Author: Benjamin Peterson (Benjamin Peterson)

On Tuesday, Oct 18, activists, human service providers, and community members will be gathering for the People’s Budget Town Hall at City Hall, to organize and fight for a budget that meets the needs of ordinary people in Seattle. At the heart of this year’s demands is an amendment to reallocate the $160 million once […]

Councilmembers May Try to Kill our Tenants’ Rights Bill by Sending it Back to Committee Come tell Council: “Tenants Can’t Wait!” We Need to Limit Move-In Fees Now! On September 27, our legislation limiting move-in fees unanimously passed through committee with a 5-0 vote! This legislation limits security deposits and non-refundable fees, and requires landlords to give tenants […]

Loading…

A week ago, when the Mayor delivered his proposed budget to the City Council, I spoke out against the outrageous refusal by the Council, apparently under the direction of the Mayor, to allow the public to attend the City Council meeting. Not a single member of the public was allowed to attend one of the […]

Recently, the Mayor and his staff have said that the City cannot allocate the $160 million in Real Estate Excise Tax (REET) funding that was previously attached to the development of a new North Police Precinct building on affordable housing. They’re wrong. On September 22, 2016, the Legislative Department’s Central Staff published a memo which explains, at length, […]

Dear Sisters and Brothers, I sent the following press release tonight, in celebration of our victory, Blocking the Bunker! Congratulations to everyone who organized and fought for this big win, especially the activists with the #BlockTheBunker coalition! We will continue to organize to demand that $160 million be spent on affordable housing. In solidarity, Kshama   Councilmember […]

On September 5, 2016, The Seattle Times reported about a glitch in the new billing system used by Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities which allowed customers to see other’s bills. Earlier today, Maura Brueger, the Director of Government & Legislative Affairs at Seattle City Light, sent the following Q&A to Councilmembers explaining the situation. The Q&A […]

Yesterday, my office visited Camp Second Chance, a well-organized, self-managed, clean and sober homeless encampment in Seattle. It is currently located on unused city-owned land, in one of the Myers Way Parcels. At the beginning of August, with only 72 hours’ notice, the City almost evicted them with a characteristically inhumane homeless sweep. Homeless activists, public […]

  Thank you to all of the activists who packed Council Chambers on August 10, 2016, to support the “Block the Bunker” campaign demanding Council vote against spending an astronomical $160 million (or $149 million) to build a new North Police Precinct. Their testimony can be seen in the video below. With an affordable housing crisis, ballooning homelessness, underdeveloped mass transit, underfunded education, and […]