Two Artists Are Giving Out “Gentrification Citations” To Local Businesses, Including Uncle Ike's


sounds like this miami "artist" is gentrifying activism.
"Fines will be collected along with reparations in the revolution…."

Haha. Funny.
Uncle Ike should relax.
Clowns like this won't survive the opening rounds of The Revolution.
Well that'll sure freak the squares, won't it.
Because there's nothing like coming into someone else's community and changing it, amirite?

Someone needs to explain cause and effect to these artists.
They lay out the problem as they see it but what is the solution ... I like Georgetown's idea ...…
Friendly reminder that the Central District used to be Seattle's Jewish district. Before that, it was Native land. It "rightfully" belongs to no one who currently claims residence there, so they can stuff their fliers AND their indignation up their asses.
Shorter: Attention whores seek attention.
I am going to issue a citation for self-righteous smugness to the idiots who issued those citations.
"Exasperating income segregation"

Good grief. Someone is in dire need of a dictionary.
The inconsistent usage of initial capitalization in that flyer has my eyes bleeding.
The gentrifying businesses seem to be what make Seattle such a vacation destination for artists and activists in the first place. The craft breweries, bike shops, theaters, and pot stores makes Seattle fairly attractive to people who see themselves as a part of the artist subculture, and often rail against the effect that these businesses by day while enjoying their services by night.
FFS. Sophomoric.
People were complaining about the gentrification of the CD when my black partner and I bought a house there in the late 1990's! Nobody is making anybody sell their houses, so I don't buy this bullshit argument about people being pushed out. If you are renting in the CD, and you can't afford the new prices, I sympathize, but unless you are talking about a rent control program to stop it, please shut up. And as for destroying the culture of the CD, give me a break. I've never seen it.
It's an insult to talented people to refer to this behavior as "art". But "self-appointed gentrification scolds" isn't as self-congratulatory. More accurate, though.
Oh look, a bunch of sanctimonious assholes who think they alone are the true arbiters of right and wrong. Say, doesn't the bit about the "revolution" sound kinda like a threat?

Actually, this is just too good. Would-be vigilantes go around posting pseudo-legal threats on businesses whose ownership is of the wrong color, whose proprietors aren't the kind of people they want in their neighborhood. Where have I heard this story before?

@9: Ooh, nice catch.
@7 also "Grade School bully finds new ways to bully people well into adulthood"
and @16++
Gentrification activists continue to blame the wrong people. The new residents and small business owners are not the ones raising rents or tearing down old buildings. So stop shaking your fingers at people who just wanted to find a nice place to live, and let's start talking about building systems that will protect lower-income people from being driven out of their neighborhoods by large-scale economic factors.

The Stranger asked Sleidi and Emnet for specific actions or solutions that they believe can address the concerns they're raising, but did not receive specific answers.
I wish a predatory developer would target Chez Vel-DuRay. I'd love to be a sellout. I'd retire and move to Bremerton.

Women artists of color pull tongue-in-cheek prank. Dying white dudes FREAK THE FUCK OUT!
seatackled dear, we're all dying. We start that process the moment we emerge from the womb. The tomb is the one certainty, the great leveler.
One of the artists lives in Florida and is originally from Cuba. The other has not given any info on her background (does she live in the CD, how long has she lived in Seattle?). These people are extortionists. Ike's is a 4th generation Jewish resident of this Historically Jewish neighborhood. If someone wants to yap about racial privilege it's the right of these two to demand money from strangers because they deem those people have no right to open businesses in neighborhoods they deem "black" even if it's a white majority neighborhood. Maybe a Trump presidency will shake them out of their privilege and comfort zone. It's obvious that leftist society coddles these racists because they consider their vote to be important for the Dems to stay in power.
@22 Funny that these white guys freaking out doesn't lead to beheadings or hate crimes targeted Asian owned businesses like when Muslims and blacks freak out.
"More snarky posters? We're saved!"
Lovely, Precious Little Snowflakes now see themselves as intrepid Social Justice Warriors courageously slapping flyers on buildings and vehicles while no one is looking. These clowns are a "Portlandia" sketch come to life!
The business owners should tell the activists to f-off. Appeasing them only makes them do it more. It's a shakedown. I am waiting for a white progressive to finally get a backbone and tell these bloodsuckers who live on racial guilt to go to hell. White (and non-white) liberals have mistaken spinelessness for tolerance. They have mistaken always treating blacks like the victim as being non-racist. They are misguided and as dangerous as Trump supporters. The most recent definition of progressive seems to be someone who says "how high" when people of certain groups demand "jump!". No thanks. The left has been blackmailed into submission by these racists who are a cross between the KKK and the mafia. They think they are stopping racism by demanding money from people who open businesses in neighborhoods that were predominately black 20 years ago? I'm sure if they got those handouts they'd give it to those displaced, right? Of course not, it goes into their greedy little pockets.
Distributing flyers to intimidate people who don't belong. Where have I seen that before?:…
The utter passive-aggressiveness coupled with the hilarious word salad of leftist buzzwords capture the zeitgeist of Seattle perfectly.
@22: So in other words:
"it's okay if these people engage in racist harassment of local businesses, accusing them of made-up crimes and threatening to take stuff from them by force, because the people doing it are brown and female. if you're upset about that, you're a little whiny baby."
Funny how this sort of stuff magically becomes okay if perpetrated by someone who's the right color...
Shouldn't the "gentrification citation" go to the property owner of the Uncle Ike property? That dude previously rented to a super-great Falafel n'Gyro shop.. that was the victim of arson under mysterious circumstances ("4 trayv"), the guy who ran the falafel place said he would recover and reopen, but then it appears the property owner ditched him and decided to go with the more lucrative Uncle Ike's.

Which makes you wonder about the arson in the first place...
#33 I own the property and Ike's. Not sure what you mean but mysterious circumstances, other than any unsolved crime is mysterious?? Med Mix neglected to pay their insurance premium and it lapsed and he couldn't rebuild. Not that complicated.
@33 Yes, them as well. Gentrification is a 2-prong problem; those who jack up the rent and those who pay it. It sucks on both a commercial & residential level.

Most people enjoy gentrification. It only becomes problematic when it happens too quickly. That's when you get displacement.
@28 for the win!
How dare a pot shop gentrify the neighborhood and push out the small time friendly neighborhood local drug dealer. I lived at 19th and Union in the late 80s. It was a glorious time of many local small business entrepeneurs selling crack and pot throughout the neighborhood. It was lovely. So sad to see them gone.
@22 Oh. I get it. They were satirizing clueless reactionary "activists!" It was satire! Now it all makes sense! Phew.
If people think protesting a pot shop will stop or do anything at all to stop gentrification, they're fools. They're protesting a SYMPTOM, not the CAUSE. Do they think the massive gentrification of my home town of NYC occurred because of expensive stores? NO, it occurred out of the greed of politicians and real estate developers.

Don't believe them when they say they will just build more apartments or whatever. It's a LIE that it will control housing prices. The only thing that will save the middle class in this tiny city is Rent Control. My family lived in the same apartment for 40 years getting a 2% rent increase every two years and a no eviction clause for anything except breaches in their lease. Nothing else will keep the middle class in this city.

Oh and by the way, notice they keep allowing our population to increase but they are not providing any new mass transportation? Yeah, that's smart urban planning. Way to go, geniuses.

We were too often confusing the visible symptoms for the cause."
-- from Esther Wang's piece about anti-gentrification organizing in Chinatown…
Sound Transit and TDM started the real gentrification 10 years ago. This is
sheer ignorance.