Must admit that I almost (almost, mind you) want to see this entire bunch get elected, just to put an end to the constant, mind-numbing refrain that if only we could get rid of the progressives, Seattle would magically revert to its natural, God-ordained existence as a low-cost, low-crime, middle-class single-family paradise. I won't actually vote that way, but I suspect some people might be similarly tempted.

Articles that are mainly prediction and speculation should include data on the author's past predictions/speculations and their accuracy.

Thanks for the list of who to vote for.

Why are you soooo anti-police? It's weird. Are you just drinking the Flavor-Aid?

Sarah Nelson obviously owes Hannah rent for living in her head (I never realized, until this article, that Nelson was a character of such epic, Machiavellian proportions ).

As an aside, I hope the new council (regardless of makeup) calls the bluff of progressives by removing single family housing zoning. As someone who lives in a hood that is zoned multi-family, all we have experienced is the loss of both older homes and apartments - replaced by million dollar townhomes (the neighborhood is now less affordable with fewer renters). Multi-family zoning is not the panacea progressives claim based on the data we’ve seen over the past decade.

@7 Only if the language abrogates HoA language about and related to density as well. Otherwise it's the usual Seattle progressive BS of dumping the cost of aiding the downscale on the middle while letting the rich off the hook.

*... to get a raise now.

@4: They never really explain why.
@9: All SPD cops deserve ...

@6: “I never realized, until this article, that Nelson was a character of such epic, Machiavellian proportions.”

Even the Stranger has recognized at least one of CM Nelson’s accomplishments:

“…the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to approve Council Member Sara Nelson's bill to establish a Seattle Film Commission. The legislation outlines an 11-member board that will advise the City on policies and programs to better develop the film and television industry here in Seattle, generate more inclusive career pathways into the local industry, as well as push the city's creative-economy priorities.

“For the past two decades, Seattle and Washington State have lost out on big-budget Seattle-set productions like 50 Shades of Grey, The Wicker Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, iCarly, and the upcoming The Boys in the Boat because our film incentives are so abysmal.”

(https://www.thestranger.com/film/2022/09/21/78508166/smell-that-its-the-sweet-smell-of-seattles-new-film-commission)

Well, Hannah's doom prediction sounds like a promising start. Perhaps an election night to look forward to.

I never thought of myself as Big Business but I am voting for this slate. We need Police and we need a City Council to get thing done for the greater good.

“City leaders severely and deliberately underprepared in the 1990s, leaving Seattle with too few homes to accommodate new residents, which produced the housing crisis we see today.”

Sigh, that’s not what happened. The 1990 census showed Seattle’s population had not yet recovered to 1960 level; the 2000 census would show rough parity with the 1960 figure. (By 2010, there had been a very small increase from 1960.) So, in the early 1990s — the period covered by the linked article — Seattle had little demand for new housing.

Mayor Rice simply wasn’t a very good mayor, his plan for urban villages was simply not a very good plan, and therefore not embraced by Seattle. There was no intent for it to fail; it just did.

Sign me up!

Perhaps if we elect the slate of pragmatic candidates for once, we could have a functional city again. The “progressives” in this town have demonstrated for 10 f*cking years that they don’t have the political will or common sense run a city. Vote them out!

Calling the tenant laws passed by the council "renter protections" is completely absurd. All they're doing is pushing 'mom and pop' landlords, the type you want to have, out of the business while reducing the supply of rentals. For a look at the reality of the situation, here's King 5:

"SEATTLE — Small landlords say Seattle’s rental laws are running small providers out of the city.

Data from the city, analyzed by the Rental Housing Association of Washington, shows Seattle lost 3,407 properties in 2021. That is equivalent to 11,521 units.

Roughly 2,500, or 75%, of those properties were single-family homes, which are typically owned by small landlords."

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/seattle-losing-rental-properties-small-landlords-leaving-city/281-3d5afe03-ee96-4b7e-af02-ebd90be8ce0e

@21 - exactly. And it's not going to stop. The war on landlords is an abject failure. Just wait until the Council manages to get rent control adopted. There is already almost no reason to be in the rental housing business and the Council is going to kick it off a cliff the first chance they get.

I'm increasingly of the opinion that the council progressives and the Stranger are all working for Big Business. They are a parody of everything they claim to value.

This from Hannah is what would be called a screed. I don't like screeds. Fuck you Hannah and fuck TS.

@4/@brandonarkell - First time here handsome? :)

Welcome to the world of Hannah.

the War on Landlords?

we need a War on Housing
as Commodity. private equity
funds're snatching up every square
foot of housing -- not to mention Foreigners!

and making Housing unaffordable
to all but thee most well-off. not
quite yet but gottdamm soon
we'll have half of Seatttle
'living' in their cars or
in tents. it's Nature's
Way -- the Survival
of the Cunningest.

right there's your
"Merit-Based"
Reich-wing
Utopia
folks:

NO
Gottdamn
SOCIALISM

for you!

say that Reminds me:
when did the Next
Door contingent
move into tS?

or is it just
Pooty and
his Bots?

the reich wing
Moves in
myriad
waves.

I can't quite tell if the Stranger's final slide into caricature preceded or followed the moment where they got rid of all the editors. Looking forward to the era of the all-emojis-and-exclamation-points editorial, starting about three weeks from now.

I don’t live in Seattle anymore so I can’t vote. But I would like to add that the upcoming council may also have to make tough decisions about water rights and power rights, due to the drought and city-owned power and water utilities.

@1: “…Seattle would magically revert to its natural, God-ordained existence as a low-cost, low-crime, middle-class single-family paradise.”

I get that you exaggerated for effect, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a city council which could admit to at least the possibility that not all homeless campers in Seattle were productive citizens before somehow (cough cough drugs) becoming homeless? Or that loss of police officers and rising crime might have some connection? Or that “renters’ protections” which protect mostly criminals, or prevent rental agents from using their judgement when choosing amongst applicants, might not be best for all other current tenants?

Hey Hannah! Who's pearl clutching now? TS sucks.