On Wednesday night I headed over to the city council chambers to hear the citizens’ review of the Mayor’s proposed 2008 budget. If you have never been to one of these meetings, they’re quite the spectacle. Everyone within city limits who has a cause to support or an axe to grind is entitled to 2 minutes in which to publicly thank the council, take them to task, or ask for more money. The council theoretically processes all this information and suggests changes to the proposed budget. True to form, close to 100 different groups and individuals showed up to plead their cases, which ranged from the seemingly trivial (building more outdoor public pools) to the plainly necessary (expanding the budgets of food banks to afford fresh fruits and vegetables.)

Two causes in particular caught my attention and seemed worth discussing in much greater detail. First, a coalition of Human Service providers came forward to propose an alternative city budget. Among their detail was $12.5 million dollars which would form the base of a Housing Site Acquisition fund. The money would be available to non-profit organizations, including ad hoc tenants’ groups, so that they could quickly make down payments on apartment buildings that go on the market. The idea is that this would help save affordable housing and limit the number of apartment buildings bought by developers and turned into condos before the tenants even have the chance to get laughed out of a bank office. Among other supporters, Tim Harris of Real Change gave a passionate and well reasoned defense of the proposal, noting that Washington D.C. already has a similar $15 million fund in place, and New York has an available fund of $240 million. Apparently the idea was originally proposed by Councilman Rasmussen and has been circulating for a while. Perhaps the time is right to use of some of the Seattle Housing Levy to help low-income people buy their own property and stay in this city?

The cause which drew the biggest crowd, by far, was the restoration of funding for the Cascade People’s Center. The CPC is a volunteer-run facility providing free programs for people in the South Lake Union neighborhood. They estimate that more than 8,000 people use the center each year. The City has been the single biggest supporter, providing the bulk of the CPC’s operating budget for the last 8 years. This year, the proposed city budget cuts funding entirely, leaving the center floundering for funds, and most likely shutting down. In response, the CPC has been mounting a powerful letter-writing campaign and staged a rally of support in which 100-odd people marched to City Hall with banners and flags and said their piece at the meeting. Supporters made the smart strategic move of letting the kids speak. It was a tremendous show of support. Whether or not it manages to budge the city council is, of course, a different question.