by Chamidae Ford
(SOUTH SEATTLE EMERALD) Ubax Gardheere recently announced her plan to run for King County Council District 9, which includes portions of Renton and Bellevue as well as Maple Valley and Enumclaw.
The single mother describes herself as a “bureactvist” who is looking to shift the King County Council to a more cooperative community. She currently oversees the Equitable Development Initiative (EDI) program as the equitable development division director for the City of Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development. She’s also the governance group member for Communities of Opportunity, a board member of A Regional Coalition for Housing, and a member of Fund 4 the Frontlines committee.
Gardheere has also served on the advisory board of Seattle Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund and is a former board co-chair of Social Justice Fund NW. Gardheere has experienced homelessness, poverty, a mental health crisis, and inaccessibility to resources throughout her life. These obstacles guide Gardheere’s platform and influence the policy she seeks to implement.
South Seattle Emerald: You describe yourself as a “bureactivist,”
can you tell me what it has been like balancing community bureaucracy and how those skills will transfer if you are elected to council?
Ubax Gardheere: I come from community, I’m an organizer. The work that I’m leading within the City of Seattle, it was born out of an inside/outside strategy. Meaning that city folk who are equity-minded, partnering with the community. So when the City of Seattle was doing its 2035 comprehensive plan update, for the first time in the nation, they did an equity analysis to accompany the environmental impact statement. And that told us that no matter what growth strategy the City was going to go with,
