures - something they're considering in school districts like Seattle - that's bad enough. But when you start to see state oversight in management of districts, that's when I think red flags should really go up. There's things like appointing emergency fiscal managers - in the state of Michigan and other states where Republicans took over - that led to huge cuts to schools, where these emergency fiscal managers would come in and turn schools over to charter school operators, they tear up union contracts, they would make all sorts of cuts to libraries and music and other important services. Now, we're not seeing that in Washington state yet, but that architecture is now in place. And if the wrong person gets elected governor or the wrong party takes over the Legislature, all of a sudden these school districts could be losing local control over their basic dollars and spending to the state. So this is a unfolding crisis that the State Legislature and the Democratic majority there continue to ignore, continue to not take seriously - even though it remains in the Constitution, literally their paramount duty, to provide ample provision for funding, not just enough. The open dictionary says more than enough. No one can look at a public school district anywhere in Washington state and say schools are getting ample funding. They're just not. And this crisis is only going to grow worse. We're only going to see further cuts to schools, further closures, larger class sizes, teachers leaving - unless the State Legislature steps in. [00:16:00] Crystal Fincher: We do have to contend with the fact that this is happening with the Democratic majority, right? Even more frustrating where - this is another issue voters support in such huge numbers - adequately, amply funding education and raising the revenue because revenue is needed to amply fund education. It's really frustrating. And so I guess my question for you, because you do pay such close attention - I do recommend people follow Robert for a variety of things, but his insight on education policy is really valuable - how do we fix this? Is it all on the Legislature? Where is the fix here? [00:16:39] Robert Cruickshank: The fix is at the Legislature. Local school districts can only do so much. A 60% threshold has not been changed by the Legislature - they have the ability to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to change that, that never happens. But even more, the Legislature has also capped a local operating levy. Seattle, which has a very pro-tax population, would happily tax ourselves a lot of money to have amazing public schools. We can't do that because we're prevented by the State Legislature. And the obvious reason, of course, is Seattle has such valuable property because we have Amazon, Vulcan, other large corporate property owners here who will ensure that the Legislature doesn't do that. So we have a State Legislature and a Democratic majority that is just unwilling to take on the big corporations and the wealthy to fund our public schools. They point to the capital gains tax. And yes, that was an important victory in 2021. And it's raising almost double what was expected. But of course, there's a caveat there. They cap the amount of money that goes to the Education Legacy Trust Fund - anything above that is supposed to go to school construction, which is great - we just talked about the Supreme Court decision and how local governments and local districts in rural Washington definitely need help funding schools. That's great. But what happens when you don't have the ability to pay the teachers to go into those buildings? When you don't have the ability to provide the books, materials, the music classes, the arts classes, the small class sizes that we voted for in 2014? The Legislature proposed a wealth tax last year - 20 out of 29 Senate Democrats, 43 out of 58 House Democrats supported it as co-sponsors. Surely there were many more who weren't sponsors who were on board. The bill never even made it out of committee in either chamber. At some point, we have to look at the State Legislature and the Democrats, even the progressives - even the Democrats we like and support strongly - haven't stuck their necks out for education, haven't stepped up to say we're gonna fix this. They aren't recognizing the crisis that's there and that's what we have to do. We have to point the finger at the Legislature and go to them at their town halls, to their offices, committee meetings in Olympia, testify virtually if that's possible again in January and make it crystal clear - this is a crisis, it is dire, and you have to fix it. And the only possible source of the fix is the Legislature. [00:19:02] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Thank you for your insight on that, and we do have to get involved. We have to make sure they hear our voices, demanding that this happens. And while they're at it - to provide free school lunches for all school kids. Also several other states - I think we're at 11 so far - are doing the same, putting us to shame. All states should have this and so we have a lot of work to do. Also wanna talk about a candidate for governor - Mark Mullet, current sitting senator out of the 5th legislative district, being backed by charter school money. What's happening here? [00:19:42] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, Mark Mullet, a very right-wing Democrat - he probably would have been a Republican if he didn't realize that being a Democrat would get him elected more easily out there in Issaquah. He's been hostile to teachers' unions for a long time, notoriously hostile to other unions - very nearly lost his reelection in 2020 to Ingrid Anderson, a progressive nurse. Mullet only prevailed by 58 votes, but continues to act as a very right-wing Democrat. And he's always been in love with charter schools - he's been a major obstacle to getting the Legislature to fully fund our public schools. He sits on the Senate Ways and Means Committee. He works with centrist Democrats, corporate Democrats, and Republicans to try to block bills that would fund our schools. And in return, he's now gotten at least $25,000 from a charter school PAC to help fund a super PAC in support of Mark Mullet's run for governor. Polls continue to show so far that Mullet is trailing pretty badly here in the governor's race - Ferguson still has the lead, but it's early. We're well over a year away from the general election for governor. But Mullet clearly is staking his claim as the right-wing Democratic candidate, and the candidate of now folks who wanna privatize our public schools and spread charters everywhere. And as we've seen in other states, charter schools are really problematic. They don't really meet student needs on the whole. Their outcomes aren't better for students. And they're often fly-by-night operations - they'll close in the middle of a school year and then leave students just high and dry. But it's really revealing that Mullet is taking, or at least getting supported by, so much money - that's not a direct donation to his campaign, but it's clear that they are running a super PAC explicitly in support of Mark Mullet. It's a real sign - that's where his bread is buttered - by big corporations and school privatizer money. So something that I think voters are gonna wanna pay pretty close attention to as the campaign for governor starts to heat up next year. [00:21:33] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and I do have to tell you, it is very concerning how unstable charter schools seem to be. How many - we see openings and then we see closings. And that just hardly ever happens with public schools. When it does, it's under financial duress and usually over the objections of all of the parents. But this has been something that we've seen with frequency with charter schools here in Washington. But yeah, definitely worth paying attention to that - and what that agenda is by the folks who have that super PAC and what other interests they're in-line with are really troubling. So we'll continue to pay attention to that. I also wanna talk about a story that came out - I actually think it was late last week, this is a short holiday week and so kind of trickled out - but it was a story about Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell's roundtable with some of our local ethnic media outlets. We have wonderful, rich ethnic media outlets here in Washington State - all throughout the state, definitely here in King County. And the mayor's office seemed troubled by the lack of positive stories coming out, and so invited a number of these journalists to - it looks like City Hall - to have a little roundtable conversation. How did that turn out? [00:22:56] Robert Cruickshank: Well, it's interesting. Many mayors have met with our local ethnic media - it's a good thing for them to do in and of itself - Mike McGinn did a great tour of them back when I worked with him in 2011. So it makes sense for Harrell to try to reach out, but it doesn't seem to have gone very well. And according to at least one of the reports that was there, the mayor wasn't happy about the meeting being recorded - said he could speak less freely. But I think when you're dealing with journalists, any public official should know that's how journalists like to operate - they wanna record everything. And it just seemed like the mayor wanted to make it very personal and wanted to get good coverage out of these outlets. And that's just not how you actually should be approaching these media outlets to begin with. These folks want respect, they wanna be treated as serious journalists - which they are. And I think that for a mayor to come in the way it appears Mayor Harrell did, I don't think it's gonna serve his needs and certainly not the needs of those ethnic media outlets. [00:23:49] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, this was covered in Northwest Asian Weekly and it was really a jaw-dropping read because it does seem to start off - Bruce Harrell is a charismatic guy and there's nothing wrong with that, there's nothing wrong with wanting to open lines of communication, to air out any challenges - I think that's a positive thing. Where I think this took a bad turn was this assumption that they should put aside their professionalism, put aside the obligation they have to report - and to seek information and accountability - and just play along, go along with what he says. And the one thing that caught my eye, which maybe it didn't - well, a few things caught my eye - but one thing that I found troubling in here, which may not be an overt red flag and who knows what he actually meant by that, but there was an allusion to - Hey, there's Comcast money - anyone who works in the City of Seattle is aware of how much Comcast money there actually is in the City. But he said - Hey, the city might be able to facilitate ethnic media getting involved in Comcast channel 21, while also him saying that they were dying - which those ethnic media outlets directly challenged and he seemed to not accept or be willing to do. But dangling - Hey, there's more access, there's more information here for you if you play along. And that's the unspoken part of this. And even if that wasn't intended - I don't know what he intended - but as a public official, you have to be aware of when you're holding that much power, when you have that much control of resources and influence over people who are wielding those resources, and you have access to a bigger platform, and you're saying - Hey, I can help you out with this - there's the implication, if you aren't explicit and careful, saying - If you scratch my back too, if you ease up on the criticism, if you stop asking troubling questions. It seems like they heard that in this meeting and seemed to react - one, just mischaracterizing where they're at and they're not sitting here asking for handouts, they're not asking for anything unearned - they are professionals who put out great products, who many of us consume regularly and they're a part of our media ecosystem that too many people just leave out. And they're saying - No, we're not dying, we're here and we're thriving and we just want answers to our questions. We just want invitations to invites that other reporters are getting invites to. And there seem to be questions with that, as well as some offense taken to them asking just regular general questions. One reporter, a Black reporter from a Black media outlet, brought up - Hey, we're having a really hard time getting straight answers from your police department. Bruce Harrell is literally the executive to talk to for that - they answer to Bruce Harrell, he is in charge of the police department. And his response - You're the only one who's had that problem. I think everyone listening knows that they're not the only ones who have that problem. We've seen that across the ecosystem in various places, particularly to people who don't cover City Hall sympathetically, and that's just really troubling. You're there and you're not listening to the reporters who are reflecting their communities and trying to get information that is really important to the communities they serve. And the dismissiveness was just really troubling. [00:27:27] Robert Cruickshank: It really is. And I think it goes to the concerns that those media outlets have had for a long time. They wanna be taken seriously and deserve to be because they're serious journalists - doing serious journalism that is read and respected, not just in those communities they serve, but around the City. And yet they struggle to get invites to press conferences, they struggle to get responses from City departments, they struggle to get included in stories, they struggle to get their basic inquiries addressed. And they understand that a lot of the City's media relations folks, whether it's the mayor's office or City departments, don't always take them seriously. So to have the opportunity to sit down directly with the mayor is hugely important for these outlets - not only to show that they matter, but to get answers and to get things fixed that need to be fixed in the way the City is interacting with those media outlets. And yet for it to go this way, it just, in their minds, likely justifies a lot of concerns they had all along. It's not going to assuage them at all. And from the perspective of supporting local media outlets, it seems like this should have been handled better. Even from Bruce Harrell's own perspective, it could have been handled better. 'Cause now he's got a story that makes him look bad and raises questions about the way his office is responding to some of the most important media outlets in the City. I think it's - to insinuate that they might be dying goes right to the heart of the problem. These media outlets have been thriving for decades. And it's not easy for any media outlet to survive these days, large or small, no matter what community they serve. And the last thing they want is to be dismissed again - in this case, dismissed as potentially just on the brink of death. I mean, who knows how many of the TV stations are on the brink of death, right? Seattle Times - who knows how long the Blethen family is going to want to keep running it until the family decides to sell it out to Alden Global Capital, which will just gut everything for parts. It's important to treat these media outlets and their reporters with respect, no matter who it is in elected office or whatever City department you're in. And so I hope that the mayor's office puts that right. [00:29:29] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely agree. Also want to talk this week about a potential $19 minimum wage coming to unincorporated King County. What's being proposed? [00:29:42] Robert Cruickshank: King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay is proposing a $19 an hour minimum wage for unincorporated King County - so that's outside of a incorporated city. So cities like Seattle, SeaTac have obviously raised minimum wage. Tukwila has raised it, Renton - which is on the ballot this year - likely to pass. But there are about a quarter million people in King County who are not in a city. They live in a community, sometimes, or maybe they don't live in a formal community, maybe they're out in more rural parts of the county - but they're part of King County. And what Girmay is recognizing is there's an opportunity to help them. So what he wants to do is raise the minimum wage for those parts of King County, for those 250,000 people - which is a substantial number of people - to make sure that they can also benefit from a higher minimum wage and raise it to $19. We all know how inflation is hitting people, especially the rise in cost of housing - and Girmay's done a great job trying to address housing as well in his role on the King County Council. But this is a great step forward for the King County Council to not just sit by and say the minimum wage is a city issue or it's a state issue. No, they have a quarter million people they can help right now. And to step forward and propose this, I think, is the right thing to do. I hope that all candidates for King County Council embrace it. I hope that the current councilmembers embrace it and pass it as quickly as they can, because I think this is an important step for folks living in those communities. [00:30:58] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. And they shouldn't be left out of the progress that many of the people who've been able to live in cities have been benefiting from. And sometimes we think unincorporated King County and people just think - Oh, it's just a few people living out in the boonies. You talked about how many people there are, and these are places like Vashon Island, Skyway, White Center - where there are a lot of people - these are our neighbors. They just happen to be in an area that wasn't formally incorporated. And so I see this as definite progress. We have a ways to go to get wages to a place where they're really funding people's lives today. Rents are so high. The cost of living has increased so much. Rents, childcare, these massive costs that are so huge and that are preventing people from being able to fully participate in society, to be upwardly mobile, to live the life that they choose. We know we can do better. We know we owe this to the residents. And I think this starts for businesses that employ more than 500 people. This is [not] burdening small businesses. It just seems like this is really the logical thing to do. Medium-sized businesses with 16 to 499 employees would be given a four-year transition period, but it's really important to get this on the way. This is a very popular policy also, fortunately. And so I am optimistic that this will pass and hope it has the unanimous support of the council. [00:32:25] Robert Cruickshank: I hope so too. It should be unanimous. I'd like to see Dow Constantine come in strongly for it as well and help use his power and influence to get it done. It should be an issue in the council races - between Teresa Mosqueda and Sofia Aragon, for example. I think it's a really important contrast that can be drawn. [00:32:40] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. I wanna close out talking about a couple of stories revolving around the Seattle Police Department. The first is a story that broke - I think it was KUOW reported on it - but there have been rumors dogging Seattle Police Chief Diaz about an alleged affair or rumored affair. However, lots of people are really wondering whether to question this because it also may be rumors intended - falsely made up - intended to de-credit the chief and speed his way out. And people are trying to weigh which one of these this is. What happened here and what do you see going on? [00:33:26] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, this is a sadly typical situation that we've seen in SPD over the years - where different elements of the command staff start sniping at each other and trying to take each other down, rather than focus on their jobs. It's unclear and we don't know - and I don't really care - what Chief Diaz is doing his personal time. Obviously, if it's an employee, then you gotta make sure all rules and ethics are respected - but if people are also throwing around insinuations, that hurts the woman in question. You don't wanna make a woman who's working in SPD subject to these rumors - not just that makes Chief Diaz look bad, the department look bad - you're sullying someone's reputation here. It shouldn't be sullied. But the bigger question here is - what does it say about SPD and what does it say about how it's being run? We're in the middle of a wave of burglaries that people are complaining about, and complaining about slow SPD response time, people complaining about safety on our roads. And I will say just yesterday near my home in Northgate, I saw a driver go right through a red arrow, turning into an intersection - it wasn't like it turned red right as they were entering, it had been red for some time when they entered - in front of a police car. And the officer did nothing - just let it happen and no enforcement at all. People complain about the number of homicides that are happening. It's a real crisis out there, and concerns about is SPD really doing all it can do to investigate these? Is it doing all it can do to close burglary cases? And yet what do we see SPD doing? Their command staff are sniping at each other and spreading gossip and rumor, whether there's any truth to it or not. And I think it's just a sign of how dysfunctional SPD has become. I think it's also a sign that we need strong leadership to reform this department. We'll talk about, I know, about the consent decree in a moment, but it's clear that there are ongoing management problems. And it raises the question - do we need a external chief to come in, who isn't part of all these rivalries and gossip and jealousies, to come in and put a stop to a lot of this? But it's just a sign - that these rumors are reaching the media - that SPD's commanders are not focused on the job they say they're focused on. They're happy to blame the City Council, which has no operational control over SPD, which hasn't said a word about defunding the police since they - for a hot minute in the summer of 2020, very gingerly cut a piece of SPD's budget, ever since then they've been showering as much money as they can on the police department - trying to ply them with recruitment bonuses and making it very clear - Oh no, we're not gonna defund you anymore. Sorry, forget about that. The City Council is not the problem here. There's a real problem with how SPD is managed. There's a problem with the command staff. And Council doesn't run that department - as you said earlier, the mayor does. And so we need to see how Bruce Harrell's going to respond to this too, because it's becoming increasingly clear that SPD isn't getting its job done. [00:36:11] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and it's not getting its job done in any way - people are suffering - and the most cynical thing is there've, no surprise, been SPOG communications in various places literally touting - Detectives haven't been able to respond to this commercial burglary for two weeks and it's 'cause we were defunded. As you said, defunding did not happen. In fact, their funding has increased. They keep giving money to these people despite staffing shortages in other departments too. If that would help, that would be one thing. But even police officers are on record saying - Yeah, these hiring bonuses are not gonna get more people in the door, keep people. Retention bonuses aren't gonna keep people. That's actually not the problem. The problem is not financial anymore. But it's really troubling just that everyone's eye seems to be off of the ball. And everyone's eye seems to be in a different place than where Seattle residents can see they need to be. As we talked about earlier with those poll results, Seattle residents want a more comprehensive response. They want responsiveness from the police department and they want to shift out responsibilities, assets to manage things in a way that does ensure they can get the service level they expect from the police department - and get other community violence interventions, diversion programs, other community safety initiatives up and running. And they just seem to be focused on literally everything but that. And at a time where everyone is facing this challenge of trying to manage, whether it's crime or behavioral health crises or everything that we're dealing with, they need to do better. We need Bruce Harrell to get this under control - what dysfunction and what disarray - he needs to get a hold of this. [00:38:01] Robert Cruickshank: He really does. Again, the mayor runs the police department. The mayor has operational control. It's not the City Council. And I think we need to see that leadership from the top to really fix what's gone wrong at SPD. [00:38:12] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Now I wanna talk about big news that broke last night - that a judge just ended federal oversight of SPD after 11 years. Now you were in the administration that saw the consent decree established. What is the legacy of this consent decree, and where do we go now that federal oversight is largely ending? [00:38:34] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, the consent decree has its pros and cons. The upside is, and always was - and this is why many in the community demanded it and went to the DOJ in the first place in 2010 and 2011 - they felt they needed a federal judge, a federal monitor and the US Department of Justice to come in and force SPD to improve its use of force policies, to address concerns about biased policing, and ultimately also added in were - later in the process - concerns about how it manages demonstrations. So it's a pro - is that you get an outside body that is widely trusted, certainly when Obama ran the DOJ and now that Biden does, to come in and force the changes that SPD wasn't willing to make and the City wasn't able to make. The downside though is it's a federal legal process that is fairly limited in what it can cover. You're at the mercy of the federal judge, the federal monitor - who wound up stepping in the summer of 2020 to undermine some of the efforts that were taken to reform the department, including cutting SPD's funding. So its coming to an end doesn't mean that SPD has been fixed. What it means is that in the eyes of this judge, the specific conditions laid out in the 2013 consent decree, in his mind, have been achieved. And what does that mean for people here in Seattle? It doesn't necessarily mean that SPD is a clean bill of health and is now operating in a much better place than it had been before. And in fact, the federal judge did retain jurisdiction over use of force and of how discipline is managed. He cares a lot about the contract - having raised significant concerns about the previous SPOG contract that was done in 2018. But it goes back to something that I remember Mike McGinn saying a lot in 2012, 2013 during this whole negotiation process around the consent decree - pointing out correctly that lasting reform isn't gonna come from the federal government, it's gonna come from the community, and it's going to depend on the ability of City Hall to make change in SPD and make it stick. And he took a lot of heat for saying that. People thought he was trying to keep the DOJ out - he wasn't. He welcomed the DOJ, he was always honest about that, direct about that. But I think he was right. He was right then and right now that with the federal government largely stepping back - not completely, but largely stepping back - bringing an end to much of the consent decree, it's now up to us. It's up to us as a city, as a community, and especially our elected officials in City Hall to actually make sure that what we want done at SPD, what we want done with public safety more broadly happens. As we talked earlier in this podcast, there's a lot of support out there in the public for non-armed response to crime. People want it, it polls off the charts. We still haven't seen it. The mayor's office keeps promising and promising, keeps getting delayed and delayed. This mayor has been in office a year and a half now, and it's time to see it come to fruition - that's going to be another important piece of how we handle policing and public safety in the City - is to have armed officers doing less of it or focusing on the things they need to focus on and not the things where they don't need to be focused on. But we'll see what happens there because as we've seen all along, this is really up to the community to make these reforms stick. The DOJ had its role and we can ask how effective was it really - again, the ending of the consent decree doesn't mean SPD's fixed, it just means certain boxes got checked. But I think we have to see what happens out of City Council elections this year and what the mayor's going to do to address ongoing problems with the police. [00:41:59] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. All with the backdrop of negotiations happening now for the Seattle Police Officers Guild contract - and that will set the tone for so much moving forward. It's going to be interesting to see how this proceeds. [00:42:16] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, it really will. And I think that SPOG contract is going to be crucial - and who gets elected to the City Council this fall will play a really big role in how that negotiation winds up. [00:42:26] Crystal Fincher: It absolutely will. And with that, we'll conclude this week-in-review. Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, September 8th, 2023. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Shannon Cheng. Our insightful cohost today was Chair of Sierra Club Seattle, long-time communications and political strategist, Robert Cruickshank. You can find Robert on Twitter - and multiple platforms, I think - @cruickshank. We're all around. You can find Hacks & Wonks on Twitter. You can find me on most platforms as @finchfrii. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

We're in the thick of AAPI month, so it's only natural we sample the Asianest fruit that ever Asianed: the durian. The guys are joined by their buddy, Dr. Beats, and it's a goofy ride to say the least. AJ dissects the the spiky specimen, and the experience quickly engulfs the studio. Fair to say responses to the delicacy run the gamut. After some palate cleansing, the guys stay in the Asian food realm, recapping Fairfax City's recent Asian Festival on Main, schooling DRB on the best banh mi joints in the area, and joining the crusade to save the DMV's version of Little Saigon. Grab some food safe gloves and press play. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/badslant/support

We followed up with "The Eggrolls," who you might remember from our conversation with them last summer. They are a mutual aid group based out of ChuMinh Tofu in Little Saigon, located in the eastern side of the CID.  The Eggrolls and ChuMinh Tofu restaurant have continued to serve 150-200 free meals outside of the restaurant every Sunday to homeless and elder members of the Little Saigon community. While providing basic resources to the community around them, they also get a glimpse as to how policing in that community impacts safety in different ways. Our conversation with them reflects some of the process they have had to go through while trying to create safety in their neighborhood. If you're interested in volunteering with The Eggrolls, reach out via their website at https://www.chuminhtofu.com/get-involved. You can also connect with them on Instagram @chuminhtofu. Read more about The Eggrolls: https://southseattleemerald.com/2021/11/05/love-mutual-aid-and-humanity-at-chuminh-tofu/ https://iexaminer.org/thanh-nga-tanya-nguyen-of-chuminh-tofu-and-the-eggrolls-serve-a-free-hot-meal-to-anyone-who-wants-one-every-sunday-in-little-saigon/

In November 1975, Vietnamese Navy commander Minh Nguyen, left behind his macho military life and retrained as a manicurist. He migrated from Vietnam to the United States during the fall of Saigon. He went on to open a beauty school in Little Saigon, California and encouraged thousands of Vietnamese refugees to become nail technicians. Today, more than 40,000 students have graduated from Minh's beauty schools and they have helped establish Vietnamese-Americans as the mainstay of the nail salon industry. Minh's wife Kien talks to Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty. (Photo: Minh Nguyen. Credit: Minh Nguyen)

Christina Phan is a Design Manager at RVCA with almost 20 years experience in the fashion industry. From Volcom, Zumiez, Tavik and RVCA she has done it all. Being born in Tennessee till the family moved Little Saigon in Westminster, Ca. Her mother would cook meals for the 10 of them every day. That's when Christina started to love the beautiful foods in the home and in her area. Years later her love for food grow to the point she would help small restaurants. Fate would have it as she would see an ad that lead her to becoming a contestant on America's Test Kitchen: The Next Generation As a self-taught home cook, food has always been at the center of Phan's life. Her parents were Vietnamese refugees and her mother was always cooking large Vietnamese meals for their equally large family. As a young adult, Phan became a self-proclaimed “food nerd” and visited as many restaurants and cities as she could. It opened up her eyes to all sorts of different cuisines, and she became obsessed with cooking. She cooks with an understanding of the history of her dishes, the purpose of the ingredients, and the evolution through generations.We talk about fashion, food and more. You can follow her https://linktr.ee/Thelipsurvis. https://www.instagram.com/thelipsur_vis/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/matt-brown57/support

Sacramento's Little Saigon and Stockton Boulevard area is a haven of excellent food, cultural events and local businesses. On this week's episode, Stockton Boulevard Partnership Executive Director Frank Louie shares the history of the district and his insights into the best things to do, see and eat, including Lunar New Year and the Tet Festival.

Writing a book with over 14 characters that have main-character energy is a real challenge, but Carolyn Huynh executed it perfectly in her debut novel, The Fortunes of Jaded Women. In this episode, we talk with Carolyn about her family dynamics that inspired parts of this book like motherly roasts, psychic visits, and Gen Z daughters keeping the peace through TikTok. The Fortunes of Jaded Women tells the story of a surprising prophecy that upends a family curse that has plagued generations of Viet women living in Orange County's Little Saigon. Filled with a cast of over 14 women, these estranged family members must find their way back to one another, while also trying to find themselves along the way.Get The Fortunes of Jaded Women at bookofthemonth.com. New members get their first book for just $9.99 with code VBT at checkout. Learn more about Virtual Book Tour at virtualbooktour.com

The center of Northern Virginia's thriving Vietnamese community is Eden Center in Falls Church. It's the biggest Vietnamese commercial center on the east coast and draws visitors from all over the DMV region and the country. But before Eden Center, the local Vietnamese community was based in Little Saigon in Clarendon. This week, Ruth and Patrick learn the origins of Little Saigon, how the community relocated there to Eden Center, and what the local Vietnamese community's future might hold. Patrick and Ruth will be at the Giant Barbecue Battle in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 25. Stop by and grab some stickers and magnets! Check out music from this episode by No-No Boy, composed by Julian Saporiti and engineered by Seth Boggess. Fill out our survey: dishcity.org/survey Leave us a tip at wamu.org/supportdishcity. Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/dishcity Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/dishcity

The Monologue: Seattle business owners learn de-escalation skills in response to rising homelessness in Little Saigon. The Interview: Jason Mercier (Washington Policy Center) breaks down the judge's ruling in the initiative to repeal the capital gains tax.The Interview: Spokane Undersheriff John Nowels is vying against another Republican for the Spokane Sheriff spot. He makes the case. LongForm: Chris Sullivan details the new, ridiculous Sound Transit fare enforcement rules. The Quick Hit: On Tucker Carlson Tonight, Rantz reported on the huge waste of money on homeless hotels in San Francisco. The Last Rantz: Start assuming the people around you respect their time more than you might.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.