How our success is ruining Seattle

http://jeffreifman.com/2015/07/09/how-success-is-ruining-seattle/

The biggest problem here is that neither construction companies nor the corporations driving them are being asked to invest in public transit or significantly fund programs that support lower income folks struggling against rising costs. Nor is there any realistic vision or framework for implementing rent control or requiring effective development of affordable housing.

The City Council itself is politically divided and somewhat restricted legally in addressing these problems to sustain the quality of life here. Worse yet, the Washington State Legislature is nearly completely broken politically. Its Democratic leaders remain more representative of corporations, such as Microsoft and Boeing, than of citizens; while the Republicans remain shifted deeply, dysfunctionally to the right. The recent state Supreme Court’s requirements to reform the education system have been met by a scrapped together, last-minute budget without any reform to our tax system which remains the most regressive nationwide. State schools chief Randy Dorn called the Legislature’s budget “unconstitutional” and asked the Court to act against it.

Community conversation around these issues is scarce. Local public radio station KUOW mostly streams national shows, incessant ads and funding requests, and bizarre BBC newscasts for England. Management of Westlake Park, where many public gatherings and marches begin, has been assigned to a private company which plans to regulate activist speakers into a tiny corner.

Many of the technologists Amazon has hired reflect Jeff Bezos’ libertarianism. The Seattle Weekly recently reported, “The little f*ckers don’t vote.” This is true of Bezos as well, who chooses mostly to make annual PAC donations. And, Amazon PR almost never comments on anything publicly, staying quiet as government remains aimless, ineffective, and out of the way of the company and its real estate developers.