Comments

1

these Deathbed Epiphanies
are coming Vastly too Late &
yet we Allow our Wormtongues
to Sleaze their way to Pandemic
for ALL. why do we Allow this? are

we stupid?

has Corps Americana
Stolen our Voice?

end the Mollycoddle &
stop the fucking Steal.

3

@2 if it had been BLM protestors doing the same thing, there would have been bodies all over the capitol steps

4

@3 (eye roll) and you’d be hailing them as peaceful protestors and hero’s of the republic.

Regarding the eviction moratorium the solution all along has been for congress to act. The court is simply reinforcing the notion that the CDC doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally do this. The court is acting as a check against executive overreach as it should.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-urges-congress-to-extend-eviction-moratorium-saying-his-hands-are-tied-by-supreme-court-ruling/2021/07/29/2ed8a52e-f07e-11eb-81d2-ffae0f931b8f_story.html

If you want someone to blame here look no further than Congress.

5

@3 - Maybe, maybe not. Hypotheticals, especially contorted ones like this, get routed to the junk mail folder in our brains.

6

@3 -- we didn't Kid Glove
our way thru WWII the
Big One are fascists
still not Fascists?

oh that's right
they've Infiltrated
nearly Everything so
they just Give Themselves
a free Pass. END the Fascism.

7

Dang, giving blood 500+ times is pretty great. I've given a good amount, I think probably 40 or 50 times, though admittedly my motivation was often getting out of work for an hour during those drives that the Red Cross would coordinate at our offices. Was always a nice break from my often times monotonous daily work routine. Now that I'm home based I just get drunk, which somehow feels slightly less rewarding and personally fulfilling.

10

@7 - Consider a Bloody Mary delivered to your table. Easy on the ice but very well chilled.

11

@9: (double eye roll)

12

@8, giving blood 40-50 times is still very impressive!

13

I can see why people are dumping rental properties, and it has nothing to do with "regulation". Developers are buying up everything they can.

Say you bought your rental in 1990 for $150, and someone is offering you 800k. You'd have to be crazy not to take that offer.

14

Unfortunately the legal argument for CDC instituting, let alone sustaining, an eviction moratorium is pretty flimsy. The law the CDC used to justify its unilateral eviction moratorium (42 USC 264) does not include anything close to the the authority needed to support such a ban. The law allows for steps such as “inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination, and destruction of animals.” Nothing close to a nationwide freeze on evictions. A better Congress could have provided such authority, but it didn't, and what's true for Rs is also true for Ds: The law is the law.

15

"Is one supposed to lose sleep over this? "Rental home owners in Puget Sound area are fleeing the market, observers say." Puget Sound Business Journal thinks it's worth at least a worry wart or two."

This merits some explanation. Ordinarily, a reduction in rental units would be a cause for concern. Charles, however, does not believe in supply and demand. As a result, he cannot understand why removing housing units from the rental market is likely to lead to increased rents in this region, which in turn will likely further exacerbate our ongoing homelessness crisis.

19

@18: Calm down. You got some time. Your genitals won't explode until January 1, 2023 when Nancy surrenders the gavel to Kevin.

20

@5, do you typically respond to junk mail?

21

@18 Also, the "small landlords are fleeing" article is based entirely on data from 2019, 2020, and 2021. There's no data from, say, 2008. There's no baseline rate of turnover based on multi-year averages, no mention of how the market responded to previous economic upheavals. There are no graphs, no history, and no context.

22

@18, I can just speak to my case, but there are a few reasons, one of which is the city council. I haven't taken a big hit, but we're seeing new regulations coming every year, some of them create pretty big risks. I've never had to evict anyone, but I've had people break leases in pretty funky ways. No problems, I've gotten enough up front to cover these situations. This has changed and there are more situations where someone can stay for months on end without paying, which is something that would be a problem as I've got mortgages on every property I rent out. I bought the houses for my retirement, and I absolutely can't complain about the way it's worked out. However I do plan to sell as tenants move out. The absolutely great prices I expect to get makes this easy, but so does seeing the new regulation that comes every year. From my point of view, there's no point to take on new risks when a retirement that is better than I ever expected is already fully funded.

Should Charles worry? Well, I know there's nothing as evil as a person who builds and rents housing, but they do provide something needed. I guess we don't need to worry as the city council certainly wouldn't undercut something that is unpopular but needed without having a replacement ready and tested to fill the gap.

23

@19 Thanks for keeping the discussion measured and civilized there, raindrop.

24

@22 If you'd read the linked article, you'd know that the trend isn't confined to Seattle, it's happening all over the state, and across the rest of the country, too. The city council's got nothing to do with it.

26

@24, you should have read my post, I was just speaking about my case as my first seven words should have made clear and I can assure you hat the statement "The city council's got nothing to do with it" is 100% incorrect. The council isn't the entire reason, but, in my case which is what I posted about, it absolutely does have something to do with it. You can of course think I'm some outlier, but just because it's a national trend doesn't mean the council can't make it worse.

27

Shorter @22/26:

"My personal experience is directly correlatable to general trends, even though I have no evidence to back that up."

28

@27, I never said it was correlatable to a general trend, I started by saying "I can just speak to my case", which is kind of the opposite. I have no idea why folks keep stumbling over this.

There really isn't any good evidence about how many small landlords will sell because of the pandemic and/or Seattle's new regulations. This will come over the next few years. The Puget Sound Business Journal article talks about a 48% increase in the number of rental houses being put up for sale, but there isn't any comparison with national trends... also this number is from one broker and isn't all that reliable. Of course, the real evidence would be if the supply of houses for rent drops, but then that would a bit late for anyone wanting to rent a house.

29

@26 of course the Council's regulations have an impact on the housing market either through encouraging current owners to sell or discouraging new entrants from coming into the market altogether. The net impact of these policies won't really be known for years so for now we just have anecdotal stories like yours.

The real debate is what is the council's strategy when it comes to housing? What is the solution they are driving toward? At least a third of the current council doesn't believe in private property rights and equates rent to theft so they are completely content to drive all landlords from the market if they can. Unfortunately, they are the ones driving the strategy today so you can expect more and more rules to come out imposing more risks onto landlords (e.g. Sawant's bill she is drafting to force landlords to provide 3 months rent if a tenant is unable to remain in their lease due to rent increases). It is reminiscent of the Cloward-Piven strategy whereby you overload a system (in this case affordable housing) to create a crisis until the only solution is for the government to step in and create a new entitlement program (socialized housing). Will that work? I don't know but given this council's track record on other projects I'd be comfortable betting against them.

30

Entirely plausible that the CDC Eviction moratorium was put in place anticipating the SCOTUS would overturn it at their earliest opportunity, because they'd done it once already.

I bought 2 months more of no evictions, which is 2 months longer than 0 months.

31

It's called Consequences.

Now, go get fully vaccinated and wear your mask.

32

lots of anger here today. just some angry fleecing landlords in here. guess money doesn't buy happiness, after all.

34

@28:

Dude, mom and pop landlords have been increasingly selling out to the big developers here and across the country for more than a decade, ever since the 2008 recession. Blaming a nation-wide trend on the SCC is just your way of trying to rationalize your personal perceptions/bias and has absolutely nothing to do with objective reality.

35

To summarize. In addition to a general trend of selling to big developers, regulation considerations accelerated the trend in the Seattle area.

36

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37

Although it bothers me to no end that groups like the National Apartment Association, a trade group representing "large" landlords, and the National Association of Realtors, whose industry I didn't know until recently depends greatly on foreclosures and evictions to keep that particular market's shit machine greased, are dancing in the street over this SCOTUS decision, I guess those unfortunate people who live in a state without its own moratorium and are on the verge of being thrown out of their homes will have to do what almost all of us would have to do in that situation - either pack up the car or do anything you can to scrape up the rent somewhere, somehow. Sad if you're sick or unemployed. Really sad if you have little ones.

You know, as someone who grew up watching and loving both on the home screen and certainly at the theater the wonder and magic of Warner Brothers animation with its nuances and color and humor, and where characters moved fluidly, and their lips matched their speech, I could never quite understand the broad appeal of anime. Speed Racer. Kimba the White Lion. Is it just nostalgia?

38

@33 I know you are not asking this in good faith but since its Friday I'll humor you.

Let's start with Pronto Bike Share. Remember that debacle? They propped it, funneled money into it, ended up buying it outright and then folded it up like a cheap blanket (https://sccinsight.com/2017/01/16/seattles-bike-share-system-dead).

The Center City Streetcar anyone? Bueller? (https://sccinsight.com/2018/03/30/durkan-hits-the-brakes-on-center-city-streetcar-project)

But you say all those happened a few years ago and a few of the current council weren't involved. Well then let's look at the Black Brilliance Project.
(https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/state-auditor-finds-bare-minimum-of-accountability-for-seattle-city-councils-black-brilliance-project). While barely legal it shat all over transparency and good stewardship of public funds.

The inability to properly fund bridge maintenance which of course led to the closure of the West Seattle Bridge or how about the Move Seattle Levy that delivered about half of what was promised (https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/the-930-million-move-seattle-levy-shortfalls-are-clearer-but-the-solutions-arent).

This council and past iterations are all about activism and striking a blow for the people however they continue to come up woefully short on actual execution, oversight, transparency and accountability. All the hallmarks of good governance. As such other city departments are able to shirk their duties because they know as long as they put the right spin on things there is no one who actually has experience in governance who knows any better. Heck even when they do strive for accountability like they did last summer with the SPD they f'ed that all up and wrote a check theirs butts couldn't cash and egg all over their face. It's sad but voters are clearly more enamored with electeds who say all the right things instead of actually doing the right things and so the beat will go on.

39

Shorter @38:

"If the SCC gave everyone in Seattle a unicorn, I'd still complain, because - who's gonna clean up all the unicorn shit?"

42

@39 Comte, you can do better than that. Try again.

@40 for once we have some level of agreement. There is no city in anywhere that has adequately addressed rent and homelessness in a meaningful way now or in the past. This is just my opinion but the problem with most cities is they only look at one side of the equation: supply. It's always more, more, more because they love that tax revenue rolling in. Thinking back to the 90's what if Amazon's campus had been spread between Tacoma, Seattle and Everett and those cities had combined to build out light rail and other infrastructure to facilitate the growth of the region? It seems that would have led to a much better outcome than asking 50k Amazon people to cram into Seattle everyday. But that's not have government works.

Of course that doesn't fully answer your question but the real answer is something you won't like which is not everyone can live in Seattle (at least not on their own). If you are working a min wage job you are not going to find an apt in any city that is affordable unless you take on roommates. That will never change. The blessing that may yet come out of the current pandemic is the realization that many people do not have to be present in their workplace every day to be productive. There are a great many who live where they live to be close to their job and given an opportunity would move to different locales. We should fully embrace this movement and relieve some of the demand pressure from the market.

I think urbanism as a planning strategy for cities has completely failed us and its going to take a major shift in that thinking before we will see measurable progress in correcting some of the issues we are facing.

btw the only thing I saw about Afghanistan is we should have pulled out everyone who wanted to get out before pulling the military and surrounding Kabul. There is no secret strategy there. Hold the fort until you are ready to leave.

43

"The man who only a few months ago said Bellevue is alive and kicking like that tune by Simple Minds, and Seattle is deader than Bela Lugosi ..."

Citation please.

As someone who often reads Talton, I don't ever remember him saying Seattle is dying, let alone dead. Could it be, in your enthusiasm to play the martyr (like a white Republican) you misread Jon's essay? You merely skimmed it, ignoring all of the subtleties within his writing -- while also ignoring the fact that he has repeatedly mentioned the underlying economic strength of the area. Then again, maybe your attack is all about jealousy. Both you and Talton often discuss the fundamental economic problems of America since Reagan (why it doesn't work for the middle class) -- he just happens to be better at it.

44

@3 -- That is an absurd hypothetical. BLM would never take actions like the right-wing groups. Violent Black nationalists might, in which case, it would be a bloodbath. To pretend otherwise is to ignore modern American history, so easily acquired by skimming Wikipedia. Orangeburg massacre, Glenville shootout, Greensboro Uprising, Jackson State killings, Philadelphia Bombing of MOVE, etc. But that is why Black nationalists would never try that shit -- there not interesting in being martyrs, and know the cops freak out even over peaceful protests involving people of color -- it would be really stupid to try and take over the capitol. But these white people figured they could get away with it -- because they are white. And Trump liked them. And they are stupid (but then, I repeat myself).

45

There are two situations with regards to small scale rental property that could be of concern. The first is that it is simply disappearing. For many, it is much easier to go the Airbnb route. The other is that large scale agencies are dominating the market. Smaller landlords tend to charge cheaper prices, and are more interested in keeping tenants. The first happens because it hurts them more to have a vacancy. A large apartment owner (or someone who manages a bunch of apartments) can accept the occasional vacancy by making more money off the dozens of other places they rent out. If you have only a few places (or one) you can't do that. The latter happens for much the same reason. If it isn't your business, then it is a big hassle to deal with new tenants. In short, small landlords are more likely to keep existing tenants, and charge them less.

Whether this is actually happening or not is a different issue. I doubt it is a huge problem, and even if it is a big problem, it is nowhere near the biggest. The big issue is that there simply aren't enough places to rent in the city, and a result, landlords can charge outrageous prices. The only way to solve that problem is to build a huge number of new apartments. The state could do that, but they won't. The best way to get builders to do that is to simplify the development process and change the outdated, classist and racist zoning laws.

46

@38 -- Most of those fuckups are due to the mayor, not the city council. Pronto was implemented poorly. They didn't have enough stations (failing to follow NACTO standards). That was all on the mayor.

The South Lake Union streetcar was Paul Allen's idea, and Nickels went along with it. The First Hill Streetcar was ST's compensation for fucking up, and not adding a First Hill station. Connecting the streetcars was McGinn's idea (he was always a big streetcar fan). Crazy to think that someone who was such a bike fanatic favored streetcars, but he isn't that bright. The council wasn't that enthusiastic (still isn't).

The Move Seattle Levy fuckup was all on Murray (and Kubly). They knew the initial estimates were way off, but went ahead with the levy anyway. They kept it secret to not only the council, but the public as well. It was scandalous, and Kubly likely wouldn't have been fired (even though Murray knew) but of course, a bigger scandal erupted (allowing Kubly to slink out of town). Kubly also failed to inspect the bridges. The mayor runs SDOT, not the council.

All of the fuckups were the responsibility of the mayor, not the city council. Yes, the council could have asked for more oversight, but then assholes like you would accuse of them spending too much money. After all, if you are bitching about the pennies spent on the Black Brilliance Project, you are going to whine about "an overly zealous oversight board that is symbolic of the mistrust between the council and the mayor". Or do you think the council should play a bigger role in running the city? Is that what you are advocating?

47

@46 this kind of attitude is exactly why the city is so ineffective at doing anything. It’s always something else. No accountability

Who voted to continue funding pronto? Who voted to bail it out and buy it even though it was obviously dysfunctional?

Who kept funding the streetcar and trying to ressurect it even after Durkan mercifully killed it?

The mayor absolutely should shoulder the blame for many of these fuck ups but isn’t it the role of the SCC to provide oversight for the executive? If not why do we even need them?

If you think 3M pissed down the drain on the black brilliance project is pennies than I don’t know what to tell you. Clearly you just don’t give a shit and never will.

48

someone check on the prof and make sure he didn't die of aneurysm last night.
it would be a shame if we didn't get to read 13 rage-filled posts a day. a shame.


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