Skyway neighbors demand investment in a community they feel is often overlooked

KING COUNTY - The Black Lives Matter movement has worked to uplift the black community in more ways than one, but one King County community is tired of hoping and asking for better.

They're demanding it. 

“Black lives matter,” chanted a crowd of demonstrators  

A movement so powerful, so unapologetic, so relentless marched in the streets demanding equality.

“We want to invest in Skyway now. Not now, but right now,” said a community leader.  

The Skyway community wants real, tangible change.

“I know that Skyway doesn’t look the best at times but underneath we are vibrant. We are connected, and interconnected,” said Kimberly Sopher-Dunn with New Birth Ministries. 

With no council or mayor, community advocates are leading the charge.

Founder of the Skyway Collective Basha Alexander came back to this unincorporated part of King County that raised her, with a family of her own, to help transform it.

She helped lead this march in Skyway last month and says they need economic development with community in mind.

“Skyway has the biggest representation of African American and black folk that live here. It is visibly is showing that we’re kind of forgotten about right now,” said Alexander.

Just south of Seattle and north of Renton is where you’ll find Skyway.

In it, you'll more churches than restaurants. For five years, Skyway was a food desert.

In 2013 a Grocery Outlet sprouted up but options there are limited.

“I wish it was something that could offer healthier foods,” said Skyway neighbor Kevin Amos.

Transportation is another problem. Bus line 106 is the only method of public transportation.

It’s a mile from Grocery Outlet and nearly two miles from its farthest neighborhood.

“Not being able to walk a short distance to a grocery store really creates barriers for folks in the area,” said Alexander. 

There’s also nothing for the youth: no community center, no place for kids to hang out. 

“For kids, their playground is the parking lot,” said former Skyway neighbor Paulette Payne. 

One of those kids growing up in this underinvested community was King County Councilman Girmay Zahilay.

“It’s simultaneously the most underserved, the most underrepresented place in our state, in my opinion,” said Zahilay.

Six months into his new role, Councilman Zahilay already has Skyway on the King County agenda.

On Tuesday, the council will vote on a subarea plan he says will help pave the way for economic growth.

“This subarea plan actually downzones a lot of places, keeping the smaller commercial areas and residential areas, and putting in affordable housing requirements as well just to say that we are going to grow at a pace where investment is welcome but not at the expense of the people who already live there,” he said.

Zahilay said gentrification in the form of large commercial properties and big apartment buildings historically drives up the cost of living, and in turn pushes out the people of color who fought hard for a thriving community to call home. 

Skyway neighbors say not here. Not ever.

“We might have been asking them for a long time, now it’s a demand. Now we are no longer asking because when we asked in 1994 it turned into the 2016 plan,” said Alexander.

“Black lives can’t matter in Washington state unless Skyway matters,” said Zahilay.

 They’ll keep marching until they matter.

 Councilman Zahilay says he thinks they’ll have the vote to pass this plan.

He also says this is just a first step and nowhere near enough.

The first goal is to build a community center for the youth, that’s something everyone in Skyway agrees needs to come to fruition.