Comments

1
Who is John okomoto and how did he get invited?!
2
He is the toady Ed Murray implanted onto the City Council after CM Sally Clark slithered off to shill for the U District Tech Hub, which is meant to be the next South Lake Union.

3
So what is the next step? Oly says "we will take it under advisement" and never does anything?

4
The Peoples Republic of Seattle hates business and property owners? They think basic rights only apply to those who don't own property?

I'm shocked!
5
@4: This from the guy who thinks that basic rights (and yes, the right to housing is a very basic one) only apply to those who are heterosexual.
6
Props to Burgess. Once again he has shown that the most effective council member is named "Sawant".
7
@5

"Right to housing"? That one slipped by in me in the text of the Constitution, boy.

Pay the mortgage or the rent and you have some right to housing. Otherwise you don't.
8
@7: You also have the right to bear arms, but nobody's interpreted that as meaning that everyone is owed a gun free of charge. Something can be a right while still being something you have to pay for yourself. Seriously, that's probably the stupidest way you could have responded to what I said.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the three greatest presidents in our nation's history, called for a formalized right to housing in his Second Bill of Rights speech. (Go ahead and attack FDR; it'll remind everyone how unAmerican you really are.) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the USA approved in 1948, guarantees a right to housing and a reasonable standard of living. And the Supreme Court has many times (and quite recently) upheld laws banning discrimination in matters of housing as justified by the 5th and 14th Amendments. Don't feel bad about not knowing this; there's a LOT of stuff that slips past you.
9
All right, boy. When you grow up and live on your own try this-

Go to an apartment manager and assert your "right to housing." Better, rent a place. Then stop paying rent and see how far your "right to housing" goes.

As for the treasonous piece of shit FDR I hope he's roasting in hell for what his treason did to my country.
10
And to Seattle dwelling delayed adolescents generally-

Owning property DOES NOT mean I signed some binding agreement to alleviate housing shortages in your community. Nor did I become your honorary uncle (Thank God!) who just wants to make sure you can live where you wish. I didn't buy it as a charity project. I didn't buy it to lose money as a lark.

Know what else? If I worked hard and took a risk in investing, the commie nuts on the city council are making no offer to share my losses out among the overgrown children infesting Seattle. So why the hell do they think those parasites should have any rights to my profits?
11
It's incredible to me how many people believe price gouging is fine because capitalism. You're all just like the hedge fund manager who just raised the price of a drug from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill simply because he can (f*ck all the people who will die because they can't pay for it). So many in this country suffer under the delusion that economic growth only goes one way (up) and anyone not able to pay the bills deserves what they get. It's no wonder our country is run by a bunch of liars and thieves who take the money and run and allow the wealthy and corporations to do whatever they want (move jobs, not pay taxes, pollute and destroy the environment). Seattle is the most provincial, racist, and anti-poor "progressive" city in this country. I wonder if any of that will change if and when it ends up like Detroit. Oh I know you all think that will never happen. Just wait. Seattle deserves what it gets when it happens. And everyone who believes what is happening is fine because capitalism deserves the worst of it - because of course if and when it's happening to THEM, then it will matter, then someone will need to do something about it. You are all delusional fools. Seattle is not NYC or San Francisco and it won't last.
12
It's happened more than once before and it will happen again.

http://old.seattletimes.com/special/cent…
14
@9: Here's what I said about how the right to housing relates to the requirement to pay for housing:
"You also have the right to bear arms, but nobody's interpreted that as meaning that everyone is owed a gun free of charge. Something can be a right while still being something you have to pay for yourself. Seriously, that's probably the stupidest way you could have responded to what I said."
And now you're doubling down on the stupidity. How have you managed to stay alive this long?

@10: "If I worked hard and took a risk in investing, the commie nuts on the city council are making no offer to share my losses out among the overgrown children infesting Seattle. So why the hell do they think those parasites should have any rights to my profits?"
If you become unable to support yourself, you can avail yourself of the social safety net, including unemployment benefits, soup kitchens, free career advising, and other programs funded by tax dollars. Also, your business benefits from city infrastructure and peacekeeping.
You're simply paying your dues, but you scream and holler like you're being robbed.
15
@14

Nah. The stupidest thing would be comparing an explicit constitutional right like the right to bear arms with one you really really wished existed like your 'right' to be housed.

As to the rest of the lefty nonsense-

Yes. I pay taxes and enjoy the things (sometimes) that they purchase. As do tenants, directly or indirectly. As do the half or so of citizens who get more from government than they pay in. So the fact that I make good financial choices using shared unfrastructure means I should owe more for that infrastructure? Only in the weird world inhabited by lefty loonies.

Your social safety net is irrelevamt, by the way. That has to do (occasionally) with making bad luck not a life ruining thing. More often it has to do with democrats buying votes with taxpayer money. The point here, tyke, is that Seattle wants to socialize my profits, but my losses are my problem. It really wasn't that hard to follow.
16
@15 "Seattle wants to socialize my profits, but my losses are my problem." That's how you see it? Right now we live in a society that claims profits are the domain of the CEOs (not the workers) and that losses should be socialized (bank and car manufacturing taxpayer bailouts anyone?). Interesting how easy it is to complain about "fairness" when you're on the OTHER side of it. Such BS.
17
@15: "Nah. The stupidest thing would be comparing an explicit constitutional right like the right to bear arms with one you really really wished existed like your 'right' to be housed."
What part of
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
do you not understand?

The United States of America has affirmed that access to housing is a right. Amendment IX to the Constitution of the United States explicitly says that just because it's not explicitly laid out in the Constitution doesn't mean it's not a right or that it's some sort of lesser right. For a document you claim to be all for upholding, you seem to misquote (Amendment II) and even outright deny (Amendment XIV) parts of it a lot.

And most importantly, you are standing up on a soapbox giving discourse about basic rights as it comes to renting/tenancy, while you yourself unabashedly violate the civil rights of others in the same sphere. It's the same old hypocrisy you always exhibit, of whining about imaginary violations of your rights (because taxation is theft, according to you) while concretely violating others' rights (because you don't have to follow any laws you don't like). I'm so sick of the same old insincere song and dance I could puke.
18
The private purchase loophole seems like a pretty big one. If the city is offering incentives for developers to provide affordable housing, why don't they make those benefits contingent on a contractual obligation to preserve those units through any sales contract?
19
Homes Not Jails squats long-empty houses, refurbishes them to code, then claims ownership: feel free to replicate that method in western Washington, please?!

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