Letter from Convention-Goers to Seattle: Your Homelessness Problem Is Out of Control
“Based on my recent visit, I believe the problem is out of control.”
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Why was the Seattle "Head Tax" Repealed So Quickly?
I was there at that raucous council meeting to repeal the vote, I signed an Open Letter from Tech Leaders Opposed to the Proposed Head Tax, and I was a volunteer signature gatherer and small donor ($275) to the repeal referendum effort. Why did the council vote 7–2 to repeal it, just a few…
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The “Public Input” Hoax
Brandi Kruse at Q13 calls out the “Public Input” hoax, wherein the City Council and mayor’s office claim to seek public input, but usually this is done long after they’ve decided what to do. This approach has absolutely been the pattern with respect to: The Head Tax The selection of the city’s new Police Chief Safe…
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Seattle Considers Mobile Injection Van
The “Head Tax” isn’t the only major controversy in Seattle politics these days. Seattle City Council is forging ahead with plans for a publicly funded “safe injection” facility. I’m just getting up to speed on the discussion here, and wanted to pull together a post that summarizes where we’ve come from, what we know about such…
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Where is Seattle’s Growth In Homeless Coming From?
A vexing question at the center of the debate around homelessness policy is: where is the growth in Seattle’s homeless coming from? Specifically, to what extent is the growth due to locals losing their homes and being displaced vs. inbound growth from other regions of the US? Yes, I know it’s not entirely one or…
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Fixing the Homeless Crisis
It’s going on three years since Seattle declared a homelessness crisis, but the homeless population in Seattle continues to rise. The amalgam of programs we’ve tried since 2015 hasn’t stemmed the growth in Seattle’s homeless counts; in fact, the numbers have actually accelerated, particularly of those living in vehicles. There is no shortage of recommendations…
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What’s the Case FOR the Seattle “Head Tax”?
I’ve been fairly vocal in my support of the repeal of the Head Tax on social networks like Nextdoor; the first step is to get a referendum on the ballot in November. I think giving the people a chance to repeal the Head Tax is the right idea. Our City Council has gone off the…
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Kshama Sawant Uses Taxpayer Dollars for Her Political Movements: Not OK.
“I do not share the anti-business animus that I feel you are sponsoring…” Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, to Councilmember Kshama Sawant For some time now it’s been rumored that Kshama Sawant was allowing city resources to be used to print out posters and signs for her various causes. It was good to see Councilmember Sally Bagshaw call…
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Seattle Citizens Speak Out In Ballard
The Ballard Town Hall meeting on May 2nd 2018 may well be looked back upon as a sea-change moment for the city of Seattle. Many Seattleites like me have grown increasingly fed up with Seattle’s approach to homelessness, increasing taxation, lax law enforcement and general fiscal mismanagement at the City Council. The Ballard Town Hall…
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Which Seattle Restaurants Have Had the Most Closures Forced by Inspectors?
King County’s Restaurant Inspection Grades, which is based upon the average of red-card violations in the past four inspections I’m exploring the Python stack for data analysis and machine learning. I know I’m late to the party, but have only recently discovered the impressive Jupyter Notebook (formerly IPython) data analysis platform and community. It makes…
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