We are building a luxury city.
We are building a luxury city. vewfinder/shutterstock.com

Buildings Are Going Up but Prices Are Not Coming Down: Puget Sound Business Journal reports: "Apartment rents are climbing in the greater Seattle area despite a construction boom." Is the solution to build more? Yes, but build more, if not exclusively, for working-class people. Seattle was successful at raising the minimum wage. Now it needs to be successful at building apartments that are not just affordable but consistent with the economic realities and limitations of those who earn low wages. We can guess that most of the 11,000 new apartment units that opened this year are closed to a person who has $800 (a third of a monthly income of $2400—what you get if you work full-time and earn around $15 an hour) to spend on rent. What this means is we need places that are not investments. Places that are just places to live.

Seattle No Longer a Bargain For the Deep Pockets of the Bay Area: Seattle Times reports that the number of Bay Area residents searching for homes in Seattle's irrationally exuberant real estate market has fallen by 45 percent this year. The word on the street is that our market no longer has deals (or steals) and the smart money of the Bay Area is now looking in other directions to escape the hard land of million-dollar homes.

Our Whole State Is Becoming Too Damn Expensive: Housing prices are rising sharply not only in Seattle but all over Washington, even Spokane. Wenatchee, however, refuses to be a part of this party.

45 Percent Of Public Schools In Portland Got Too Much Lead in Water: More and more of the country is becoming Flint, Michigan. Indeed, high levels of lead were also found in Kelso schools. One record we can put in the box for the next yard sale is "The Greatest Love of All." No longer feeling that opening line. We are on our way to becoming the United States of Flint.

Yakima Refuses to Lift Ban on Pit Bulls: Those who are opposed to the ban, who desperately want to own one of these monsters, have this to say: "punish the deed, not the breed."

US House of Representatives Adjourned Until July 5: A historic sit-in that's led by John Lewis, and has involved, among many other lawmakers, six of Washington's Democratic house members and its two senators, forced the GOP to end the legislative session. There was nothing else they could do. Republicans "left in the dark of night." Is this the big moment we have been waiting for? The moment that breaks the almost iron grip the NRA has on American politics? Keep in mind that this is not about banning guns but subjecting them to regulations and checks that most US voters consider to be practical.

The One True Thing About the Brexit Vote Is This: There is no real left-wing option. Both staying and leaving are right-wing options:


ISIS Loses Fallujah: There is still fighting in the city, there are still pockets of resistance, but for the most part, Fallujahhas returned to the state. Government forces are now heading up to Mosul.

Ain't that AmeriKKKa:



And What If Only White Men Voted in the Last Presidential Election:


One more for the road:


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