Tag Archives: Seattle Economy

Olu Productions Is Helping Support Young Black Visionaries This Holiday Season

by Chamidae Ford


As the holiday season approaches, many are looking to put their money where it is most needed. One of those places: small, Black-owned businesses.

It is no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the small businesses that make up the heart of our communities. While massive corporations like Amazon have flourished during these times, small retailers, which often rely on in-person sales, have taken a huge hit. 

If you’d like a way to support small, local businesses this season, Olu Productions has crafted a cheat sheet for you. The company’s annual Holiday Catalog features the work of many young, Black entrepreneurs who are hoping to create a successful business selling everything from clothing and body products to snacks and performance skills. 

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South Seattle Businesses Have a New Guide on the Road to Reopening

by Ben Adlin


As more South Seattle small businesses reopen amid the ongoing pandemic, a new program led by a local chamber of commerce wants to ensure that customers and employees feel as safe as possible.

The Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce last week announced the launch of the “Southside Promise” campaign, an effort to equip local businesses with information and guidance to safely reopen. The program, a partnership with the City of Tukwila, provides face masks and other personal protective equipment and offers a reopening toolkit — essentially an in-depth slideshow presentation — aimed at helping businesses navigate the sometimes dizzying process of reopening.

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Seattle Budget Office’s Economic Forecast Highlights Continued City Revenue Decline in 2020 and 2021

by Emerald Staff 


On Monday, Seattle’s Budget Office released some dire economic forecasts and revenue projections, which showed an additional $26 million reduction to the City’s 2020 General Fund revenue, relative to the June forecast, and is now projecting a total 2020 General Fund revenues of $1.19 billion, down from the adopted 2020 budget of $1.5 billion.

The Budget Office says that when combined with the loss of other revenue streams that support a variety of basic municipal services, it now anticipates $337 million less revenue, when compared to the 2020 Adopted Budget. This represents a revenue shortfall of 19%. 

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Lawyers, Car Dealerships, Burger Joints, Newspapers, and Strip Clubs: Which Seattle Companies Got Federal Loans

by Erica C. Barnett

(This article was originally published on The C is for Crank and has been reprinted with permission.)


The Small Business Administration has published a list of the companies that received Paycheck Protection Act loans (PPP loans) of more than $150,000, including thousands of Seattle-based for-profit companies, nonprofits, and religious institutions. (The low-interest loans convert into grants if they are used primarily to retain staff who might otherwise be laid off). The local list, which I’ve compiled into a Google spreadsheet, includes a wide range of companies, from large law firms to newspapers to Catholic schools to nonprofits.

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OPINION: Domestic Workers Continue to Deserve Better

by Dana Barnett and Silvia Gonzalez


The antiracist roots of Seattle’s Domestic Worker Ordinance, which had its first anniversary on July 1, aren’t immediately obvious nearly a century after most other workers gained basic workplace protections. But there is a deep connection between anti-Black racism, the legacy of slavery, and the long fight for domestic worker protections. 

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