Democrats and Preemption: The Looming Threat of Rent Control
You might remember a post from earlier this year of an e-mail I sent to Senator Jamie Pedersen. The Senator said publicly that he thought rent control is a bad idea and acknowledged it doesn’t work to help people struggling with housing costs. But then he said he would support HB 2583, a bill that would, […]
Ask the Attorney General: Can Cities Donate City Owned Property for Housing?
Some hullabaloo has been made about recent legislation by the City Council allowing non-profit housing organizations right of first refusal for surplus property. Not only does this City commonly do this, they could actually donate land for purposes that are in “benefit of the needy” like housing. Oddly, the City of Seattle seems not to […]
We Have a Leadership Crisis not a Housing Crisis: The Parable of the Broken Gas Gauge
Over the last holiday I had a loaner car, and I was driving down a narrow road toward my destination. The car was old, but was well maintained, I thought, by the garage that gave it to me while mine was getting maintenance. Suddenly, it started to make noise and lurch a bit. What was […]
