Denny Westneat of the Seattle Times writes another story about how the city’s homelessness, drug, and crime problems have caused yet another neighborhood business to close its doors.  Yet it is almost never mentioned in the media that these problems were caused by the unrestrained extreme liberal policies that come from Seattle City Hall.  No moderate, let alone a conservative, has served on the city council for decades, as non-liberals have either fled the city or have been silenced in fear of being labeled a “racist,” “fascist,” or any of the many other hate-filled insults liberals love to pin on those who dare challenge their viewpoint. The media also needs to take its share of responsibility for Seattle’s eliminating of moderate and reasonable voices from the debate as they too often act as the communications department for the Democrat Party. (Click to read full Shift article)

The Washington Policy Center released a new housing report outlining how liberal policies have caused the state’s severe housing shortage (the worst in the country) and are responsible for the higher cost of housing and skyrocketing rental rates. The report finds seven actions which are driving up the cost of housing. They are:

• The unfocused and complicated policies within the Growth Management Act.
• The slow and expensive building permitting process.
• Banning natural gas is driving up construction and remodeling costs.
• Restrictions on tenant background checks is driving up rental rates.
• Rent control threats are increasing rental rates.
• Local and state regulations are forcing higher housing rental rates.
• Indirect government actions result in higher housing costs.

Liberals often claim that higher housing costs are the primary reason (and not drug/alcohol addiction or mental illness) for the massive increase in homelessness during Jay Inslee’s administration.  Yet they never acknowledge that it is their policies which have driven up the cost of purchasing a home or forcing low-income workers to pay more for rent.

Instead, liberals seek to use this problem to selfishly increase the size and cost of state government. For example, Governor Inslee has proposed that the state “borrow” $4 billion to build 10,000 housing units instead of removing government regulations which are actually causing the problem.  Essentially the governor is demanding that taxpayers pay $4 billion dollars – plus massive interest payments every year – to help solve the problems which liberal policies have created. (Washington Policy Center and Axios)

A Republican measure to prohibit homeless encampments within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare center received a brief public hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use & Tribal Affairs on Tuesday morning.  The bill (SB 5332) was introduced by Senator Curtis King (R – Yakima) and is the result of Seattle parents being concerned about multiple homeless encampments being allowed to stay in place near their children’s schools.  Note, it is remarkable that no Democrat legislator from Seattle is demonstrating the willingness to support parents by offering similar legislation or supporting this bill.

Senator King said, “To think we are going to allow this (encampments) right next to a school is mind blowing to me. Why do you want that next to where your children are being educated?” Democrat legislative leadership has not scheduled for the bill for a vote in committee this week and thus the bill will die when the legislature reaches its “policy bill deadline” on Friday. (KOMO News and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

A notice of settlement was recorded in federal court on Wednesday in the lawsuit filed by Capitol Hill residents and small business owners against the City of Seattle for its actions during the liberal activists’ 2020 riots.  The group’s lawsuit contended that Seattle officials allowed, and even helped, the protestors to illegally take over portions of the city which cut the plaintiffs off from customers and threatened their safety.

The settlement comes after a federal judge imposed strong legal sanctions against the city for deleting texts from top Seattle officials which were sought as evidence in the lawsuit. Terms of the settlement were not released (final paperwork must be filed before March 10^th) but we can expect that Seattle taxpayers will be forced to pay for the many significant mistakes made by elected and appointed city officials.  There was no comment on the settlement made by former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan as she enjoys her retirement funded by multiple government pension plans.

It was interesting to see the Seattle Times again put a liberal spin on the violent protests which took place on Capitol Hill during 2020.  The article labeled the riots as “mostly peaceful” while admitting, “there were instances of vandalism and sporadic outbreaks of violence, including fights, an attempt to torch the abandoned police precinct and at least four shootings that claimed two lives of two teenagers.” (We should note that the “abandoned police precinct” had dozens of officers in it at the time of the arson attempt and that the reporter conveniently left out reports of assaults and rapes within the CHOP/CHAZ.)  The Times’ description that it was “mostly peaceful” is equivalent to a historian describing the scene at Ford’s Theatre on the evening of April 14, 1865  as “mostly peaceful except for that instance of presidential assassination.”  (Seattle Times, KOMO News, The Hill/YouTube, and Library of Congress)

Sound Transit announced that it will finally have security guards remove passengers who smoke fentanyl (or anything else) on their trains, after years of riders complaining.   The Seattle Times described this action as “an effort to address chronic complaints by transit riders and operators.”  In January there were 157 complaints filed with the transit agency.  Open drug use has been rampant on the trains since the Sound Transit essentially lifted any penalty for not paying fares in 2020, recklessly deciding that “education and warnings” was all that was needed.  (Seattle Times)

A husband and wife who own a couple of Seattle neighborhood businesses say it is exhausting dealing with the repetitive break-ins to their stores.  Just a month ago, Stephan and Diane Naramore participated in a televised town hall to discuss the impact of crime on small business owners.  They own coffee and mail shops in the Ballard and Greenwood neighborhoods.  They reported that once again their Greenwood location was broken into this week and their Ballard store also experienced more criminal activity. They stated during the town hall that they feared that crime was going to force them to turn their shops into fortresses.

Unfortunately Seattle Councilman Dan Strauss, who represents the Naramores on the city council, believes he does not have enough information on the city’s crime problem to support any necessary measures to help the small business owners.  He is relying on a recently created task force to provide him with this information.  Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell feigned empathy for the Naramores by using the President Bill Clinton era phrase “I feel their pain.” He then stated he is seeking to learn “’why is that person committing a crime. Should they be prosecuted?”  Not exactly the type of leadership needed to help small business owners who continue to suffer from the city’s on-going crime problems. (KOMO News)

TVW’s The Impact program produced an excellent report on the bi-partisan legislation which will create a voluntary program for farmers to be compensated for their efforts to improve salmon runs on streams that flow through their lands. The “riparian” bill {HB 1720) is a major departure from two recent mandatory programs Governor Inslee had drafted in secret with his wealthy urban environmentalist campaign contributors, both of which died immediately after being introduced.  We should note that Governor Inslee’s staff member was the only person to testify against the voluntary program at a recent hearing on the legislation.

The program featured a discussion with two of the bi-partisan co-sponsors of the legislation, Representatives Mike Chapman (D – Port Angeles) and Joe Kretz (R – Wauconda).  Representative Kretz said, “We’ve got a unique opportunity to make progress on riparian areas.  But with a voluntary approach instead of the old way of force and regulatory means.”  Representative Chapman added that the bill “seems to be the right thing to do… what’s wrong with doing the right thing in Olympia?” The bill is schedule for a vote in the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources (which Representative Chapman chairs) on Friday morning. (TVW The impact program and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Shift’s Newsmaker Interview was with Republican Representative Eric Robertson of Sumner, who previously served as an officer in the Washington State Patrol and was appointed U.S. Marshall for Western Washington by President George W. Bush. He previously served in the Washington State Legislature for two terms in the 1990s and returned to the House of Representatives in 2021.  He is a father of five and enjoys being with his nine grandchildren.

Representative Robertson is a legislative leader among those seeking to restore common sense to our state’s public safety policies after the Democrats passed their anti-police measures in 2021.  He is the co-sponsor of the bi-partisan HB 1363 to repeal the disastrous restrictions the Democrats imposed on police pursuits.  The representative discussed in his interview several bills aimed to make our communities safer. He also shared his thoughts on Republican-sponsored legislation to financially support more educational options which will provide flexibility in meeting student needs.

Representative Robertson also shared his thoughts on taxing cannabis products, providing tax relief to lower- and middle- income workers, and repealing the Democrats’ poorly developed Long Term Care tax/plan. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

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