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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2018)
FEBRUARY 21, 2018 Seattle, Washington Volume XL No. 21 News .......................................3 Calendar .................................5 Opinion ...................................2 News Briefs .....................5 A & E ........................................4 Bids/Classifieds .....................7 CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW STATE OF AFRICATOWN Bryan Kirschner, left, and his wife, Holly Ferguson, supporters of a proposed development plan, stand in front of their tall, narrow house, which sits adjacent to older, traditional homes, in Seattle. City Officials Dubbed New Plan the ‘Grand Bargain’ By PHUONG LE Associated Press SEATTLE — Seattle’s booming tech industry has brought a massive influx of new residents with big wallets to the city. But an ensuing housing crunch has led to skyrocketing rents and home prices that have strained middle- and working-class families and deepened the city’s homelessness crisis. To keep construction humming and help people of all incomes stay, city offi- cials have come up with what’s dubbed the “grand bargain”: Let developers build taller and denser in core areas across the city and require them to ei- ther include units that working-class people can afford, or pay for projects to be built elsewhere. Backlash was swift from those wor- ried increased heights and density will change the character of single-family neighborhoods that dominate this pic- turesque Northwest city. But equally vocal groups have formed to back the city’s mandatory housing affordability plan, which aims to create 6,200 new affordable units over 20 years for those making 60 per- cent of area median income. More growth and housing choices mean teachers, firefighters and other laborers can remain in Seattle along- side wealthy tech workers, supporters say. As the city has grown, “there’s a real sense of some folks winning and some folks losing as part of that growth,” said Seattle Councilmember Rob Johnson, an urban planner who is sponsoring See HOUSING on page 3 Kam Gives ‘Black Panther’ 4 Stars page 4 MC Dr Renee MCoy, jokes with Chukundi Salisbury, with Showing Up for Youth after introducing him at the 5th annual “State of Africatown: Team African American African Diaspora” gathering held Feb. 17 at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. It featured presentations on the accomplishments of the last year, as well as vision, opportunities, and challenges facing the African American and African Diaspora community in 2018 and beyond. Business Funds Start-Ups with T-Shirt Sales ‘Fund a Founder’ raises capital for Black and female-owned tech companies By Melanie Sevcenko For The Skanner News ocal tech entrepre- neurs Marceau Michel and Kathryn Brown have recently turned a simple retail transaction into an innovative means of bankrolling start-ups. Launched last fall, Fund a Founder works by offering anybody a chance to fund small companies through the purchase of a custom T-shirt or hoodie. Shop- pers can choose between the ‘Black Founders Mat- ter’ line or the ‘Fund Fe- male Founders’ collection, designed by artists Zephan L Knaus in Portland and At- lanta resident Will Henry. Through apparel sales, Michel and Brown are looking to take down the barrier to capital — one T-shirt at a time. While offering gifts or incentives to public do- nors is nothing new in the crowdfunding sphere, Mi- chel said he’s yet to hear of a tech company that’s do- ing it with t-shirts. “It’s definitely a different approach to fundraising and supporting minorities and women in tech,” Mi- chel told The Skanner. Yet the genesis of the campaign came naturally between friends. “(Kath- ryn and I) both faced the same challenges when it came raising money for our business. And we both have celebrated, award-winning businesses that no one wants to fund,” he joked. Michel’s on-demand staffing platform, Werk- horse, won him the Tech- stars Startup Weekend, Portland Pitchfest, and a grant from Prosper Port- land. It was also selected to present at last year’s AfroTech, the largest Black tech conference in the na- tion. In 2018, Michel will be taking Werkhorse to TiE Oregon, an incubator for the state’s newest tech start-ups. Likewise, Brown’s ScoutSavvy — a career finding tool for women in tech — scored her the 2017 Company of the Year: Pre-revenue Award at the Oregon Technology Awards and was a finalist for the Top Social Impact Startups for the 2017 Bend Venture Conference. But regardless of the ac- colades and the demand for their products, the two Portland entrepreneurs have run into the same try- ing circumstance time and See START-UPS on page 1 Minding the Business of the USDA Forest Service Contracting officer Stevonne Fuller manages contracting agreements and logistics By Christen McCurdy Of The Skanner News tevonne Fuller majored in business and initially consid- ered a career in finance before a chance encounter with a re- cruiter from the USDA Forest Ser- vice changed her mind. Originally from Englewood, New Jersey, Fuller attended Florida A & M University and graduated from its S five-year master of business admin- istration program, which grants stu- dents a combined bachelor’s degree and MBA after five years of study. She considered careers at financial services firms like Ernst & Young, but then attended a career fair held by the university and met a Forest Service recruiter who was also a FAMU graduate. “She explained the type of work See FOREST on page 1 PHOTO BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY Seattle Eyes Taller, Denser in Affordable Housing Proposal PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED AP PHOTO/ELAINE THOMPSON 25 CENTS Stevonne Fuller is a contracting officer for the USDA Forest Service.
