Resisting Gentrification in Seattle: The Fight for Community Stewardship of Land | Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.

"In Seattle, for many Asian migrants, Chinatown-International District (also known by its initials CID) is our home away from home. Located on Coast Salish lands in Seattle, the CID is a diverse multiracial community, including many immigrants from across Asia, many Indigenous, Black, and Latine communities; and working-class people of all backgrounds. The city government estimates that residents in the neighborhood speak 17 languages in addition to English, the most common being Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese."

"As an immigrant settler from Southeast Asia seeking linguistic and cultural community, this neighborhood provides a sense of familiarity and growth. From aunties who dance in Hing Hay Park, to massage workers who rub away anxiety and accumulated stress, to stores infused with the strong herbal scents of home displaying household wares for cheap, the CID is a place where my present is interwoven with remnants of my past from a different homeland."

"Stewardship requires actively resisting the concept of private property ownership by individual landowners and real estate developers. Our generation's task is to protect this neighborhood as a constantly evolving home for the working-class people who live and work here. Indigenous people of Turtle Island have taught us that central to our sense of home and belonging is land justice-the project of preserving land for everyday peoples' livelihoods and relating to land as a collective good."

The Chinatown-International District (CID) in Seattle sits on Coast Salish lands and functions as a multilingual, multiracial neighborhood anchored by immigrants, Indigenous, Black, Latine, and working-class residents. The CID provides cultural familiarity and everyday livelihoods through community institutions, informal labor, and affordable shops. Proximity to downtown makes the neighborhood vulnerable to real estate speculation and displacement. Community stewardship is framed as active resistance to private property ownership models that prioritize individual developers over collective needs. Indigenous teachings on land justice inform a vision that preserves land for everyday peoples' livelihoods and treats land as a shared, collective good.

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