Rob Saka Announces Run for Seattle City Council | South Seattle Emerald

by the Emerald Staff

Rob Saka could also be a first-time Seattle Metropolis Council candidate, however the West Seattle resident is not any stranger to Seattle politics. Over the previous 5 years, Saka has served as a King County Constitution Evaluation Commissioner, a member of the Seattle Police Chief Search Committee, and a member of the King County Districting Committee. Previous to that, Saka served as a board member of the City League of Metropolitan Seattle, and because the former vice chairman of the Loren Miller Bar Affiliation, a civil rights group composed of Black attorneys within the state. 

Nonetheless, it’s his lived expertise outdoors of the civic realm that he says most closely fits him to exchange Lisa Herbold as District 1’s (West Seattle/South Park) Metropolis Council consultant after she introduced she wouldn’t search reelection. Raised in Minnesota by a single father who’s a Nigerian immigrant, Saka says the monetary, academic, and social hardships he overcame rising up, together with time within the foster care system, make him uniquely certified to carry nuanced options to the advanced issues Seattle presently faces with homelessness, housing affordability, financial alternative, displacement, and gun violence.

At present an lawyer for Meta’s (previously Fb) Actuality Labs division, Saka says a significant purpose is to normalize powerful, advanced conversations in Seattle Metropolis Corridor, which he sees as devoid of them. The Emerald spoke with Saka simply previous to his official candidate announcement on Tuesday. 

This is part of Emerald’s recurring long-form interview sequence of candidates working for native workplace. The interview has been edited for size and readability.

South Seattle Emerald: Why did you resolve to run for Metropolis Council, and what in your background do you’re feeling qualifies you for the place?

Rob Saka: I’m working as a result of I’ve three children in Seattle Public Colleges, and I wish to make it possible for this metropolis is the most effective that it may be for them and their futures. However I’m not solely working for my children, however for youths throughout this metropolis and their futures too.

I really feel I’ve sturdy skilled experiences, civic experiences, and experiences locally on so many various fronts. I believe the decisive factor that I’m hoping voters will admire essentially the most is my lived experiences as somebody who overcame the foster care system within the state of Minnesota. My lived experiences embody [being] somebody who was raised by a single father, who was a frontline warehouse employee.

It contains [being] somebody who’s the son of a Nigerian immigrant; somebody who acquired and benefited from authorities help, public housing, and low-income housing. My lived expertise is of [being] somebody who served this nation in uniform.

Most significantly, after we discuss points like public security, my lived experiences embody [being] somebody who has actually skilled police brutality firsthand. My lived experiences empower me to hunt higher. I’m a perpetual believer within the energy that we collectively have on this metropolis to influence change and do it collectively. I wish to assist change among the many challenges that we’re dealing with. And to the extent that I’ve been profitable in previous roles, the system is straightforward: collaborating throughout variations, discovering frequent floor, and finally getting stuff finished that works. 

SSE: One big problem our metropolis is dealing with is housing affordability. How would you handle this, do you have to be elected to the Metropolis Council?

Saka: My plan is fairly easy. It’s constructing a ton of reasonably priced housing and shelter area.

As part of that, we have to unlock and take away among the pink tape, together with systemic limitations that forestall us from reaching our true potential in life. It’s a advanced journey that’s multifaceted. A method that we are able to do that’s to take away among the pink tape within the allowing course of. I’ve pals who lead Black-owned small-development firms. 

They completely construct their reasonably priced housing initiatives in Pierce County and Tacoma given that the allowing course of is just too advanced right here. It’s too onerous. It’s too burdensome. And so we have to simplify. We want to ensure we do issues like preserve the integrity and traits of a neighborhood, and that new buildings are according to the general really feel of a neighborhood. 

However we additionally have to make it simpler to construct new housing and new developments. Importantly, as a part of that, we have to implement anti-displacement methods. Growth could be a highly effective, good factor for this metropolis. However it’s not gonna be good if we don’t launch it and construct it in an equitable manner. And meaning implementing anti-displacement methods to ensure people who have lived right here and been right here don’t get pushed out and displaced. 

SSE: Are there explicit anti-displacement methods that you’ve got in thoughts?

Saka: Nothing specifically, proper now. The factor is, we have to work with communities to seek out the solutions to this. These are extremely advanced, nuanced issues and challenges that we’re dealing with. And I aspire to method them with the complexity and nuance that they deserve. 

SSE: An Emerald reader just lately shared that she makes someplace round $80,000 a yr. She will be able to barely afford a one-bedroom condominium that she shares along with her little one. To make ends meet, she tutors and teaches yoga courses. She identifies as somebody who’s doing all the fitting issues, working 60 hours every week in contributing to this technique, and but she will barely subsist in Seattle. Her query was, how can we guarantee working-class individuals can afford to stay right here? 

Saka: You shouldn’t must be a lawyer, a tech employee, or a health care provider to stay on this metropolis. We want extra restaurant staff. We want extra artists. We want extra first responders and lecturers working. And I’ve a powerful working-class background. I’ve flipped burgers. I’ve labored in grocery shops. And I’ve discovered one thing new from each a kind of experiences. However this metropolis could be so significantly better, and we have to be so significantly better. And so a part of this can be a provide and demand drawback. We have to construct extra housing and make it extra reasonably priced and accessible for individuals like your reader. The present tempo is inadequate. We have to do it at rocket velocity. 

SSE: Our unhoused disaster continues to be an ongoing subject and appears to solely be rising. How would you really go about fixing it? 

Saka: As a former foster child, I do know what it’s wish to get up one morning and never know the place you’re gonna relaxation your head later that evening. I additionally know what it’s wish to be uprooted and swept away. I perceive that it’s not a very good feeling. 

The homelessness disaster on this metropolis, sadly, has devolved right into a homelessness disaster. It’s out of hand, and disgrace on us for permitting individuals to stay on the road like that. So, the answer, initially, is a preventative one. The issue of homelessness is extremely advanced. However, in all of the analysis that I’ve seen, the primary issue is what we talked a couple of second in the past: lack of reasonably priced housing. So that’s the first key of a multipart technique. It’s not a compassionate method, neither is it a humanitarian one, to permit individuals to stay like that. Disgrace on us. 

So, we have to take away encampments and deal with metropolis cleanup, however — I wish to emphasize the however — provided that we’re additionally connecting individuals with shelter and providers, whether or not it’s psychological well being or drug dependency providers. We should enhance funding in behavioral well being providers. We have to finish this entire whack-a-mole state of affairs the place we clear up one spot, we sweep out one other one, and growth, 10 extra pop up elsewhere. On this metropolis, with all of its abundance and one of many world’s thriving financial capitals, we must be ashamed. I care about not solely simply ending seen homelessness, I care about ending homelessness, interval. 

I’ll say this: No matter method we take to ending homelessness, we have to be doubly cautious that we don’t punish somebody merely based mostly on their standing of being poor and homeless. 

SSE: Police reform has once more risen to the peak of nationwide discourse because of the current killing of Tyre Nichols. You served on the Seattle Police Chief’s Search Committee final yr and have publicly spoken on reform in different capacities. What do you suppose of the present state of policing within the metropolis?

As I discussed earlier, I’ve skilled police brutality firsthand, and I’ll be extra specific. I’ve actually had the knees of the Minneapolis Police Division pressed up in opposition to my neck for some BS that ought to have by no means occurred to start with. And, however for the colour of my pores and skin, would’ve by no means occurred. 

I’ll be trustworthy, as somebody who has handed Washington State’s bar examination, together with the ethical character and health sections, as somebody who served this nation in uniform, and as a former intelligence officer who’s held a top-secret clearance, I’ve had plenty of explaining to do professionally for, once more, some nonsense that ought to have by no means occurred to start with. 

So, I perceive that is a part of my lived experiences that ceaselessly formed my view on public security. I’ve helped champion and cross a brand new justice reform framework in King County and alter the best way the County appoints our sheriff (going from elected to appointed by King County Council).

The subsequent degree of reform, one thing I hope to work on within the metropolis, is to adequately fund and put money into non-armed responses to sure conditions, together with psychological well being counseling with psychological well being counselors, specialists, social staff, and so on. 

Each disaster state of affairs when somebody wants assist doesn’t at all times want somebody with a badge and a gun displaying up weapons blazing. So we have to streamline our efforts and to roll out options to policing.

However, very critically, we additionally want to alter and reform the tradition of policing. Reform it [to] one that’s extra of a guardian mindset, a guardian of those communities that they’re sworn to guard. Not a warrior mindset.

Within the Tyre Nichols state of affairs, the mugshots that I noticed of the cops who murdered Tyre, these guys appeared like they have been attempting to be warriors within the video footage. They have been attempting to be warriors in opposition to the group, not guardians. We have to change that. We additionally want to rent, practice, recruit, and promote the fitting quantity and the correct of police.

I don’t know what the fitting quantity is, however we don’t want extra police jamming up communities which have traditionally been overpoliced anyway. However we do want good response instances from the police. A number of months in the past, a pal of mine, a Particular person of Shade, for what it’s value, noticed somebody breaking into his automobile. He went out and confronted them. This individual had a knife and took a swipe at him. He was experiencing some psychological well being challenges. There is likely to be alternatives for nonarmed responses when somebody has a knife, however this in all probability wasn’t one. Regardless, he referred to as the police. 

They requested him if he was harm. He mentioned no. They responded with, “Okay, properly, we’re not sending anyone out to assist.” And that is what occurs once you defund the police.

SSE: That was an precise response from 911?

Saka: Sure. 

We want higher responses and response instances. That’s why we have to rent, promote, develop, and retain the fitting variety of police, for the aim of assembly these response instances. And the correct of police. We want good, trustworthy police.

SSE: So what function precisely do you’re feeling the police ought to play within the Metropolis’s public security technique? 

Saka: As I simply talked about, I do wish to make it clear that I help good, trustworthy police and first responders. There are two occasions that can ceaselessly form my view on public security. I’ve already talked about one with the Minnesota Police Division. One other one is after I was one block away from the end line of the 2013 Boston Marathon. I had simply completed working the race when the bombs went off. 

I’ll always remember the chaos, confusion, and terror that ensued round me from a terrorist assault on this nation. I’ll always remember witnessing the bravery and braveness of our first responders, together with police, placing their security on the road when everyone else was attempting to determine tips on how to run away from the hazard. They have been working in direction of it. And I’m grateful for that. And so, as I mentioned, I help good, trustworthy police and public security. How did that develop into so controversial?

I wish to normalize having these powerful, advanced discussions and listening to one another out. Let’s thoughtfully discuss these challenges and these issues. After we received finished speaking about them, let’s pivot and deal with the answer. There are plenty of subject spotters on this planet. I attempt to be an issue solver. 

SSE: There’s been an uptick in gun violence within the metropolis over the past two years. Residents have been impacted, whether or not they stay in South or West Seattle. How will we successfully handle this subject?

Saka: This one hits residence as a result of my household is a sufferer of gun violence. I misplaced my uncle to gun violence. So, I perceive what it’s wish to be in a household that’s misplaced somebody near them to gun violence. And one other story I’ll share is, I grew up in low-income flats that have been blocks away from the King County Maleng Regional Justice Middle in Kent.

It’s a spot the place a few of my childhood pals would finally be housed. That additionally helped gasoline and form my journey, inspiring me to do higher and make it possible for extra children from Kent on the time, and different deprived communities, have been capable of obtain their true potential in life. 

And a part of that’s ensuring they don’t find yourself getting ensnared within the legal authorized justice system. So that you ask tips on how to do it. I 100% agree that jobs and financial alternatives cease bullets. We have to put money into communities. That is anti-poverty work. We want efficient prevention methods that concentrate on investing in job placement, coaching, and Black companies. 

There’s a clear relationship on this nation between socioeconomic standing, crime, and victims of crime. And we all know the connection on this nation between race, crime victims, and poverty. It’s all this vicious cycle. And so the answer is investing. It’s a multitier, multilayered method.

We additionally have to take away systemic racism from the justice system. That’s, that’s ongoing work. There’s at all times a possibility there. I’m not gonna sit right here and trumpet gun violence prevention alone. We additionally have to account for the realities of as we speak. A few of that work is gonna assist us forestall future gun violence. Demise prevention is what we’re actually speaking about. So how will we make it possible for now we have enough sources in place when somebody is the sufferer of gun violence? 

SSE: Not too long ago, the scholars of Rainier Seaside Excessive Faculty hosted two city halls to carry consideration to how gun violence had impacted their college. They sought to underscore the assertion that, relative to varsities elsewhere within the metropolis, faculties in South Seattle and West Seattle don’t obtain the identical precedence. How would you lend extra help to varsities in these areas from a Metropolis Council place? 

Saka: It’s an ideal query. From kindergarten to twelfth grade, I went to 13 completely different faculties rising up. I used to be one of many children on free and diminished lunch. And you’ll guess what most of these children appear like, along with their socioeconomic standing; most of these children have been Black and Brown, similar to me. I’ve been in a few of these similar faculties. So how will we assist on the Seattle Metropolis Council degree?

We have to sustainably fund psychological well being providers. We are able to solely count on to see the necessity enhance for added behavioral well being and psychological well being counseling providers for youth. We’ve had, you recognize, a technology of children who have been a year-plus, in some instances, in a remote-only studying surroundings on account of COVID-19. We additionally have to work with our educators and the specialists within the college district to seek out areas of alternative to align, overlap, and associate collectively.

One necessary implementation of that’s ensuring now we have high quality, reasonably priced, and accessible little one care obtainable for all. Applications just like the Division of Training and Early Studying are a extremely instrumental a part of that. And so we have to strengthen our funding there.

SSE: Like many main metropolitan cities, Seattle has a legacy of redlining, the place — outdoors of segregating the Black, Jewish, and Asian communities in sure components of town — it additionally artificially depressed residence values, which in flip contributed to wealth inequality, most acutely in our metropolis’s Black group. What are your ideas on remedying this on the Metropolis Council degree? 

Saka: Nice query. Like elsewhere throughout this nation, our area has its personal shameful and egregious historical past of redlining and racial covenants that excluded Black individuals from even getting funding from banks. We couldn’t stay in lots of neighborhoods due to these covenants. And it excluded us from the chance to realize issues like generational wealth. 

We have to acknowledge that. And a part of that acknowledgment is that we’d like individuals with lived experiences to take a seat in these roles and to explicitly name that out on occasion. Like I mentioned earlier, let’s speak in regards to the issues. If we ever let ourselves neglect it, we’re certain to repeat the identical errors sooner or later. So, that’s the issue. 

The answer is sustained funding in our group, and our many numerous communities — Black and Brown communities throughout this metropolis that make Seattle a vibrant place to be in. Now we have to create as many circumstances as attainable, and as many alternatives as attainable, for individuals and communities to be their greatest selves, stay as much as their true potential in life, and begin constructing generational wealth.

I’m grateful for the place I’m day by day personally and professionally. I’ve tremendous humble origins, am a former foster child, lived in public housing, and all that. I’m right here as we speak largely due to luck, and it shouldn’t require luck to have these sorts of alternatives. And in order that’s why we’d like additional investments in communities, together with academic packages, jobs, and workforce coaching.

SSE: The previous few years have introduced an increase in hate crimes fueled partially by anti-Asian hate, antisemitism, bigotry towards the LGBTQIA+ group, and anti-Blackness. How will we guarantee this metropolis stays a welcoming one for each one who calls it residence? 

Saka: I’ll struggle arduous day by day to make it possible for town is secure, clear, accessible, and welcoming for all. All people deserves to really feel secure in their very own neighborhoods and their very own communities, free from concern, free from the specter of crime, and free from unequal justice imposed by the police. 

And sure, now we have plenty of anti-Asian hate, antisemitism, bigotry directed on the LGBTQIA+ group, and anti-Black hate that by no means appears to exit of favor, sadly. I’m clearly not evaluating the 2, however I do really feel like some degree of toxicity and adverse vitality has proven up in Metropolis Corridor and the way we make coverage there. It’s simple to seek out variations. It’s simple to identify points and issues. 

We have to perceive these variations and shouldn’t run away from them, proper? However we additionally want to indicate extra empathy for each other as people, as a result of we’re all on this perilous journey towards transformation collectively. And we have to discover frequent floor, present empathy to at least one one other, and listen to one another out. 

Even when I don’t agree, I wish to hear your perspective, and I wish to try to do the work to stroll a mile in your sneakers. And I hope you’d do the identical.

Then, possibly then we’ll be capable of collaborate throughout the variations, that are generally simple to identify, however then we are able to work in direction of a standard purpose and finally get stuff finished. I wish to aspire to carry that very same degree of excellence, hope, and need in the best way I present up and method the whole lot as a Metropolis Councilmember. 

SSE: With that in thoughts, let’s say you’re elected. What would you need your constituents to have the ability to say about you by the top of your first time period? 

Saka: I’d need them to say that I’m a servant of the individuals and I care about their wants individually and collectively as a group throughout District 1, initially, and the remainder of town. I’d need them to say that I made nice progress on my quite simple plan. 

I plan to prioritize public security, motion on homelessness, and constructing a ton of reasonably priced housing. I need individuals to have the ability to say, we made plenty of nice progress on that, and that I attempted to function with a progress mindset as a substitute of deflecting blame. 

I need individuals to additionally say that I attempted my greatest to suppose critically about suggestions and attempt to incorporate that going ahead. I additionally need them to say that I made some nice progress in normalizing collaboration throughout variations in Metropolis Corridor, discovering frequent floor, and getting issues finished that truly work.

📸 Featured Picture: (Picture courtesy of Rob Saka.)

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