The Boeing whistleblower warns of a "risk of premature fatigue damage and structural failure" on 787 Dreamliners. Boeing denies the allegation. I really want a high-speed train network. Credit: Joe Raedle / GETTY

They’re not getting the message: In a recent poll, only 26% of Washington voters agreed that “building more units of housing in my community will help stabilize the price of housing where I live,” according to a Seattle Times analysis. As the Times mentions, in other surveys majorities of Washington voters embrace more density, and so the results from this poll may simply be catching voter cynicism about home prices ever coming within reach, which is understandable. Building new housing will only slow the rate of price increases, but that’s better than not building enough and then watching housing prices skyrocket, so it’s worth building more everywhere.

Two women accuse UW football player of rape: Tylin “Tybo” Rogers faces rape charges after he allegedly matched with women on Tinder late last year and sexually assaulted them, according to KING 5. Though the team suspended him in November of 2023, he was “allowed to return” in mid December and went on to play a bowl game and a national championship game. “Officials said there were multiple emails within the UW Athletic Department confirming Rogers should be taken off the team’s travel roster for the Pac-12 championship game, but there was no documentation of reasons for the move,” the outlet writes. 

Kinda fun: 

Gun sales down in Washington: After the state banned AR-15s, instituted a 10-day waiting period, and required training before purchasing death machines, gun sales this quarter “as measured by background checks were about half of what they were in January and February” of last year, the Seattle Times reports. At the national level, sales dropped “by only about 11% through the first three months of the year.” Good!

Related: The Washingtonians who lined up to buy guns before all those restrictions took effect are “more willing to kill to advance political objectives,” according to a new “mega-survey” of nearly 13,000 Americans, the Guardian reports. About 56% of those who report carrying a loaded gun every day or almost every day said “violence was justified in the pursuit of a range of specific political objectives.” When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time, etc. 

Seattle is about to waste so much money on this stupid fucking cop toy: And we’re very likely going to be surveilling Black and brown neighborhoods at disproportionally high rates. 

Cornish’s Kerry Hall up for sale: The big, white building with the terracotta shingles in North Capitol Hill where the likes of Reggie Watts, John Cage, and Jinx Monsoon developed their geniuses will be sold to the highest bidder. The arts college will invest the money “into Cornish’s existing facilities and operations,” reports the Puget Sound Business Journal. I hope it becomes the consulate for some cool country, just like the old Harvard Exit building nearby. 

New playground in Ballard opens on 4/20: “Called The Cove, the playground has nautical-themed play equipment, safety surfacing, seat walls, new trees, and utility updates,” reports My Ballard. Perhaps wisely, the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, complete with “performances and vendors,” only lasts until 3 pm. 

I just want an airplane that does not fall apart, but that standard may exceed Boeing’s capabilities, at least as far as its 787 and 777 planes are concerned. According to the Seattle Times, an engineer named Sam Salehpour will testify next week before a US Senate committee regarding “risk of premature fatigue damage and structural failure” on those jets. Boeing denies the allegations.

Give Mudede the Pulitzer already: 

You can still get an abortion in Arizona through May, but it’s looking dicey after that. On Tuesday, the state’s Republican supreme court upheld a law from 1864—before Arizona was even a state—banning “nearly all abortions,” reports the New York Times. According to the judges, the repeal of Roe v Wade unlocked enforcement of the “territorial-era” law, and subsequent abortion laws in the state do not supersede it. For now, the Arizona supremes paused enforcement while lower courts hear challenges to it and Democratic lawmakers work to delay implementation. 

Inflation ticked up a little: According to Wednesday morning’s numbers, inflation sits at 3.5%, which is up 0.3 points year-over-year and up 0.4 points from last month, the Washington Post reports. Analysis now expect the Fed to keep interest rates steady until later in the year. 

Those eclipse glasses don’t expire: You can hold onto them until 2044, drop them off at a Warby Parker store before the end of the month as way to route them to Astronomers Without Borders, or cut out the lenses and recycle the frame, according to the Washington Post. 

God is dead: Nobel prize-winner Peter Higgs, who described how the boson particle, aka the God particle, connects everything in the universe is dead. This line in the BBC’s obit got me: “He was a shy man who was uncomfortable with the attention his theory brought him. When the announcement was made, he wiped a tear from his eye, but told journalists: ‘It’s very nice to be right sometimes.'”

Gaza updates: On Tuesday, Israel bombed the Nuseirat refugee camp in the strip’s central area, killing 14, Al Jazeera reports. Despite Israel saying otherwise, the United Nations Relief Works Agency says, “There has been no significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza or improved access to the north.” And as Hamas takes a look at the most recent ceasefire proposal, the US plans to meet with Israeli officials “in a couple of weeks” to continue discussions on the upcoming invasion of Rafah. 

Throwback to the yeehaw moment: This song returned to me this week, and I honor that return here: 

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Rich Smith is The Stranger's former News Editor. He writes about politics, books, and performance. You can read his poems at www.richsmithpoetry.com

36 replies on “Slog AM: Gun Sales Down in WA, Another Boeing Whistleblower Emerges, Poll Shows the Message on More Housing Isn’t Working”

  1. Locally at least, seeing previous single family house lots divvied up into 4-6 townhouses for $1 million a piece with no parking probably hasn’t improved perception that more housing helps more than developers and leads to gentrification and displacement.

  2. Zoning policy isn’t a matter of messaging! It’s a matter of hearing out people’s lived experience and incorporating that. Of course people are sensitive to changes in their community and want to see that the bill of good they were sold, density = greater housing access, is delivered on. I still think the right tree to be barking up is the one that puts community scaled density, subdivision of SFH and more ADUs, within reach. Residents like this approach better and the local economic benefits are greater than handing over development to REITs.

  3. The problem with that polling on housing was that question was poorly written. From that Seattle Times story:

    ‘A survey last month from the Portland polling firm DHM Research asked 500 Washington voters which of two statements was closer to their opinion: “Building more units of housing in my community will help stabilize the price of housing where I live” or “The price of housing will continue to rise where I live regardless of how many units are built there.”’

    As Rich pointed out, the second statement is true, but the problem with the question is that both statements could be true. As I doubt survey respondents defined “stabilize” as “keep exactly the same for ever and ever and ever,” a person could have honestly answered yes to both.

  4. “In a recent poll, only 26% of Washington voters agreed that “building more units of housing in my community will help stabilize the price of housing where I live,” according to a Seattle Times analysis.”

    Why would anyone agree with that statement? If you look compare the percentage change in median home prices 2012-2022 (+173.8% or +161.9%, depending on source) with the percentage change in housing units (+13.7%) and the percentage change in population (+12.9%), you’ll see that there’s no meaningful correlation between building housing and housing prices.

  5. I haven’t been able to follow the AZ abortion ruling. I’m hoping someone else who has can answer one question. What was AZ doing before Roe v. Wade became the law of the land in 1973? I find it hard to believe that that 1864 territorial statute was truly in effect in the immediate pre-Roe times, but I just don’t know.

  6. “… an engineer

    named Sam Salehpour

    will testify next week before

    a US Senate committee regarding

    “risk of premature fatigue damage and

    structural failure” on those [Boeing] jets.”

    Boeing offered to Fly him there

    AT THEIR EXPENSE to

    Testify (Should the

    Jet actually Get

    There).

    [the

    Odds’re

    Not* so Good].

    omg:

    ‘The Seattle Times

    finally admits

    Chas Mudede

    was right

    about

    Boeing’s

    Down-

    fall.’

    I can actually hear tS’s

    Neolibs’ and Cons’

    heads Exploding

    from here. the

    Denial is so

    STRONG

    With this

    bunch of

    bananas.

    Well-Played

    SeaTimes!

    ‘Inflation ticked up a little:

    According to Wednesday

    morning’s numbers, in-

    flation sits at 3.5%’

    Filled up your gas

    tank recently?

    the Saudis

    OWN the Largest

    Oil Refinery in the USofA

    they also LOVE

    El trumpfster &’ll

    Do Anything to see

    To it he becomes our

    next ‘president’ even if it

    means $6.00/gallon gasoline

    meanwhile

    rabid Neolibs & Cons’ll

    be placing Biden ‘I did this!’

    stickers on all of our Nation’s gaspumps.

    these power-seizing Fawks’re

    gonna Steal our Government

    &/or kill us all trying

    *see also:

    the last Whistle

    Blower suddenly DIED

    the night before His testimony

  8. @1 There was a good piece I saw a while back (I can probably dig up the link if you want it) that looked at what happened to housing prices when they removed single family zoning in a few cities. In the one that went furthest (Minneapolis?), average housing prices more or less stabilized after the zoning changes. The author of the piece noted that the effect was positive when averaged over everyone in town, but that individuals were impacted more when the houses they’d been renting were torn down for more expensive places.

    “Good on average but crappy for some people” is really hard to write into a poll question.

    I don’t remember whether “stabilized” meant “stopped going up altogether” or “rate of increase dropped to approximately the rate of inflation.”

  9. @5, look up the story of Sherry Finkbein, aka “Miss Sherry” of the Phoenix franchise of the “Romper Room” kids’ show. She waged a very public campaign in June 1962 to get a court order allowing her to get an abortion. In the early stages of her pregnancy, she had taken some morning sickness medication that her husband had brought back from a school trip to Europe. She later found out that it contained thalidomide, and her docs told her that her kid would be unrecognizable if it even made it to full term. Despite having a slew of medical testimony that continuing the pregnancy was a danger to her physical and mental health, the Arizona courts refused to grant her petition. She wound up traveling to Sweden for an abortion. Pre-Roe, that was one of the few legal options available to American women, whether from Arizona or elsewhere.

  11. YeahMeToo @7, Toe Tag @9 @10, thanks. That Fronteras timeline YeahMeToo provided is perfect. Remarkable that the 1864 statute was upheld Jan. 3, 1973 and then 19 days later on Jan. 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade became the law of the land.

    In the absence of some other Arizona legislation waiting in the wings, I don’t know that the state Supreme Court had any choice but to revert back to the 1864 law. Again, I’m not following this closely, but it looks to me like it’s on the state legislature and the governor for letting things even come to this point by not having a new post-Roe law on the books. And it’s not like anyone needs to enforce the 1864 law.

  12. Building more housing might very well lead to price drops. It depends on how much more we build. Per NPR last night (Marketplace i think, no cite as I was driving when I heard this), sun belt cities that have built a shitload of new apartments have seen small decreases in rents. But we have to build houses faster than new people arrive.

  13. Petitioners have already been gathering signatures in AZ for a pro-choice initiative, which will almost certainly be on the ballot this fall.

    The effect of this bizarre legal ruling is a huge shot in the arm for the Gallego for Senate campaign, and for Biden in AZ. Now Lake is trying to spin that she is pro- choice (while also appealing to Trump voters) which is laughable.

  15. @13: That’s how U.S. Constitutional law works. The Supreme Court’s “Roe” decision blocked enforcement of state anti-choice laws, but did not remove those laws from the books. With the Back-Alley Butchery Brigade getting Roe overturned, any such laws remaining in the books can be enforced.

    That’s why Washington state’s voters codified Roe, via I-120 in 1991. We ensured Washington state would continue to have pro-choice law if Roe was overturned, even though Washington state’s pre-Roe law, R-20, was pro-choice; it just wasn’t as pro-choice as Roe/I-120.

  16. pat L @15, thanks. Now this whole mess is starting to make sense. In other words, it makes no sense that AZ is in this situation, but at least I understand why.

  17. @13 There may also have been sloppy writing on the other AZ law that limits abortions to 15 weeks (I think). If the post-Dobbs law didn’t specifically say that they were repealing the 1865 law, then the old one is still on the books and the state Supreme Court gets to rule on what law gets enforced. If AZ legislature repeals the 1865 law, they’ll then revert to the 15-week ban. It remains to be seen if they’ll do that, though. There may be enough anti-choice freaks in the R-controlled legislature that they may leave it as is. Of course, that nearly guarantees that the state goes for Biden and Gallego, so they might also see the light of reason.

  18. @22 Oh my heavens! Slang! Will they be dancing the Charleston next?! Pass the smelling salts!

    Skin color and gender absolutely have to do with who will lose rights. You might have noticed that the Republican Party takes aim at women, people of color, and anyone on the LGBTQ spectrum with particular glee.

  20. Rich and @8 boatgeek: If “building everywhere” is supposed to be the “answer” to solving the homelessness problem, poof goes any last shred of livability in Washington State. We can kiss our last remaining sustainable farmlands, forests, shorelines, and open spaces goodbye. In this poll, does it include the number of profiteering builders (does anyone actually think developers give a shit about providing affordable housing)?

    And if anyone thinks our freeways are a commuter’s nightmare NOW, just wait until everything else is razed to accommodate all the forecasted millions more to be flocking here in droves.

    @13 Garb Garblar for the WIN!!!!

  21. The irresponsible idiocy of pigheaded neofascist RepubliKKKan MEN and RWNJs deciding the fate of women’s health should be globally outlawed. Period. Or else women and girls everywhere (and especially those who are unfortunate to be in the red states of MAGA confusion) should be allowed to legally castrate their rabidly toxic males.

    ‘Nuff said.

  22. @24 boatgeek: You just further proved my point (@26). What are the gun laws like in Arizona?

    I’m willing to bet $20 that women and adolescent girls will be lining up at the gun shops since acting in self defense is all they’ve got, anymore. WTF is WRONG with cis white RepubliKKKan men and biblical fanatics??

  23. @27: Good idea, raindrop dear. Here’s hoping all female victims of rape and incest lure their rapists and equally clueless bible thumping RWNJs with shots of whiskey—before opening fire on their oppressive attackers.

    Think of all the worthless assholes eliminated. Such shitwipes deserve to be shot, drawn, and quartered like Christmas hams, and disposed of like the toxic waste they truly are.

    If not birth control we need prick control.

  24. @1 98102CH: You should see all the ugly shit replacing modest but nice single family homes where I live! It’s like there is no enforced building code. The newly elected mayor (whose campaign funds were mostly from out of state sources—hmmmmm) and city council must all be “growth is great” fanatics.

  26. “You [@22]

    might have noticed

    that the Republican Party

    takes aim at women, people

    of color, and anyone on the LGB-

    TQ spectrum with particular glee.”

    –@23

    they’ve

    Seldom

    Noticed it

    Before — you

    can Lead a horse to

    and all that…

    some just

    Like the

    pinish-

    ment.

  29. @25 Most of the upzoning stuff is about trying to keep people in the cities by densifying formerly single-family neighborhoods instead of razing farmland. I don’t know how much it will really affect homelessness, given that the best we can really hope for is stabilizing rents and not reducing them.

    @30 There’s a lot of ugly shit in our neighborhood too, but I’d rather see that than see my house’s value go up past $2M, or even more subdivisions out in North Bend. YMMV, of course.

  30. @34 kristofarian: So much RepubliKKKan-induced shit has been raining down like the fetid contents of a blown up outhouse lately that Griz has had no option but go “REEEEOOOOOOOOWWWR!!!” Enough is enough.

    Those of us who aren’t already mad as hell aren’t paying attention.

    @35 boatgeek: I can commiserate. Increasing density might keep more people in urban regions, but it will come with a cost. This is going to kill the unique quality and livability of what has been single family neighborhoods (what defines Fremont, Green Lake, Ballard, Interbay, Lake Union, Wallingford, Ravenna, Roosevelt, Magnolia, Wedgewood, Queen Anne, Phinney Ridge, Belltown, International District, University District, First Hill, Beacon Hill, Northgate, North Seattle, Capitol Hill, Seward Park, Sand Point, Columbia, Georgetown, etc., as Seattle communities).

    I wish I had viable win-win solutions to offer, but one thing I do know: Washington State is not well equipped for managing rapid growth. Our state’s power grid is not big enough to supply such a sharp increase in consumer demand, and data centers are as largely to blame as the incoming tidal wave of newcomers. All this “pack ’em in ‘cuz growth is great” building run amok will take its toll at a price a large number of us long timers can’t afford to pay. I predict what will happen is that our region’s homelessness problem will be exacerbated by a shitload of high rises, condos, and gated communities sitting empty while long departed profiteering developers chortle all the way to the bank.

    Have you seen all the luxury high rises going up downtown for as much as $2+ million a pop? They’re purposely designed so that excessively wealthy homebuyers, squeamish about being confronted by homeless people of any model or make will never again have to touch down on city streets.

  31. @36: My apologies to commenting Greenwood residents and anyone else I unintentionally left off my above list of Seattle neighborhoods.

  32. It is quite possible that a lot of people don’t understand basic economics. Supply and demand are fairly easy concepts for some to grasp, but quite a few people just look for anecdotal evidence. It is good to doubt. Doubting assumptions is the basis of science. But the science on this is clear as well. Supply and demand are extremely well researched concepts and the concepts have been confirmed many times over.

    But on the anecdotal side, people get things mixed up. They blame the umbrellas for the rain. Since housing production has been overregulated (especially in this country) and since we live in a fairly provincial part of the country it is pretty understandable that folks don’t have much experience with areas of the world that have affordable housing due to increased supply (like Germany and Japan).

    It is also possible that some are interpreting the question too literally (as Rich and others have suggested). If demand is really high, then a small increase in supply won’t help stabilize prices. If Taylor Swift announces that a dozen new seats are available for her show than prices won’t exactly “stabilize” as a result. The key followup question is: When you say “more”, how many more? 1, 5, a million? I’m pretty sure that if you added a million new homes in my community then prices wouldn’t “stabilize”, they would drop like a stone. They would be cheaper than shit. Landlords would be offering two months free rent (and a nice bottle of wine) for a one-year lease. It would be like 1970 around here again (only with more jobs).

    I would phrase the question differently: All other things being equal, will building more units of housing in my community reduce the price of housing where I live? Every economist and every game theorist and every person who has ever sold lemonade on the street will give you the same answer: Of course.

  33. “@16: Until we start addressing the living dead on our streets on Fentanyl etc who are too high to even want housing, homelessness will just get worse. “

    Wrong. The science is clear: Homelessness is a housing problem. The vast majority of homeless want housing. The number one reason for homelessness is the cost of housing. Other contributing factors (e. g. mental illness, drug addition) are all minor in comparison.

    To learn more I suggest going to this website: https://homelessnesshousingproblem.com/. You might want to read the book if you still doubt the science. Then, if you are still not sure, be prepared to argue against the science in the same way that people have argued against vaccines and global warming. Good luck.

  34. we’ve Plenty of houses.

    they just sit Vacant

    waiting for some

    Rich peeps to

    come stay in

    them once

    in a While:

    Despite how many homes are in the US, over 580,000 Americans are experiencing homelessness. There are currently 28 vacant homes for every one person experiencing homelessness in the U.S.

    While cities like New York City, Los Angeles and Seattle have some of the largest unhoused populations in the country, Detroit has the most vacant homes per unhoused person–116 empty homes per unhoused person.

    Syracuse, New York has the second-most vacant homes per unhoused person–110 vacant homes per unhoused person.

    from VACANT HOMES

    VS. HOMELESSNESS IN

    CITIES AROUND THE U.S.

    March 28, 2023

    –by United Way NCA

    https://unitedwaynca.org/blog/vacant-homes-vs-homelessness-by-city/

    maybe America’s

    merely lacking

    in Squatters

    or perhaps

    ‘Private Equity’

    has replaced the

    American Dream

    with a Winner take

    ALL kinda Capitalism

  35. @39 “The number one reason for homelessness is the cost of housing.”

    No, it’s not. Only 8% of survey respondents identified “could not afford rent increase” as a cause of their homelessness in the most recent comprehensive Point in Time Count report. Substance abuse was higher, at 11% (13% among veterans). And an astounding 54% of respondents (70% among veterans) reported a current psychiatric or emotional condition.*

    Our homelessness crisis is primarily a mental health and substance abuse problem. The vast majority of our homeless population requires supportive housing, mental health treatment, and extensive substance abuse support. Pretending that’s not the reality of our situation doesn’t help anyone.

    *https://kcrha.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Count-Us-In-2020-Final_7.29.2020.pdf

  36. @40 kristofarian: +1 For the WIN!!! B-I-N-G-O!! You NAILED it!

    Why should the neighborhoods in our region and part of the world be forced to densify when there are so many existing buildings, houses, condos, apartments, etc., sitting empty? Why let every profiteering lowlife developer chortle all the way to the bank after raping our land and slapping down ugly concrete anthills all over our last remaining open spaces? Once they’re gone they’re gone FOREVER.

    I-5, I-405, I-90, etc. are already parking lots, even with public transit and light rail.

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