Time to acknowledge something positive in Seattle… Those of us at ChangeWA celebrate the five-year anniversary of We Heart Seattle! When Seattle progressives’ public safety, drug, and homeless policies were causing the rapid decline of the city in 2020, Andrea Saurez and a small group of like-minded friends went into action. At first, they cleaned...
The leniency in Washington’s judicial system was recently displayed by the repeat offender (36 arrests and 20 convictions) who killed a 20-year-old woman as he attempted to flee police in Pierce County. Despite serving numerous short sentences in his life, the suspect clearly has never been “rehabilitated.” It appears he views his many brief lockups...
Spokane provides the latest example of how citizens are forced to correct politicians’ failed policies because stubborn elected officials refuse to admit that their extremist, “Housing First” policies have made problems worse. Housing First is the policy strategy that provides free taxpayer-funded housing for homeless individuals regardless of their addiction, mental health, or criminal status....
Among the regular stream of meaningless partisan statements issued by Governor Bob Ferguson’s communications team was one of last week which has received almost no attention from the local press. It is significant because it reveals the lack of accountability by our political leaders, and it helps explain why the Seattle/King County region and our...
On September 23, the Bellevue City Council passed a preliminary public safety measure that will benefit small businesses, protect retail employees, save taxpayers money, and ensure activists judges won’t immediately release repeat criminals. Final passage of the bill is expected to take place on October 7. By a 6 to 1 vote, the council passed...
Recent statements and releases from our state’s s highest elected officials suggest that their attention is primarily directed towards partisan disputes with the Trump Administration, rather than safeguarding taxpayer dollars. This emphasis on political battles appears to come at the expense of implementing effective oversight measures to prevent waste and fraud in public spending. As...
It has been nearly six months since then King County Executive Dow Constantine was handed $6 million by his cronies on the Sound Transit Board of Directors to lead its financially troubled organization. Yet his desire to recklessly and carelessly spend taxpayers’ money (while constantly demanding more) at the county still lives on. Remember at...
Local communities, frustrated by the failed progressive homeless policies of their urban neighbors, are taking proactive steps to safeguard their public places, while encouraging those suffering in encampments to accept much-needed mental health and addiction treatment. The City of Camas became the latest Washington State community to enact a camping ban when its city council...
Is a new big budget ad campaign from the State of Washington the latest proof that our government is not interested in reducing lethal drug use? [un]Divided podcast host Brandi Kruse asserts that a recently released television ad from the Washington State Department of Health is more evidence that “our government does not want to...
The number of homeless individuals in King County has risen again. The suffering grows in encampments, vacant buildings, and in urban green spaces, despite billions of taxpayer dollars being spent on building large housing bureaucracies at multiple levels of government. While those in charge of our region’s failed homeless strategy have become very wealthy, more...
On May 10, Sound Transit went all out in its promotion for the opening of its new light rail train stations in Redmond. The many expensive public relations firms which Sound Transit retains, lined up politicians and media celebrities to speak, music acts to entertain, food trucks to feed the crowd, activities to entertain...
As readers will recall, King County Executive Dow Constantine admitted in a recent ChangeWa interview that he couldn’t provide even a rough estimate as to how much taxpayer money he had spent on the homeless issues. He also refused to provide even one public goal for the much-maligned King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) to...
It is common to reflect on what makes us thankful as the holidays approach. After last week’s budget vote, ChangeWA is grateful for the 2023 Seattle voters who rejected the reckless policies of the previous city council and replaced six of the nine council seats with more responsible members. In the end, this council kept...
Seattle voters must remind councilmembers to keep their campaign promises and not cave into the demands of greedy special interest groups which benefit from higher taxes. Moreover, councilmembers should listen to 68% of Seattle voters who support budget cuts over imposing more taxes which increase the cost of living and doing business in the city....