Posted on 05/01/2018 12:01:59 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Alex Berezow is a doctor of microbiology who has been living in Seattle, Washington for the past 14 years. But last Friday, in a piece for the Seattle Times, Berezow wrote that he’s finally had enough of the toxic, far left politics of the city. He and his wife are moving to a nearby city, though he wishes it weren’t necessary.
When I first moved to Seattle 14 years ago, to attend the University of Washington, homelessness essentially didn’t exist at Northgate. Though I have never been a victim of or witness to a crime, some of my neighbors have been, and they believe homeless camps are the reason.
Before we continue, let me pause to point out that in January the Seattle Times published a piece titled “Is Seattle’s homeless crisis the worst in the country?” The conclusion of the piece: maybe. “However you count it, Seattle, King County and Washington are all in the top 10 when it comes to homelessness,” the report states. And if you only look at the homeless in the city of Seattle, “then it jumps above D.C., New York and L.A. — with 121 homeless people per 10,000.” In sum, it may not be the worst but it’s certainly in the running. Back to Berezow:
Slowly but surely, Seattle has become an angry place. Councilmember Kshama Sawant called a police shooting a “brutal murder.” She also tweeted that it was “terrible” for a feminist organization to wish that Barbara Bush, on her death, rest in peace. As a congressional candidate, Pramila Jayapal supporters implied that her respectable opponent, Brady Walkinshaw, was a misogynist and racist. And former Mayor Ed Murray, whose pattern of alleged sexual behavior finally caught up with him, remained defiant until the bitter end…
The $15 minimum wage has added gasoline to the fire. Though it hasn’t even been fully implemented yet, the most recent study last summer revealed that when the minimum moved from $11 to $13 an hour, low-wage workers lost about $125 per month. That means that the law raises costs for businesses and customers while actually harming employees it was meant to help.
But stubborn facts and a hurting middle class don’t seem to faze the City Council, which seems far more concerned about issues over which it has zero control — such as climate change and foreign policy — than it does about issues over which it has at least a modicum of control, such as the cost of living, homelessness, crime, traffic and potholes. For our City Council, virtue signaling is more important than governing.
Berezow is absolutely correct about the minimum wage hike and the city’s response to a study showing it would actually harm people it was supposed to help. As I wrote last June, former Mayor Ed Murray (who has since left because of a sex scandal) and socialist City Council member Kshama Sawant worked to undermine that report. Here’s how Seattle Weekly explained it at the time:
The UW shares with City Hall an early draft of its study showing the minimum wage law is hurting the workers it was meant to help; the mayor’s office shares the study with researchers known to be sympathetic toward minimum wage laws, asking for feedback; those researchers release a report that’s high on Seattle’s minimum wage law just a week before the negative report comes out.
In short, Seattle’s commitment to far left ideology is slowly transforming it into a less appealing place to live. The same could be said about San Francisco or other big cities where leftist ideologues are completely in charge. Eventually, you end up with is a city so filthy that people who visit aren’t sure they want to come back. Or in this case, with someone who loves the city deciding he can’t take it anymore and moving his family out of Seattle.
Some of them are like I was: A conservative in a leftist area. I joke that I moved from a place where my vote didn’t count to a place where my vote still doesn’t count, but for the opposite reason. :)
People on coastal California don't actively demonize making money like they often did in Seattle. Constant mocking and open jealousy in Seattle of people with wealth. Didn't and don't find that as much in coastal California. Historically it was NOT OK to show wealth in Seattle whether you were Bill Gates or any other.
that place in Ballard would fund a nice spread out in flyover country.
fantastic!!!
Once again leftism ruins what it touches.
The real question is how to eradicate it permanently once and for all time like the disease it is.
Beautiful city, one of my favorites in all the world, but even during the decade I lived there I could see the political rot set in. A dear friend is now moving out of King County after four plus decades, and his concern is that he might not be moving far enough to escape the great progressive suck. As King County goes, so goes the state of Washington, and there doesn’t seem much the people in the normal parts of the state can do to restore sanity. The socialists haven’t run out of other people’s money yet.
I was a big bike commuter there but still against all this money being spent on the lanes. But it is what Seattle does. They WANT people to stop driving. The roads are so bad because so much of your transportation dollars are spent on busses, ferries and bike lanes. It explains why the roads are so nice in Kentucky.
I have to admit, though, that thanks to cell phones and texting, It may be necessary to disallow bicycles on public roads, for the safety of the cyclists. Either that or make bike lanes that have physical barriers to protect them from texters.
Motorcycles too. (no, I’m not seriously proposing it, nor do I think it should happen, but I have little doubt some liberals are seriously considering it.).
Amazon is a big contributor to the city going to hell. The area around Amazon is like a campus. People who work there are expected to live there.
It’s a miserable place to work too. The people there complain that nobody can focus on anything long enough to actually completely fix something. I’ve never seen or felt a work environment colder than that one.
Microsoft is much better under their new CEO, and they are measuring the right stuff now.
Seattle is a mix of tech weenies and the homeless. The leadership is EXTREME ME TOO, in that not even homosexual pedophiles are safe.
I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m from SF area. Berkeley even. Much worse than Berkeley.
Spot on.
I have family there. They live in a formally nice neighborhood.
I keep telling them to leave,or go back to Nebraska.
Roads started for people walking. At a min, it should be allowed for any method of moving. I dislike the idea of some roads not being allowed to move along the shoulder at least. Not everyone can have a car or bike. At a min, one should be a able to roam, which is god given.
that place in Ballard would fund a nice spread out in flyover country.
I spent the last year in “Seattle” renting a one bedroom condo, a five minute walk from my office in Factoria. My 32 acres and new home in rural KY, which I completely financed (rate just too darned low) costs me half as much per month.
And we no longer have to drive to a park to go for a walk. We have our own trails and two streams.
And the real estate taxes, annually, are the same as one month’s payment on a new Toyota.
The real question is how to eradicate it permanently once and for all time like the disease it is.
I hope that after North Korea, Iran, and The Wall, President Trump turns his focus on our cites.
Having visited Seattle once, that was more than enough. Our family will never return to that sh*thole again. What a dump!
Putting unthinkable cost of Seattle bike lanes into perspective
The news isn't all bad: "If the mayor is having a metaphorical heart attack over this, the people who are actually most heartbroken are the bike advocates and safe-streets activists who campaigned most enthusiastically for the levy." (We had to diet the street to save it.)
Again, imagine the news coverage if government spending for a "conservative" cause were handled this way. Any conservative-flavored virtue signaling would've been scrutinized long ago.
The whole south lake union area used to be pseudo-industrial with the exception of a camera shop, Jafco (which became Guitar center) and a few other retail places. But a couple of years ago I came back for a visit and was shocked at what Amazon had done to the area.
There is something I used to say about the city about twenty years ago, but it is many times more true today than it was then:
Seattle is a gold plated garbage can.
And you can now use Google street view to see it. They visit areas a lot and archive the photos. You can now go to a location and choose from a backlog of dates to see what it used to look like. The changes in South Lake Union are shocking. And it does “look” better than it did, but it is truly a cold place for humans.
I don’t blame him. I lived almost the majority of my life in Seattle and I’ve never seen it as stupid as it is now. I moved to a city outside of Seattle and only go there on rare occasions. People have lost their marbles.
Completely agree. People don’t really realize that J-walking had to be seen as a bad thing to people because before cars it was completely normal to simply walk across the street. And it was normal and accepted. But fast moving cars made it too dangerous so enter the crosswalk, and j-walking tickets.
What’s kind of interesting is that a motorist must pass a test and know the rules of the road to get a license. And if you violate those rules you may get a ticket. But a j-walker is just a person walking down the street that decides he wants to go to the other side. I don’t see how J-walkers can even be cited, without ample signage stating that it is a crime to cross the street except at crosswalks.
It’s pretty from a distance. :)
And the surrounding area is gorgeous. I loved it in my teenaged years. ‘Course, that was the early 70’s. It was a very different place.
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