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In reply to the discussion: Amazon - Get The F Out Of Seattle - Take Your Greedy CEO To Hell With You [View all]LisaM
(27,850 posts)There are homeless people everywhere - and make no mistake, many of them are homeless because affordable housing is being knocked down at a terrifying rate and people are being flushed out of places they used to live in. And developers are playing the shell game of pretending they're going to include market rate (which is not affordable to many) units with their developments, but not only do they skirt that, this is all slated for down the road.
The problem is now.
Amazon may not be the only company to blame, but they are driving a lot of it. They are gobbling up downtown. You can't just add 50,000 jobs to a downtown the size of Seattle all at once. It's straining the resources of the city beyond belief. This head tax is just an attempt to get Amazon to help out. I don't think it's the most sensible approach - our City Council is dysfunctional and there are half-witted projects all over the city that may never be finished - but something has to happen if Seattle's going to retain any of its former character.