cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38951169
Katie Wilson, who narrowly defeated the incumbent, Bruce Harrell, emerged from the city’s left-wing activist class and brings with her little experience in governing.
In a state without an income tax, the mayor-elect has promised to pursue what she calls “progressive” new sources of revenue to pay for housing and other basic services, including potential local taxes on capital gains, digital advertising and buildings purposely left vacant. She has pledged to push a $1 billion bond to build more homes and new protections for renters, who make up 56 percent of the city.
“There was a time when we saw Seattle as kind of a laboratory for progressive policy,” Ms. Wilson said in an interview this fall. “And that time’s not now anymore. But why can’t it be?”
Yeah. We did good here I think. Fresh ideas and a hunger for change can’t ever end badly.
Personally I see a light resume as a massive positive.
More likely they’re not from the system, and never considered the system. Someone fed up with the current system and trying to be the change.
She doesn’t have a light resume; the incumbent had nothing else to criticize her for so he kept calling her inexperienced. She was the head of the transit riders’ union and got significant legislation passed.
Alternate headline: “NY Times writes subtly skeptical and subtly negative article about a progressive who hasn’t even taken office yet, finding plenty of inches to dedicate to her critics, including a real estate agent, a campaigner for the failed incumbent, and the incumbent himself, a former corporate lawyer who tried to spoil her chances in the general after he lost the primary to her—but only finding space to give the mayor-elect three short sentences.”
And it seems like she has plenty of organizing experience to me, but in terms of preparation to lead a municipal government I guess it can’t hold a candle to being a corporate lawyer. You know, because of all the governing corporate lawyers do.
Ms. Wilson […] led a series of campaigns over the past decade to expand access to mass transit, raise local minimum wages and add protections for renters — often through some form of taxing the rich.
As co-founder of the Transit Riders Union, an advocacy group, Ms. Wilson built a network of fellow organizers and won a string of campaigns to expand access to public services and fight the growing gap between the ultrarich and everyone else in the Seattle region. Ms. Wilson played a key role in convincing the Seattle City Council to create what’s known as the “JumpStart tax,” a levy of 0.75 percent to 2.5 percent on the salaries of the highest-paid employees at about 500 of the city’s largest businesses. Revenue from the tax is supposed to fund affordable housing, small-business support and climate-change programs, though in recent years, the city [sic] has helped balance the city’s general fund.
Never change, NY Times.
There really isn’t a better black and white way to point out the subtle corruption of these institutions.
Thank you for this, and please keep doing it every chance you get.
Here’s another one to watch if they’re honest and serious about their job or if they’re another Trump on the left.
