Vacant house occupied in rapidly gentrifying neighborhood — Seattle, WA

On Saturday, November 19th, a group of about 60 people marched from the occupation at Seattle Central Community College in solidarity with Occupy Oakland and against the police repression and evictions of occupations across the country. At the beginning of the march, it was announced that a building would be taken over at the end of the march.

The group moved through Capitol Hill chanting “Banks and landlords, we don’t need ‘em/ All we want is total freedom!” before plunging down 12th Avenue to the King County Juvenile Detention Center. The group stopped outside the main cell areas and made noise for the children and teenagers imprisoned inside. Marchers chanted “Our passion for freedom is stronger than their prisons,” and screamed that those on the inside would not be forgotten.

After the noise demo, the group marched into the Central District, one of the most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in the country. The term ‘skid row’ was coined here at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Central District was 80% black in 1970. Now it is 15% black, with many new condo developments and apartments having sprung up within the last decade. As the march came closer to the soon-to-be-occupied building, the majority of passing drivers yelled and honked their horns in support.

The group surrounded an abandoned building on 23rd and Alder, right across the street from Garfield High School. A banner reading “OCCUPY EVERYTHING - NO BANKS - NO LANDLORDS (A)” had been draped across the front façade. Someone opened the front door and everyone streamed inside, celebrating the occupation of this new space. People started redecorating with paint and other items while a group outside held an assembly to figure out what to do. At the time of this writing, people are still occupying the building. The current plan is to hold it until Sunday where a public re-furbishing of the building can take place.

This building occupation comes on the heels of a recent announcement that the SCCC camp might be evicted in two weeks. It is another in a wave of building occupations brought on by the coordinated repression of #Occupy encampments in cities across the country.

http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/node/1109