by Jon Lisbin

​Crosscut’s Josh Cohen reported on the U District’s Community Forum, held Tuesday May 16’th, covering the city’s proposed upzones.  Although the article was a fair representation of the forum, SFG believes the label "anti-growth advocates" is a gross mischaracterization and one of the many labels (NIMBY, white, elitists, racists) being used by for profit interests, and their enablers, to suppress community input.

Seattle Fair Growth accepts growth as inevitable. The U District, Ballard and other Urban Villages have seen the city’s own growth targets for 2024 exceeded by over 300% 10 years early!  Growth is not the question. The question is whether:

• the supporting infrastructure is in place, i.e. Concurrency
• environmental impacts are minimized
• housing is "affordable”
• vulnerable communities are not displaced and
• the livability and unique characteristics of the city we love are maintained

Over 200 impassioned community members attended this forum.  As accurately reported, by far the majority were opposed (dare I say pissed off) to the proposed upzones; despite a concerted effort by the pro upzone crowd to rally their supporters. The citizens of Seattle are voicing their opinion and the City Council and Mayor, as city representatives, have no choice but to listen. 

Click here for the article

by David Baum, rumblecrash.com

Somewhere between 35% and 49% of the land in the city of Seattle is zoned for single-family homes, depending on exactly how you count. But the urbanists and their developer backers continue to claim that the number is "two-thirds," between 63% and 67%.

The urbanists lie about this because they want homeowners to appear greedy and exclusionary, even racist. "It's time for NIMBYs to share their privilege!" they exclaim. "Why should homeowners have two-thirds of the land, when so many new tech workers can't afford to move here and find a place to rent? The only way to increase the housing supply is to open up single-family zones to developers so the free market can increase density. While we're at it, let's get rid of single-family zoning altogether!" (That last bit didn't go over so well.)
​
But their argument is based on a lie. The only way to claim that two-thirds of the land is zoned single family is to include parks, open space, and cemeteries in the single-family zone. This is what the HALA committee did (and for which they were called out at Crosscut: Single-family Seattle isn't as big as density boosters claim).

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By Jon Lisbin

​Just couldn't believe my eyes when I passed by this morning.  Have we become immune to the demolition going on right in front of our eyes?  Affordable multi family units, being being replaced by luxury apartments, in the name of affordability. Do not watch if you are squeamish.

By 
Sarajane Siegfriedt
Special to The Times.  WHEN I was in my 50s, with my son out of the house, I began planning to supplement my income by turning my half-finished daylight basement into a mother-in-law apartment. Now that I’m retired, it allows me to stay in my home and afford the city’s ever-increasing property taxes.
Mother-in-law apartments are carved out of an existing home, most often in a basement, or sometimes in an attached garage. Backyard cottages, on the other hand, are more complex to permit, design and build. They’re about 10 times more expensive, likely to rent for market rates and they raise lots of concerns with the neighbors.
The Seattle City Council should separate mother-in-law apartment legislation from backyard cottages. They are the best and least expensive way the city can encourage moderately affordable housing.

by David Baum, rumblecrash.com - April 29, 2016

Alan Durning’s think tank, the Sightline Institute, received a $400,000 grant in October 2015 to promote Mayor Murray’s Housing and Livability Agenda (HALA). Mr. Durning was a member of the Mayor’s HALA Advisory Committee, and is an outspoken enemy of neighborhood involvement in land-use policy. The two-year grant will enable Sightline “to leverage its communications, communications strategy (i.e. messaging research), and policy research expertise to promote HALA’s agenda in Seattle.” [Source]

The donor is the Open Philanthropy Project, which distributes the personal multi-billion-dollar fortune of Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook, and his wife Cari Tuna. Mr. Moskovitz and Ms. Tuna are interested in “land use reform,” which to them means promoting “more permissive policy.”
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