This gets at one of the biggest problems with American left-of-center political culture: the default to subsidies. Not only is it simply incorrect, as the thread shows, but it leads to a zero-sum worldview, that for someone to gain, someone has to lose.

This session we’re again working to help pass SB 5156 to make elevators more economical in WA.  Legalizing smaller, lower-cost elevators will help make more small-scale apartment buildings and age-friendly city living accessible to more Washingtonians, no matter their physical abilities. 🆙🆙🆙

Bluesky: People sleep on the street because of BILLIONAIRES and CORPORATIONS Reality: Mom dad grandma grandpa are why people sleep on the street

America has a housing shortage. Every single housing proposal you see that is not "build more housing" will have the primary effect of pushing up the prices of existing housing, and is therefore, in reality, a plan to enrich current homeowners. In conclusion, build more housing.

A must watch: our friends at @sightline.org explain the elevator policy fixes needed to unlock more inclusive, affordable homes 🛗

Someone needs to say it. The black population not only has grown in Seattle, but since the upzones started in 1990, it’s grown in the dense areas which include the historically black neighborhoods of Southeast Seattle. It declined everywhere else. Low density zoning gentrified cities, not upzoning

Bring on the elevators!

Really good, detailed, insightful stuff from @ronpdavis.bsky.social on funded IZ

What to do about inclusionary zoning in Seattle? I untangle the mess and show we can BOTH fund it AND allow in-lieu fees. This is a fair way to get more housing + more affordable housing + keep affordable housing providers whole. www.theurbanist.org/2025/12/30/o...

The state’s operating budget will never be able to support highway maintenance activity unless we #LiftTheCap on property tax levy increases to at least CPI + 3%.

Lift the cap!

It is honestly shocking how long we've known the way we build our cities is unsustainable

With all the road washouts, the state transportation budget is going to be a mess. Maybe it's time we started looking at cutting projects that increase highway capacity and induce more sprawl. Here's $86 million we don't need to spend.

We need the building code to incentivize concrete construction over light wood framing. Concrete is inherently non-combustible and has good acoustic performance.

Representatives April Connors (R-8, Kennewick) and Addison Richards (D-26, Bremerton) have prefiled a bill that would freeze Washington's building code for ten full years. app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/...

Important concept: in a housing shortage prices for the lowest priced housing for sale or rent goes up the fastest

The front page of the local paper has an article about middle housing - with a quote from @andersem.bsky.social and one of our @yimbyaction.bsky.social chapter leads, Ryan. As well as an article about single stair reform. Not bad!

Trump and his people are evil.

I had a chance to tour the Solis passive house apartment building in Seattle this past weekend. It's interesting as a #passivhaus in the middle of Capitol Hill, with a view to another green building icon, the Bullitt Centre >> The passive part is great, but what caught my eye was the stair. 🧵

For shame

Learn about housing economics research here: www.buildingabundance.ca

Get organized. Join YIMBY Action.

Lawsuit challenges inclusionary zoning (such as Seattle's MHA program) as unconstitutional pioneerlegal.org/wp-content/u... The Constitution "bar[s the] Government from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole.’"

These rules would do a lot of things, but here's @sightline.org's summary of what we see as the most important things www.sightline.org/2025/12/03/n...

Wow I never thought I’d be saying this, but we are behind SAN FRANCISCO

Still thinking about this article. It’s always been a sore spot in YIMBY circles that so many progressive foundations pour money into NIMBYism, and I’m glad it’s finally being aired in public. Keep talking about it. www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/philant...

Yay!

Hello Seattle Urbanists — if we want market rate development to happen with all the interest rates and tariffs and other barriers we have to get rid of MHA temporarily to speed up housing. And we have to get rid of minimum parking requirements. Asap.

In addition to reform of permitting and building codes, stop making new construction pay out of proportion and excessive fees for water hookups.

Reform permitting and to extent possible building codes, especially in neighborhood and midrise zones.

Wanna stick it to Trump and live up to the Paris Accords, California? Stop driving so much *and* tell your city council's to build bus and bike lanes instead of throwing away money on car infrastructure. www.aalto.fi/en/departmen...

I want an apartment with such good sound insulation that I could be getting slashed in there screaming for help, and not one of my neighbors would hear me. ...or like, I shouldn't hear my neighbors fucking or hear a neighbors dog barking. Build apartments out of concrete is what I'm saying.

Trump’s new “affordability” push is basically reversing the tariffs he said would never cause un-affordability. @nytimes.com 🤡 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...

amusing chart. it turns out New York City built more housing units in the 1920s than in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 2010s put together www.nyc.gov/content/plan...

Convert MHA to funded inclusionary zoning as Portland has done.

I live a cross-state life, and I think all Washingtonians need to be invested in Seattle’s success. So here are a few things I would be looking to do if I were Katie Wilson or if I were joining her administration:

When we build enough supply of homes so that landlords must compete, renters win. "The more properties there are, it drives all of us to lower rents and offer concessions" says the property manager pictured here. bendbulletin.com/2025/11/11/b...

The number of curable ballots from Seattle has edged downward a little since midday yesterday. There's now just over 1,700 curable ballots, which still skew younger.

So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!

Balducci is a class act.

There's lot of challenged ballots in Seattle. Challenged ballots disproportionately skew younger with over half from people under age 45.

We’re on the right track! Make sure you track your ballot to confirm it is accepted, NOT challenged. Check our links in bio to do so! More votes will be counted on Monday!

Bummed about a Claudia. She would have been a better exec.

You can also volunteer to help assist the ballot curing effort! docs.google.com/forms/d/15iZ...

Verify online that your ballot has been received and counted! ‼️ info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/...

1/ Seattle! 2000 ballots need signatures (updates or didn't sign)!! Tell your friends to check their ballot status here: info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/... And if you have time between now & Nov. 14, volunteer to help cure votes: linktr.ee/Wilsonforsea... ("Ballot Chasing for Katie Wilson")

I don't just type things up on Bluesky (though the election number crunching and analysis I've been doing is part of my job)—I also have a website, PubliCola.com, where you can read my local coverage and also support my work, which is 100% funded by readers. PubliCola.com/support