Through the Static

By Gray Trammel

King County Council District 2 candidate Toshiko Grace Hasegawa’s campaign is centered on ensuring South Seattle families can continue living in the communities they helped build, with affordability at the root of many of the challenges facing the district. Hasegawa, ‌a ‌fourth-generation ‌Japanese American who grew up in Seattle’s Beacon Hill, described her campaign and core values as closely tied to her family’s past.

“My family’s story really represents how hard families have always had to fight to be rooted in this community, and today, that fight is getting harder,” Hasegawa told Through the Static (TtS).

Her great-grandfather first made a home in the Central District, but the U.S. government targeted the family during World War II for their Japanese ancestry, and forcibly removed and incarcerated them. When the war ended, they moved back to South Seattle, where the family has remained rooted for four generations. Now, raising two children in the same neighborhood where her father was raised, Hasegawa said that living through that continuity has made the area’s affordability crisis difficult to overlook.

“They go to the same school that their grandpa once attended as a child,” she said. “Except now, to attend my friendly neighborhood childcare center, I have to pay $54,000 a year.”

Expanding economic opportunity is a central condition for raising quality of life across the district, Hasegawa said. In Hasegawa’s account, targeted spending on workforce development, apprenticeship pathways, and jobs that pay family-level wages can reinforce community stability while also easing a range of social problems that local governments routinely confront.

“Economic empowerment leads to social justice,” she stated. “I think the number one issue that’s impacting literally every single person who lives in District 2 is the issue of affordability… It shows up in our housing crisis. It shows up in people not being able to make rent. It shows up in people’s property taxes and active displacement of people who love this community and call it home.”

Hasegawa said District 2 has long been home to communities that fought for civil rights and social justice, and she believes that history should continue influencing county policy.

“This is the epicenter of the local civil rights movement,” she said. “This is a place where people who have been historically marginalized have done more than survive. They’ve built communities and they’ve built movements.”

Prior ‌to ‌her ‌appointment to the Port of Seattle Commission, Hasegawa held several public-sector roles that include policy, oversight, and executive work. She led the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs as its executive director, and worked as a legislative aide for the King County Council, assigned to the Law and Justice Committee. She also worked to restart the King County Office of Law Enforcement Oversight. Beyond these posts, she participated in transition teams for Gov. Bob Ferguson, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson.

If elected, Hasegawa intends to seek the chair position on the council’s Law and Justice Committee. Alongside that role, she expects to take seats on the Transportation, Economy and Environment Committee as well as the Government Oversight and Accountability Committee. Drawing on her previous experience in transportation policy, fiscal management, and criminal justice, Hasegawa believes she would be positioned to add value from the outset, with a particular emphasis on tightening oversight of county government.

“Besides my background in criminal legal systems, my expertise in criminal justice systems, my proven work as a reformer, my unparalleled expertise in police accountability and understanding how police unions function, I’ve been a loud and proud voice on progressive policies and workforce development and economic development,” Hasegawa said.

One plan of Hasegawa’s would shift juvenile probation to a family-based approach. Instead of having teenagers report to the courthouse on a schedule, probation officers would make visits to the home. Hasegawa said research points to better results under that setup, partly because officers can see day-to-day family situations. She also supports widening chances for families to visit people held in jails and prisons.

“The number one indicator that somebody’s going to experience homelessness or the legal system or addiction as an adult is exposure to those factors as a child,” Hasegawa said. “If we want better outcomes, we have to invest in our youth.”

As the race for District 2 continues, Hasegawa said she hopes voters will consider both her policy platform and her record in public service.

“I’ve been here for four generations, raising the fifth generation,” she said. “It’s really not about myself. It’s about wanting my kids, should they so choose, to be able to live in this community and give back to it the way it’s given to us, generation by generation.”

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