It’s been several months since we’ve heard anything about the ongoing spat between the City of Seattle and Rentberry, which offers an online platform to facilitate rent-bidding. But since April, the city has extended its moratorium on rent-bidding platforms and finished its study of the impacts of rent-bidding, and Rentberry has appealed its first-round loss of its legal challenge to the moratorium.
Let’s catch up on where things stand.
After several months of work, the city is ready to complete the next milestone toward putting the Waterfront LID in place. But one obstacle remains in its path.
Continue reading Waterfront LID starts to move forward again, maybe
This afternoon, Mayor Jenny Durkan and City Attorney Pete Holmes held a press conference to lay out their plans for how the City of Seattle is responding to the likely passage of Initiative 976.
This afternoon the state Court of Appeals wrapped up its chapter of the legal challenge to Seattle’s income tax, rejecting a request to reconsider its July ruling. That clears the way for the case to move on to the state Supreme Court.
Continue reading Income tax lawsuit concludes at the appeals court; on to the state Supreme Court
This afternoon, Judge James Robart issued an order authorizing the City of Seattle to proceed with its proposal to assess its police accountability system and formulate a methodology to achieve compliance under the 2012 Consent Decree.
Continue reading Robart green-lights city’s plan to assess police accountability system (UPDATED)
This afternoon, the City of Seattle announced that it has reached a settlement in the lawsuit filed by the owner of the Showbox property over the city’s “spot zone” of the Showbox to prevent it from being redeveloped.
Today a U.S. District Court judge in Pennsylvania handed a legal win to Safehouse, a proposed safe-injection site. However, the victory may be short-lived.
Continue reading Philadelphia safe-injection site gets a win in court
This morning, the City Council voted out of committee four bills, creating new protections for hotel workers, which have been in the works for several months. Once voted into law, it will replace the embattled Initiative 124.
Continue reading Hotel workers bills advance out of committee
Last Thursday the Council’s Workers’ Rights committee finished amending three of the four hotel workers’ protection bills, co-sponsored by Council members Mosqueda and Gonzalez to replace Initiative 124.
(update 9/9: a couple of corrections below based upon feedback from Council staff. My apologies; several of the amendments weren’t published in advance of the meeting so it was challenging to follow along)
Continue reading Hotel worker bills get fine-tuned, continue to move forward
Over the summer, Council member Sawant has been working on a bill that would expand the city’s ability to establish additional “tiny house” villages and issue permits for more sanctioned homeless encampments. However, her bill has already been tied up in land-use bureaucracy.
