I didn't own a house when I was a post-adolescent either Hannah, work hard for a few decades and I'm sure you'll have a sprawling estate. If you don't, then I'll pity you.

"The hope is that when this repeal takes effect in 30 days, you'll still see bikers taking necessary safety precautions"

I've done my own research on traumatic brain injuries and I'll be damned if I'm going to let liberals tell me to take care of myself.

I’m almost 50 and couldn’t own a home in a nice area on my single income. Once you partner up with someone, your income basically doubles. But then again, when you have kids, you can basically flush that second income down the child care toilet. Enjoy some time as a DINK!

@5:

When you deliberately choose to punish everyone in a group because of the actions of a few, you're engaging in the act of dehumanizing them, which certainly sounds like a form of terrorism, since the harm you're causing those people is in pursuit of a political goal.

Seattle cops don't know or care about bike laws. I've been cited for failing to signal (not illegal) and yelled at for lane-splitting (also not illegal). If a cop wants to harass someone on a bike, they'll find a way.

@1 & @4: I didn't buy a home until I was over 40! It was a cheap condo to boot in north King County that I bought on my own in 2004 as no partner was in the picture. Even in early 2000 people were dealing with rising real estate prices and enduring longer commutes to work due to having to buy outside of Seattle. I truly don't get this obsession with home ownership amongst 20-somethings. I never even thought about it until I was into my late 30's.

@2: not sure that "mask humpers" is even a thing. no one's wearing them for fun; i know no one who doesn't want this shit is over. i'm exhausted with the whinging from pro-pandemic adult children about their fucking freedom to not care about others.

@10, I think the rational behind dumping the vaccine check is for a couple of reasons. First, the vaccine rate in Seattle is much higher than other parts of the state or the country. At this point, there aren't many people left unvaxxed, so it's a lot of effort to do the checks for very little return. Second, a lot of the checks are pretty perfunctory, with barely a glance. Almost nobody is spending the time and effort to rigorously check the cards or verify IDs. That makes it pretty easy for scofflaws to fake their way past the checks if they want to.

So although I think vaccine mandates in general are a good idea, I suspect that having waiters and bartenders and movie theater clerks halfheartedly doing vaccine card checks has outlived its usefulness. At least in King County.

@6 This is a great argument in support of the police. Good job!

I'm not a homeowner and I don't want to be one. I have done the research and it's not for me. Seems like the author of this drivel seems to think every home is paid for in full and mortgages don't exist. I know lots of folks with million dollar homes that have debilitating debt and they don't live high on the hog. They were lucky enough to come up with the down payment but it depleted their finances. Some have to rent out a portion of the home to survive. Facts from people with boots on the ground. Im sorry you can't come up with the down-payment, but we shouldn't punish those that can or simply assume they were born into wealth. It takes me 4 years of savings to take a 10 day trip on the island but the natives think everyone visiting is an entitled a hole. I might be an a hole, but I poor as shit.

Slow clap for the revised/repealed helmet law? The libertarians were right about this one after all, but let’s pat ourselves on the back for being anti-racist when we walk it back years later. Lesson learned? Probably not.

I put un-helmeted bike riders in the same moral and intellectual category as covid deniers /anti vaxxers. The one difference would be that the no-helmet crowd injures society only financially. I think we can live with that. BTW, helmets are pretty cheap.

Regarding the helmet law; aren’t basically all laws enforced unequally on a racial basis? Doesn’t that mean all laws are “racist”?

I don’t think laws are the problem. The broader racism in our culture that manifests as unequal application of laws is the issue. Getting rid of those laws does nothing to address it. Less than nothing, in fact.

Having said that, I’ve always hated nanny-state bullshit helmet laws that only add useless red tape to cycling-oriented transit solutions. So, good riddance.

And in today's news that The Stranger is not allowed to report: "FEDERAL MONITOR CLAIMS FBI AWARE OF ALLEGED SPD SEXUAL VIOLENCE" https://southseattleemerald.com/2022/02/17/federal-monitor-claims-fbi-aware-of-alleged-spd-sexual-violence/

By choosing to live in Seattle, or much of western WA for that matter, you are basically making a choice to not be a homeowner. I empathize because I did the same thing for a very long time, but eventually realized I was wasting my income on astronomically high rental rates which were considerably more than mortgage payments in other real estate markets, and building no equity in the process. Do your research and broaden your search and you'll find you can live in many other urban markets for a fraction of what it costs to live in Seattle.

@15 🤦‍♂️

@6 I see what you did there — your comment applies to Hannah’s characterization of “housed people.” Brilliant!

Good lord that wokism (@6) is so distilled I hope he's at least getting drunk on its whiskey.

What's the point of fantasizing cartoon scenarios with avatars?

@27: If you love democracy you should respect, if no celebrate, that there are options on ballots.

I never thought I'd ever be able to own a house. Now I have two. Neither of them are anything to write home about, but there you are.

@28,

It's rumored the two of them already share a treehouse, somewhere in Bellevue if memory serves. I wonder what the mortgage is like on a Bellevue treehouse these days.

I know, the truth hurts. Go have yourselves a little cry.

AdNauseum @23, just curious. Where do you live now? And where did you decamp to when you gave up on Seattle?

MrB @29, I had the same reaction as you do to Hannah Krieg's provocative characterization of the terror of the housed, but that doesn't give you license to give her patronizing, demeaning "advice" that is nothing more than a personal attack designed to humiliate. And not only are you out of bounds, but you manage to defeat your own message and create sympathy for your target.

Anyway, I actually did want to say that, yes, there is a real skew against homeownership in Seattle. You see all these apartment buildings going up these days, but scarcely any condo buildings. I know there are policy reasons for this, and we need to change those policies. And I'm remembering now, Bruce Harrell made the same observation in his mayoral campaign. Now let's see if he can do something about it, although for all I know those policy problems could emanate more from the state than the city.

Along the same lines, it really bothers me when investment companies start buying up housing stock. Carry that to its logical conclusion and every condo building (the few that are out there) will get converted into de facto apartment buildings. Thank God for those pesky little homeowners association rules.

The median hospitalization cost for a traumatic brain is was $162,523 in 2014 (see Neurology, April 2014). Fully 2/3rds of the population is covered by public insurance. This is an expensive policy choice and a good example of what happens disproportionate impact analysis is conducted in a vacuum. A more rational policy would be to keep it illegal and provide free helmets to all who want them. For the cost of one TBI, you can buy more than 8,000 helmets. First offence is a warning and a free helmet.

@32: But they must have tall ceilings, probably quite grand.

I would never want to join the ranks of the homeownership/NIMBY asshole. You think homeowners will allow for affordable housing? What a joke... just ask Dave Chapelle. It's a crime against humanity how poorly the poor are treated in our society. Channeling my inner George Carlin the sooner climate change and pandemics shake human parasites and our peabrain HOAs from Earth's surface the better.

OK MrB, I must admit that was a pretty amusing back-atcha @40.

@42: We're in new territory now that staffers are trolling readers. Maybe it's the new business model.

Helmets should be required for e-bikers, who are 100% white and the worst cyclists in Seattle.

@46 Here's another gift. Educate yourself. Domestic violence in same-sex relationships - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violence_in_same-sex_relationships

So--the summarized moral of Hannah's article is:

Use common sense, everyone, regarding vaccines and masks; Governor Jay Inslee is to remove the statewide mask mandate by March 21st; and the helmet law for bikers (I would still wear a helmet, though, especially in Seattle); it takes at least $987,000.00 to own a house in Seattle (thank you, Seattle Times FYI Guy, Gene Balk); homeowners are terrorizing the homeless with ecoblocks to keep the RVs and trash filled shopping carts out; rumor has it that even the tree forts are getting too pricey in Bellevue (lol), and Twitter says to boycott Walgreen's because Citizens for Ethics has cracked down on Walgreen's donations for Congress members who are associated with the January 6, 2021 insurrection. I haven't the use for Twitter or Walgreen's, so it's a WIN-WIN for me!
Back to you, Hannah.

@16 Beretta101: I feel your pain. I haven't lived in Seattle for 25 years, and am fortunate to be where I am as a renter. Homeownership wasn't a good fit for me, either. I'm glad to be out of that situation.

@28 shoobop and @33 mike blob: Thank you both for making my day with the friendship wish. I wouldn't be surprised if the commenters in question are already roommates. :)

@32 Catalina Vel-DuRay: Lucky Mr. Vel-DuRay and you. Congratulations on your dual homeownership.

@37 periwinkle: That is good to know. Thanks, periwinkle.

@45 PrincessAngeline#2: I'm sorry that happened to you. Thank you for the warning about Uber.

@46: blip nails it for the WIN!!!

@46 & @49 blip: This is why I am so happily asexual.

@8 - totally agree. I know very few people who bought houses in their 20s. Most of us lived in shared houses with several others and the rest generally lived in apartments with a roommate. And when we did buy houses, we bought the cheapest one we could find even if it was not in a fashionable neighborhood. And that was a stretch. But it gradually gets to where it is not. And before you kiddos get all "OK, Boomer," on me, I am not complaining about what you spend on coffee. I don't give a fuck about your latte or Netflix or whatever. THAT is not the problem.

I was talking to some 30-somethings the other day and they were all paying something like $3-4k a month rent because they insist on living downtown or on Capitol Hill. With that kind of thinking, no, they may never own houses. The extra $20k in rent every year they are paying would add up to a down payment pretty fast. Not to mention that some of them drive very nice cars. Again, trade in that new car for a POS Honda and the payments you save will add up quick.

@8 Jeebus999 and @52 dvs99: I hear where you're both getting at.
I'm a Boomer and homeownership would not work for me. I have already
dealt with an HOA once in my life, and that was enough. My then spouse and I lived in
an economically recessed community full of unsustainable minimum wage "jobs" (i.e.: fast food, retail, etc.). There was nothing to help us pay off a house, even in a housing development off I-5.
I am now a renter after leaving a toxic marriage over two decades ago. There
would be benefits to home ownership, indeed, but for me a mortgage
would leave me house-poor right now. I have otherwise lived where I am
for over seventeen years.

@13: Given the rate of mental deterioration which @6 has exhibited here of late, I'm guessing that it will take him a week or two (at most) until he redefines "terrorism" as "disagreeing with me in the slightest on anything," and prescribes capital punishment as the only method to combat it.

Blip rules and MrB drools and that is all there is to it. MrB is in fact a total f r e a k like many of the dorks who rage out in these comments almost daily instead of just finding a new thing to read. Oh wait they are addicted to their pathetic rage cycle adrenaline rush. Who's the real junkie? Touch grass