Angela, left, no last name was given, and Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, right, Firelands Workers United, … more
Well, it finally happened. Washington’s state now has rent controlIt unites 6 other states that either have government rent control measures or have local jurisdictions that have imposed it. Oregon and now Washington is unique in the fact that they have imposed and will regulate the measure at a state level. For me, personally and professionally, the passage of measure leaves me with mixed emotions. On the one hand, it is regrettable that the efforts I have made in the opposite control of the rent in the state have failed for years. However, there is a feeling “I told you so”. I stopped mostly to work in the state as the pandemic fell. It is difficult not to feel that the real estate community got what is coming to it since it did not hear tips to change their approach.
In a hot summer day ten years ago next month, I discussed the Socialist of the City Council of Seattle in the City Council Khama Sawant. Sawant had many hobbies, but her two favorites brought the minimum wage to $ 15 and the other imposing rent control. It may be amazing to know then that I think Sawant is the greatest political actor (and I will return to this word later) that I have ever met personally or had the opportunity to work together. One century from now, the names of the political pale and anemic players on the stage during her time at his office in Seattle, 2014-2024, will be completely forgotten. Its name, although not a surname for the season, will stand out as the most remarkable.
Sawant was curious, but it starts. I had strongly advised and warned the real estate community of its rise during the 2013 local elections. People in Seattle, as many on the left, have a bracelet for electoral policy. They were voted on the gay marriage, legalizing the pot, and now, here was the opportunity to add a new charm to the rest: a honest socialist to God! I made a victorious bet with some big shots in the city, never gathered, that it would win. And when she did it, I fell at the night election party to hear her talk. Would he come back and deliver the usual bathroom – a monument and deflated – that most left -wing politicians on this city issue when they really win? He didn’t. He mentioned Trotsky, a name of most people in the room probably on Google.
And it was prophetic. He had supported the idea of using the local welding team to build housing on land in the city and the idea I supported because it was a very good use of debt and surplus territory. Part of this idea has become a reality (species) with the passage of two initiatives to Seattle in recent years. That summer I managed to get a meeting with her to discuss this idea, explaining my previous efforts to make the city use its credit card to create some value record with the neighborhood regional energy programs. My intention was to suggest an approach to consensus that could overcome the unstable staff who guard the city’s creditworthiness to try something new.
Instead of following this proposal – he finally lost his interest – he suggested that we discuss rent control. I thought it was a great idea. It would be a challenge and an honor to discuss a local politician who may know Marx as well as me and who had some principles, these mistakes in my view, but still principles. It would also be an opportunity to convince Hoi Polloi that will be concentrated on how to adopt a market -based approach would be both profitable and reduce rents and costs for people who make less money and, ultimately, help to better distribute resources to
Strangely, as the spaces and rules were negotiated, it became clear that Sawant did not want to discuss one by one. He wanted Nick Licata to have a council member who was as socialist as he was much less fancy and strong. I said it would be nice, we would be happy to discuss both. But they asked to have a partner. I couldn’t find one. No member of the SO real estate community will accelerate. They were terrified. Most of them believed that the conversation was a mistake. They ran to the hills and let me discuss with a state spokesman on the east side of the state.
What is the hot evening? The room was mostly the red shirts of Sawant, who rushed and ran as if they were watching a Victorian melodrama. I made a paraphrase, very much for my satisfaction, Margaret’s observation about “liberal policy”, which would prefer to have the “poor poorer, provided that the rich were less rich. “I asked the crowd:” You would support a policy that would allow developers to make more housing and profiting while reducing rentals for the poor? “Of course, they shouted” no, never! I think I said, “Let the record would be more and for the record.
However, we can really say that Sawant and her act have brought the discussion in the long run. And I think it was really an act. While Sawant believed what she said, she was much better in politics theater than politics. Most of her immediate efforts failed, with the rejection of her legislation with a wave of one hand of the installation and then was later established with the other. No one ever got how embarrassed it should be for the white politicians of Seattle to roll their eyes to Sawant – a native of India and a woman – and then pass the essence of her measures and demands as theirs.
Sawant was unique in Seattle. Very hatred and imitates, shifted the DRAB and the manuscript of the city to the left, leaving the real estate agents and owners in the city and the state with selection, struggle or hiding. They hid. In the end, the failure to address the real issues of the poorest people who are renting with better ideas has led to the control of rents that will make their lives worse. Ten years after the discussion, the final passage of the control of the Sawant’s rented and the unpleasant and weak democratic politicians and owners reminds me of the phrase that is given to Alexander the Great or Talleyrand: “I am not afraid of an army of lions.
You can watch the whole discussion here:
