SCALE IN THE NEWS
 

The SCALE appeal of the city's Mandatory Housing Affordability EIS continues into September. In the meantime, David Ward and Maria Betayola of the Seattle Coalition for Affordability, Livability & Equity respond to Brier Dudley's recent opinion piece in the Seattle Times.  Here's a quote from the op ed:

"Our Seattle Coalition for Affordability, Livability and Equity (SCALE) represents 29 neighborhoods and organizations that are appealing the EIS. In addition to the above issues, the appeal cites significant errors and omissions in the EIS in terms of the impact to the tree canopy, transportation, parks and open space, infrastructure, historic assets and other considerations. The claimed effectiveness of proposed mitigation measures in the EIS are often inconsistent with the city’s own information.

In its “grand bargain” to accommodate big developers, the city ignores its obligation to serve the current residents of Seattle who have paid and continue to pay taxes to build and maintain our communities. Besides this injustice, it is maddening to have to pay costly legal fees to get the attention of our elected leaders to redirect these bad housing and land-use policies.

In a July column, Seattle Times editorial columnist Brier Dudley wrote,  “Seattle should get a better deal from big developers before sticking it to neighborhoods.” [“Seattle’s affordable-housing bargain will be ‘grand’ when developers foot the bill.“]

We agree: No one should be sticking anything to anybody. Seattle’s grand-bargain-driven Mandatory Housing Affordability program is a bad deal. Let’s work together to create good housing and land-use policies that work for all."
 

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We are excited to announce SCALE's new website at www.scaleseattle.org.   Please visit and be sure to read SCALE in the news while you're there.  Here are a few recent snippets:

“The concessions … that the city is giving to developers … is not in the best interests of the community, and is not in the best interests of the people who live in Seattle,” Hodan Hassan, a climate change organizer with Got Green said. “The city government is supposed to be the entity that protects the people who live here. … It is not to make money, and it is not so that other people can make money.”
-South Seattle Emerald

“MHA in its current form may cause more harm than good in specific neighborhoods” because the proposed requirements “will not adequately slow increasingly speculative land values,” the letter said, calling on the council to increase the requirements and guarantee that payments collected from projects in neighborhoods such as Rainier Beach be spent in those same neighborhoods.
- Daniel Beekman Seattle Times
 

"Yet the EIS cheerfully concludes that some combination of mitigation measures will result in a less-than-significant impact on parks and open space. Which measures? In what combination? How many new acres? It doesn’t say.

Given how quickly Seattle is growing — and how fast real estate prices are rising — I would think city leaders would want a detailed blueprint  on how to quickly begin acquiring 434 acres of green space."
-Carl Guess - Special to the Times

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Democracy is expensive!

SCALE is an all volunteer organization. The coalition has raised nearly $200,000 in small and large donations from people like you and from volunteer members, yet still has tens of thousands of dollars to raise in order to pay legal fees.  Please help SCALE get to the finish line. Any amount you can contribute would be greatly appreciated! 
 

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Participating SCALE members: Seattle Fair Growth, Seattle Displacement Coalition and members representing Alki Community Council, Baker Street Community Group, Beacon Hill Council of Seattle,  Central Ballard Residents Association, Citizens for Architectural Diversity, Eastlake Community Council, Fauntleroy Community Council,  Fremont  Neighborhood Council, Friends of North Rainier Neighborhood Plan,  Friends of Ravenna-Cowen,  Greenwood Exceptional Tree Group, Jackson Place Community Council, Madison-Miller Park Community, Morgan Community Association, Queen Anne Community Council, Save Madison Valley, Seniors United for Neighborhoods, South Park, Duwamish Valley Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, TreePAC,  U District Small Business, University District Community Council, Wallingford Community Council, West Seattle Junction, Westwood Roxhill Arbor heights Community Coalition  and more.

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Seattle Fair Growth is acting as fiscal agent for Seattle Coalition for Affordability, Livability and Equity (SCALE).

Thank you for your support. Attorney fees to appeal this decision will run into to tens of thousands of dollars. Seattle Fair Growth and Seattle Coalition for Affordability, Livability and Equity are all volunteer organizations. 100% of your donation (minus any processing fees) will go towards legal fees and promotion of the appeal.  We could not do this without your support!