Is there a case for collaborative work between South End business associations that benefits not just business owners but the collective business districts between the Mt. Baker and Brighton neighborhoods? Leaders of the Hillman City and Columbia City Business Associations think so. They believe so much in the possibilities, they’ve joined forces to embark on a pilot project called the Rainier Ave Business Coalition—or RainierABC—a collaborative effort to give representation not only to businesses in their respective districts but to surrounding businesses and business districts that have been historically underrepresented.
Karl Hackett and Matthew Stubbs, president and secretary of the Hillman City Business Association (HCBA) respectively, have long held visions of cooperative work among business owners and business associations (BAs) beyond Hillman City and have been doing outreach to that end for years. Says Hackett, “It didn't take long after I moved my business into Hillman City's commercial core that I recognized that we as small businesses needed to organize if we were ever going to effectively advocate for ourselves.” He joined up with the HCBA and in time, the group set their sights on broader organizing efforts.
Hyper-local groups like the HCBA, who operate in a small geographic area, have limited membership due to the small number of businesses in their district. There’s also a lack of business representation in pockets of Southeast Seattle, for brick and mortars and especially for home businesses. Hillman City, Columbia City, and sister neighborhoods face the threat of displacement due to gentrification and fast-paced growth (without adequate input from those most impacted). Hackett again, “…as a resident and a person of color it's hard to understate the value of the diversity of culture that exists here and what that means for my family.” There’s no shortage of people who want to preserve South End culture and character, especially among those who have deep roots in the area.
“…as a resident and a person of color it's hard to understate the value of the diversity of culture that exists here and what that means for my family.” —Karl Hackett, Hillman City Business Association President
Over time, HCBA leaders, Hackett and Stubbs began to consider how they might work with other organizations doing similar work in neighboring communities, like the CCBA in Columbia City, to fill gaps in service, bridge divides, better structure lines of communication, and—most importantly—work towards sustainability. Says Stubbs, “I believe that, while each neighborhood in the Rainier Avenue corridor has its own unique personality, the challenges that our business associations face are similar.” And the CCBA’s vision for their district rings true for virtually all South End micro-communities: to maintain “a small-town sensibility where a diverse residential population converges to meet neighbors, accomplish a full range of daily activities and support independent locally-owned businesses.”
RainierABC is born
At the end of 2018, Hackett and the HCBA secured a $50,000 grant from Seattle’s Office of Economic Development (OED) and the yet-to-be-named Rainier Ave Business Coalition was born with the Hillman City and Columbia City BAs piloting this collaborative project. An organized collective like this, the founders believe, is of tremendous value to the vibrant mix of businesses along and around the Rainier corridor. It will give the South End an amplified and unified voice with which to advocate at the city level for the individual communities to ensure their concerns are heard, and RainierABC hopes others will join them in time to build the coalition in partnership.
Areas of collaboration began to take shape at the beginning of 2019 as the HCBA and CCBA started regular meetings to discuss how they might join forces to achieve common goals and stretch further their combined resources. The groups extended their efforts and met with with other BAs and organizations like the Rainier Chamber of Commerce and the Martin Luther King Business Association in order to share experiences between organizations and learn from those doing parallel work in nearby areas.
The common challenges for these organizations, they found, can essentially be chalked up to limited resources, lack of organizational support, volunteer fatigue, and minimal representation at the city level. Everyone seems to have in common insufficient supporting members, a lack of bandwidth, necessary infrastructure, funding, and voice—and all express a great desire to preserve economic and ethnic diversity, to bolster economic health equitably. In sketching out what a coalition could look like, foundational pillars started to emerge: preserve, protect, and uplift South End businesses and the communities they serve.
RainierABC Areas of Work
Rainier Ave Business Coalition will focus its efforts initially on brick-and-mortar businesses in and around Hillman City and Columbia City, spreading out into areas that aren’t currently being served by a BA, like Genesee and Brighton, and encouraging business owners to become members of their nearest BA. Additionally they want to engage the numerous home-based businesses and entrepreneurs in the area. They’ll provide multi-faceted outreach to businesses and stakeholders, focusing on responding to business needs, and will link city resources for small business technical assistance to those who need it. In addition to business and neighborhood promotion, RainierABC will work with businesses and the city to keep people in place and help them achieve business goals. They plan to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the communities and markets in order to best serve their individual and collective needs. These combined efforts will bolster the work of the individual BAs and, in turn, the economy and the health and well-being of the area as a whole.
Speaking on recent changes within the CCBA, the organization says that their hope is not only that their recent work will result in additional value to their members and vitality to Columbia City but that it will create a more attractive business environment for the entire Rainier Valley. Both the Hillman and Columbia City BAs care deeply about the health of the Rainier Valley as a whole.
Why We Do This Work and How We Can Better Work Together
Southeast Seattle business associations and other community nonprofits don’t exist without people who care about lifting people up and shining a spotlight on the incredible talents of the neighborhoods they serve. The Hillman and Columbia City business associations likewise are comprised of people who want to celebrate and effect meaningful change in their districts. Myriad groups in the area are doing incredible grassroots work with an inspired mix of contracted staff and a whole lot of volunteers hours. They all have a lot in common but probably most notable is their dedication. They were each founded because people saw a need, or needs, in their community and had the will to take action. For its founders, RainierABC is an opportunity to take collective efforts to a synergistic new level.
By joining forces to serve a substantially broader geographical area, RainierABC hopes to mitigate issues smaller nonprofit groups face, like reinventing the wheel as they work to establish and sustain themselves and competition for the same funding streams and community volunteers. RainierABC hopes to be a friend, resource, and partner to other community groups while harnessing the power of collaboration to efficiently produce beautiful results—ensuring that each neighborhood retains its individual character as the districts grow and change.
Karl Hackett of HCBA—and now RainierABC—explains, “We want to do what we can to preserve the very unique character, culture and personality of what many of us consider the best neighborhoods in Seattle.” The Rainier Ave Business Coalition will do just that: work to preserve neighborhood character and culture while uplifting the broader community and the businesses that serve it.
