Congratulations​ to one of our allied organizations, Safe Haven, which organizes monthly Cafecitos meetings. Cafecitos​ has won the East King County Human Services Collaborative Partnership Award! ​Safe Haven is a collaboration of many organizations and volunteers from across the Eastside that works to support immigrant communities and document immigration enforcement activities.

From October 2025 through September 13, 2026, Cafecitos has documented for Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond, Newcastle, Kenmore, Bothell, Woodinville, Sammamish, North Bend and Duvall. (Cities listed from highest to lowest number of detainments):

219 Incidents—reports that were responded to.

93 Confirmed detainments.

The majority of these incidents happened while people were in their cars.

Thank you to everyone who continues to share information, respond, support community members, and help keep our community informed and connected.

Call 425-361-0808 to report immigration enforcement activity.

Liveable Kirkland volunteers provided free bike valet services at this year’s City Hall For All event at Kirkland City Hall. While we’ve been there before, we’ve been seeing more and more bikes each year as people come to expect bike valet to be available.

Bike Valet is a great way to encourage folks to ride their bikes to events, freeing up parking spaces for those who need them, and encouraging sustainable transportation choices. While we’re not quite at the level of the Minnesota State Fair (former Liveable Kirkland member Jay sent us a picture of hundreds of bikes at just a single out of three valet stations), we’re working to get there!

If you’re passionate about helping folks leave the car in the garage for big events around town, please reach out to us about becoming a Bike Valet volunteer!

Planning staff and Main Street Property Group representatives reviewed a potential development agreement for “Slate Peak,” a proposed 170-unit mixed-use project located at 636 & 672 7th Ave within the Norkirk Makers District. The proposal requests a 20-foot height increase (from 45 to 65 ft) and an exemption from strict ground-floor commercial-only requirements. The proposal includes 35% family-sized (2- and 3-bedroom) units, 10% of units affordable to people making 50% of the area median income (AMI), and roughly 7,800 sq. ft. of street-level commercial space.

Council expressed strong enthusiasm for continuing negotiations, as the proposal does align with the overall goals of the district. They preferred the public benefit of discounted spaces for community organizations over a cash contribution towards CKC improvements. Councilmembers asked for negotiations to include more detail about how long the discounted commercial space would be offered. There was some interest in increasing the amount of commercial square footage beyond the current proposal while still allowing it to be less than the existing zoning.

The City’s consultant for this naming project, Watson Creative, presented the three proposed names and some background about their thought process.

Though no formal vote was taken, “The Forge District” seems to be the favored name among the Councilmembers that were present. “The Rise District” also had positive reactions. “The Union District” brought concerns of confusion with Seattle (Lake Union, Union Station, Union St).

Staff plans to return on October 6th for a final decision on naming.

The City Council approved Alternative 1, as recommended by Staff. This will partially restore the high pressure zone for the highest-elevation parts of the Highlands neighborhood to restore proper water pressure to affected residents while keeping the overall fire protection and system resiliency benefits of the original 2024 conversion intact. The project is expected to cost $8.1M after some projected savings and take between 24 and 30 months to complete.

For our next gathering, we’re diving into local history with David Neiwert’s Strawberry Days: The Rise and Fall of a Japanese American Community. Long before Bellevue became a sprawling urban center, it was a prosperous agricultural town famous for its strawberry harvests—cultivated largely by Japanese immigrant families who built vibrant lives despite systemic prejudice. That community was upended almost overnight following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, as forced internment and land-grab schemes prevented families from ever returning to the soil they worked. Neiwert combines vivid storytelling, archival research, and personal interviews to uncover this crucial local history and examine the enduring roots of anti-Asian bigotry in America.

This book is difficult to find (note that previous editions have a different subtitle) but we have some copies available to borrow for folks looking to attend the book club. Even if you haven’t read the book, all are welcome to join. If you’re short on time or prefer other formats, check out our collection of related videos to get up to speed before the meetup. We hope to see you there!

Join Liveable Kirkland in a conversation about our city’s present and future! We have an active community on Discord and Facebook and we’d love it if you joined in too!

(And if you add a picture you took to #photos on Discord it might get featured in next week’s issue!)

Additional stories, articles, and media for those who want a little more.