As is typical Seattle City Council is working one some bullshit to destroy our ethics code đ¤¨
A large crowd of Kshama Sawant supporters are currently in attendance at this afternoon's council meeting. Many of whom worked to pass some of the housing reforms this major ethics code change will likely also make it legal to destroy.
Official live stream below đđż
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqPV4DwnxGA
#Seattle #CityCouncil #SPD #ACAB #Ethics #SaraNelson #Housing #Sawant #I137 #I135
There's been A LOT written about social housing in Seattle but this video is a really great 1 minute explainer on the coming up ballot measure.
đ¸ Calvin Jones https://www.instagram.com/calvin.seattle
If you're a Seattle voter, the single most important election is on February 11th!
Social housing is on the ballot, this is the single most important initiative in decades
The likely last Social Housing(I-137) showdown at Seattle city council is starting right now đđż
Activist are encouraging Seattle voters to attend these meetings (virtually or physically) if able and please sign up for public comment.
If you're attending virtually, you'll need to register online. Registration will not open until an hour or two before the meeting you're interested in. đđż
https://www.seattle.gov/council/committees/public-comment
#Seattle #policesurveillance #SocialHousing #I137 #PublicComment
Then at 2pm the main showdown will begin, knee capping social housing.
One of the interesting marketing/get-out-thr-vote problems with the council's move is it changes how I-137 will appear on ballots. If they had not tried to make a sabotaged alternative it would just say "I-137" instead it will reas "Proposition 2" or something similar which is just enough friction to confuse a lot of voters.
https://seattle.gov/council/calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D177623102
#Seattle #SocialHousing #I137 #I135 #SaraNelson #BobKettle #CathyMoore
The House our Neighbors meeting was excellent. They brought up damning reporting from the stranger where former Seattle Attorney Pete Holmes describes the treatment I-137 has gotten as voter suppression đĽ
I have some many great notes from this webcast and damn, there's some serious work to do to hold this council accountable for Voter Suppression.
Ok it seems the council has finally revealed their sabotage plan for I-137.
They introduced an alternative which reduces the $50M for social housing down to $10M âźď¸
It also changes the funding source to literally take it out of other existing services already limited budget. đ¨
But the voters petition, which passed and their trying to ignore, would use a small tax on Seattle's mega corps and large businesses.
They will likely delay I-137 to Thursday's meeting.
Seattle city council is probably about to do some bullshit.
I'm still a bit dazed from the getting assaulted thing, would normally try and give public comment, but I'm really not feeling up to much rn.
People waiting for the meeting report a notable increase in police presence. Folks who spoke last week say they were indentified by cops and followed around while waiting.
They are just calling the meeting to order now.
After last week's public comment it's clear Seattle city council doesn't listen to public comments at city hall. So I guess the people will have to take a lil road trip to be heard.
https://partyon.xyz/@nullagent/113114774540875148
#Seattle #I137 #SOAP #sexworkisrealwork #homeless #stopandfrisk
What's the APP? @JusticeForHerbert wrote an op-ed last year explaining that and how the city has dragged its feet on this program AFTER passing the legislation.
Just like Social Housing, Seattle city council really showed their real colors by largely sabotaging this popular legislation.
Right, so where's that leave us, folks who want tax money to maybe help people?
Come on down to the Seattle City Council meeting, Sept 17th, 2024, 2pm! â¨
We're probably gonna be fining homeless people $5k for existing instead of building housing, city council should probably hear from you. đ˘
This one seems important, mark your calendarđđż
https://seattle.gov/council/calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D171885610
#Seattle #I137 #Homeless #SocialHousing #SexWork #StopAndFrisk #CathyMoore
Seattle City Council, time to wake up: An open letter to our first-year councilmembers
Yesterday needs to be this City Councilâs worst day if 8 out of 9 of them want a chance at another term. They pulled one of the most chickenshit moves Iâve ever witnessed from my years covering city politics when they decided to hold an expensive special election for the votersâ initiative 137 rather than put it on Novemberâs high-turnout general election ballot. They did this for the sole purpose of weakening its chances because they know the more Seattleites who vote on the initiative, the more likely it will be to pass.
The Seattle City Council (minus Tammy Morales) is admitting that their opinion on the initiative is unpopular among the people they are elected to represent, and they are pulling a chickenshit procedural trick in order to circumvent the peopleâs will. Not only are they wrong to do this, they should stop and think for a moment about the implications for their political prospects in this city.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-WSKGco9F_/
It didnât help that they then retreated to their offices to remotely approve a contract for more jail cells to imprison low-level offenders because the outcry of public opposition in the council chambers was too loud. It also didnât help that they somehow didnât anticipate last week how unpopular it would be to roll back the minimum wage law. Not sure how many more signs folks will need before realizing they are making deeply unpopular decisions.
Hereâs what I think is going to happen. Councilmember Woo will be toast in November, losing her second City Council election in the span of a year. It wonât be close. One down. At the same time, the voters of Washington House District 43 (entirely within the bounds of Seattle) will elect Shaun Scott despite a majority of the City Council endorsing Republican Andrea Suarez (who pretends sheâs a Democrat because she thinks her voters arenât paying attention). Suarez may not even make it into the general election depending on how late primary ballots turn out, thatâs how out of touch this City Council is with the people they represent (Full disclosure: My family recently hosted a fundraiser house party for Scottâs campaign because heâs great). Seattle will then hold a special election, and we will pass I-137. But even worse for this Council, they decided through their action yesterday to turn the I-137 vote into a referendum of the cityâs support for investing in affordable housing (spoiler, we want more) as well as a symbolic referendum on this City Council. Not a smart move, yâall.
Is it too late for them to save themselves? For Tanya Woo, yeah itâs too late. I also doubt Sara Nelson can reform her image, either, since sheâs the leader of it all and sheâs up for election next year (sheâs welcome to try). But most of the others are still in the first years of their first terms. They get to use the âI was new and didnât know betterâ card one time, and this is a great time to deploy it because that card expires soon. They are clearly getting advice from the wrong people right now, but there is no law that says they must continue following them into the abyss. They were elected by the people, and the office belongs solely to them and their constituents. It doesnât matter how much corporate PAC money was spent to get them into office, they donât owe those funders anything.
Kick your cynical bad faith advisors to the curb and go out into your community in search of real problems to solve to make our city a better place. Untie from the sinking ship that is Council President Nelson and be your own leader. Seattle is still a big small town, and elections are still usually won based on community support.
If councilmembers donât turn things around fast, they may not even make it to 2027. Coucilmember Tammy Morales suggested during yesterdayâs meeting that by not prioritizing their consideration of I-137, they likely ran afoul of the Cityâs Charter and could face recall elections. I personally do not like recall elections and hope it doesnât come to that, but thatâs the path this Council is walking (running?) down. Once you start taking actions to defy the will of the people, recall is the peopleâs recourse.
I love Seattle, and I believe in our cityâs potential to be the city the rest of the nation looks to when trying to solve big problems. Thatâs why I love writing Seattle Bike Blog. This is my love letter to our city. We donât always rise to our potential, but folks here never give up. Then every once in a while, we do something extraordinary. We are due for something extraordinary.
None of what I said above will happen on its own, but I believe the people of our city will put in the organizing and volunteer work to make it happen. Seattleites are desperate to make housing more affordable, and we are beyond sick of being told by elected leaders year after year that for some reason we canât do it. Thatâs the energy behind I-137. If you all wonât do it, then we will. Weâre not going to continue sitting on our hands pretending like thereâs nothing more we can do while more and more people get priced out of our cityâs cheapest apartments and forced to sleep in the fucking rain.
As our elected leaders, you can join us in an extraordinary victory as we create social housing that people can afford, or you can fight us. But if you fight us, you will lose. You made a big mistake yesterday, now you gotta figure out how to make it right. Which side of Seattle history do you want to be on?
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Itâs happening!
#i137 #socialhousing #seattle #housey #pnw #hon #houseourneighbors
