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Kate Macfarlane
@_KateMacfarlane
she/her. Likes: maps, dogs, plants, ice cream. Dislikes: exclusionary zoning, systemic racism, climate change. Researcher for , tweets are my own
Seattle, WAJoined November 2016
Kate Macfarlane’s Tweets
HB 1474 Covenant Homeownership Program just passed in the Senate 30-19
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The Year of Housing continues in #WALeg! Both Middle Housing and the Covenant Homeownership Account bill have been moved to the Senate Rules Committee and now just await an opportunity to come to the floor! #Homes4WA #CostOfHome
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(NTIB stands for “necessary to implement the budget” and means that a bill is exempt from cutoff deadlines, like today’s deadline to pass out of the first chamber)
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#waleg nerds: how can you tell if a bill has been designated NTIB? Is there a list of NTIB bills somewhere?
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The Senate Middle Housing bill, SB 5190, has a hearing tomorrow, Jan 25, and we need your support. We hit over 1000 PRO sign-ins for the house, now let’s do it again for the senate! Sign in PRO today! bit.ly/3XXauBt #Homes4Wa #ForOurFuture #waleg
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it’s just so weird to me that not too long ago someone with a regular old job could buy a house like an entire house with just their job money
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‘Voting Is Pointless,’ Reports Little Shit Who Doesn’t Know What a Pre-Existing Condition Is: bit.ly/3WTD2wi
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Full video that goes in depth on life with a disability that makes driving impossible, how our city streets prioritize car storage + speed over mobility, & how you can shift our priorities a s soon as next month:
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A window into my kid's politics today:
She was building towers, so I asked if she wanted to join the Design Review Board. She said:
"No, Dada. We're in a housing crisis. Design Review causes needless delays, makes housing more expensive, and should probably just be abolished."
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What happened in mid-2019?
Oh right, Seattle lifted a bunch of bad restrictions on ADUs.
As more and more Washingtonians suffer under a statewide housing shortage, seems like #WAleg could require all cities to do the same, no?
#Homes4WA
niverse-seattlecitygis.hub.arcgis.com/pages/data
(data to 7/22)
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Love to see this: a church partnering with an affordable housing provider and a market-rate developer to add 286 homes, of which 86 will be permanently affordable. But it is absurd that it will spend literal YEARS mired in city review/permitting before construction can start
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In Ballard, a land use application for an 8-story apartment building with 206 homes and a church (St. Luke’s Church Episcopal Church) has been filed
Comments accepted through September: web8.seattle.gov/SDCI/ShapingSe
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🚨Seattle residents🚨
1) Read this op-ed about the coming Comp Plan update (3 min)
2) Tell the City to study better growth alternatives so we can build an affordable and sustainable Seattle (5 min, instructions in the article)
Comments are due Monday Aug 22!
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Housing policy is climate policy -- and Seattle's next Comp Plan needs to reflect that reality. Read our new op-ed with @tech4housing in @TheStranger and learn how you can speak up for climate-friendly housing policy! thestranger.com/guest-editoria
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Grateful to my smart colleagues for breaking down the key differences between ranked choice voting and approval voting —both of which will be on Seattle ballots this November.
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Ranked choice voting is battle-tested to better represent voters’ voices. Approval voting simply *isn’t.* @Sightline’s Alan Durning:
sightline.org/2022/08/11/app
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I want to put to rest ONCE AND FOR ALL the idea that adding new neighbors/housing will strain urban sewer systems or that we cannot add density to our cities because of limited sewer capacity.
I'm obsessed with water, especially in relation to infrastructure and ecosystems...🧵
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Time to vote, fellow procrastinators! If you live in King County and can’t find your ballot, you can print a new one here: info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/vo
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Turnout by age range statewide as of 5pm Friday. There's a 4-times higher turnout rate among voters 65+ than voters under 45.
Get those primary ballots in before 8pm this Tuesday, August 2nd!
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We're so excited to host this event w/ & Eastside for All to discuss how exclusion has played a significant role in the historical growth of the Eastside.
We'll share how these actions still impact our cities today & what we can do about it. bit.ly/3ogOstE-Histor
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🚨 MISSING MIDDLE HOUSING IS OFFICIALLY LEGAL IN SPOKANE WASHINGTON 🚨
INCLUDES:
– DUPLEXES, TRIPLEXES, FOURPLEXES
– ROWHOMES AND TOWNHOMES
– COTTAGE HOUSING
ALSO REDUCED CAR PARKING AND INCREASED BIKE PARKING REQUIREMENTS, AND IMPROVED DESIGN STANDARDS TO MAKE IT ALL VIABLE
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VOTE PASSES 7-0!
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More details here
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Spokane city council unanimously passes a one-year trial of middle housing zoning reform!
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VOTE PASSES 7-0!
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this is how munich is planning a new district around transit.
open space.
social housing.
daycare.
living w/ nature.
car-free streets.
shops. cafes. grocery stores.
schools.
would be nice if seattle's comprehensive plan prioritized this too:
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These designs should be legal and easy to build everywhere in every city in WA state. (Any city in the US for that matter.) #homes4wa
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Seattle is embarking on a process to chart its future and student architects have big ideas on what the future of the city could be.
Story: theurbanist.org/2022/07/10/wha
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Also let’s go much further and defund the police. But at a minimum, stop pouring money down the drain on dumb police recruitment strategies.
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Police recruitment is down? Great! Nearly half of SPD 911 calls don’t require a police response, and SPD spends two-thirds of their time on noncriminal calls. Any time/money spent on a police recruitment strategy would be better used on unarmed non police community responders.
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INBOX: Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and Interim Police Chief Adrian Diaz will hold a press conference tomorrow related to a “comprehensive recruitment strategy” for police staffing.
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Despite its boring name, this EIS scoping phase is *crucial* for setting Seattle's course for the next twenty years. It essentially sets the bookends on what OPCD will study. Take a minute now to ask for more time for the community to weigh in! twitter.com/STCActionFund/
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All of this is true for Seattle’s compost program too twitter.com/mplsalex/statu
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Going to start calling single family zoning luxury zoning and I encourage you all to join me
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Ah yes, the modest...(checks notes) million dollar...bungalow
Single family zoning is luxury zoning
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Great to see Portland pass these common sense updates! Your move, Seattle...
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Portland's council just unanimously approved new updates to its low-density zoning code, a fast follow-up on 2020's landmark vote to re-legalize 4plexes & mixed-income 6plexes citywide.
We didn't get everything right the first time around!
This project makes 6 great changes:
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From Edmund Witter at : homeowners who fall behind on mortgage have 190 days to catch up, vs just 14 days for renters. And this is racialized: 75% of black households in King County rent, vs 40% of white hh. Meanwhile 80%+ of landlords are white.
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presents stats from Zillow on racial disparities in renting: 40% of Black & Latinx renters submit 5+ rental apps during their home search, vs 20% of white renters. People of color also pay higher app fees and deposits on avg
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Dr. Mary Pattillo describes research on the “caustic cycle” between housing instability and the criminal-legal system. People with housing insecurity are more likely to end up in contact with police/courts, which leads to fines/fees/restitution, which means less $ for housing
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Powerful stats from about the impacts of centuries of racist policies: Only 2% of FHA loans in first 35 years went to people of color. Today, black homeownership rates today are the same as when redlining was legal.
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Your house is on fire. The firefighters arrive but say it would be wrong to get rid of the fire because some people like it. Instead, you should spend lots of money on more fire. Only good fire can protect you from bad fire, they say. Keep it with you always. Never stop burning.
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WA has a severe shortage of homes: more than 200k by some estimates. If we can't build homes in high-opportunity areas close to transit, where are they supposed to go? Mercer Island is the poster child for why we need statewide solutions to the housing crisis.
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By 2023, Mercer Island will be a 10-minute train ride from both downtown Seattle and downtown Bellevue. Its school district is one of the best in the state. Mercer Island is exactly the type of place where we should be building more homes, not blocking them.
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Mercer Island is poised to extend the development moratorium on the multiuse district near its Sound Transit light rail station at its next meeting. The moratorium has been in place since mid-2020 while the city considers code amendments around retail space there.
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Sightline’s Spring Fund Drive is officially underway! Give today and support Sightline as we work toward a greener future. Donate here: sightline.org/donate
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Such a great article by summarizing why public input (at least, as practiced in the U.S.) is undemocratic and leads to bad outcomes.
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