Mayor Wilson announces her homelessness plan, then leaves out the back door
Mayor Wilson announces her homelessness plan, then leaves out the back door
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said of the city’s current homelessness strategy, “I don’t think that anyone can really argue that our overall approach to homelessness has been successful,” during her first State of the City speech in mid-February. Given this acknowledgement that the region’s Housing First homelessness strategy has failed, it is surprising that last...
From the Worst to Even Worse: Washington’s Police Hiring Crisis Continues
From the Worst to Even Worse: Washington’s Police Hiring Crisis Continues
For the past few years, Washington State has been ranked the worst state in the country for hiring police officers — and now things have become even worse. The Washington Association of Police Chiefs and Sheriffs (WAPCS) released its annual report on police staffing levels in mid‑February, and once again, Washington State ranks at the...
The Issues Mayor Wilson Chose Not to Address
The Issues Mayor Wilson Chose Not to Address
On February 17, Mayor Wilson gave her first major speech since defeating incumbent Bruce Harrell in last November’s elections. From the moment she stepped on the stage at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, it was evident Wilson’s inexperienced team had failed to perform basic advance work as the new mayor had technical issues with...
State Income Tax Would Cause More Empty Office Spaces in Seattle
State Income Tax Would Cause More Empty Office Spaces in Seattle
Seattle investor Charles Fitzgerald believes his hometown is on the verge of becoming a modern Cleveland, the city symbolic of the post-industrial Rust Belt era during the 1970s and 1980s. A similar urban decay could happen in the Puget Sound region if a new income tax is passed by the Washington Legislature. That bill (SB...
Stop funding failed homeless policies and instead fund efforts that help people
Stop funding failed homeless policies and instead fund efforts that help people
A leading homeless advocate is encouraging Seattle’s political leadership to abandon failed homelessness and drug policies and instead increase access to treatment-based methods to help those suffering on our streets. Let’s hope that new Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and new King County Executive Girmay Zahilay are paying attention to what is and what is not...
More Spending, Less Oversight: Washington’s Growing Accountability Problem
More Spending, Less Oversight: Washington’s Growing Accountability Problem
Washington taxpayers have been told for years that rising taxes and ever-larger budgets are necessary to solve urgent problems like homelessness, housing availability, crime, taxes, education, etc.) But spending has exploded as those problems are all worsening, and serious questions about how money is actually being used have gone unanswered. Instead of immediate, independent investigations...
Bill would impose Seattle-style encampments onto every Washington community
Bill would impose Seattle-style encampments onto every Washington community
New legislation authored by seven-term State Representative Mia Gregerson (D – Sea-Tac), would prohibit local governments from enforcing their anti-camping and loitering laws unless they navigate a series of nearly impossible state requirements. It would effectively return cities to the frustrating period before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Grants Pass v Johnson in June...
Seattle’s Grocery Crisis Was Created by City Policy. The Fix Isn’t Government-Run Stores
Seattle’s Grocery Crisis Was Created by City Policy. The Fix Isn’t Government-Run Stores
Government policies and actions (or inactions) are placing burdens on Seattle’s big and small businesses. These struggling employers face: More taxes and regulations which neighboring cities and states do not face Public safety concerns which keep customers from visiting their neighborhoods A continuing retail theft problem with a revolving door justice system which immediately releases...
Interview with Ginny Burton on her new book The Gabriel Plan
Interview with Ginny Burton on her new book The Gabriel Plan
Ginny Burton has earned a spot in the debate on how we should respond to our region’s worsening homelessness and drug emergencies. She has overcome many tough life experiences and is now seeking to help others who are currently suffering due to failed policies. She first witnessed the problems as a drug addicted teenager who...
New Seattle mayor stumbles in her first days in office
New Seattle mayor stumbles in her first days in office
Within hours of being sworn into office, new Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson instantly stumbled into a major controversary over her administration imposing a significant change to how Seattle police officers handle incidents involving the possession and public use of lethal drugs. Seattle Police Chief Shon F. Barnes notified his officers of these changes in a...
A year-in-review through ChangeWA’s top 2025 articles
A year-in-review through ChangeWA’s top 2025 articles
As 2025 comes to an end, ChangeWA will look back by revisiting some of our most popular articles of the year. ChangeWA has quickly become the leading source of reliable information on the homelessness issue as more of our neighbors continue to suffer in crime- and drug-filled encampments and temporary housing as billions of tax...
This could be Katie Wilson’s “moment,” if she adopts a commonsense homelessness strategy
This could be Katie Wilson’s “moment,” if she adopts a commonsense homelessness strategy
The instability of Seattle’s political system is best illustrated by the revolving door at the mayor’s office. Since 1998, none of the City of Seattle’s chief executives left office under their own volition. Four (Mayors Schell, Nickels, McGinn, and Harrell) were defeated at the polls, one (Mayor Murray) resigned, and one (Mayor Durkan) chose not...
WA officials file lawsuit to tragically keep failing homeless policies in place
WA officials file lawsuit to tragically keep failing homeless policies in place
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Attorney General Nick Brown announced that Washington State joined a federal lawsuit against the Trump Administration to allow state and local governments to continue controversial “Housing First” homelessness policies. These ineffective measures, which disregard the role of mental illness and addiction in rising homelessness, have resulted in an 80% more people...
Times’ movie date with the Governor raises concerns over who is keeping the powerful accountable
Times’ movie date with the Governor raises concerns over who is keeping the powerful accountable
On November 15, The Seattle Times published a front-page photo of one of its top political reporters (David Gutman) laughing with Washington Governor Bob Ferguson while sitting in a local movie theater. The justification for the picture and related interview is that in the new movie “One Battle After Another,” Leonardo DiCaprio plays a character...
