ok my name is thomas i've been a c yeah i've been a seattle put twenty five years i love the fact that seattle's going and i love all them from the improvements that seattle's done to bring our cities to competitive cities amongst other cities and us the only concern i have this while growing we're forgetting about the small businesses the small businesses is the one that got us here  the one that highlights what seattle is all about at this point we're forgetting what the small businesses are doing for the people that's living here i've been coming here for a long time but this barbershop now if everybody leaves from this area this barbershop cannot survive and the city knows it we all know it every writing on the wall we all know it i love to see syria seattle my city i've been paying taxes here for a long time being very good citizen to support my city i love to see the city support the businesses that we come to on instead of supported only one area like fifty million for waterfront businesses and six hundred thousand for our businesses that's on twenty third the math just don't add up as not just a matter of losing business this people are losing customers as well so you're paying forty five thousand each right now but are they going to survive they're losing all the customers so what are i would love to know what the city's going to do to support the businesses that we threaten ised i hope to see that the politicians kind of wake up and see what the small businesses are doing make sure they're survive and if they don't reflect with our vote the community need to stick together and and voice everybody need to step up and let the city know but how much of our losses i understand we don't have to tourist coming out here to support our businesses but we support our businesses so by you taking away their business away from us with the road road whatever you know that you're doing you're affecting every one of us so i think as to the best interest of the city and two and i've been in a problem and i promenade for about twenty years in three different locations and i've seen it go from black to great mixture of different nationalities and i've seen it go through three different owners so i'm not really excited about the move the transformation of promina because it's it's more or less the beginning court the big corporations are coming in and buying out everything and just chasing everybody out but other than that  being in this area for two twenty one years it's a place where i really want to stay in this area because it's really changing wrap it rapidly and there's a lot of diverse people in this area and there's a lot of money and i want to be a part of it so i moved down to twent jackson and i've been here every since january and i got a lease for five to seven years so i'm excited for what is happening and about to happen what i think about the construction on twenty third in jackson i'm not really too pleased with how everything is going because here they came in and they've done a lot of construction there's a lot of companies that were damaged and deprived of clients and money because of them doing the construction and first they said that they're not going to give and twenty third street from twenty first to twenty fifth all the way down to john there's a lot of businesses and they put a cap on the hair industry to twenty five thousand dollars and that's really no money and they put a lot of stipulations that we have to abide by in order to qualify to receive the funds so i'm very displeased about it but it's not over yet they're going to have to reimburse everybody that has been up here you know in the harriers industry and some other small business owners as well but overall we are going to walk in victory mark my word we shall get paid our money yes yes there's a bunch of us barbers and  it's only right for them to do that i mean i'm for it being a mixed community because i feel like we all need to get together and start loving one another and respect one another for we are because everybody's unique in their own way but i've seen this place go from black families been established black businesses been established to the present state and like i say i'm just really excited to see what's going to take place within these next five to ten years around here which i have five years to be around here with my new business here  jimmy sr had both sides of the street and jimmy jr had the problem and i developed but when jimmy jr passed away he had one daughter but there was some other investors with him so she had to take a certain proportion of the money and split with them guides which the investors which they got more of the money and weingarten came in and they purchased both sides for pretty close to twenty million dollars both and then what they did they sold it to paul allen for thirty something thirty five man so like i say i'm glad to see that i was able to move in find a place before we had to move from up there because just going to be a lot of case chaos you know and it's going to be a lot of can if they think that the twenty third street project was something wait till they start this here this new project but we're in a good location here and this is the new twenty third yes this is the new twenty third jackson eighteenth in jackson so if you going to ask other members who are here of the cultural arts district come down stand with me my name is steve sneed and i'm the co chair of the historic central area of arts and culture of this vivid fill of the other co chair so i'm going to take some time to give you an idea of what this arts district here's we're essentially at the end of phase one in developing this this district the district is the designation of the central area as an arts and cultur geographically that will be a portion of the center where it's a program that comes out of the arts of arts and culture and it is the second cultural arts district in the city of seattle the first was on capitol hill is on capitol hill the legislation was signed by the mayor thank you in the summer of twenty fifteen this area or this or this idea i simply are creating a geographical area that is a focal point for the city to see black art culture and history is something that started a while ago it was just an idea and a dream in the hearts and minds of many individuals many of them were actually in this room back and we didn't call the district but it was the notion that we would bind together the black arts organizations they would work together to strengthen each other to develop systems of communication that would help to promote the arts and culture throughout the region to draw people into the sea and also hopefully sort of stifle stifle some of the  this happening in our community i grew up in this community and so it is my community and i've seen it change and i'd like to see that but different so the focus we've established what we call the three foundational pillars for the earth's history and they are this is what they are the african american legacy preservation spree serving our african american heritage in this in this area sustaining and strengthening the physical identity and sense of place for cultural relevancy inherent in the stated stet th steady years that we will focus on african and african american culture and art i want to make that clear the establishment of a formalized forum for continued support of artistic creation economic vibrancy livability affordability desirability and artistic vitality these are our pillars that we will establish this district with this is our foundational guy these principles we give honor to the past we give life to the present and set the stage for the future for a community that is the historical heart of the african american community as  as a place of residence for africans from throughout the diaspora i've given you some idea of the foundation but i want to now ask you if you were there when i want you to close your eyes i want you to just allow yourself to just  and i will paint you a picture imagine there is a piece of art on twenty thirty in union that is so incredible so well known so dramatic so exciting so interesting that whenever somebody comes to seattle they got to take a selfie with that  imagine that our saturday night on jackson street i got to make a choice about which club or restaurant i'm going to go to and have some good food here's some good maybe a spear right i can dance in a couple places i'll see people i know it's practically a festival every weekend and the musicians are there the community is there people are everywhere so just imagine imagine that there's a path a walking path that starts at washington hall it comes up to links to a huge it goes to fine art center it goes to the african american museum and along the path there are markers of history and of our black artists and our historians that are people from the black community that we want to take time to remember and learn about that we want our young people to learn about imagine there's a there's a housing complex maybe a couple actually very have studios and their black artists who live in the studios and work in those studios and make their art they get together and have jam sessions now that's what we call it in my day every day on the practice you get together and you create you you develop more material and more art and that that's happening that's a that's a place to go and gather and live in this community the black arts organizations meet regularly and the cordoning they promote and that this is a tourist destination for the city of seattle that the whole region is pro actually in about two weeks and we'll start our strategic planning for this district now going to give you our e mail address i don't have a power point up here but i'll give you the email address if you don't care to the first time i'll say it twice one last thing i'm going to say this is the last university or taught or i started you know was to kentucky then the university of toledo then notre dame university and then here and i came out here to be chair of american ethnic studies that is asian american studies chicano latino studies african american studies and then to put together this this major the students could have a major we took the courses for america indians studies which was in a separate department and combined it into a major for students who wanted to major in american if take studies and so on and i did that for and i stayed in th department for over maybe ten ten years and then i moved back to just doing sociology so i could write books and do other kinds of research to rather than be an  one thing i'm proud of myself and i don't say this to people all the time but i still remain an ethiopian there are people who get