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Here We Go Again: Commercial Rent Control Still On the Table
A proposal for commercial rent control is back! Bad ideas seem to thrive in Seattle. Or I should say, old ideas. Don’t like the price of something? Freeze it in place. Don’t try to understand or address the underlying issues about why prices are going up or even ask, “Are they going up that fast?” […]
It Might Be Time for Guaranteed Income for Seattle’s Poorest
Imagine if poor people living in Seattle were guaranteed a minimum level of income for housing costs. I don’t like the standard typically used to establish the normative standard for housing costs—30 percent of gross monthly income discounted by some percentage of Area Median Income—but let’s start with that. In my thought experiment everyone earning 30 percent […]
Lot Suit: Local Builder Challenges City Rule that Increases Housing Prices
‘Abutting lot’ requirement illegal under state law Imagine if your neighbor didn’t bother to sort their recycling from their compost but you got charged a fine – even though you followed the rules. That wouldn’t be fair, but that’s similar to what the City Council did last year when it passed legislation that created a strange new requirement that […]
