City Casa Latina (Finally) On the Move
posted by on November 9 at 12:59 PM
The ongoing dispute over Casa Latina’s relocation to 17th and Jackson appears to have been resolved. Casa Latina has worked out a “good neighbor agreement” and should be moving into their new digs sometime next winter.
From the PI:
Under the agreement, no day workers will be allowed to hang out on the street and flag down employers as they have done for years on Western Avenue in Belltown. Casa Latina has agreed to hire a neighborhood ambassador, and keep $50,000 in a contingency fund in case problems do arise and additional ambassadors need to be hired. An advisory committee will also be formed to help resolve issues.If Casa Latina doesn’t uphold its part of the agreement, the organization risks losing the $146,000 in annual funding it receives from the city, about 25 percent of the group’s total annual budget. The agreement expires after seven years.
I’ve got an email out to Judicial Watch—who claimed that the city was violating federal law by funding Casa Latina—to see if they plan to get involved.
UPDATE:
Judicial Watch says they plan to get involved, but did not elaborate on their plans.
Jonah this appears like you're feeding Judicial Watch the story, trying to keep them involved when they're little more than an outside group brought in by a few reactionary neighborhood "activists" to scare the city. Why don't you ask the neighborhood folks directly instead of fishing for some saucy quote from this extremist group?
So what's to stop the day workers from just going back to Western, or to the Sodo Home Depot, where the jobs are, and telling Casa Latina to piss up a rope? The casual labor market long predates any organization.
@ Trevor—
What?
Judicial Watch was already aware of the city's plans as they've been working with people in the neighborhood. All I did was contact them asking for comment.
You might want to dig a little further and find out who comes up with these "good neighbor agreements".
There's no legal basis for them, and they really amount to little more than SPD extortion.
bingo Napoleon.
@2: Nothing. The point is that the City uses its subsidy of Casa Latina to cover for the SPD's more aggressive anti-day labor tactics. It doesn't want to fuck people over without being able to cynically tell them they should find a job somewhere else. Just like the city uses its inadequate support of homeless services to justify harassing any homeless person who can't find or otherwise refuses shelter.
@3: I know you get excited about covering JW's involvement in this, but they're not the lead force in the opposition to Casa Latina. They're a media ploy/ lunatic sideshow to get more attention for a bunch of folks who would otherwise just be called NIMBYs. So my question is why you call JW before you even call the neighbors who got JW involved in the first place?
Because the neighbors aren't saying anything new. Or interesting, for that matter.
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