4 Dreamy Desires for the Next 4 Years of *Shiny* New Progressive Seattle
Seattle is in a new political era (maybe?) and all the local leftists are thrilled (skeptical) of all the great new taxes on the rich, surveillance cameras – I guess, and … bus lanes? Okay I’ll admit, I am not sure what specifically to be excited for right now – material conditions may be worse than they've ever been for a lot of people, the whole brink of global nuclear war thing – Greek yogurt was $2.29 at the grocery store today, it was $1 like two summers ago – but that's just – I’m not sure, that's all.
So instead of being sure of anything, I have 4 dreamy hopes for the next 4 years of Progressive Seattle – or if we’re ready to embrace the idea that our current system won’t outlive the current federal regime – 4 awesome things I’d like to see out of our next system of governance.
1. Human Rights: Housing, Food Access, Healthcare
Imagine that, right? What if the primary purpose of any system of local governance was not to protect money and local capital, but to ensure that every single person had access to their basic human rights. In our current system, State and Municipal governments can grant or create rights, that then, the Federal government is not supposed to be able to oppose.
So let's do that – from right where we’re at.
Step One: Create Municipal IDs that recognize and protect human rights of all Seattleites
Issued by the City, independent of Federal immigration status. If you have one of those, we can get you a State ID and access to (fingers crossed, soon-to-come) Whole Washington healthcare.
Step Two: Eminent Domain over Vacant Commercial Properties
Downtown Seattle has its highest commercial vacancy rate on record. We’re also experiencing a housing crisis and have a new Social Housing Developer with a $115M bankroll. Let's turn some offices into Social Housing. Oh, it’s expensive? So is everything, do it anyway.
Step Three: Invest in Local Farms & Public Grocery Stores
Exactly as it says – work with the State and nearby counties to identify and invest in local farming production. Set up public grocery stores and commit to getting more of our produce from local farms. Localize and strengthen our own supply lines against Federal instability.
Bonus: Green Energy and Utility InvestmentsI’m talking about really cool stuff – like glass in our large buildings that doubles as solar panels. Sidewalks that… have solar panels – okay obviously, not any kind of expert here. But I’d much rather use these technologies on a public level before they are completely privatized and being “sustainable” just means being operated as a Palantir SmartCity.
2. Free Transit Forever
Easy! (It's not).But it's not impossible! Some complicated things which are still over my head [future article?] need to happen at the State level to allow King County Metro and Sound Transit to obtain the funding they need year-over-year. That said, what a legacy marker for the Transit Mayor to be able to secure free transit for the future of Seattle. I imagine it’s got to be on her mind, and I assume, it’s also a dreamy ambition.
3. Create A Real Alternative to SPD
Now this is one I don’t think anyone wants to touch. But look how nice I’m going to be! I promise I won't even say the word ‘defund.’
- Stop Working with SPOG
- Create a Community Control Board [in charge of accountability]
- Fix the ‘Hiring Gap’ by Adding to the CARE Department
See, I did it.
We need a real solution to our local public safety issues, and the Seattle Police Officers Guild stands in the way of that. [Another article on just SPD/SPOG?].
SPD has spoiled any trust it has with the public. Whether that's by having the largest presence at the January 6th insurrection of any police force, having on-record statements about the willingness to beat protesters or the hilarity of murdering pedestrians of color, and routinely failing to hold accountability for their officers. Across the political spectrum of the city, folks agree SPD has broken trust.
Even receipts for every claim I made.
These issues aren't going to just go away – but the Seattle Police Officers Guild can. The Council could agree to take legislative action to not work with this organization any longer. They could rescind the current contract – the one that was rushed in by Bruce Harrell as a desperate bid for last minute votes, excluded the CARE Department Chief Amy Barden, and was pretty obviously negotiated in bad faith.
From there – we adopt a model of “Community Control of the Police.” There are several structures that I’ve seen discussed but all of them include a “directly elected all civilian” council that has final authority over accountability, disciplinary action, policy, and budget.
Finally – we will never add 500 police officers to the City of Seattle without directly recruiting from White Supremacists organizations. Again, I think I could write an entire article explaining that too. But in short, the SPD has a reputation among police officers that has made its own racist political climate a draw.
That’s not good. Let's close that hiring gap and meet the actual need of people on the street and our community, by growing the CARE department. In an episode of Seattle Nice, Amy Barden explained that SPD’s own analytics say that more than 50% of all 911 calls could be handled by the CARE Department. But this newly signed contract basically keeps the CARE department from responding to anything. It could be a proper alternative response – fully capable of meeting our neighbors on the street, connecting to local mental health, addiction and housing services, and providing us all with a safe option to call when we see someone in distress.
4. Buy the Seahawks, Sonics, Mariners – Negotiate Public Ownership for Our Sports Teams
I mean, it would be pretty cool right?
If you’re not familiar already, the Green Bay Packers have a historic model of collective ownership. The team was originally paid for by the local meat packers, hence the name and obvious lack of creative foresight. It created something pretty interesting that, in my opinion, is deeply underutilized.
An agreement with current ownership (the Seahawks are fully for sale at the moment) to allow the City to form a model of collective ownership with its citizens and fans.
Now I’m pitching this politely – but I do think there’s some newly created legal precedent that would not only support this, but argue that the City, and by extension the people of Seattle, has some right to it.
It’s a stretch but stay with me – NIL or Name Image Likeness deals are sweeping through college sports at the moment. Finally giving means to an illegal pay to play system that was functioning so long anyway. Essentially, the argument is that the college is using part of a person's name, image, or likeness, to encourage the sales, growth, and function of their entity. So they can pay that player for the use of their NIL in the shared benefit of growing and supporting the team.
Aren't city-based sports teams doing the same? Is it the Seahawks? Or the Seattle Seahawks? Mariners are the folks that hang out at the Marina, right? The Seattle Mariners are a globally recognized baseball brand that helped create the pipeline to the Japanese professional leagues. There’s a reason they went to Oklahoma and were called the Thunder – in Seattle, our team is the Super Sonics.
Okay I’m done I swear – but that’s my point, the name of this city is an intrinsic part of these multi billion dollar brands. It simply wouldn't be the same without them.
So, share.
Share the actual ownership of the team, with the community you rely on.
How cool would that be? How revolutionary would any of these be?
Maybe a little dreamy, sure. But I think that's appropriate at the moment. I don’t believe that we currently have access to all of the answers that we will need, in order to solve all of the problems we have, both current and coming.
That's why it's important to use what we do have, right now, to build the foundations and begin to normalize the expectations we have of whatever comes next.
Some Honorable Mentions and maybe some things I think could actually get done:
- Extend Seattle Promise
- Work with DSA for Fee Childcare
- Actually it IS Reasonable – work w/ the TRU for Free Transit
- Can we create a board or Committee to look at capping I-5? We have so many, will one more hurt?
