@wa_innovation These greedy fat cats are so
adamantly against paying people a living wage, but will throw all the money in the world to buy every scrap of the ad space on the planet to peddle false narratives 🤷🏽♀️
@Ron_Hebron@Rightanglenews@libsoftiktok@laceybeaty The city swept the encampment to the closed by Covid school & the school board did not want further harm to impact the public school kids there, so they paid for outreach to house ppl from the encampment instead of chasing them out to set up down the block.
@seattlebrief How were these “unexpected”? The residency laws were clear before they ran for the seats. The only “unexpected” pieces of this is how a director remained unaware of the legal requirement & waited so long to resign after the illegality was highlighted.
Michele Sarju is a gift. Every one of her words here resonates w/me & it’s been heartbreaking for me & many others in the Black community to watch her be scapegoated & vilified for prioritizing our children by following the rules & expecting the same of her colleagues.
Tonight at the Seattle School Board meeting, Director Michele Sarju spoke about the “racist dog whistle choir” she has had to contend with since @viviansong’s resignation. https://t.co/0KHeETzj9e
@mcsawtelle @_holyspokes They can beef all they want, as long as they don’t pretend their actions are not a primary factor causing homelessness and they take ownership for the role in the degradation of society as a whole.
Social Housing is a new real estate investment model where public funds take the place of private equity. A new excess payroll tax in Seattle has been proposed to support it. Here is why I support it:
1. Fully 50pct of Seattle earns between $50k per year and $200k, and we don’t have good options to support housing for them. Below $50k people are eligible for deed restricted affordable housing. Above $200k they can afford the $5000 a month a quality home costs
2. The private sector can’t serve this market well with large rental homes. The best we can do is either small apartments or for-sale townhomes. This is the harsh reality of what happens when real estate capital competes with venture capital, private equity, stock market derivates etc
3. Social Housing’s public equity has a far lower cost and so can accept a lower return. It can mandate larger units, great sustainability, and better rental policies. It will allow the construction of high quality family homes.
4. Social housing works fully within the system of private real estate development we have built. It doesn’t require the brain damage of LIHTC or govt soft debt. It’s just a different, more friendly LP for developers
5. It doesn’t compete with affordable housing. It supports the affordable system by providing good middle income housing into which people can move once they can afford it. It doesn’t take a penny from the very limited Levy, Jump Start, MHA funds
6. The payroll tax as proposed is good policy: it’s a specific tax for a specific purpose. The corporation who are lucky enough to have $1m payrolls and make this investment will be able to directly see the value of their investments with full transparency and all the traditional real estate investment metrics (cash flow, yield, IRR etc)
7. And this is an investment! The value of the social housing assets owned by the SSHD will grow over time with inflation and real estate appreciation. They will generate cash flow that can be reinvested back into more housing. Over time, it will transform the city.
I love Seattle and share a vision of it as being the beat city in the world in which to raise a family. Economic opportunity, a beautiful environment, world class culture and affordable high quality housing are all within our grasp!
I want to highlight an incredibly important bill from my colleague, @SenatorTrudeau, which passed the Senate earlier this week.
#SB6009 would prohibit the inhumane practice of hog tying by law enforcement — a necessary step toward justice and healing for our communities.
@MinusPeach Geeze, how boring. You didn’t even get challenged to any dance off battles?
I too feel safe walking around downtown after dark. I am consistently mystified when this platform shows me how often I must’ve just missed the open air drug market hours & constant crime sprees 🤷🏽♀️
@UrbanistOrg No shade, but isn’t she “outside of the law” by continuing to not resign her current School board seat? Seems like the focus should lean towards addressing growing concerns regarding impacts this will have on school kids in the district she can’t currently (legally) represent?
@EddieLin19 I’m definitely voting for Liza Rankin and Evan Briggs because they’re the best candidates in the race. Though I concede the Stranger was not entirely fair to Gitenstein in their initial endorsement piece, they were spot on w/Briggs as the better candidate for Seattle Schools.
@Safeway I got the bread I ordered from your delivery service app on the 18th, it expired on the 17th, which explains all the mold. This is the second item I received from you all in a week that was expired and molding. Attempting to resolve this via your chat feature was no help
@cruickshank It’s like you are pissed
at the firefighter for not putting out the fire fast enough, but inviting the arsonist out for a cocktail. I honestly do not understand.
@cruickshank The “pro-privatization message”? I am sorry sir, but you need to lay re-segregation at the feet of the passengers who booked tickets on the white flight express —not the people saying ‘equality means underserved kids should have those same educational options’.