Announcing: Seattle Paper Trail

After running quiet for a couple of weeks to works out all the kinks, I’m announcing today a new site: Seattle Paper Trail. Seattle Paper Trail is a feed of “the stuff you should be reading” to be an informed Seattle resident. It focuses on primary documents, with a very light touch of introduction, context-setting and analysis. Unlike SCC Insight, there will rarely be long-form journalism at Seattle Paper Trail; the aim is to disseminate original primary documents so you can read them yourself, rather than have you read someone else’s interpretation of them. For those of you who are …

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Signing off

For once, I won’t be wordy and nerdy. I have three last thoughts to share. 1. Thank you for reading my words. That is the most valuable gift you can give to any writer. 2. Please support local journalism, especially local journalism reporting on local government.  It’s our government, and if we want to hold it accountable to us then we need to know what it is (and isn’t) doing. Good, professional reporting costs money to produce, and we need to be prepared to pay for it. 3. You can disagree with someone and still be respectful. Civil servants and …

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Rent control, revisited

In early 2019 I wrote an article reviewing the research on rent control. At the time, Councilmember Sawant was making a push at trying to get a local rent control measure passed — despite the state law prohibiting it. Earlier this year she published an updated version of her draft rent control bill, though she doesn’t seem to have much (if any) visible support from her colleagues on the Council. Now having narrowly escaped recall, Sawant is making noises about a more fervent push to pass her rent control bill. That makes it a good time to provide an update …

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Court-appointed police monitor files status report

This morning Dr. Antonio Oftelie, the court-appointed police monitor for the 2012 Consent Decree, filed a status report informing Judge James Robart of what has been happening in 2021 and previewing actions expected next year. Oftelie provided an update on contract negotiations with the two unions representing SPD officers and supervisors, and provided some details on how he is assembling his much-anticipated assessment of SPD’s compliance with the consent decree.

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