We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
~Aesop, Greek slave & fable author
Did anyone in their right mind think the City Council would not pass it? It appears they copied the one that pumped in 1.6 million to Los Angeles coffers. I really cant come up with a perfect word to describe what the Seattle Council is doing to property owners. A few descriptions, are legalized shakedowns, threats or fines if we don’t do exactly what they say. They will list all sorts of RCW’s and obscure laws and reasons for doing this and they know from the Housing Code mess in the 80’s that the judges will rubber stamp anything anyone tries to get clarified in court. Its actually taking over private property when they can tell a person who worked and bought a rental how we need to fix it. The law of supply and demand takes care of that. If a tenant is dumb enough to rent a place full of mold, a sink propped up with a 2 x 4, electrical sockets hanging out of a wall like one described then that’s between them and the landlord. We do not need government to tell us what/how to remodel a house we own, and bought with our own money.
Anyone who follows politics can see spending is totally out of control. They have to find somebody new to screw over. What better way than pass a law that requires every person who owns a rental (even to your Mother in law in your own home) must pay a fee and register your property with the city. Now if that is not hi-way robbery, blackmail or something I cant imagine what is. First of all the city already knows exactly who owns what. The tax rolls tells them that. If I pay property taxes and utility bills the odds are I live in my house, but if I pay property taxes and someone else is paying the utility bills the odds are that it is a rental. But greed, corruption. what the heck ever kicks in and what a wonderful way to get $150.00 or whatever they decide on, from each everyone who owns property without actually having to put a gun in their back. Works for them. They say this is just to cover their expense of running the program. WOW they will have no budget, no limit to how many inspectors or how big of a boondoggle they can create, because they can set the fee at whatever they want to. They can raise it, they can add penalties and fines anytime you resist. Legalized plunder might describe it. They can spend whatever they want to run the program.
But that is not even the worst part. Their reason for passing this is to quote Sally Bagshaw: “This is watershed legislation, everyone has a RIGHT to good housing”. Their were no NO votes so we have to assume that every council member believes this. I think you have it completely bass ackwards. People who own property that they worked and paid for should be able remodel/upgrade or leave it as is without any interference for the government. We have a RIGHT to be left alone. We have a RIGHT to whatever we worked for and paid for if its legal. I know we cant start up a drug lab etc, or create an eye sore, but to say everyone has a RIGHT to good housing is like telling the Little Red Hen to keep working her little tail off and do all the work but then share her baked bread with the others who did nothing have a right to her bread. Well the little Hen quit planting her wheat. I will just close up my little house when the time comes to register because for sure I wont be re plumbing, re wiring, putting in new windows or whatever you dream up. You are giving rights to tenants that they have no right to have. If they don’t like a place they can move. If it is crappy don’t move in. If it is trashed when they leave and take pictures of it, then they did the trashing. This is spreading the wealth in a sense. You want to force single family dwellings completely out and you may very well succeed. I have a little house that supplements my social security check. The house was built in the 1900’s. Of course its not up to code. No old house is. The house I live in is the same age and I have lived in it for 66 years. It is not insulated, not sure the locks would meet your approval, doubt your inspector would let me rent it to anyone without a lot of upgrades which I have no money or desire to do at this point in my life. I am 89 and don’t think it would be easy to make payments if I even could get a long term loan. My tenants have all been working people but I have taken many applications that just blew my mind. One young black girl with 3 little kids filled out an application. I showed her the little rental(really clean and cute, bath fitter had just did the bathroom). It was not nice enough(thank heavens) but she showed me she was entitled to spend $1400 a month on rent. My house rented for $850. Another young heavy set white lady came and had section 8 and had $1100 a month to spend on rent and mine was only $850. So I want to talk about people who you would call poor and you say thy have a RIGHT TO A HOUSE. They don’t have a right to anything. The government has created a whole new class of people with a sense of entitlement. They are not poor at all. They don’t work, never have had a job but government has convinced them they are victims of some this sort. They get a stay at home check, food stamps, and money for rent and free medical. Just because they prefer to have a bunch of babies by a lot of different men and not get married is not MY problem. If someone wants to spend their life drugged up or drunk, its not MY problem. Its their excuse for not going to work. They say they have issues. They blame the government or the old landlord or anyone but themselves. If they didn’t work for it, they don’t have a right to it. At least that is the way it used to work in America.When you take from me to give to someone else its robbery. From the time I can remember on the old farm we were taught, “work or we wont eat”. If you had a good crop you might be able to get a new piece of linoleum for the kitchen floor. We did not have to worry about faulty plumbing or wiring because we did not have any of that. We had a three hole out house. We had whatever Mom and Dad could afford not on the government furnishing everything we thought we needed.
The countries that turned to Socialism are facing terrible times. The people they have taught that Government will take care of them are rioting because their governments have ran out of money. Its getting closer in America. You cannot keep hammering away at people who have worked all their life to take care of themselves and give it to people with no work ethic, no ambition, alcoholics, dopers, and single mothers. The bubble will burst. My little rental is the supplement to my social security check. My social security check(not SSI) that I worked from age 13 to 69 for, is less than the government gives these so called poor people to use for rent. Now you want to make sure we fix our little rental for people who do nothing because they have a right to good housing. Of course the Seattle City Council knows all of this. They had the meeting all geared with the Tenants Union. They want to suck more money away from property owners to upgrade their property in the guise of helping tenants. You are hurting them. When you teach someone they deserve something they did not work for and take it away from the guy who worked for it is corruption and buying votes. Does not help anyone. If everyone is entitled to good housing how come there are so many homeless people wandering the streets downtown?
It’s hard to believe the load of crap the council members are shoveling out. They know better. They are not dumb. They know how to start up another layer of rules and regulations to buy more votes. Sure the tenants will vote for you, but remember they are not the ones you are able to “suck” the money from. It’s the property owners and people who work. When it get too top heavy it will fail. Its mighty close right now. You are promising the tenants you are helping them. The tenants union has convinced them it is helping them. Neither is true. You are hurting them almost as much or more than us property owners. It will hurt them when people just tear down their rentals rather than jump when you say jump. The government will run out of money eventually and the people will riot because they have not been taught how to do a thing for themselves. It pays off to be told you are poor in Seattle. You are entitled to a good house. You do not have to ever work a day in your life, if your child gets a free lunch he is entitled to go to college even with a C grade. That’s like telling you that a D and F means you are doing fine.
Fair is fair. I have lived in an old house all my life and worked all my life. If someone who has never earned a dime has the right to good housing then I figure I am entitled to live in a mansion. With your reasoning I will state my case. Bill Gates lived in a mansion. Sure he accumulated his wealth all on his own. But according to your logic “I am entitled to live in a mansion”. Shouldn’t he have to furnish me with a mansion? The City Council can give me a check each month in the amount he wants for rent. How come it doesn’t work that way? I don’t begrudge the rich people one thing, they worked for it. I do begrudge rewarding drunks, dopers, lazy people and single mothers who think their lifes work is “breeding”. Welfare will even pay for delivering the babies then up the monthly check. No one holds the Dad’s accountable. If I am still alive when the day comes to register my rental house. All rent applications will have an added cost. $150.00 for registering, the inspection cost, the upgrade cost, all non refundable to the tenant. Right now I am happy, my tenant is happy, the little house is not dangerous in anyway but the city need the money to screw away for IMPORTANT THNGS. Thought Robin Hood days were over, but I was wrong again.
