Rent control, and more.
KING, KUOW, Curbed, and Capitol Hill Seattle Blog cover Council member Sawant’s anouncement yesterday that she is introducing legislation to impose rent control in Seattle and to force landlords to pay tenants when they are forced to move out due to large rent increases.
The LA TImes looks at the recently-passed MHA ordinance.
Patch reports on the ordinance passed yesterday requiring closed captions to be turned on for all televisions in places of public accommodation.
The Seattle Times brings us the latest election coverage.
Patch and MyNorthwest cover last night’s public forum for applicants to fill the vacant seat on the Council.
West Seattle Blog catches us up on the process of selecting a path for light rail extensions to West Seattle and Ballard.
re: the rent control rally:
I know that it’s not the biggest deal in the world, but I still find it troubling that CM Sawant can use the City Hall print shop to crank out pseudo-campaign posters that basically mimic those for her re-election… seem to be basically the same fonts, same color schemes, same look and feel…
however, AFAIK – as long as her CM name and city logo are affixed to the bottom portion of the signage, everything seems to be OK? At least, nobody in ethics seems to take interest?
And, BTW: this is not just about Sawant – with whom I agree on a number of concerns (e.g. income inequality, gentrification, displacement).
But doesn’t this set precent for future CMs to do the same?
So, hypothetically, if a local, self-described neighborhood safety group gets a friend elected to SCC and then get ahold of the print shop…. as long as the message can tangentially be connected to proposed/pending legislation – it will be accepted & condoned?
I guess it’s probably all a grey area, but I personally find the pattern of what appears to be gov’t resources used to genearate pseudo-campaign materials to be a bit troubling for a democracy…
assuming that’s still what we’re going to have around here?
https://www.ted.com/talks/carole_cadwalladr_facebook_s_role_in_brexit_and_the_threat_to_democracy