Weed and Seed
In 1991, the George H.W. Bush administration rolled out the controversial "Weed and Seed" program, expanding punitive drug policies and militarized law enforcement across the United States. This program offered cities across the country generous grant funding for urban policing initiatives which sought to "weed" out violence, drug dealing, and crime, and "seed" under-resourced areas with programming and economic opportunity. While this program was marketed as a community revitalization and reinvestment initiative, national funding splits in most cities allocated over 80% of grant dollars directly to policing efforts. In 1992, Seattle was one of the first major cities to apply for law enforcement funding through the Department of Justice (DOJ) fund, an allocation of over $1 million which applied specifically to the Central District.
During the nine months between the City's application for funding in 1992 and receipt of federal dollars in 1993, a fierce public debate challenged the motives, methods, and cultural underpinnings of the program. Residents of the Central District organized campaigns to support and oppose the implementation of increased law enforcement and federal intervention in their neighborhood. While many city officials, including Councilmember Margaret Pageler and Mayor Norm Rice, backed the measure, activists like Harriett Walden of Mothers For Police Accountability warned that increasingly militarized law enforcement in historically Black neighborhoods would deepen distrust, fuel hostility, and create unsafe conditions for Black communities, especially Black youth. In 1993, the funds were ultimately accepted, and between 1994 and 2006, the City of Seattle received nearly $2 million in federally backed funding for local policing. The impacts of the Weed and Seed program can still be seen in neighborhoods like the Central District today.
1991 – Bush Administration forms Executive Office for Weed and Seed
The Executive Office for Weed and Seed (EOWS) was formed in 1991 under the George H.W. Bush administration and administered by the DOJ. Weed and Seed was introduced to a legal environment already a decade deep in the cultural “War on Drugs” launched under the Nixon Administration. By the time Bush took office in January 1989, the campaign had already doubled the American prison population, with a disproportionate impact on nonwhite individuals and communities. In his first presidential address, Bush called drug use "the greatest domestic threat facing our nation today" and vowed to expand increasingly targeted and militarized police programs.
In Seattle, the Weed and Seed program specifically targeted Central District neighborhoods and proposed a heightened police presence, including Seattle Police Department (SPD) controlled social services to address ongoing disorder and disinvestment. Across the country, vocal campaigns emerged to denounce the cultural ethos and policing strategies of Weed and Seed, which emphasized targeted legal enforcement over social services and community involvement in development. The ongoing efforts by Black residents to gain greater community control over policing, along with persistent institutional racism in the policing, justice, and prison systems, came to a head in 1991 with the brutal beating of Rodney King by the Los Angeles Police Department, an incident that brought national attention to police brutality, particularly among non-Black communities.
1992 – Seattle Public Safety Committee hearings and public debate
In April 1992, Seattle submitted an application for federal Weed and Seed community revitalization grant funding through the EOWS, and in December, the Seattle City Council's Public Safety Committee held a series of public hearings and meetings to discuss the controversial program. After nine months of vehement social and political debate, in January 1993 the funding was received, and Seattle began to roll out the Weed and Seed program in the Central District.
The Weed and Seed package was directed specifically at eight neighborhoods in the Central District, home to 26% of the city's Black population. A report produced by the DOJ in 1997 states that the Central District was selected due to high rates of poverty, ranging from 20%-50%, but added that "the International District was also chosen so that Weed and Seed services would have an impact on Asian populations." Many Central District residents expressed fear and alarm at the prospect of heightened law enforcement in an environment of already tense racial relationships between police and community members. During the application process, community coalitions opposing and supporting the program quickly emerged with passionate public campaigns. Local organizers were soon joined in opposing the program by national organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Beyond concerns that heightened policing would generate mistrust between city officials and Black communities, many residents felt the legislation and the resulting debate would drive a deep and harmful wedge in the Central District community.
Councilmember Margaret Pageler introduced the Weed and Seed legislation and played a leading role in promoting its acceptance in the community and securing its passage by the City Council. In the Central District, the Garfield Community Council and Central Area Neighbors Against Drugs formed the broadest networks of support to promote the legislation and sent dozens of representatives to speak at council meetings. Members of the Garfield Community Council promoted the campaign for Weed and Seed through a pamphlet petition beginning in November of 1992, urging Central District residents to declare themselves "tired of unsafe neighborhoods, tired of youth killing youth, tired of youth using drugs, tired of wasted lives and grieving families" and in support of increased policing.
In December 1992, the City Council's Public Safety Committee held a series of public hearings. At one hearing, Central District resident and Garfield Community Council member Fae Christian reversed the racial rhetoric of Weed and Seed opponents, claiming that "the gangs and drug dealers are functionally equivalent to a fifth column of the Ku Klux Klan. The gangs roll through our streets, killing and terrorizing without regard to anyone’s safety. These urban pirates are poison to our children." Most proponents of the funding package felt that an increased police presence in their neighborhoods would do more good in preventing drug-related crimes than harm to vulnerable populations.
Box 6, Folder 8, Margaret Pageler
Subject Files (Record Series 4667-02)
in favor of Weed and Seed, ca. 1992
Box 20, Folder 6, Margaret Pageler
Subject Files (Record Series 4667-02)
Box 6, Folder 8, Margaret Pageler
Subject Files (Record Series 4667-02
Despite some community support and a political environment across the United States that called for more stringent "tough on crime" policies in major cities, hundreds of Central District residents came to council meetings and wrote letters to councilmembers voicing their opposition to this legislation. Harriett Walden was one of the most vocal and impactful opponents of the program. Two years before the program was proposed, in 1990, Walden founded Mothers Against Police Harassment (later changed to Mothers for Police Accountability) to address rampant racism and community mistreatment by the Seattle Police Department in the Central District. A mother of two Black sons, Walden expressed fear not only for their safety from violence on the streets, but also for abuse from the officers purportedly charged with protecting them.
Along with her direct activism, Walden published a newsletter, Mothers Against Police Harassment, with the stated mission to "educate and coordinate parents and community organizations interested in addressing excessive police force." Using the same method as the Garfield Community Council, Walden helped circulate a petition calling on the Seattle City Council to "refuse to implement the 'Weed and Seed' Department of Justice's racist program in communities in this City which violates the human rights of people." Walden continued as an active community organizer even following the passage of Weed and Seed legislation.
Arnette Holloway testified about traumatic encounters with local law enforcement, and was skeptical that either the "weed" or "seed" arm of the legislation would create meaningful change for long-term residents. Holloway formed the Central Area Neighborhood District Council (CANDC) in 1992 to organize neighbors against the Weed and Seed legislation, denouncing the prospect of federal controls over local law enforcement. The formation of this council was hotly contested by the Garfield Community Council and other program supporters. Despite this division, CANDC garnered wide community support, and Holloway’s testimony and proposals were widely supported by the public at council meetings.
At a public hearing on December 3, 1992, Central District residents and other Seattle community members offered conflicting analyses of the project, its cultural underpinnings, and its potential consequences. At a subsequent City Council meeting on December 14, various councilmembers proposed shifting funding from "weeding" crime to "seeding" vital neighborhood programs, while others rejected the measure outright as a continuation of punitive federal drug policies deployed to criminalize Black communities. Beyond fearing increased police presence and violence, Holloway voiced concerns that the economic development programs would not effectively or directly serve the neighborhood, saying at the public hearing, "primarily we need an infusion of support for our business community started by our people. We need a program that supports our people."
Despite vocal community dissent at both the public hearing and committee meeting, the measure accepting Weed and Seed funds passed by a vote of six to three, with a modified funding split from 80/20 to 50/50 weed to seed dollars. The City Council also provided assurance that the City would maintain "ultimate authority" over the program; however, this was not backed by any formal requirements in the legal language of the grant.
1993 - Weed and Seed begins in Seattle
In January 1993, Seattle received $1.1 million in federal grant money for Weed and Seed Programs in the Central District. As part of the rollout of the program, Mayor Norm Rice formed a citizens advisory committee of thirteen Central District residents to advise the City Council on program implementation. In May 1993, this Weed and Seed Steering Committee submitted recommendations for over $500,000 "seed" dollars which included:
- $71,000 for community clinics to provide health services
- $200,000 for jobs for more than 50 young people ages 11-21
- $51,000 for recreation programs combined with various counseling, tutoring, and job-referral activities
- $30,000 for after-school activities at Yesler Terrace KidsPlace
- $12,000 for Police Department translators to help police work with immigrants
- $10,000 for classes on the law to be offered to teenagers
- $81,000 for programs to be chosen from submitted proposals
The steering committee also briefly considered changing the name of the program to avoid the negative connotations associated with the federal "Weed and Seed" program. Possible program names included Community Awareness Revitalization Effort (CARE), Central Area Revitalization Effort (CARE), Safe City Program, Project Restore Hope, and Central Area Partnership for Safe Cities Program. The council decided to retain the name by a vote of 5-4 to avoid charges of obscuring the connections to federal funding.
Later in 1993, the politics of tough-on-crime policing were a hot topic in the mayoral campaign between advertising executive David Stern and incumbent Norm Rice. In response to Stern's accusations of leniency toward crime, Rice reminded voters of the 80-officer increase he made to the SPD in 1989, and proposed an addition of 25 officers in his 1994 budget. During this campaign, Rice also voiced his support for Initiative 593, a federal "three strike policy" which allowed for life imprisonment of three-time offenders.
1994-2001 - Weed and Seed expands
In 1994, with support from Seattle legislators, federal funding for Weed and Seed in the Central Area was increased by $200,000. In 1995, the Department of Justice provided another $500,000 directly to SPD, and the City received over $400,000 Weed and Seed dollars to allocate to "seeding." On January 7, 1994, East Precinct Lieutenant Rosa Melendez, one of the primary officers in charge of rolling out "weeding" programs, used the federal funds to organize a 30-officer reverse sting operation to arrest 10 Seattle residents suspected of purchasing illicit drugs. Through the late 1990s, Weed and Seed policies and initiatives like this were often lauded as successes for public safety and garnered further public support for policing efforts.
Box 20, Folder 6, Margaret Pageler
Subject Files (Record Series 4667-02)
Document 6417
from Weed & Seed Update,
Box 6, Folder 8, Margaret Pageler
Subject Files (Record Series 4667-02)
In 1997, the DOJ released a case report evaluating the impact of Weed and Seed in Seattle. The report focused on community perceptions of neighborhood safety, victimization, police response, civic engagement, social services, and the overall functioning of the program. Despite a nationwide doubling of federal and state prison populations by the end of the decade, the DOJ deemed the program a broad success and used the findings to support further implementation of federal policing policies at the local level.
In July 1999, the Seattle City Council passed Ordinance 119527 authorizing the continuation of Weed and Seed funding for SPD in the East Precinct, including an additional $275,000 in funding. In 2000, Resolution 30146 authorized application for $175,000, and in 2001, Ordinance 120317 provided an additional $225,000 in DOJ funding to the Central District Weed and Seed Program.
Impacts of Weed and Seed
Decades of the War on Drugs and related policies including mandatory minimum sentences, three-strike laws, expansion of the death penalty, militarized policing, and massive prison construction projects resulted in displacement and gentrification of historically Black communities like the Central District. In Washington State, incarceration rates rose drastically, with Black prisoners overrepresented by almost six times, despite making up less than 10% of the total state population. Recent studies found that during this period, Black residents in Seattle were 2.8 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than their white counterparts – some of whom remain incarcerated to this day despite recreational cannabis use being legalized in 2012.
The Central District was 75% Black in the 1970s and remains only 15% Black today. While in 1970, prior to the War on Drugs, half of all Black families in Seattle owned homes, that rate has continued to fall, reaching a low of 28% in 2025. The Weed and Seed policy ultimately failed to make long-term positive changes in the lives of Central District residents, and mass incarceration and gentrification contributed to displacement in the historically Black Central District over the past fifty years.
In August 2021, the Seattle City Council passed Resolution 32015 to address the impacts of Seattle's "urban renewal" programs in displacing Black communities from the Central District, and supporting demands for affordable social housing to offset some of these historical harms. The legislation directly references the impacts of Weed and Seed and its incentive "explicitly to gentrify the Central District while fast-tracking the mass incarceration of young Black men." Today, legislation like this resolution, along with the work of the Black Home Initiative and the continued efforts of community organizers to reclaim and shape their neighborhoods, aim to mitigate the effects of Weed and Seed and other War on Drugs programs.
Resources
Legislative Timeline
- December 1992 - Ordinance 116508 relating to the Police Department and Department of Housing and Human Services authorizing execution of an agreement with the United States Department of Justice for the Weed and Seed neighborhood revitalization grant agreement
- December 1992 - Resolution 28654 relating to the acceptance of the United States Department of Justice Neighborhoods Revitalization Grant under the Weed and Seed Program, affirming local control and establishing conditions for implementation of the grant
- December 1992 - Ordinance 116477 authorizing a grant agreement with the State of Washington Department of Community Development for a Multi-jurisdictional Prosecution Task Force (1992)
- December 1992 - Ordinance 116506 relating to the Police Department, ratifying acquisition of real property as the result of a forfeiture proceeding and authorizing the sale thereof (1992)
- July 1999 - Ordinance 119527 relating to the Police Department; authorizing the execution of agreements for financial assistance for continuation of the Weed and Seed Program in the East Precinct
- April 2000 - Resolution 30146 authorizing the submission of a grant application for financial assistance under the Weed and Seed Program
- April 2001 - Ordinance 120317 relating to the Weed & Seed Program in Central Seattle
- April 2001 - Resolution 30308 authorizing the submission of a grant application to the United States Department of Justice, Executive Office for Weed and Seed (2001)
- August 2021 - Resolution 32015 regarding the impact of Seattle's Urban Renewal program in displacing Black community members from the Central Area (2021)
SMA Resources
- Weed and Seed Seattle Voices exhibit - features audio clips of testimony
- Beyond the Badge, Episode #34: Good Neighbors / Community Policing Academy, Weed and Seed / OPA (Item 6370)
- City of Seattle Weed and Seed Program / seed activity report, 1993 (Document 9132)
- Seattle Weed & Seed / report to the community, 2006 (Document 8726)
- Seattle's weed and seed program / final evaluation report, 1997 (Document 7198)
- National evaluation of Weed and Seed / Seattle case study / research report, 1999 (Document 6417)
- Proposal for continuation of Department of Justice Seattle weed & seed program / reclaiming America's neighborhoods, 1994 (Document 2761)
- Census 1990 Central District profile, 1993 (Document 14730)
- Weed and Seed Program, 1991-1996. Box 21, Folders 9-11 and Box 22, Folder 1. Mayor's Office Central Files, (Record Series 5200-07)
- Weed and Seed, 1992-1993. Box 2, Folder 27; Box 6, Folders 7-17; Box 20, Folders 5-6, and Box 47, Folder 2, Margaret Pageler Subject Files (Record Series 4667-02)
- Public Safety - Weed and Seed, 1992-1997. Box 43, Folder 1-3, Jane Noland Subject Files (Record Series 4663-02)
- Weed and Seed, 2000-2002. Box 21, Folders 7-8. Jim Compton Subject Files (Record Series 4620-02)
- Weed and Seed 1992. Box 20, Folders 3-5, Martha Choe Subject Files (Record Series 4617-02)
- Weed and Seed Proposal, 1992. Box 39, Folders 4-5. Sue Donaldson Subject Files (Record Series 4623-02)
- Neighborhoods: Weed and Seed Program. Box 53, Folder 11. Tina Podlodowski Subject Files (Record Series 4670-02)
- Seattle Weed and Seed, 2006. Box 21, Folde: 8, Jean Godden Subject Files (Record Series 4631-02)
- Seattle Weed and Seed, 2003. Box 122, Folder 32, Nick Licata Subject Files (Record Series 4650-02)
- Weed and Seed 1992. Box 8, Folder 3, Tom Weeks Subject Files (Record Series 4691-02)
- Weed and Seed Program, 1999-2000. Box 242, Folders 1-4, Central Staff Analysts' Working Files (Record Series 4603-01)
Other Resources
- Seattle's 'Weed And Seed' Money OK'd After All, 1992 (Seattle Times)
- Flyer for march against Weed and Seed, 1992 (Museum of History & Industry)
- University of Washington study showing racial disparities in marijuana arrests, 2018
- South Seattle Emerald opinion piece on Weed and Seed, 2019
- South Seattle Emerald article on Harriett Walden and Mothers for Police Accountability, 2021