Tech 4 Housing
@tech4housing.org
Organizing the tech community to advocate for affordable, sustainable and equitable cities. tech4housing.org
It’s kind of depressing that the Chamber of Commerce councilmembers all voted for this (except the Rivera ethics abstention). Their unanimous vote shows they know it’s the right policy and what Seattle wants, but spent the last 3 years doing NOTHING about landlords using scarcity to exploit renters.
Mayor Katie B. Wilson@mayor.seattle.gov · 14h agoShout it from the rooftops: City Council just voted to ban rental junk fees! #affordability #junkfees #renters #seattle #mayorkatiewilson
Shout it from the rooftops: City Council just voted to ban rental junk fees! #affordability #junkfees #renters #seattle #mayorkatiewilson
Rental junk fees banned!
YouTube video by Mayor Katie B. Wilson
youtube.com
Now-mayor Katie Wilson made ending predatory junk fees a priority long before she ran for mayor. Here's a piece she wrote for PubliCola on the subject back in March 2023. publicola.com/2023/03/08/3...
Landlords Target Renters With Predatory Junk Fees - PubliCola
By Katie Wilson Editor’s note: This story first appeared in The Progressive, and is reprinted here with permission. Last summer,…
publicola.com
URGENT: The City Council may add pet rent to the list of allowable fees under Mayor Wilson's junk fee ordinance. Tell them at public comment ahead of 2pm vote to pass the bill without amendment C and ban that shit outright. www.theburnerseattle.com/post/tell-se...
Tell Seattle City Council To BAN Pet Rent, Not Just Cap It
At their 2pm Tuesday meeting, the Seattle City Council will vote on Mayor Katie Wilson’s junk fee ban, an ordinance that lays out what landlords can charge for, mandates upfront transparency for those...
theburnerseattle.com
Renters should know exactly what they’re paying, without hidden fees. Ahead of today’s City Council meeting, Senior Policy Advisor Kerem Levitas talked to Brian Callanan to walk through the rental junk fee ban that @cmdionnefoster and I are proposing. Give it a listen!
Rental junk fees got you struggling to make rent each month? My bill with Councilmember Dionne Foster will level the playing field for renters, keep people in the homes and neighborhoods they love, and make apartment hunting easier. I'm excited for City Council to discuss it tomorrow!
Tell Seattle council it's time to ban hidden fees in rental housing | Op-Ed
It’s only fair that the listed rental cost of an apartment is what you’ll actually pay — not that amount plus an array of arbitrary and confusing fees.
seattletimes.com
Even candidates endorsed by The Stranger have been promoting their ranking on Lefty Cheat Sheet. Candidates don’t like putting in hundreds of hours of unpaid work meeting with dozens of member-driven organizations when there’s a risk that a privately held company might not endorse them.
@kamaumau.bsky.social · 2d agoI don’t think it’s healthy for our city or the progressive movement that we’ve gotten to a point where 6 unelected and unaccountable editorial board members have so much influence over the outcomes of our elections
Idk why a dynamic aggregator website with a clear about section and the ability for ANYONE to customize and send THEIR recommendations to other people is being called “pretend”? What’s pretend about it? It was facts.
This guy is welcome to create any of the following: 1. Establishment Dems Cheat Sheet 2. Do-Nothing Dems Cheat Sheet 3. Roadkill Caucus Cheat Sheet We did it with volunteers - they’d probably need a whole team of overpaid consultants to accomplish what we did = create a dynamic useful website.
@erikhouser.bsky.social · 2d agoHi Kamau, do you have any comment about why the pretend “lefty cheat sheet” refuses to include progressive membership organizations like Planned Parenthood, Pro Choice WA, WCA, and Sierra Club?
Oh hey, the Seattle Times published an op-ed I co-wrote urging the Seattle city council to ban junk rental fees. Guess I'm an activist rather than journalist these days, and that feels just fine. www.seattletimes.com/opinion/tell...
Tell Seattle council it's time to ban hidden fees in rental housing | Op-Ed
It’s only fair that the listed rental cost of an apartment is what you’ll actually pay — not that amount plus an array of arbitrary and confusing fees.
seattletimes.com
Really drives home how badly the Stranger has failed as a guide for progressive voters. No one should rely on it.
Lefty Cheat Sheet@electioncheatsheet.org · 2d agoNo single organization makes perfect endorsements. Our approach is to show voters how a collection of member-driven, lefty organizations have endorsed and to put the voter one tap away from more detail and context. leftycheatsheet.org#race=ld43_sen
Ultimate stealth candidate. Took out an incumbent who's been in office for 27 years & ran unopposed like a dozen times. Someone tell Danny Westneat the left is still out there beating centrist do-nothings
Northwest Progressive Institute@nwprogressive.org · 3d agoICYMI: Friday ballot drop, August 2026: Kelabe Tewolde now leads Sharon Tomiko Santos in 37th LD House race Here's what's happening in some of the… https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2026/08/friday-ballot-drop-august-2026-kelabe-tewolde-now-leads-sharon-tomiko-santos-in-37th-ld-house-race.html
Baltimore cut homicides 68% with 400 fewer cops, which is a deeply inconvenient plot twist for the “more police is the only way to safety” narrative.
How Baltimore Achieved Historically Low Homicides—With Less Police – Emerald Book
◆ Emerald Pages ◆ public safety / urban policy How Baltimore Achieved Historically Low Homicides—With Less Police Emerald Book Publication August 4, 2026 Updated: August 6, 2026 9 min read Baltimore h...
emeraldbook.org
Proof that access to capital, not working hard and developing skills, is the primary way the rich acquire their wealth.
Cascadia(PNW)@cascadiarevolting.bsky.social · 4d agoLandlord, Michael E Heijer accidentally CCed the entire Seattle city council, asking fellow landlords to testify against rental junk fee banning. Said renters who testified in favor of banning junk fees were the “unemployed left trying to stick it to the man.” Still think this isn’t a class war?
Landlord, Michael E Heijer accidentally CCed the entire Seattle city council, asking fellow landlords to testify against rental junk fee banning. Said renters who testified in favor of banning junk fees were the “unemployed left trying to stick it to the man.” Still think this isn’t a class war?
Suddenly we’re hearing the Senate Majority Leader — the *only* member of the 43rd LD delegation who never endorsed social housing or Prop 1A to fund it — talk about state level support for Seattle’s social housing developer. 4/
It's election data viz time for the August 2026 primary election, now with a new interactive visualizer! I'd love your feedback on these new maps. In the King County Assessor race, Rob Foxcurran did particularly well in Seattle, while the two nearest runners-up polled well in more rural areas.
After months of extensive engagement with labor and industry partners, we are proud to announce legislation that will stop price gouging, promote equal discounts for all, and make groceries more affordable. Read the full press release here: wilson.seattle.gov/2026/08/06/c...
Tomorrow at 9:30am my committee (HSLED) will hear proposed amendments to Seattle's historic Domestic Workers Ordinance - updating this policy is crucial in our work to guarantee rights and protections to the people who take care of our homes and families. laborstandards.seattle.gov/2026/08/06/s...
Seattle Office of Labor Standards Announces Proposed Amendments to the Domestic Workers Ordinance - The Labor Bulletin Board
The Office of Labor Standards (OLS) announces proposed amendments to the Seattle Domestic Workers Ordinance. After a series of stakeholder meetings and community feedback, the Domestic Workers Standar...
laborstandards.seattle.gov
www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-police... Black folx aren't fighting and advocating for justice to run cover for a status-quo cop. We deserve better and so does Seattle.
Op-Ed: Chief Shon Barnes Wasn’t a Martyr; He Was the Status Quo
Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes wasn’t a martyr; he embodied the status quo, and Mayor Katie Wilson was right to oust him and push for true police accountability, argues Cliff Cawthon, a longtime com...
theurbanist.org
Anyone else get this text? Don’t buy into the disinformation. We need a ban on surveillance pricing now! Hard working families can’t afford surge pricing at the grocery store (or anywhere).
Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 6d agoA ban on surveillance pricing—using people's private data to set prices—is already setting off the big retail and grocery companies, which bought Seattle Times banner ads and are sending mass texts to convince consumers it's in our best interest to let companies mine our data to decide what we pay.
Seattle Police www.atlasofsurveillance.org/a/XX0000020CR
XX0000020CR - Seattle Police Department uses Camera Registry
The Seattle Police Department operates a Fusus camera registry.
atlasofsurveillance.org
awkword@awkword.bsky.social · 6d agoYou can now search your local police for the surveillance tech they’re using — thanks to a new project from @eff.org atlasofsurveillance.org
Young people are not broken. They are hurting. They don’t need to be managed, but mentored. They don’t have to change everything about themselves. Restorative justice should be embedded in how we shape accountability and infrastructure that will get guns out of the hands of our youth and save lives
Ending Youth Gun Violence Requires More Than Grief
Addressing youth gun violence, Rebecca Saldaña advocates for holistic, community-based interventions and transparency.
seattlemedium.com
This week's teaser for our Sept 10 fundraiser: A live set and DJ set from Grammy award winning artist HOLLIS! And, delicious soul food from a local small business, Food of Essence. Join us for good vibes, good food, and good company! tinyurl.com/HONB2B
Rental junk fee surveys sure are popular! The Seattle Times wants to hear from you, just like I did back in February. Please share your own junk fee experiences — and get ready to support Councilmember Foster and I’s legislation on Tuesday in front of the City Council!
Seattle renters, what ‘junk’ fees do you pay?
Does your landlord charge fees on top of rent? Tell us about it.
seattletimes.com
Los Angeles is in the worst housing crisis in our city’s history. We cannot solve that crisis unless we build. That’s why I’m proud to have earned the endorsement of the Western States Carpenters. Together, we’re going to make it easier to build the homes Angelenos need.
So excited to be launching Nondriver Action with disabled nondrivers across the state!
A. Zivarts@nondriver.bsky.social · last wk.Happy primary day! We're officially launching Nondriver Action, a c4 that works at the intersections of transportation, housing & climate justice. Tomorrow, we'll send out questionnaires for our general election endorsements to all city and county council candidates on the ballot in WA ndaction.org
COLUMN: What does Black representation mean when the institution itself remains unchanged? Gennette Cordova argues that Shon Barnes' departure should prompt Seattle to focus on police accountability, misconduct, and community safety — not symbolism. Read more: soseaem.org/4pYFIHC #Seattle
COLUMN | 'Black Faces in High Places' Won't Transform Seattle Policing
A Black police chief does not guarantee safer Black communities. Gennette Cordova calls on Seattle to demand accountability beyond representation.
southseattleemerald.org
Happy primary day! We're officially launching Nondriver Action, a c4 that works at the intersections of transportation, housing & climate justice. Tomorrow, we'll send out questionnaires for our general election endorsements to all city and county council candidates on the ballot in WA ndaction.org
