♪♪
-It was just like, awesome, you know?
Like, that's a charity I can get behind.
-Many kids see this as pure exhilaration,
but it's also therapy for those with physical
and mental health struggles.
-This definitely sparked a change in
how I view the political system.
-As the election nears,
politicians are tapping young voters.
Hear from a Generation Z member who's casting his first vote.
-And I was just shocked.
-A sports bar in Ballard
serves up all the familiar favorites,
with a side of inclusivity.
These stories and more next on CityStream.
♪♪
Hi, I'm Enrique Cerna, and welcome to CityStream,
from the Fremont Cut.
This is a city that loves its bicycles.
Each day, hundreds of people travel the miles and miles
of bike lanes across the city,
or they cycle along the popular Burke-Gilman Trail.
But it's not just adults that are pedaling these days.
Many youngsters are also getting in on the action.
The Seattle-based non-profit,
Cycle Therapy, is helping them to get healthier,
not only physically, but mentally.
Brian Callanan has the story.
-Riders, get ready. It's time for the main event.
-The world of BMX racing moves fast.
And the high flying action is intense.
-Allen making a move. Dan, down an octave.
-But it wasn't long ago that most of these racers
at this bike track in SeaTac weren't fighting to the finish.
-These dudes are heading out.
-They were having trouble just getting started.
-Lift up. Just try to get on the pedal.
-Brent Azus wants to help every kid ride a bike
after an experience with his own children
four years ago that may sound familiar.
-When COVID happened March of 2020,
it was like timeout, you guys need to get outside.
-And the one.
-I can't let you just sit inside
and play video games all day.
You're already going to be in front of the screen for school.
I can't let you do that.
-Brent's kids got involved in BMX competitions
just months after they learned how to ride.
But as Brent was setting up a racing team
for his then-grade school age children,
he learned something along the way.
-Getting out on a bicycle helps with your mental state.
It's rare to ever see a kid on a bike not happy.
-And that's how Cycle Therapy,
a King County non-profit, got started.
Providing safety equipment, bikes,
and a mental health boost to nearly 800 kids
at King County Parks this year.
-Gaining confidence, getting social skills,
all up to just helping adjusting with any type of mental issues.
-Lauren Alvarez, Cycle Therapy's treasurer,
is well aware of what doctors call a national emergency
with children's mental health in the wake of the pandemic.
The Casey Foundation says more than 15% of our state's kids
have been diagnosed with anxiety or depression,
higher than the US average of just under 12%.
And that's just the start
of what Cycle Therapy is dealing with.
-We help out a lot of kids that are autistic,
help some that have Down syndrome, a lot of ADHD,
and just, like, social anxiety.
Once they get out on a bike, put the helmet on,
they're a whole new kid.
-You got it, wow!
-Doctors say exercise like cycling helps reduce cortisol,
a stress hormone.
But new riders like Lincoln
are pegging the thankfulness meter, too.
-I feel grateful. I love riding bikes now.
-And if you're worried about not being able to afford
to have your child involved with Cycle Therapy,
it's time to put the brakes on that kind of thinking.
There's financial assistance available for those who need it.
-Alright.
-Beyond its free Pedal to the Mental Park program,
Cycle Therapy provides funding for kids
who want to compete in local races
but don't have the money to do so.
-We saw the good in what has happened with our children,
and we want to provide that back to the communities.
Anyone in Washington State who needs our help,
we want to be able to provide that.
-And that includes riders up to age 50.
Parent Vincent Tanakas says his son pulled him into the fun.
-So I started racing as well,
but he's the fast one in the family.
-When Vincent learned what Cycle Therapy was all about,
he was more than ready to help them go the extra mile.
-When I come here racing and find out what they're doing,
it was just, like, awesome, you know?
Like, that's a charity I can get behind.
-For mom Natalya,
Cycle Therapy support for her four kids
has been immeasurable by creating a love of cycling
that could have lifelong benefits.
-It's a way
for them to make other friends outside of school too,
and kind of get into something that they can do long term.
For mental health,
I definitely think it's important
for kids to be able to,
you know, find something that they love doing.
-Remember how it felt when you learned
how to ride a bike for the first time?
-It feels like I have, like, it's freedom out to the world.
-Thanks to Cycle Therapy,
a lot more kids are getting on the path to that healthy,
happy feeling, and there's no turning back.
♪♪
-If you'd like to learn more about Cycle Therapy,
just go to their website, cycletherapyracing.org.
Next on CityStream, there's a reason
politicians are paying close attention to Generation Z.
Hear from one Gen Z member who's voting for the first time.
♪♪
-With Election Day just around the corner,
political parties are zeroing in on a key voting bloc,
Generation Z.
It includes those born between 1996 and the mid-2000s,
and makes up one-quarter of the US population.
I spoke to one Generation Z member
who plans to vote for the first time.
He's not only doing it for himself,
but for others who made it possible for him to do so.
-My name is Oscar Perez.
I am a second year at Pacific Lutheran University.
-Oscar Perez is 19 and the first in his family
to attend college.
He's majoring in education with a minor in Hispanic studies.
In November,
he will vote for the first time in a US presidential election.
He's excited and a bit nervous.
-When looking into it, it may be even a little overwhelming,
but I think once I've fully looked at the official ballot,
I can definitely make my decisions from there.
-Oscar didn't think much about voting until his senior year
at Thomas Jefferson High School in Federal Way.
That's when he got involved
with El Centro de la Raza's Hope for Youth program
that works with the school's heritage Spanish classes
and its students.
-The goal is for them through our program
to feel more supported in the school environment
for this election
and just with everything happening politically
is how giving them the tools to talk
and research topics that they're interested in.
-For Oscar,
Hope for Youth helped him to understand what it meant
to become civically engaged,
as well as the importance of voting.
-This definitely sparked a change in
how I view the political system as well as my ways
that I can be involved within it.
You know, that was one of the steps that I took
that I didn't really know was going to be a step,
but definitely helped out how I can make these changes
that I want to be seen.
-Oscar Perez is one of some 41 million Generation Z members,
ages 18 to 27, eligible to vote in the 2024 election.
About 45% are young people of color.
-Having a high youth turnout will make a huge difference.
And I'm not saying they're monolithic.
I mean, as you know, 40% of Latinos want to vote one way
and we're very divided as well. But turnout is going to be key.
So if we can get the youth to turn out,
I think that will make a difference in this election.
-So next generation, let's join this fight together.
-In August, El Centro de la Raza teamed
with the Seattle Office for Civil Rights for Ignite
the Change, a voter empowerment and registration event.
-El Centro de la Raza, thank you for kicking this fight off.
It's a fight of what I call indignation of apathy,
a fight for love for our community.
-The goal was to rally the Latino community,
and especially young people,
to get engaged and to help turn out the vote
for the 2024 election.
-I believe millennials had a 29% turnout last year.
If you divide it by race,
only one in five Latinos voted last year
and we saw a similarly low turnout in the Black population.
-Most immigrant communities have a low turnout
for voting in general.
For some folks,
it's a language barrier so having language access is
really important.
And I think another one is just not having representation
of folks talking about issues that relate to them in the way
that it impacts their identities.
-You can have your voice heard.
-It's so important that we build a democracy
and a city that prioritizes and values the young people's voice.
-I did vote.
-I did vote, yes.
-Uh-huh, this is my first election.
-How often are they able to actually have access
to political information and to candidates
and to people organizing in our communities?
This new voter advocacy and voter
engagement is so critical and important.
-The beloved community involves everything, right?
It involves loving your neighbor, helping people out.
It involves that civic responsibility as well to go out
and vote, and to make sure that you are coming out
and getting resources for the community.
And a big way to do that is by voting.
-As Oscar Perez prepares to vote in the November election,
he says he's not just voting for himself,
but also for his father, who owns a Seattle restaurant,
and who has spent years tied up in the immigration system
in his quest to become a US citizen,
as well as others he knows who wish they
too had the right to vote.
-There's many things that I wish would be different,
and definitely one of the steps I'll be taking is voting.
[ Speaking Spanish ]
-As the political parties tap into Gen Z,
they're also focusing on the huge number
of eligible voters that don't vote.
Each presidential election year,
that group of non-voters numbers in the tens of millions.
We tapped the CityStream archive to look back
at a group of Seattle volunteers
who worked hard to get out the vote across America.
Mimi Gan has more on the mission of common power.
-Come on, come on!
-Meet Corey Prince of Racine, Wisconsin.
-All right, all right, all right!
Y'all want to follow us down there?
Bob, just follow us down there!
Just follow us!
Right here to City Hall!
To vote!
To the vote we go!
I'm excited!
-In 2018, Corey spent his days driving people to the polls.
-The main reason that I'm doing this is to try to educate
and empower the people through their right to vote,
that people of color have fought and died
and lost their lives for.
And so we want to honor their legacy
and don't trample on the sacrifice
that they made for people like myself and for my community.
-There's something more that's driving Corey, a former felon,
to get out the vote.
-Racine, Wisconsin has been listed as the fourth-worst city
for African-Americans in the country by USA Today.
The median income is for every dollar
that a white person makes, African-Americans make 60 cents.
Southeastern Wisconsin also leads
the United States of America
in the highest incarceration rate for African-American males.
So, like, all of those things are so important.
We want them, too.
No, not no protest!
[ Laughter ]
We've got to vote for justice.
If you go around and you ask a lot of African-Americans
here in the city, they don't seem to feel that way.
And the reason is complacency.
They think that they're okay where they're at.
And I'm not.
We're bringing the folks here to the polls, live and direct.
-Okay, where are we headed?
I'm going to try to get you fired up about voting.
-Fighting alongside Corey are volunteers from Seattle,
part of a civic action group called Common Power.
-Do you know you can vote today?
You voted already, huh? Good, good.
Way to go, man.
It's important to knock on these doors
and tell these folks who are poor,
who are lower middle class, that their vote matters.
-University of Washington
Communications Professor David Domke
and former Starbucks manager Charles Douglas
lead this team and hundreds of volunteers.
-It's organic, it's great,
it's bigger than I ever would have imagined.
-Domke encourages young people of color to teach
and lead the mostly older volunteers.
-He knows that his position as a white educated professor,
department chair is extremely powerful
and for him to be aware that he needs to make sure
that young Black and brown leaders are put in positions
to succeed for me is invaluable.
So, I'm rocking with David 'til the wheels fall off, yeah.
-This is my first time being in Iowa
as part of this experience.
-Oh, no kidding?
David and Charles
also lead field trips to see democracy in action.
-Running for office is an act of hope,
and so is caucusing, volunteering,
or being part of this process.
-At the Iowa caucuses earlier this year,
Common Power volunteers and donors got up close
and personal to the vast field of presidential candidates.
-We've got a lot more driving, a lot more walking to do.
It's been exciting.
We did a lot of knocking on doors today.
-Go team! Hi, are you Lucinda?
-We're knocking on doors and making sure people vote.
-We're going this way, right? -It's been great.
My first time canvassing and I love it.
-When Common Power sends volunteers to another state,
it partners with a local organization
to get out the vote.
-I met some people
that literally flew across the country
to help us deal with our problems
and our issues here in our city.
And to me, that was just so encouraging that,
you know, it actually compelled me to act more, you know.
-For Corey and Common Power,
the right to vote and fighting voter suppression
have never been more important.
-Here in the state of Wisconsin,
when you're on probation or parole for a felony conviction,
you do lose your right to vote.
And so what happens is, actually, truthfully,
what happens is the mentality to even vote dies, right?
Because you're not telling other people to vote
because you can't vote.
For me personally, it's a blessing that, you know,
I can say I'm no longer on parole
and I have the right to vote and regained that right.
-Every vote counts. -Engaging voters.
-Go team! -Go team!
-Building communities, and growing young leaders.
-Who here lives in King County?
-For Common Power volunteers,
the experience has been empowering and rewarding.
-I've really stepped it up to that next level
of active engagement, which means walking streets,
knocking doors, getting on a plane,
meeting with like-minded people who want to do the same thing.
And this is a whole level more satisfying
and I think is making a bigger impact.
-It's touched my soul.
-Absolutely I would do it again.
-I appreciate everybody for making the commitment.
The vote is so important.
-Amen.
-There's nothing that we can change by being silent.
That's real talk.
-Because the most common power we should all have
is the power of our vote.
-We're going to knock on as many doors as possible,
and we're going to do it until we can't walk anymore
because there's a lot at stake.
The country's at stake.
-Was this your first time?
-Yeah. -Congratulations.
Hey, that's what I'm talking about.
Rock that sticker.
Take the picture with me,
#I voted, and tag me in it.
Rock that vote.
-You can register to vote through Election Day,
November 5th,
but you must do it in person
at the King County Elections Office in Renton,
or at one of the seven vote centers around King County.
To learn more, go to kingcounty.gov/elections.
Next, we'll visit a bar that prioritizes women's sports.
That story as CityStream continues.
♪♪
-Welcome back to CityStream.
A sports bar in Ballard called Rough & Tumble
is Seattle's first and only women's sports bar,
creating a space that prioritizes inclusivity and fun.
It showcases Seattle's women's sports teams,
like the Reign FC, the Storm, and more.
Rough & Tumble's owner, Jen Barnes,
is changing the game and making a place
where all are welcome and represented.
Drew Highlands has our story.
-The sort of lightbulb moment,
as I call it, happened in the fall of 2021.
The Reign, which is Seattle's NWSL team,
they were in the semifinals.
I was talking to my partner.
I'm like, Let's go to a real soccer bar
and watch the game, you know, and have some cold beers.
And he was like,
Well, you should probably call and see if they're playing it.
I did. I started calling around. And the first one said, Who?
And the second one said, No,
we're not going to play that game.
And the third one essentially was like,
Well, we have it scheduled, but it'll come on
after the football game is over on that screen.
And I was just shocked. We were in 2021.
We had won some of the best players in the world
on our team and none of our local soccer bars
were even playing this game.
-Huerta crossing Rapinoe!
Megan Rapinoe's done it now!
And put the Reign ahead!
-And I was just kind of raving about it.
And my partner was like, Why don't you do something?
Why don't you change it?
Why don't you change the game?
Open a place and play women's sports.
I was like, Oh my god, that's the coolest idea ever.
And, you know, it was one of those moments
where you know you've hit on something that is so needed,
that it is so right.
And I just couldn't let it go. And in February,
just a few months later, this lovely place came to be.
-To have a place like Rough & Tumble here in Seattle,
it's like nothing I've ever experienced.
Where they just, you know, they prioritize women,
and queer women at that. It's very empowering, very,
you know, inspiring for younger kids
that want to play sports and look up to,
you know, women who are athletes.
And it's like, it's very motivating.
Just to have that here is just incredible.
-I think Seattle is one of the cities
that has one of the better communities,
that is certainly the most welcoming
and feeding of the queer community.
And I think that Rough & Tumble
certainly is just innately part of that.
-You know, if you would have asked me,
Hey, do you like sports bars?
My immediate answer is absolutely not.
No way, that doesn't sound like my kind of vibe.
But when it's women's sports and there's a bunch of female and,
like, women-identifying folks there,
it just feels like a really positive, fun experience.
-Yeah, after this I'm kind of like
maybe I should follow the WNBA,
maybe we should go to a basketball game or something.
-It is a very diverse crowd.
It's, you know, you'll have newborns in strollers.
You'll have grandmothers.
You'll have, you know, pre-Title IX women who come in crying
because they cannot have ever imagined
that a place like this would exist when they were growing up.
This is a really cool environment,
and it is just a microcosm of what women's
sports fans already are.
-I think it's no secret
that women's sports are taking over the whole world.
I think the interest has always been there for women's sports,
but now we just have the perfect place, dare I say,
to go and watch it together with our friends, with our family.
I remember growing up,
who I had to watch was the US Women's National Team,
and that was really all, and it was hard to find them on TV.
And they were my heroes, but I barely got to see them.
And I just think it's so important
for little girls to relate to somebody and be like,
This is what I want to do.
-One of the things
that I knew I was really looking forward to doing
was having more of an impact on encouraging
young women athletes,
especially in non-binary and girl-identifying kids,
to get into sports, to start playing sports.
So one of the things that I'm incredibly proud of
is helping bring the USLW team to Ballard.
It's a semi-pro level team
and it's a very important part of the pyramid,
the development pyramid in soccer.
The more opportunities we can open up
for athletes to be able to play,
it gives more opportunities for kids to consider,
wow, you know,
my playing career isn't over at the end of high school,
or my playing career isn't over at the end of college.
-When I was younger,
I didn't have a professional sports league to look for.
You could have a dream team,
but if they don't need your position,
then they're not going to look at you.
So it's having all these different opportunities
and different places.
And I just think that's so beautiful.
-It's making it normal.
It's making it, like, okay
for a little girl to be like,
Okay, if I work really hard, this is going to be my job.
-I just have countless stories of, like,
little girls, three, four, seven, eight,
looking up at screens and being mesmerized because
they've never really seen women players on TV screens.
And one of my favorite stories
is these two little girls with their mom
were looking up at the screen and watching a WNBA game.
And one of them looked over at their mom
and said, Mom,
I didn't know girls could be basketball players.
Can I be that when I grow up?
I mean, that's,
seeing oneself represented on a screen shifted something.
It gave her the idea that there was an opportunity,
it gave her the potential, it gave her something
to consider that had not been in her brain before.
And if that is all we do, we've done everything right.
I hope it's a lot more than that.
-If you'd like to visit Rough & Tumble
in Ballard to watch your favorite women's team,
or learn more about the new USLW League women's soccer team,
go to roughandtumblepub.com.
We'll be right back.
♪♪
-Well, that's all for this episode of CityStream,
from the Fremont neighborhood in the Fremont Cut.
And if you'd like to see more
of our excellent Seattle Channel programming,
just go to seattlechannel.org and click on Feature Shows.
I'm Enrique Cerna. Thanks for joining us.
♪♪