Showing posts with label Seattle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seattle. Show all posts

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Citizens of the ultra-progressive Seattle have lost patience with political leaders’ failure to address the homelessness crisis



Don’t believe the hype that “Amazon killed the Seattle head tax,” the new levy that the city recently passed on businesses to fund an affordable-housing initiative. The truth behind the city council’s stunning reversal—repealing the tax by a 7-2 vote, just four weeks after passing it 9-0—is that Seattle citizens have erupted in frustration against the city’s tax-and-spend political class that has failed to address the homelessness crisis, despite record new revenues.

As recently as a few years ago, it seemed as if Seattle voters largely viewed our hyper-progressive city council as a harmless oddity in an otherwise tolerant, thriving, liberal city. But times have changed...

While Amazon has grabbed all the headlines, this battle touches on an even deeper paradox of political life in Seattle: we have created one of the most dynamic, innovative, upwardly mobile cities in the nation—a testament to the power of our unique brand of compassionate capitalism—yet we have also spawned a hardcore socialist contingent that wants to tear it all down.

Fortunately, the head tax fight has revealed that some of the core constituencies of the progressive coalition—affluent liberal neighbors, labor unions, and blue-collar workers—are starting to turn against the politics of the far Left....

After years of skyrocketing local taxes and failing public programs, Seattle voters have begun to understand that taxes alone don’t solve problems; what’s needed is strong leadership and sensible public policy. The evidence against the city council’s approach to homelessness is piling up on every street corner and public sidewalk in the city: out-of-control street camping, thousands of discarded hypodermic needles, and property crime rates four times higher than New York City....

There’s a limit to progressivism, even in America’s most progressive city. The backlash is coming.



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Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Seattle City Council: "How can we drive away businesses as fast as possible?





"The city does not have a revenue problem – it has a spending efficiency problem," Herdener said. "We are highly uncertain whether the city council’s anti-business positions or its spending inefficiency will change for the better.”

















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Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Researchers hired by Seattle to study the effects of raising the minimum wage to $15 were fired after they reported the policy cost 5,000 jobs and harmed the poor.

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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Seattle sued over recycling inspectors keeping tabs on residents' trash



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Monday, May 4, 2015

Female ISIS Recruiter is a Journalism Student Living in Seattle



Senior female Isis agent unmasked and traced to Seattle
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Sunday, May 3, 2015

Now, protests in several of country’s deepest blue and most “tolerant” areas have devolved into hostilities against police.





Crowds clashed with police during May Day marches in several U.S. West Coast cities late on Friday, as officers responded with stun grenades and pepper spray, police and media said.

Anti-capitalist protesters hurled wrenches and rocks at officers in Seattle, police said. Demonstrators in Oakland, California, and several other cities, rallied against a series of police killings of unarmed black men, local media reported.

Footage on social media showed protesters smashing shop windows in Seattle and crowds scattering as police in riot gear threw in “flashbang” grenades. Demonstrators set fire to garbage and damaged at least two dozen vehicles, police said.

◼ POLL: 96% BRACED FOR SUMMER OF RACE RIOTS - Wall St. Journal via Drudge
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Tuesday, April 7, 2015

150 Seattle students set to boycott Common Core exam with the approval of some of their teachers

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Friday, March 20, 2015

Seattle’s $15 Min. Wage Is Making Something Happen That City Leaders Never Expected

◼ EAs the April 1 deadline approaches, the residents of Seattle will have a front row seat to the effects of the $15 per hour minimum wage, but early indicators suggest it will not be as positive as City Hall intended. - Western Journalism

Earlier this month, Seattle Magazine asked, Why Are So Many Seattle Restaurants Closing Lately?

The magazine went on to report that one “major factor affecting restaurant futures in our city is the impending minimum wage hike.” Anthony Anton, president and CEO of Washington Restaurant Association, told the magazine, “It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.” He estimates that restaurants usually have a budget breakdown of about 36 percent for labor, 30 percent for food costs, and 30 percent to cover other operational costs. That leaves 4 percent for a profit margin. When labor costs shoot up to say 42 percent, something has to give.
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Monday, March 16, 2015

Why Are So Many Seattle Restaurants Closing Lately?

◼ Restaurants in Seattle Going Dark as $15 an Hour Minimum Wage Looms - RICK MORAN/PJMEDIA
By decoupling the value of labor from the real world of supply and demand, the consequences are a reduction in the overall value of labor and the forced increase in prices that will lessen demand. If your electric, gas, water, phone, and other overhead costs go up 35%, you are going to be forced to raise prices on your products, and reduce your workforce numerically as well as the number of hours worked per employee. Why would an increase of that magnitude in labor costs not result in the same outcome?




◼ Last month—and particularly last week— Seattle foodies were downcast as the blows kept coming: - Seattle Mag

Queen Anne’s Grub closed February 15. Pioneer Square’s Little Uncle shut down February 25. Shanik’s Meeru Dhalwala announced that it will close March 21. Renée Erickson’s Boat Street Café will shutter May 30 after 17 years with her at the helm (though, praise be, original owner Susan Kaplan will expand her neighboring Boat Street Kitchen into the space and continue serving the Boat Street paté, the amaretto bread pudding with butter rum cream sauce and other favorites).

Furthermore, less than a week after he was named a James Beard Semifinalist (Best Chef: Northwest) for his work at northern Italian restaurant Spinasse, Jason Stratton announced he would be stepping down from that restaurant and his others—Artusi and Vespolina—immediately to head to Spain.

What the #*%&$* is going on? A variety of things, probably—and a good chance there is more change to come....

Though none of our local departing/transitioning restaurateurs who announced their plans last month have elaborated on the issue, another major factor affecting restaurant futures in our city is the impending minimum wage hike to $15 per hour. Starting April 1, all businesses must begin to phase in the wage increase: Small employers have seven years to pay all employees at least $15 hourly; large employers (with 500 or more employees) have three.

Since the legislation was announced last summer, The Seattle Times and Eater have reported extensively on restaurant owners’ many concerns about how to compensate for the extra funds that will now be required for labor: They may need to raise menu prices, source poorer ingredients, reduce operating hours, reduce their labor and/or more.

Washington Restaurant Association's Anton puts it this way: “It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.”

He estimates that a common budget breakdown among sustaining Seattle restaurants so far has been the following: 36 percent of funds are devoted to labor, 30 percent to food costs and 30 percent go to everything else (all other operational costs). The remaining 4 percent has been the profit margin, and as a result, in a $700,000 restaurant, he estimates that the average restauranteur in Seattle has been making $28,000 a year.

With the minimum wage spike, however, he says that if restaurant owners made no changes, the labor cost in quick service restaurants would rise to 42 percent and in full service restaurants to 47 percent.... KEEP READING



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Monday, October 20, 2014

What a Failed Ideology Looks Like:

◼ Socialist Group Calls For $20 Min Wage at the Same Time Paying... - IJREVIEW.COM|BY MICHAEL HAUSAM

The Seattle, Washington-based Freedom Socialist Party thinks the federal government should mandate a $20 per hour minimum wage.

This is a group that, earlier this year, also strongly supported the Seattle/Tacoma airport’s wage increase to $15, as well as the city of Seattle’s efforts to do the same.

And they are completely on board with the efforts to raise the minimum wage in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, and the state of California itself.

In fact, the group just published an editorial on why the minimum wage should be even higher than what’s being proposed in these various places...

So, you’d expect that when looking to hire folks to help spread the socialist gospel they’d lead by example, right? Wrong.

Take a look at the job listing they recently posted on Craigslist, taking careful note of the highlighted wage they’re offering:


You read that right. They want to pay $13 an hour for a web content manager! Notice also that this is only a part-time job. As both Magazine and All American Blogger point out, this falls well below the average pay for this type of position....
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