Young kids no older than 6 and senior citizens both occupy a small room in the Kraken Community Iceplex. Despite their varied ages, they’re gathered together for one thing: to listen to the three candidates of the upcoming Seattle City Council District 5 special election speak about issues affecting their community.

Lakeside is located in District 5, and a Seattle District 5 candidate forum held by Lakeside Service Learning partner Lake City Collective a month ago had one of the highest attendances of people of color for any candidate forum in the history of North Seattle, said Lake City Collective co-founder and event organizer César García. He said the event — which was attended by two Lakesiders —  spotlighted youth civic engagement. 

The forum was hosted Friday evening at 6 p.m. on March 27,  with candidates Silas James, Julie Kang, and Nilu Jenks in attendance (Jenks is the mother of two current Lakeside students). The whole event lasted for about 1 ½ hours and was also livestreamed onto Youtube. 

The organizer, Lake City Collective, is a community development organization founded in 2019 by the parents of two Lakeside students. According to their website, they focus on issues that primarily impact BIPOC communities, working on projects related to food security, transportation, environmental justice, housing and displacement prevention, and more. They have a “phenomenal” relationship with Lakeside, said García; the 9th grade service learning trip visits Lake City Collective annually, not to mention henceforth returning student volunteers.

During the forum, candidates were asked about a variety of topics, including how they will represent all constituents, back public transit, support small businesses, tackle homelessness, address housing inequity, handle key infrastructure in the neighborhood such as a Fred Meyers that shut down last October, and balance public safety with community trust.

A couple of things that each candidate discussed: James advocated for unions, a basic income for people living under a certain income level, bringing in a municipal grocery store to address the food desert, supported a vacancy tax, and advocated for free transportation. 

Kang discussed decentralizing investments around the city, providing business safety packages (sort of like insurance for crimes), maximizing accessibility around light-rail stations, and increasing community safety by building neighborhood connections and trust. 

Jenks believed in making food vendor permitting more accessible, building 1,000 affordable housing units, strategic investments around light-rail sites, and overall developing the city while keeping environmental justice and sustainable city planning in mind.

All candidates also talked about more community involvement and voices in planning around transportation and safety, as well as developing affordable housing and community spaces. Additionally, all supported better support for tenants such as rent stabilization.

The forum was also directed at youth civic engagement, with 10 of the 40 District 5 residents in attendance being youth. Alder G. ’28, one of three students who had the opportunity to ask a question to the candidates, said, “A lot of the candidates were kind of surprised to see as many youth as there were there.”

When he took the microphone, Alder introduced himself as a sophomore at Lakeside and a member of Lake City Collective. Then, he asked how candidates will support community development organizations like Lake City Collective, as well as public spaces like parks.

Alder remembers he “kind of just jumped” at the opportunity to ask a question since he wanted to be more engaged civically.“As I’ve been using public transportation more and more, and … I’ve been maturing a little bit more, I’ve started to see more problems around my community and stuff, and so that just drives me to want to be more engaged in the process,” Alder said. “Our current district representative usually wasn’t very engaged in my part of District 5.”

Alder’s biggest concern was the lack of safe outdoor and community spaces. For example, before Lake City Collective, Littlebrook, a nearby public park, had been neglected, and the space was polluted with dog waste. And a few years ago, in 2023, the Lake City Community Center was severely damaged by a fire.

The youth outreach for the candidate forum is part of a larger effort from Lake City Collective to increase civic engagement via the Democracy Voucher Program, a city-funded initiative that provides each voting resident with “vouchers” that they can donate to political campaigns for the city council or other elected municipal positions. 

During normal election cycles, like in 2027, residents receive four $25 vouchers via mail, according to the official Seattle city webpage. They can only be used to donate to candidates, and cannot be traded or used as money. The city also mentions all of the costs were covered by an annual $4.5 million property tax approved by Seattle voters.

The Democracy Voucher Program opens up opportunities for citizens interested in running for office, described García. “It’s about that … possibility that someone who doesn’t have big pockets or is not friends … with people with a lot of money, you can run for office.” The City of Seattle states on their website that candidates have spending limits; although private donations can be received, the Democracy Voucher Program makes running for office less dependent on donations.

In the 2026 elections, only the District 5 position is open. Instead of the usual four vouchers, voting residents received two $50 vouchers, according to the website. He also stated Lake City Collective has been involved with promoting the Democracy Voucher program since a year after its founding.

However, this year, García detailed,  there’s a specific focus on youth. “In the past when we did the project a few years ago, [the focus] was minorities of ethnic groups in general,” said García. “But this time, our goal is for youth to know about this program because eventually, anybody who is interested in this, they can potentially run for office.”

García emphasized the importance of the democracy vouchers, adding that future students interested in running for office can finance their campaign through democracy vouchers. 

“Honestly, we’re letting old people decide [the] future of our community, and it doesn’t have to be that way,” García said. “Young people … need to basically grab the steering wheel and then kind of drive our region, … not only letting other people who may not look like us just decide for us.”

In the forum, because of the small size of the room used, Lake City Collective had to use reservations. According to García, high schoolers had priority and were confirmed first. Alder also adds that “all the youth that got invited weren’t being forced to be there. … Once they heard that there were gonna be some spots for youth, they either asked to be part of it or were pretty eager to be part of it.”

 However, in marketing to youth, García said he has faced roadblocks in public schools. When student volunteers at Lake City Collective wanted to set up an information table at their school, he said, their school administration told them that they didn’t allow political programs.

“It is wrongly perceived as a political program, something that is political, but this is not political at all,” García said. Instead, he believes the Democracy Voucher Program is a civic program. “It’s so important for our community and for our area,” he added, explaining that the program is run by the City of Seattle, and Seattle “will not do a program that is … for a candidate over another.”

Nevertheless, García believes the entire event was a success. Attendance was “just the right amount that we expected,” with the small facility filling up rapidly. Because of the limited space, said García, invitations were first sent out to stakeholders close to Lake City Collective — such as the leader of an organization that services the Eritrean community — and then volunteers, which filled up the list. 

Unfortunately, due to interest and size, García said they had to waitlist or turn some people down. “It was hard to not being able to open it to … people at large,” said García. 

They chose the location of the Kraken Iceplex because of accessibility. “Our organization is intergenerational,” said García. “We always think about kids, we think about seniors, we think about people with disabilities.” In fact, to accommodate parents, the event had a childcare program for attendees. Mainly, García said, the Iceplex was very close to the Northgate light-rail station and easily accessible by public transit. 

Lake City Collective had the support of the City of Seattle, which covered the cost of event staff like moderators and the two-person crew operating the livestream, as well as the food. The City of Seattle also sent an official who shared about the Democracy Voucher Program at the beginning of the event. The room they rented was provided for free by the Seattle Kraken organization.

García invites anyone interested in learning more to watch the candidate forum online, found on Lake City Collective’s YouTube channel, and to explore the Democracy Voucher Program more to learn how even they can run for office.