On Monday of this week, Mayor Ed Murray stunned members of the Seattle City Council and the press when he announced the city government will be cutting ties with the population of the city within its geographical borders. The mayor shut down Neighborhood District Councils that represent 13 regions in the city.
When Seattle was incorporated in 1869 it consisted only of a small downtown area along the waterfront and a portion of what is now known as the Central Area. Since then it has expanded to an area of over 80 square miles of land and nearly 60 square miles of water.
Studies have shown that much of that large expanse is occupied by single family housing and in fact is zoned for only single family housing, and because of the practice of redlining, large portions of the city have been and still are predominately Caucasian and homeowners, the rest being real estate investors flipping houses and whatever Ballardites are.
“For immigrants, refugees, poor people, people of color, renters, squatters, single parents, youth, homeless people, LGTBQ, guys living out of their Ramblers, the overly pierced, extreme metal-heads, yahoos and lion tamers, Magnolia might as well be the Italian Riviera for all the good it does them here,” a bearded spokesperson for the mayor who declined to be named said. “And that’s just one example. Who can use Laurelhurst? What about Arbor Heights? I don’t even believe Arbor Heights exists. Someone just made that one up.”
The mayor not only would not recognize as Seattleites most of the current residents but he said he’d form a commission of hand-picked consultants from around the country to decide who in the future would be regarded as residents for the purposes of the city government. The commission would support Murray’s vision of a city of Seattle other than the one that it is now.
Of course, all the usual whiny privileged homeowners immediately howled like monkeys about having their precious power snatched away from them, including one resident of the Central Area with a suspiciously convenient Hispanic name. Yeah, like right now, but wait until he gets his way and he’ll be back to being Phinneas T. Milkbottom.
This isn’t fair, the Central Area homeowner sputtered, as he insisted that not only was he Hispanic but five neighbors of his were, missing the mayor’s point entirely. All the mayor was saying is that, whoever is living in Seattle, he wants his commission to replace them. It isn’t about the whiners, it’s about what the mayor wants. It’s his vision that’s at stake.
To make that vision clearer, the mayor issued an executive order Tuesday that incorporated 17 short “WHEREAS”es, one two-page “NOW, THEREFORE” and various “ON OR BEFORE”s that was too long, and therefore this correspondent did not read most of it. However, we skipped to the end and saw that by September the commission or the department of the commission or whatever it’s going to be called will have readied legislation to dictate who the mayor will from thenceforth govern.
The mayor reassured whiners that the current population of Seattle will still be allowed to live here; they just won’t be the official residents for the purpose of being permitted to be heard by the city government.
In fact, city insiders have privately admitted that the proposal will change nothing.
“The city hasn’t listened to the people living in Seattle since 1970,” confessed one city council member. “So what’s the difference?”
There may be financial advantages to the plan for the former official residents, as well.
For example, when and if the Viaduct Replacement Tunnel is ever completed, the bill for all the cost overruns will become due, but only official Seattleites will have to chip in. So that might be a good reason for a lot of you to be happy to be taken off the buyer’s list.
Remember, it’s not about you or what you want for the Seattle you live in, it’s not even about what color you are or whether you’re poor and homeless. Because when all’s said and done, you still will be, and you still won’t have any more power than you’ve been having. This is just about the mayor building a new city without you.
When he’s done, a lot of you will thank him for it.