Comments

1

Re: NZ: see, America, that's what a Social Democracy looks like -- you don't Like the gun laws,* ya fucking Change them.

Unless -- you're beholden to powerful (unelectable) Corporate Interests -- in our case, Weapons Manufacturers. They have a Stranglehold (thanks, Ted N.!) over just enough Lawmakers / Voters to put THEIR Profits before OUR Lives.

And we LET them get away with it.

*everyone gets an AK47!
for their sixth birthday!

Fuck that.

2

Odds Chinatown is upzoned?

Fuck our discriminatory capitalist apologist city council.

3

Going out on a limb here (snort). Except for any new designated public housing (where one has to qualify by a targeted low income in order to live there), MHA will NOT lead to more affordable housing in Seattle.

Instead, it will lead to out-of-control building of more big, ugly high-rent and high-priced condo developments that will outstrip the ability of the current infrastructure needed to support them. All residents will need pay substantially more for public utilities in order to fund infrastructure improvements as these behemoths suck up the available water, sewage, electricity, gas, etc. capacity, leading to . . . higher living costs.

If The Stranger thinks this is a good idea, that's proof positive that it's either in the back pocket of Seattle's real estate developers or is too terrified to take a stand against them.

Either way, The Stranger has proven itself to be full of shit as an alternative newspaper. It's just a throwaway version of The Seattle Times. No, it's worse because it self-righteously pretends it's not.

Please stick to running weed articles aimed at undergrads because that's all you're good for.

And in case you're wondering, no, I don't own a single family home in Seattle and am not in the market for one.

4

@3 - that’s right - because more supply drives higher rents!! No, wait...

5

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. As someone who lived in NYC, be careful what you wish for.

Density is pretty miserable.

6

@3 makes good points. The progressives in Seattle have been suckered.
Developers are not your friends.
This unholy alliance that has grown up between high-density advocates and the real-estate industry is being fueled by some high-octane greed.
A lot of people stand to get hurt here and the quality of life for residents of Seattle will not be improved.

7

@2: the International District ("Chinatown") is already zoned for urban density. there is a 20-story hotel going up on 8th ave. between jackson and dearborn.

@3, 6: instead of slippery-slope predictions of doom, what in the ordinance do you specifically object to?

9

I don’t understand how any new Seattle housing development makes sense to be affordable...the land is too expensive...who is subsidizing it?

10

6 - You are right: there really was a liberal developer conspiring on that grassy knoll.

13

@5, 12,

Yeah, I don't get that either. I lived in NYC for a few years, and not some ritzy high rise in Manhattan or swanky brownstone in Brooklyn. I lived in a shitty apartment in Queens near La Guardia airport. Definitely not miserable though. Sure there's some bad things but also lots of conveniences. I've lived in low density suburbs too (as I'm doing now) and it's the same. You get some good and some bad but miserable is a strong word.

15

@14 No, not really. I haven't owned a car since 1998 and I've lived in a variety of places on both east and west coasts, some had great public transit and some had practically none at all. I've managed to live an activity-filled life just fine without owning a car. Sure, car-sharing resources like Zipcar and Car2Go have made it a lot easier, but no, not owning a car doesn't have to be a "problem". And I've saved a boatload of money not having to pay a lease/car payment/insurance/gas/repairs, etc. Much more money than my transit spend is, by an order of magnitude.

16

@14,

I still owned a car when I was in Queens. My girlfriend at the time owned a car too. Parking's a bit more difficult but both of us still managed to find a place on our street almost every time we needed.

I used to drive to Manhattan and park there as well. There always seemed to be plenty of parking near Riverside Drive around the upper east side.

Even in cities with incredible public transportation like Manhattan (not the other boroughs so much) having a car is still very helpful and not impossible to do. Expensive, sure, but our government is so beholden to the auto industries that they subsidize a lot of the direct pain of owning a car: We get cheap fuel, tons of wide, accessible roads, parking lots and off street parking almost everywhere.

17

Methinks that millennials need a few more whacks by crooked politicians before they learn that pols will lie like the orange one to protect their contributors or those that provide them with power.

MHA will not do anything for affordable ownership, and will make access even more difficult. You can forget about ever owning a home folks.

A brief course in economics wouldn't hurt, either, as there you would learn that real estate is not an elastic market, i.e. prices go up with short supply, but do not come down the same way. You will notice that landlords of the 20-percent vacant buildings give away free rent rather than reduce the rent - after all, who wants to move again - gotcha! No rent cut.

Try to be open-minded, but be skeptical about how policy will be abused. It is simply not logical that your mom and dad are out to screw you, but the one-percent, high-profit corporate development interests that buried the economy ten years ago only have your best interests at heart.

Turn on your critical reasoning skills, folks! You've fallen for the oldest political ploy in the book - telling folks what they want to hear, when what they are doing is pretty much the opposite.

18

@12. Not sure if anyone is actually going to read this but here goes.

Feeling people on top of you all the time, the smell, the constant low level of noise of people doing people things(even if each one is making as little noise as they can it still adds up), the fact that you can’t really stretch out without impacting either some type of object or person, etc.

It has nothing to do with cars as much as being crammed in with lots and lots of people can really work on your nerves over time.

19

@18,
Fair point. The feeling of never being able to be alone is frustrating. I had to drive out to the Catskills before I ever felt like I was away from other people. But much of the time I kind of enjoyed it. So many people means you never really stick out either... nobody notices you unless you do something really crazy.


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