Opinion

To prevent homelessness and improve housing stability, Seattle City Council should not cut funding for Tenant Services and Rental Assistance as Mayor Bruce Harrell proposes, and instead double it.

Bellevue, Seattle, and Tacoma are each working to expand tree protections, but all should go further to expand canopy and adapt to a warming climate.

Onerous requirements for new water infrastructure that go further than Washington state law are a part of the problem when it comes to encouraging home building in Seattle.

The Fight for $15 has been won. Now housing affordability is Seattle’s biggest challenge. Repealing wage standards would be a setback.

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s 2025 budget would cut elsewhere to fund a 16% increase to the Seattle Police Department. The cuts to affordable housing and social services could backfire, undermining public safety and homelessness response.

Seattle service workers are set to get a major wage hike, unless restaurant lobbyists get their way. But policymakers can support the restaurant industry in better ways than simply cutting worker pay.

The Local Sightings film festival juxtaposed The Beacon, a film about a break-dancing studio fighting to survive in South Seattle, with a film about Wallingford grappling with change and potentially embracing a more inclusive, diverse future.

Addressing our national housing crisis will require a drastic shift in how we think about housing in our society: it needs to become a basic human right — something we are all entitled to and therefore something our government works to deliver.