Last week was busy. There are three things about last week that are worth highlighting as we start this week.

First, we have managed to hold off impact fees. Because the City has not delivered a significant document request from our co-appellant, the Seattle Mobility Coalition (SMC), the hearing on our appeal has been pushed out to June. That means that the City Council will be unable to amend the Comprehensive Plan to carve out language allowing the fees. That means that the Council won’t be able to enact the fees this year. It is a procedural win, but a win nonetheless. With four new Councilmembers maybe there is a chance the City won’t take this up again. I’ve said this is the moral equivalent of blocking a field goal in third quarter of a football game when down 28 to nothing. Maybe this will be something that will turn the tide.

Second, we had a chance to get a word in edgewise on rent control in a segment on KIRO. Rent control is not going away; just the opposite, the cry for it is growing louder. What’s worse is that whether it is a conspiracy or an example of Marx’s dialectical materialism, tenant-landlord law revisions are pushing toward what is a push for the elimination of private rentals. What advocates really want is to seize private rental property and hand it over to tenants. Think this is a crazy idea? It is. In Germany the advocates have just openly made a play to seize property. I wrote about this last week at Forbes in a post called,“Housing Is A Right!” Means An End To Private Rentals. In the post, I dust of Marx’s Capital to describe how the left and socialists conceive of apartments; for them, price is not a measure of supply and demand but a measure of greed.

Finally, and speaking of housing as a right versus a commodity, I recorded what was essentially a debate about Seattle’s Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) with Councilmember Rob Johnson. Johnson said some remarkable things in the segment (which hasn’t aired) including the suggestion that he opposes the “commodification” of housing. Along with his weird claim that the Council has made it easier to build housing, Johnson seems to have downloaded the socialist concept that housing needs to be “decommodified.” It’s a catch phrase for sure, but as I wrote the post for Forbes it struck me how far the Council, and otherwise moderate people like Johnson, have gulped down the socialist Kool-Aid. If the segment airs, I’ll post it and you can hear for yourself.

We keep up our efforts each and every day because maybe we’ll make a dent like we did with impact fees. And what’s at stake? Well, the effort to grab private property being touted by the left is a real concern. Will we ask a few years from now when a massive legal effort has to be undertaken to push back, “Why didn’t we do something sooner?” Or will we start now, today, with an effort to push back now. It’s up to you. Please give to our work!