Seattle lost 1,315 affordable apartments in 2006. We lost 1,274 in
2007. It’s probably not a coincidence that there were 3,854 condo
conversions at the same time—average price: $250,000 for a
one-bedroom.
So, it was nice to report just four days into this year’s
legislative session in Olympia that the state house passed a bill
guaranteeing fair compensation for renters who get displaced by
conversions and giving tenants a set amount of
time to move
out.
Bill sponsor Representative Maralyn Chase (D-32, Shoreline) upped
the compensation from $500 to the equivalent of three months’ rent, and
increased the time from three months’ notice to four months’. She also
had an amendment to give local governments the right to stop landlords
from converting units affordable to low-income tenants into condos.
Since 2005, 4,500 affordable units have been lost to condo conversions
in Seattle.
But I must say: I’m annoyed about having to report this. Why
is Shoreline’s Representative Chase playing Jack Bauer when
the condo attack is threatening Seattle? Sure, Seattle
senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36, Ballard) is sponsoring the state
senate version, but the meaty amendments are being shipped over from
Chase, and more important, it remains to be seen if
Kohl-Welles—like Chase—can usher it through.
In fact, Chase is sponsoring a parade of bills that seem like
no-brainers for Seattle’s 12-rep contingent in the house.
Why, here’s one: House Bill 2424 would ban climate-killing
plastic grocery bags and authorize a fine of up to $500 per day for
providing prohibited bags. This is the kind of common-sense legislation
that your Seattle reps—Sharon? Jamie?
Phyllis?—should be leading on. Good luck. Not one Seattle
rep—Jim? Eric? Helen?—has even signed on to Chase’s timely
bill against plastic bags. Nor have any Seattle
reps—Frank? Mary Lou? Sharon?—signed on to Chase’s attempt
to snuff out plastic water
bottles. And only one—thanks
Zach!—
has signed on to Chase’s bill to ban
bad-for-the-environment leaf blowers. Bob? Eileen?
Nor did anyone jump onboard when, last year, Chase submitted a
cap-and-trade bill to limit carbon emissions. The bill quietly died
last year. This year, the governor kicked off the session with a press
conference in Seattle announcing, yep, a cap-and-trade bill.
Seattle politicians stood with Governor Gregoire that day. It’s
troubling, though, that they don’t choose to stand with
Representative Chase. And more
important, that she seems to be
standing
in for them. 
I read recently that a bill has been proposed in Washington state which requires that plastic bags used in grocery stores be made out of PLA (a corn based plastic.) This proposed bill is based on misconceptions which have been spread by the PLA lobby, which sells plastics made out of corn. This lobby is funded by the Dow Chemical Company, Cargill Inc., and ADM. These corporate giants make non-food items out of corn. Making non-food items out of grain is what caused last year’s spike in grain prices. The part of oil, naphtha, that is made into plastic is not something that could be used for making anything else-it is not potential gasoline or diesel, for example. It was regarded as a waste product and burned off before we started making it into plastic.
There are a lot of problems with PLA – If we made all of the plastic disposable items used in the world every year out of PLA, it would take one hundred and fifty million tons of corn to make it. That would lead to mass starvation in the third world, as that represents at least 10% of the world’s grain supply. It also takes a huge amount of oil to grow, fertilize, ship, and process this corn, and as a practical matter, it is also not recyclable-In fact, the recyclers are trying to get PLA banned because it gets mistaken for PET, and ruins their PET batches. Restaurant owners and merchants find it annoying that PLA becomes gummy in water, gives water stored in it an odd taste, softens at soup temperatures, and has a short shelf life. PLA is weaker than conventional and biodegradable conventional plastic, and more expensive per pound, as well. Also, PLA can’t be composted at home-it takes the elevated temperatures of a commercial composter to compost PLA.
If PLA is placed into land fills, it gets buried so deeply that it is in a zone free of oxygen. Then anaerobic microorganisms digest it, releasing methane gas. PLA is consumed so quickly that the land fill is not capped before it creates methane, so all of that methane is released into the atmosphere, where it causes global warming. Some biodegradable plastics that are not corn based will also release methane if they are digested by anaerobic bacteria, but they do so so slowly that the land fill is capped before methane is released. When the land fills are capped, the methane is either burned off or it is used as a heat source for industrial uses, such as generating electricity.
In short, requiring grocery bags to be made out of PLA would be a counterproductive law which would enact a tax on the public for the benefit of socially irresponsible corporate giants. The alternative? Recyclable biodegradable plastics-Plastics made out of an otherwise useless industrial byproduct, naphtha, which have a harmless additive in them that makes them biodegrade. See http://biogreenproducts.biz for full information.
-Tim Dunn, Arlington WA