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.