Are young people ready to get out and vote?
It's not that there are no big issues to worry about. Young people these days face unfathomable costs for education, health care and housing. Social Security could be gone by the time they're ready for it.
And yet, the figures about their political involvement aren't pretty. As a group, America's young people haven't shown much interest in the ballot box. (Only 36 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted in the 2000 election, compared with 60 percent among all those of voting age, according to the Census.) They've been called slackers, apathetic, politically detached.
That made a group of young Seattle leaders think: Wait, that doesn't describe us or the people we know. Alison Carl, executive director of Seattle Works, a nonprofit focused on encouraging community involvement among young people, remembers looking around at the young crowd at a fund-raiser for her agency and thinking: This is my community. These are the people who are going to shape the future.
Carl and others decided it was time to act. But how to get young people involved? Then they realized that, while young people might not vote, they already were involved in their communities — as volunteers, or on the staffs of youth-development programs and arts organizations.
In other words, they'd been thinking about it all wrong. Inspired by books like Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone," about the changing nature of community, they realized the pieces were already there; it was a matter of putting them together.
Their idea: They would spark civic enthusiasm by assembling fellow 20- and 30-somethings to discuss community issues ... in the process creating connections that have less to do with this fall's elections than with the leadership of tomorrow.
THEY CALL THEIR PROJECT "Collaborate!" and its initial offering has been a series of five "conversation cafes" that started in March and concludes Tuesday. Those events have resulted in scenes such as one at Fremont's ToST lounge on a midweek evening in May, where two tables in an otherwise empty room bustled with conversation.
Gridlock, one woman said when her turn came, is more than street-level; it's political. Another agreed, calling the acrimony that clogs transportation politics "almost embarrassing." She couldn't think of another city with this problem. When, she wondered, will it all reach a breaking point?
It's already here, said another, setting down his beer. Boeing skipped town; the tech bubble burst. "People can't flow freely. If you can't have a good flow of people, how can you have a strong economy?"
It might sound like standard political talk among barroom regulars, but most of these 18 people had never met before. Convened via the Web invitation service Evite and by word of mouth, the participants are a range of ethnicities, genders and professions — real estate, finance, sales, public policy. But they have this in common: All are in their 20s and 30s, and ready to talk about issues.
While other issue-oriented discussion movements operate around town — MoveOn.org, Deep Waters, The September Project — Collaborate! distinguishes itself by specifically targeting the approximately 175,000 Seattle residents under age 35.
Carl, 31, the Seattle Works executive director, is a Pacific Lutheran University graduate raised in Federal Way; Linnea Noreen, the 27-year-old director of the Emerging Leaders Program for YMCA of Greater Seattle, is a native Seattleite whose political activism has ranged from campaign work to avoidance of national chain stores.
Along with Leah Baltus, 25, Seattle Works' programs and marketing manager, they won a Seattle Foundation grant to launch their project. (The Seattle Times will help sponsor a series of discussions set for this fall.)
Having fought the fight, the older generation is weary, they say. And a whole generation of young people is ready to step in, more media-savvy and technologically plugged in than their parents — and tired of being told they have to pay their dues.
"A lot of it is building trust," Baltus says. "They know we're coming; they know it's essential we have our act together. We want to show that we're already involved. We might not go to Rotary meetings, but we do have this incredible cafe culture that's all about community."
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The top five issues became the topics of monthly forums at comfortable nightspots — — Capitol Hill's Elysian Brewing Company, Fremont's ToST lounge, Queen Anne's Hilltop Ale House. In March, they considered democracy; in April, civil rights; in May, it was transportation; and last month was education. Tuesday's session will be about neighborhoods.
By creating a discussion-oriented network of young people, they hope to plant seeds of collective power that makes them more than token add-ons to boards and committees. That their gathering sites are hangouts in neighborhoods popular with generations X and Y is no accident, either.
Attendance has been moderate but consistent, about 20 per site — veterans of late-night college klatches, raconteurs who once argued for hours about the Socialist Revolution but saw former comrades become preoccupied with parenthood and summer trips to Mazatlan.
At the Elysian in March, they filled out questionnaires: What did they think about patriotism, about government accountability, about the ability of young people to be heard? Did it matter that young people have a bad voting record?
Participants competed against the hubbub of brewpub babble, each handing a "talking stick" to the next after saying their piece.
"It takes a lot of money to run for office."
"It works for those who put something into it."
Other questions arose: What's the media's role? What's with that trendy store T-shirt that says, "Voting Is For Old People"?
Some thought the talking stick was hokey; others complained about the noise. But nearly all were juiced about the process. "This was fun," someone said as they adjourned. "This is democracy right here."
"This generation is very idealistic," organizer Noreen says. "People really believe they want to change the world."
THE ONE CONSISTENT complaint about the forums is that action isn't a built-in component. Organizers want action to rise from the network itself.
Most participants, organizers admit, are people who are already pretty involved. But it's long-term success they're after. "We're not pretending to have some sort of massive appeal," Baltus says. "But the idea is that it can spiral out — and someday, instead of three forums, maybe we'll have 50 locations."
Still, it may be the desire for instant gratification that has led many young people to eschew the political process for volunteerism. A 2002 survey of college students conducted by Harvard's Institute of Politics found that, while 61 percent had volunteered for community service, only 14 percent had participated in organizations devoted to government, politics or public issues.
Dawn Roscoe, a law-firm clerk in her 20s who attended the democracy conversation, says her friends know they're making an impact when they volunteer. As for the political process — well, that's a joke.
"I have friends from high school I can't convince to register," she says. "And with the last election — — they always figured people were screwing around with their vote, and it turned out they were right."
Melissa Lee, 23, can understand such sentiments. As volunteer coordinator at Seattle's Boomtown Cafe, which serves a mainly homeless clientele, she believes she's helping society on a daily basis, "even if it's the lower end of society. I would never, ever come away from the voting booth with that feeling."
Roscoe, who prefers political discussion to weather chat, was jazzed at first about the Seattle Works/YMCA forums, but now she's tired of chatting; she wants action. "People can change the world, and it all starts with groups like this," she says. "But you have to get beyond just sitting around and talking."
But Jessyn Schor, 30, a transportation advocate for Washington Public Interest Research Group who attended May's discussion at ToST, sees value in the forums as is. "Conversation in and of itself has merit," she says. "Sitting down and talking about issues is the most elementary step of civic participation."
Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com
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