News Jul 6, 2022 at 10:51 am

The City Council Sustains Mayor’s Pro-Landlord Veto

CM Mosqueda missed this week's meeting, and so she missed CM Pedersen practically begging her to "catch up" with other progressive cities SEATTLE CHANNEL SCREENSHOT

Comments

1

He said landlords could use the data the bill required them to collect to “validate affordable benefits of smaller mom and pop landlords.”

What the fuck does that mean? As a small landlord and, yes, HK, someone who does provide housing, I'd like to know wherein the benefit lies.

As far as I can tell, it's good for Herrell. Waste of money that could be used to say, pay for food and shelter.

2

by the way, where's my landlord lobby peeps? Who is out there twisting their moustaches and tying poor (somehow) still unemployed renters to the tracks? I personally haven't raised my perfectly reasonable rents in three years.

3

price "gouging" just means selling something for the market rate, which is exactly what you want. if you want to help people afford the necessities of life, give them money, not subsidies. subsidies create deadweight loss (e.g. you'd rather have 100 dollars cash than a 100 dollar gift certificate to some random store you might not even like). and of course, to create elasticity of supply, reduce impediments, eliminate zoning, etc.

also, get the money from taxes on all of society. it makes no sense to specifically tax one's landlord to fund the benefit to their tenant. for instance, food stamps are like money you can spend at a grocery store. we don't force the grocery stores to fund them by dictating that they sell discounted groceries.

price controls are deeply irrational.
https://medium.com/effective-economics/the-problem-with-price-controls-14b4ee116bf7

4

This article is hard to follow. Who's for what? The veto is over which bill? Is there a second bill?

Or I'm sorry, maybe it's just me.

5

@4 It's not just you.

7

@6: "landlords can set rent whereever they see fit"

For now. This data will provide ammunition for an eventual rent control framework. Once the state prohibition against it is rescinded (if ever).

8

"Pedersen discredited those budget concerns. While some speculated that the data collection could cost the City up to $5 million, the bill saved money by using a research university and adding information to an existing registry. He said it could cost as little as $125,000 a year for three years."

Pedersen really needs to explain where he's coming up with those figures. The fiscal note states:

"OPCD discussions with the University of Washington estimated costs for a contract for this project to be a minimum of $2 million, including $600,000 for database setup, $430,000 a year for staffing ($1.29 million over three years), workspace rental, and overhead." http://seattle.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=10934422&GUID=62FE2507-5DF1-45D8-B74F-679BD75AA330

9

Oh yeah. Dear fucking God. I haven't raised rents in four years. I love my tenants to death and would do anything (almost) to keep them. I get that that's not the experience of some or many but a little balance maybe? Oh wait! It's the fucking Stranger! Love that head tilt to the left Heidi! How appropriate!

10

@8: CM Pedersen's claim should have immediately set about four alarms' worth of b.s. detectors blaring. There's simply no way a city-wide monitoring program will cost a mere $125k annually, and the main purpose of having independent journalism covering government is to call government officials on such false and foolish claims.

@4, @5: The purpose of this article is first, to justify CM Pedersen's unnecessary bill, and second (as the headline gives away) amplify the Divine Wisdom of Dear Great Maximum Leader Sawant. As the first is unjustifiable and the second does not exist, the article does not have the luxury of constructing a reality-based narrative. (Points for quoting a hardcore ideologue, of all people, using the term "data-driven." Is that how she Saved the Showbox?)

11

More government meddling where it ought not to be.... besides the size and price of the unit, does the data collected include the carpet color, washer dryer, dishwasher .... parking, heating, view or no view, bus access, nearby parks... schools, restaurants and other facilities nearby.... it is waterfront. Honestly... what a steaming pile of baloney.

Why not spend the money on city planning and reducing unnecessary development costs and fees for those who build housing.

Seattle... collecting data, study the situation...ponder and then ultimately do nothing useful.


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