Let me start this post out by saying that I agree with more in Councilmember Sawant’s proposal for small business that she unveiled yesterday at City Hall. There is lots to talk about when it comes to improving small business in Seattle. But what Councilmember Sawant and her campaign don’t know or forgot is that many if not most property owners who rent commercial spaces are small or medium size businesses too. The part of her proposal that is most problematic is the one she led with: rent control for commercial rental space. I have doubts about the legality of such a move, but let’s face it, such a proposal just pits small business owner against small business owner rather than solving any problems. The best thing we could do, today, is undo the disastrous decision made by Councilmember Mike O’Brien several years ago to cave to angry neighbors and not allow retail commercial space in the low-rise zones.

My annoyance and disagreement with Councilmember Mike O’Brien started long before Smart Growth Seattle ever existed. Back in 2011, Councilmember O’Brien fell into what I called the Sustainability Gap, the gulf between what elected officials say about sustainable policy and what they actually do. He did that by inexplicably voting against legislation that would have allowed small, retail commercial spaces in the low-rise zones in neighborhoods like Capitol Hill. Yesterday’s political show by Councilmember Sawant was all about the loss of small commercial spaces for smaller business. Everything, she argued, has become huge corporate floor plates with huge chains.

Notwithstanding Councilmember Sawants hyperbole, she has a point about smaller spaces. Smaller square footage is important for smaller start up business because it’s cheaper — the same reason microhousing is important for many people who want to live in great, dense, transit friendly businesses and are willing to pay less for less space. Councilmember O’Brien’s decision to side with NIMBYs who were worried about topless barbershops, means that there is less supply of just those kinds of spaces. O’Brien seems bent on creating a crisis wherever he goes so he can intervene and save the day.

So while I agree that we need greater supply of small office space, rent control won’t make that happen: it will make the situation worse. And it would certainly, I hope, be challenged successfully in the courts if the City Council is cowed by Councilmember Sawant into passing commercial rent control. It’s a bad idea whether it’s legal or not, but I have doubts that even though current State law is silent on commercial rent control that it couldn’t be challenged on other grounds. Commercial land lords better hope there is some legal handle to hang onto here.

But even worse that the terrible idea of commercial rent control which would have the same effect as residential rent control, scarcity, higher prices, and disincentives to maintain and improve existing space, is that it is needlessly divisive. Right after Councilmember Sawant’s political show broke up, I talked with Davie Meinert a long time civic activist, business owner, and gad fly for good policy who is supporting her scheme. We found ourselves agreeing on almost everything except commercial rent control. Here’s the other elements of Sawant’s proposal:

• • Portable Retirement Accounts for Workers in Small Businesses
  • Expand Late Night Public Transit
  • Expansion of Social Service Outreach for the Homeless, People with Mental Illnesses and Addictions
  • Municipal Bank & Low-Interest Loans

Now I don’t know a lot about each of these other than the last one which I generally support. As for the others, they are things that I’d love to see happen if they didn’t come at the expense of killing off small businesses in the process by adding costs, fees, rules, regulations, and taxes. Meinert also seemed in agreement that we should find ways to incentivize saving smaller spaces.

I said, “let’s do that math on that.” I just think if we got smaller businesses together with builders, developers, and property owners some good ideas could be worked out. But commercial rent control just shrinks the pie by making it harder to do what the renters want in the first place, more small spaces. We’ve got to do better and figuring out how to expand the pie, not fighting over the last piece.

And Councilmember O’Brien’s role in this demonstrates why bad ideas and seemingly small bad decisions add up and hurt everyone. The chickens are coming home to roost, and thanks to Councilmember O’Brien’s bad vote years ago, they aren’t finding any place to lay their eggs.