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RSS icon Comments on Mayor's Office Selects Solid Ground to Distribute Frozen Tenant Fund

1

Would be nice if there were more rental units being built in Seattle. But I know, it is better to build $500K condos instead. Rental units are not feasable because they are actually affordable. And we do not want affordability in Settle.

Posted by Anyone Else Sick of the Mayor? | February 27, 2008 9:15 AM
2

Anybody have insight on something tangible that can be done for lower and middle income housing? I am sick of the mayor, but I am also sick of my own instinct to whine about lower and middle income housing. What's it gonna take? I mean there is totally an environmental component to having most of the folks in the region commuting more than an hour to get to work... I hear Real Change is doing cool things with their organizing project. Does anyone else have ideas that don't involve only leaning on politicians?

Posted by erin | February 27, 2008 9:26 AM
3

@2, Prayer Lt.! The Klingons (developers) don't take prisoners.

Posted by Admiral Kirk | February 27, 2008 9:33 AM
4

Wouldn't 40 to 100 story inexpensive residential rental apartment building zoning near major transit hubs be:

a. cheaper?
b. smarter?
c. easier?

This isn't rocket science people.

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 27, 2008 10:22 AM
5

@ 4. If it's not rocket science, in line with the city's global warming agenda, good for the lower and middle income citizens that we all claim to care about or be... then why ain't it happening... I don't want to complain, but what can *really* be done? There has to be something, right?

Posted by erin | February 27, 2008 10:47 AM
6

Oddly by now someone has started to riducule people who are not all thrilled with half million dollar condos going up all over Seattle. They usually degrade us renters by saying we should plunge ourselves into life crushing debt etc. and if we don't we are failures.

Wonder what happened to that crowd? Oh wait...foreclosure!

Posted by Andrew | February 27, 2008 10:57 AM
7

@4,

Well, since you keep spouting economic impossibilities (40-story buildings are not and never will be cheap without substantial direct government construction AND rent subsidies), it actually apparently IS rocket science.

Posted by Mr. X | February 27, 2008 11:12 AM
8

The average low-income rental resident in a major city uses between 1/10th and 1/20th the energy and resources of the average suburbanite.

Zoning is free.

Until the Mayor groks that the only solution is mixed-income (no, not like Lake Union, that's a mixed ultra-rich/rich/upper-middle-class development) inexpensive residential apartment buildings near transit hubs, we'll never achieve our global warming emissions cutback goals.

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 27, 2008 11:25 AM
9

Of course, we're still waiting for you to show us an example of one of these cheap towers you want. But you can't, because you're so full of gas you can't touch the ground.

Here, I'll help you: the Robert Taylor Homes are almost exactly what you want. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_Homes

Posted by Fnarf | February 27, 2008 12:08 PM
10

Ah, Fnarf, you have lots of Google knowledge, experience with wikis, and very little practical experience of the world.

So, tell me, what's the height limit near the Denny Triangle?

...

Wrong.

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 27, 2008 1:21 PM
11

Wow, Will is telling me I have "little practical knowledge of the world". That's the funniest thing I've heard all week.

PKB, asshole.

Posted by Fnarf | February 27, 2008 1:28 PM
12

Oh, and Will: Robert Taylor Homes were famous long before either Google or wikis existed. Your ideas are mouldering and infested with maggots at the bottom of the dustheap of history.

Posted by Fnarf | February 27, 2008 1:45 PM
13

(hold his hands over his ears while Fnarf whines about how he can't get a helipad for his new ADA-accessible three story house in downtown Seattle)

Really?

You don't say?

Uh huh ...

I see.

Very interesting

(flips thru brochure of top restaurants we must go to if we are cool so we can go broke instead of actually eating good food)

Very interesting, Fnarf.

Well, gotta go .. bye!

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 27, 2008 2:16 PM
14

Are you leaving? Really? Waiter, champagne please. No, the good stuff.

Maybe you can pick up some reading comprehension skills wherever it is you're going.

Posted by Fnarf | February 27, 2008 2:44 PM
15

Ahhh... Chicago's successful and innovative public housing. That should work just as well almost anywhere.

Occupancy levels of course greatly impact the value of rental units, but flooding the market with outlandish 100 story, below market rate towers might not have the impact that math implies. People still have to WANT to live there, even renters. Seattle will never reach the critical mass that some Asian cities have which draw people into to megastructures like that.

I love the density and public transportation hubs I have access to, and use daily, but anything more than 2 common walls can be just bad living.

Posted by Dougsf | February 27, 2008 3:14 PM
16

100 story rental structures, humm, why does the Cabrini Green come to mind? The Robert Taylor Homes are so old hat.

Posted by Colton | February 27, 2008 3:42 PM

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