KPLU Local News
(2009-08-12)
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SEATTLE
(KPLU) -
The youngest candidate running for mayor of Seattle is an entrepreneur and activist with deep roots in the city's African-American community. Kwame Wyking Garrett's campaign reflects the issues he's dealt with growing up in Seattle's Central District.
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Garrett was eight years old in 1985 when he and his father were among a group of activists who occupied the former Colman Elementary School in Seattle. The protesters lived in the vacant building for eight years to press their demand that it be used as a black history museum and cultural center. Now, at age 32, Garrett brings that activist's perspective to his bid for mayor.
"Seattle promotes itself as a very diverse, inclusive place and we have to live up to that," he says. "We have to make that real, where all our communities are allowed to sit at the table, all of our communities are allowed to have access to the opportunities."
Garrett says the tide of youth violence that's swept over the Central District is a symptom of larger social problems. He says schools could play a big role by creating what he calls "African-American Peace Academies" at Garfield and Rainier Beach High Schools.
"(There) you have youth basically dying on the steps of the school, but a curriculum inside that is not relevant to conditions and circumstances that the youth face," he says. "Let's teach and train the youth to apply their gifts and their intelligence and their skills to building the community."
Garrett is affiliated with the group Green for All, founded by Oakland activist and author Van Jones. Like Jones, Garrett says we can fix global warming and urban poverty with the same solution: growing a green economy.
"That means making sure the green economy provides opportunities for all communities, particularly those who have been disenfranchised and excluded."
Garrett has no experience in government, but he says his activist background will allow him to bring new energy and real change to the office of Seattle mayor.
Kwame Wyking Garrett for Mayor website © Copyright 2012, KPLU
