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News
Street Roots • May 13-19, 2016
HOW TO CHANGE SOCIETY
Former Seattle Councilman Nick Licata, author of becoming a Citizen Activist, says
everyone has the potential to make a difference. And he is bringing his message to Portland.
BY ISRAEL BAYER
STAFF WRITER
ick Licata is a lifelong political
activist who spent 18 years as a
Seattle City Councilman.
His early activism involved work on anti
redlining and poverty issues in the early
1980s in Seattle. During his tenure as a city
councilman, he has been an avid supporter
of low-income people and progressive
causes.
Licata will be speaking and promoting his
new book, “Becoming a Citizen Activist,” at
7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 19, at Powell’s
Books on Hawthorne. The book is described
as a playbook for citizen activists wanting to
improve the world around them. It doesn’t
disappoint.
N
Israel Bayer: You say in your opening to
the book, “You don’t have to be a Marvel comic
book superhero to change the world. You don’t
even have to be a saint, a revolutionary, a -
political leader or a community organizer.”
Say more.
Nick Licata: I hesitated in using the
word activist in the book title. I think
sometimes people don’t realize that we all
have the potential to be activists. I think
what may hold some people back from
trying to change their immediate
environment is that the tasks ahead of us
look so daunting. It’s like climbing a large
mountain. The first step is recognizing that
you can actually change political and social
environments. A long journey starts one
step at a time. Any time you begin a journey,
the first step is usually the hardest because
you’re going to think of a thousand reasons
of why there’s something else to do first.
Nick Licata will talk about his book, “Becoming a Citizen Activist,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 19, at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne.
up for review and have a new interview
power typically have more powerful
every two to four years.
networks. A lot of people get elected to
office as idealists, but they become more
LB.: You said, “Many times bureaucrats
practical. Over time the practicality begins
are
a bigger hurdle to overcome solving
to overshadow their idealism. In the end, it
problems that the big, bad corporations.” Talk
ends up hurting progressive movements
more about that. Tell us how you define
overall because then elected officials can’t
bureaucrat and why they become a barrier in
deliver on their promises and even worse
creating real social change.
yet, begin to drift off in other directions.
LB.: In your book, you talk a lot about
Part of my message for citizens that run
N.L.: The term “bureaucrat”
movement building in local government. Talk
for office and get elected is
"There
’
s
never
<
certainly
has a negative
about moving people in power and elected
don’t walk away from the
connotation. And I don’t try to
officials closer to your position on progressive
people that got you into office, r going to be any
and my message to citizens:
issues.
progress without use it to describe staff. However,
Don’t walk away from people in hope. In the end, I have found in my 18 years in
government that sometimes, all
N.L.: One of the things that I discovered
office. You have to build and
the
final
element
too often, unfortunately, central
being inside of government is that many
sustain authentic relationships.
you have for
staff not directly accountable to
people get elected really wanting to make
social change is an elected official see things
change. You don’t get elected to office to
I.B.: You spent 18 years as a
through a narrow focus: how to
become a bureaucrat. Many times
Seattle city councilman. Were
your attitude."
get something done without
bureaucrats are a bigger hurdle to overcome
there times you lost your way and
taking into account what is best
NICK
LICATA,
solving problems than the big, bad
had to reassess where your values
.AUTHOR OF
corporations, but there’s a different reason
were?
'BECOMING A CITIZEN for the public or those who
ACTIVIST' might be negatively impacted.
for that.
Perhaps they have become
A reason most politicians don’t follow
N.L.: It is a scary process.
jaded over time as to how to look at things
through on what they promise is that they;
One of the things I tried to do was tell
differently. They tend to do things the way
don’t know how to get there. They become
myself every election I wasn’t going to run
they have always been done. And therefore
frustrated. Also, water runs downhill. It’s
for office again and that life would go on. I
that is the right way. They are not risk
much easier to start taking larger
would assume that I would either not run or
takers, and because they are not risk-takers
contributions from fewer people the longer
not get re-elected. It’s the opposite of
and they are not rewarded for being that
optimism. It’s like, OK, this is the only time
you stay in office. You start talking to a
narrower stream of people and are informed
I’m going to be here so I’m going to do what way, they tend to lead newly elected officials
down the path of caution, pointing to why
by a smaller group of people you trust It
I want to do or what the larger community
something cannot work, like providing paid
pushes me to do. Every politician worries
becomes easier to follow this route because
sick leave or banning plastic bags. It’s not
of life, time or money crunches. People in
about being re-elected. It’s a job that you’re
that they are conservative or liberal, but
rather they most often see the status quo as
working so don’t rock the boat Because of
that attitude and frame of mind, they have a
very nuanced yet powerful way of shaping
issues that discourages challenging the
status quo.
LB.: It feels like the same conversation is
happening in cities up and down the West
Coast about the issue of homelessness and
massive rental increases. What are your
thoughts on the current climate and ways we
can address the growing need?
N.L.: We have to be more open to
encampments. It’s just a reality. It’s not a
final strategy. The battle then, of course, is
that neighborhoods come in and say we don’t
want encampment in our neighborhoods.
The debate about affordable housing has
to be a very focused and visible support for
the lowest strata of people surviving on our
streets and in low-income housing, our most
vulnerable.
5
As you get pushback from neighborhoods
and others, the response has to be creating
more subsidized units so more people aren’t
on our streets. I know the argument from
the market-rate developers is that we just
need more market-rate housing built and the
reality is that doesn’t solve the problem we
have in front of us by any stretch of the
See LICATA, page 11