It was a packed week of news and PubliCola exclusives, including the latest from City Hall, King County, and the regional homelessness authority.
After Tumultuous Relocation, Tent City 4 Contemplates Its Next Move
Tent City 4, the authorized encampment whose long-planned move within Lake City was hampered at the last minute by objections from City Councilmember Cathy Moore, can stay for six months. Although Moore and Mayor Bruce Harrell expressed surprise that Tent City 4 planned to stay in Lake City, emails show their offices were working to make the move happen as far back as February.
Seattle Nice: Assessing the Assessor, Moore Faces the Urbanists, and Seattle Hates Nightlife
PubliCola co-founder Josh Feit was our guest on this week’s podcast, where we discussed the King County assessor’s latest attacks on the woman he’s accused of stalking, Cathy Moore’s losing battles against a growing urbanist movement, and the historical context for Bruce Harrell’s latest efforts to crack down on nightlife in the guise of protecting public safety.
Tuesday, June 17
In this PubliCola exclusive, we reported on an outside investigation that found it likely that Seattle Fire Department employees, including senior officials, bought and sold blank CDC vaccine cards and fraudulently presented them as proof they had been vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to get around the city’s vaccine mandate. One high-ranking fire official involved in the alleged vaccine card trade referred to himself as “the Harriet Tubman of SFD,” a reference to the Underground Railroad.
Wednesday, June 18
Council Taps Brakes on RealPage Ban, Delaying One Week to Address Building Owner Concerns
The city council tapped the brakes on Cathy Moore’s fast-tracked legislation to ban property management companies from using algorithmic tools like RealPage to set rent prices, pushing a vote on the bill back one week. Moore, who is leaving the council on July 7, objected to the brief delay, saying there had already been plenty of process—an ironic position for someone who has consistently called for more public input into legislation that would allow more housing in Seattle.
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In a bizarre, emoji-filled email rant, City Councilmember Rob Saka accused people who opposed his efforts to remove a road divider that prevented illegal left turns into the preschool his kids attended of being racist, pro-“defund the police” car haters and “White Saviors” who don’t even live in his district and only pretend to support immigrants and refugees, just like Trump does … among many other spaghetti-at-the-wall complaints.
King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, who was absent from last week’s 8-0 vote demanding the resignation of Assessor Wilson, made a point this week of saying he thinks Wilson should resign. On Facebook, Wilson weaponized a photo of himself and the woman who has a restraining order against him, noting that she is smiling and does not look scared of him in the picture.
Also: The Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness has appealed a ruling upholding the city of Burien’s complete ban on sleeping outdoors.
NPR Piece Criticizing South Park Development for Tree Removal Omitted Key Facts
A story from local station KNKX, distributed nationally by NPR, contrasted two housing projects in Seattle—one that saved existing trees, and one that removed them. What the reporter failed to mention was that their example of a bad, treeless project is an affordable-housing development by Habitat for Humanity—and that Habitat is planting 26 new trees to replace the 10 that are being removed to build 22 new affordable homes, more than doubling the number of trees on site.
The King County Homelessness Authority presented potential budget cuts that could reduce homeless services this week, along with a warning that without another $4.7 million to pay for administrative expenses, the agency may have to cut 22 jobs—about a fifth of its staff.