Increase the population suddenly without an increase in available housing? Tear down anything that costs under $350k and replace it with a $900k megahouse?
Gee, what did you think was going to happen?
LAND, n. A part of the earth's surface, considered as property.
The theory that land is property subject to private ownership and control is the foundation of modern society, and is eminently worthy of the superstructure. Carried to its logical conclusion, it means that some have the right to prevent others from living; for the right to own implies the right exclusively to occupy; and in fact laws of trespass are enacted wherever property in land is recognized. It follows that if the whole area of terra firma is owned by A, B and C, there will be no place for D, E, F and G to be born, or, born as trespassers, to exist.
The much more important question is WHEN WILL WE GET DEL TACO IN SEATTLE? By the way, when all you non-native Pacific Northwesterners started moving up here on the 1970's, Reedies like me knew it was over. Now I lease out my old Victorian for close to $12,000 a month and live on Vashon.
@7 come on. The light rail may drive up rent. It may come in years late and 80% over budget. It may not do a damned thing to reduce congestion. But . . . I forgot what point I was going to make.
That's a rather blatant example of causal reductionism. Please point to any actual evidence that raising the minimum wage has led directly to increase in rents.
Well that's fucking depressing, to put it lightly. I live very close to where I work, but I pay a high rent for only a single bedroom in a 3BR condo. I am willing to do this because I consider the alternative - spending hours of my day to get to and from work - to be worse.
Soon, I won't even have the option of being poor but close to work. I'll have to move elsewhere just to keep my head above water, and I'll have neither time nor money.
@1, @5, @8, and @12: This is truly fucking depressing, indeed.
I remember when I could pay $560 a month for a one-bedroom apartment
with parking garage space in Ballard. Seattle is not the city I remember
from the late 1960's.
Charles, poverty, in our neoliberal zeitgeist, is considered to be a individual failure rather than a systemic problem, so we'll continue to ignore it. @8, we also need a deli in Seattle that does smoked meat sandwiches a la Schwartz's in Montreal and Miles End in NYC. Screw sushi fanaticism.
This isn't news. It already has. It has also risen sharply in the much further out, semi-rural and rural areas. Seattle's fatal disease is highly contagious and it's airborne.
@16 Perhaps if it weren't for the labor surplus brought on by illegal immigration (particularly given Seattle's status as a "sanctuary city") workers would have the bargaining power necessary to negotiate better wages.
All I need is for our elected idiots to not crash and burn the economy for 2 or 3 more years. Then I can sell my ridiculously overpriced Ballard house and move to East Wenatchee. Prices are going up over there but, nothing like Seattle/KingCo. It will be one of the greatest days of my life when I flee this clusterfuck of a city.
M. E. H. I have a Fed job with a cost-of-living adjustment. I get around 12 grand on top of my G.S. grade. Also, I know how to grind and brew my own coffee.
No worries. The city is ready to enact homeless camping. Some of the best, prime real estate with waterfront views are up for grabs. We'll draw people in the thousands once this gets out. So yes, Amonzonites, your cheap lunch with free delivery will continue. Please tip generously.
Someone posts a peer reviewed article written by economists, and your response is that the economists are in conspiracy with rich people, and to back it up you post a cartoon chronicling the history of labour reform?
Socialism prevents economic crises? You are seriously going to try to peddle this BS? Is that why Venezuela is such a hell hole that everyday people there cannot find diapers or toilet paper to purchase today?
Socialism prevents economic crises? Seriously? You are actually going to try to peddle this BS? Is that why socialist price controls mean the typical Venezuelan mother cannot find diapers or toilet paper today? Or is that why the socialist farming restrictions in Zimbabwe today have created economic conditions such that the leading source of dinner meat is rats?
Gee, what did you think was going to happen?
Think this stuff through..
That's a rather blatant example of causal reductionism. Please point to any actual evidence that raising the minimum wage has led directly to increase in rents.
Soon, I won't even have the option of being poor but close to work. I'll have to move elsewhere just to keep my head above water, and I'll have neither time nor money.
I remember when I could pay $560 a month for a one-bedroom apartment
with parking garage space in Ballard. Seattle is not the city I remember
from the late 1960's.
Nothing like hasty post hoc google searches to show your ass, is there.
Someone posts a peer reviewed article written by economists, and your response is that the economists are in conspiracy with rich people, and to back it up you post a cartoon chronicling the history of labour reform?
Wow.