Erica C. Barnett

Just flagging this account, created exclusively to harass me, for folks to add to their block lists. And then blocking. 😘

Wilson Announces First Steps Toward 1,000 Shelter Beds: Simpler Leases, Larger Tiny House Villages, More Money for Shelter - PubliCola By Erica C. Barnett Mayor Katie Wilson introduced three pieces of legislation on Wednesday that she will reduce barriers to…

Wilson Announces First Steps Toward 1,000 Shelter Beds: Simpler Leases, Larger Tiny House Villages, More Money for Shelter
The package of proposals represents a subtle shift away from "housing first" to "enhanced shelter first" for people with behavioral health needs.

publicola.com/2026/03/04/w...

The press conference, at a warehouse in SoDo, started a little after 1. The mayor's office said she had a meeting scheduled at 2. Given that this is her number-one issue, I was very surprised that she didn't stay around to take questions from the many reporters who attended.

Staff didn't know answers to the questions reporters had afterward (they were swarmed), like whether land has been identified for these new, larger shelters; best practices for shelter size; and whether the legislation has a council sponsor yet, which it needs to move forward.

Just got back from a presser for Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson's announcement that she's introducing three new bills to allow larger shelters/tiny house villages and expedite their construction. The only thing missing? Mayor Katie Wilson, who left shortly after she spoke and didn't take questions.

An Alternative Approach to Creating Affordable Housing: Inside-Out Urbanism - PubliCola By Josh Feit The city of Seattle was supposed to be done with its 10-year comprehensive plan update more than…

An Alternative Approach to Creating Affordable Housing: Inside-Out Urbanism
While Seattle continues to slow-walk its overdue comprehensive plan update, here are some things that could happen now to allow more housing.
New from @joshfeit.bsky.social
publicola.com/2026/03/03/a...

An Alternative Approach to Creating Affordable Housing: Inside-Out Urbanism - PubliCola By Josh Feit The city of Seattle was supposed to be done with its 10-year comprehensive plan update more than…

An Alternative Approach to Creating Affordable Housing: Inside-Out Urbanism
While Seattle continues to slow-walk its overdue comprehensive plan update, here are some things that could happen now to allow more housing.
New from @joshfeit.bsky.social
publicola.com/2026/03/03/a...

As City and County Consider Banning New ICE Facilities, Local Jails Are Exempted from Seattle's Ban - PubliCola By Erica C. Barnett City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck’s proposed legislation to bar new detention centers in Seattle, originally introduced…

As City and County Consider Banning New ICE Facilities, Local Jails Are Exempted from Seattle's Ban
The city council sponsor faced internal pushback on language that also barred new jails, while King County's legislation prohibits new jails and federal detention centers for a year.

They've fixed it! Wonder what that lady said earlier that made everybody clap. (Alas, I can't go to every council meeting in person!)

The Seattle City Council is currently just letting people talk into a dead microphone, making them inaudible to anyone watching online.

Rivera says "fiscal responsibility" is important for households, so it should be for cities too. (Ooh, it's one of my favorite inept analogies—cities are not houses that need repair!) She says "my family lives paycheck to paycheck." 🤔 apollo.pdc.wa.gov/financial-af...

Dan Strauss says the JumpStart conversation "is an important one" because we actually haven't built enough housing to meet the need.

A staffer is explaining inflation to the council—a primary reason the city's spending has increased faster than, for example, population numbers.

He continues that "good governance" means looking at cuts to spending. It's interesting how little the talking points some of the newest council members have changed since they ran on "audit the budget" in 2023.

Bob Kettle is complaining that the "chattering classes" still talk about the fact that JumpStart was a tax passed explicitly to pay for housing, Green New Deal, and other progressive new spending. The council turned it into an all-purpose slush fund, which Kettle calls "[Jumpstart] of today."

Rivera is now saying the budget has grown much faster than population. This is basically never a linear relationship.

There are of course levy oversight bodies for all these levies that meet throughout the year, so it's unclear if she's insinuating the city's existence due diligence is inadequate, if she's just vaguely suggesting that taxes are too high, or if she disagrees with elements of some existing levies.

"If we're collecting all this money and we're not actually meeting the need, we just need to make sure that, is it that we need more money, or is it that the money that the choices we're making are not actually getting to meet the need we're trying to solve for?"

Maritza Rivera (who didn't know Seattle doesn't pay King County's library levy) concludes with an "audit the budget"-style warning:

It's a bond, but it isn't "the city paying ourselves back" so much as taxpayers paying back money the city got through up-front financing. IDK, I just don't get why so much of our City Council meetings is still taken up by staff explaining basic stuff.

Now he's talking about the "bond on the Alaska Seawall," which is actually also a levy.

The thing he is double-clicking on is that Tim Eyman is bad and the city should be able to raise property taxes more than 1 percent without going to voters.

Now Rob Saka is "double-clicking" on something.

Bob Kettle, speaking about how "desirability" of Seattle neighborhoods impacts property values (and thus revenues), says he knows of "countless" businesses that have left downtown, Belltown, and South Lake Union because of "the public safety challenges."

she was talking about how local taxpayers are feeling "sticker shock" because of all the taxes we pay, but apparently just learned today that those taxes don't include the King County library levy

call me crazy but I think the head of the Seattle City Council's library committee probably should be aware that Seattle taxpayers, who fund local libraries through a levy, don't pay an unrelated levy for libraries in other King County cities

Council president Joy Hollingsworth said they're looking into security measures to keep council members safer, and approvingly mentioned an LA law that banned the public from coming near council members' homes. This prompted a barrage of council comments about how they're under constant threat.

This Week on PubliCola: March 1, 2026 - PubliCola Staff call for civil rights office shakeup, CARE chief says police contract hobbles her team’s ability to respond to crises,…

This Week on PubliCola: March 1, 2026

Staff call for civil rights office shakeup, CARE chief says police contract hobbles her team's ability to respond to crises, state elevator reform bill advances, and much more.

publicola.com/2026/03/01/t...

Bill Gates gets caught in Epstein's wicked web The remarkable thing revealed about Jeffrey Epstein over the past year is his huge talent for making connections with rich and powerful people.

oh, PLEASE.

(in his writeup, Horsey refers to Gates' cheating on his wife with at least two women, both Russians, as "love affairs.")

www.seattletimes.com/opinion/bill...

I don’t think libraries can keep people from dying on their properties, by happenstance, from their addictions. That’s not how addictions (or overdoses) work. But libraries do provide a safe, warm, and monitored space where people can feel safe, and that’s immensely important.