Self-proclaimed 'Center of the Universe'.
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.
Virtue signalling that completely ignores the people paying the bills, that vote, and now are leaving the cesspool that Seattle has become.
The city is a great place to visit. I even seriously considered moving there.
But the loony politics, heroin bags all over the damn place, and sky-high costs knocked me back into reality.
This suicide impulse on the left is real & it’s not going away. It’s not going to end well.
Senseless in Seattle.
I am firmly convinced that Seattle looks at leftism as a competition with San Francisco and Portland.
America’s insane urban leftists and DC central planners are riding high, because of massive government spending, debt in a fiat, paper currency, and manipulated interest rates
I lived there for 46 years, and bought and moved to a small farm in South-central Kentucky 7 years ago. The happiest years of my life.
I go back to visit my parents and kids there, but even they are leaving. My son didn’t go far. He moved to Tacoma and loves it. One daughter moved to Studio City, and settled in a suburb of Phoenix. Another is in Ballard but is visiting us in two weeks. She and her husband are looking for homes near Louisville so they can move here pronto. She’s serious enough that she just quit her job, and he can still do his job while they live here. But the cost of living is so low only one of them needs to work while they home school their future children.
But on my recent trips to Seattle, I can’t believe what a cesspool it has become these last seven years. The South Lake Union area (mostly Amazon now) looks “fancier” than it was, but It was a lot “nicer” before. And the traffic was bad when I left and is a major reason I left. But it was heaven compared to now.
We still have Market Spice tea mailed to us, though. :)
The left destroys everything it touches.
"...moving after fourteen years..."
For your interest.
Seems to be a common theme with ultra lib cities and towns. Vulgar nasty cess poolish.
Self-proclaimed 'Center of the Universe'.
During the mid term campaigns, all conservatives should point out - over and over again - the sad reality of what liberalism has done to our cities and states.
The lyin’ liberals will be steaming mad, but so what? It’s time they learned the deplorables are right.
When I lived there, occasionally my wife and I would drive to downtown early on Saturday morning to watch Pike place market open. We’d leave by nine. I worked at several buildings downtown during my ongoing IT contracting career. I liked bicycling downtown. But the politics and traffic just got toxic, and texting made bicycling too dangerous. So I left.
BTW, Back around 1980, I sold commercial real estate out of a fifth ave office. i.e. I still know virtually the entire city like the back of my hand.
Now that I’m in KY, if I miss Freemont or Capital hill, I just hit The Highlands. It’s pretty much the same thing. Frankly, there are several places in Louisville that I see as sort of twins of various parts of Seattle. We have our Burien, our Montlake Terrace, even our U-district. But we have a LOT more history here. I love it.
Senseless in Seattle.
'
Cost estimates for bike lanes in Seattle were wildly off.
The $930 million transportation levy approved by voters will fall short of funding several key projects, including constructing miles of bike lanes and greenways.
At least part of the reason for that shortfall has to do with the enormous amount of money the city is spending on bike lanes. Interim Director Goran Sparrman of the Seattle Department of Transportation told the Seattle Times bikelanes expected to cost around $860,000 per mile are costing up to $12 million.
For the amount the city is spending on a single mile of protected bike lanes, many urban areas in the country could be building a six-lane highway, according to a recent report. And that money would go even further in rural areas.
According to the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center, an organization funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, the cost of a five-foot, one-mile bike lane costs between $5,000 and $535,000. The average cost is about $130,000. Which means the estimated $860,000 for a mile of bike lane isn’t too extraordinary, especially considering the cost of doing business in the Seattle area.
The news that the city would fall short on several transportation-related promises follows Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s decision to halt the streetcar expansion project because cost estimates increasing yet again.
Imagine the national coverage if the politics were reversed--more concern about Those Angry Conversatives! (Sawant's being A Woman of Color would not "protect" her if she were at least nominally conservative.) I'm convinced that there would've been more too about "former Mayor Ed Murray, whose pattern of alleged sexual behavior finally caught up with him" had he been a Republican.
I'm not sure if I want to read any comments following this opinion piece. They're probably full of angry leftists telling everyone how loving, peaceful, and tolerant they are, unlike those !@#$%!@#$#!@#$% Republicans.
In the mid-70’s, I drove on I-405 from Renton to Bellevue where I sold Hi-Fi. The traffic was always light any time of day and the cops were always watching for speeders.
By the time I left in 2011, it was bumper to bumper seven days a week. Sometimes a parking lot, even at noon on a Saturday.
That is planning incompetence or worse.
I couldn’t but help notice that someone painted Lenin’s left hand with red paint - to symbolize blood on his hands.
I love the symbolism. Very accurate too.
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