Tag: seattle

Seattle’s Minimum Wage Laws Backfired on Uber and Lyft. Now the Union Wants To Limit Drivers.

In recent years, progressive locales like Seattle have experimented with minimum wage laws for rideshare and food delivery drivers. These laws have led to surging prices for rides and delivery, reduced demand for trips and orders, and no evidence of higher take-home pay for drivers.

As demand for trips has plummeted in the wake of the wage hikes, more rideshare drivers are finding themselves working longer hours to achieve the same number of rides as before. Instead of fixing the root of the problem, a union representing Seattle rideshare workers has a new solution: Limit the number of people who can work as Uber drivers.

According to the Drivers Union, which represents Lyft and Uber drivers in Washington State, there is a severe glut of rideshare drivers on the road in the Emerald City. The union bases this on a new report it released (with funding from the state Department of Ecology), which concludes that “a majority of miles driven by Uber drivers are now without a passenger.”

The report’s topline findings include an increase in “deadheading” and “empty miles” in which rideshare drivers are driving without a passenger on board, as well as an increase in the number of drivers that is purportedly “7 times faster than trip growth.” In addition to lower driver pay, the report concludes that “deadhead” miles are also causing more air pollution and congestion in the city.

The union’s recommendations are to call for “a pause in onboarding new drivers until a reduction in unnecessary deadheading miles is achieved,” as well as suggesting “rules to maintain a balanced market where increases to driver supply don’t continue outpacing trip growth.”

While the report is dressed up in the language of “deadheading” and climate change, it’s little more than a thinly-veiled attempt to do what unions so often do: Limit the labor supply to lock out non-union members. The Drivers Union also conveniently ignores the reason behind the increase in “empty miles,” which is the result of Seattle’s aggressive pursuit of minimum wage laws for gig work.

In 2020, Seattle became the second city in America to pass a minimum wage law for rideshare drivers. It expanded the law to cover gig-based food delivery platforms like UberEats and DoorDash in 2024. While driver pay was supposed to rise, the primary effect of these laws was a dramatic drop in the number of rideshare and delivery order requests.

After the rideshare minimum wage law, rider fares increased by an average of 40 percent, with some trips climbing by up to 50-60 percent. According to a recent analysis by NetCredit, Seattle is now the most expensive city in America to hail an Uber ride, with a 30-minute ride costing an average of $60. (By way of comparison, Washington, D.C., which lacks a minimum wage law for rideshare drivers, averages just over $33 for a 30-minute trip).

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High Taxes Are Turning Seattle Into a Ghost Town Full of Empty Office Buildings – And it’s About to Get Worse

The far-left blue city of Seattle is bleeding businesses as companies flee to locations that don’t charge crazy levels of taxes. As a result, the percentage of empty office buildings in the city has risen to more than a third. That is unbelievable.

And yet, the people who live there just keep voting for leftist political leaders who only make the problem worse. Mayors are supposed to try to attract businesses to their cities, not cause them to run away to other locations.

As technology allows more and more companies to have remote employees, the competition among cities is only going to become more fierce.

From My Northwest via MSN:

Seattle’s downtown office market is facing one of the steepest declines in the nation.

According to a new CoStar analysis, Seattle leads the country in falling office rents, with vacancies hitting record highs. Experts warn the slump could reshape Seattle’s commercial real estate, cutting into property values and city tax revenues while raising questions about the future of downtown.

“Though the amount of space available to lease has leveled off latelydue to planned demolitions and conversions removing someproperties from the market, the region’s vacancy rate continues torise more quickly than that of the rest of the country,” the analysis found. “Seattle’s officevacancy rate stands at 17.3% and is projected to peak at 18.3% in 2026.”

According to the study, the steepest drops in office space usage occurred in Seattle’s downtown, Belltown, and Queen Anne neighborhoods. Some suburban locations managed flat-to-slightly positive rent growth, but this growth has done little to offset the broader downward trend.

But the study also believes office vacancies throughout Seattle can improve over time.

“The leveling off of availability signals a likely improvement in vacancy rates in the near future,” the study shared.

Things are not likely to improve. In fact, it could get much worse. Watch below as Glenn Beck talks about how Seattle now wants to tax the owners of empty office buildings for the crime of being empty.

If they actually do this, it will make the problem far worse.

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Kurt Cobain’s death declared a homicide by Seattle cop ordered to probe investigation: ‘Botched’

Kurt Cobain was found lifeless in a greenhouse attached to his Seattle home, and within a few hours, investigators declared his death a suicide. 

Now, a retired Seattle Police captain has claimed that the physical evidence from the Nirvana frontman’s death scene ‘does not add up,’ alleging the case was mishandled and staged to look like he took his own life.

Neil Low, who spent 50 years with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and was asked by his chief to audit the Cobain case in 2005, told the Daily Mail he believes investigators failed to treat the rockstar’s death as a potential homicide properly. 

‘I just am not buying that Kurt did that to himself,’ Low said, describing the SPD investigation as ‘botched.’ However, Low did not work on the initial investigation and it was not conducted at his assigned precinct. 

He cited what he described as anomalies in blood evidence, the violence of the shotgun wound and alleged inconsistencies at the scene. 

Low, who retired in 2018, discussed inconsistencies within the autopsy and SPD reports, including missing notes, omitted witness observations and conflicting details about events leading up to Cobain’s death. 

‘One thing about report writing is the human error factor: misheard, misunderstood, transposed thoughts, and forgotten details,’ said Low. 

‘They were led astray. I might have fallen for it, too, but now I think it’s a homicide, and I do think the case should be reopened.’

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Transgender Pro-Pedophile ‘MAP’ Activists Publicly Campaigning in Seattle

Reduxx has learned that a trans-identified male and “radical queer activist” residing in Seattle, Washington, have been publicly advocating for pedophilic relationships with children while also organizing “in-person events for anyone under the queer rainbow.”

Ally Kotetsu, who describes himself as “a non-binary transgender woman who is transrace Japanese,” is campaigning both online and in public through an effort he calls Beyond the Plus, which advocates for the rights of “beings who are romantically or sexually attracted to beings who are below the age of 18.”

Kotetsu’s website describes “minor attraction” as an orientation and refers to individuals with a sexual interest in children as “MAPs” (minor attracted people). According to Beyond the Plus, “MAPs” are some of “the world’s most marginalized beings.”

The site goes on to describe “age-based attractions” as being innate and similar to heterosexuality or homosexuality.

“A number of MAPs, usually ones who are intersectional with other queer identities (though not always), consider age-based attractions to be another, less recognized type of orientation,” reads the Beyond the Plus site.

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Seattle to pay $30M for teen death in anti-cop CHOP zone — because ambulances wouldn’t go there

The city of Seattle has been ordered to dole out $30 million to the dad of a teen who died from a gunshot wound inside a Black Lives Matter occupation zone in 2020 after first responders refused to enter the protest area.

The Emerald City was found liable by a jury Thursday of botching its emergency response to the still-unsolved shooting of Antonio Mays Jr., 16, on June 29 inside the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone — a movement that was established in response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of cops in Minneapolis, Minn., two weeks earlier.

The verdict came after an unusually long 12 days of deliberations by the 12-person jury — which only needed 10 to agree rather than a unanimous decision. Civil cases only require jurors to find claims were proven by the “preponderance of the evidence” — or over 50% probability — unlike a criminal case which requires jurors to find guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

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Socialist Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s campaign fined for failing to disclose parent-funded childcare contributions

Socialist Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s campaign was fined by the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for failing to properly disclose more than $10,000 in campaign-related childcare expenses, expenses which were paid for by her parents. Her husband was “voluntarily” unemployed.

According to a formal enforcement letter from the commission obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, the “Wilson for Mayor” campaign failed to timely report in-kind contributions from Wilson’s parents, who covered childcare costs during the campaign. Because the contributions were not initially disclosed and exceeded Seattle’s contribution limits, the commission imposed a $250 civil penalty.

The campaign later amended its filings and refunded the portion of the childcare payments that exceeded allowable limits. While the fine itself was small, the ruling reinforces prior reporting about Wilson’s reliance on family money while presenting herself as a struggling, working-class candidate.

In October, KUOW reported that Wilson’s parents, both professors in New York, were helping cover childcare costs while her husband was voluntarily unemployed. Wilson simultaneously claimed she was running for mayor because she could “barely afford to live in Seattle.”

Wilson, who dropped out of Oxford University just weeks before graduation, debt-free thanks to family funding, would not disclose at the time how much she was receiving from her parents and built a political persona centered on economic hardship despite a significant safety net. She told the outlet, “They send me a check periodically to help with the child care expenses,” acknowledging what she called the “immense privilege” of growing up in a “secure, academic household.”

Wilson told KUOW that she “cut herself off” from her parents’ money when she moved to Seattle in 2004, but later resumed taking parental checks to support her lifestyle and childcare costs. Despite branding herself as a voice for the downtrodden, her nonprofit, the Transit Riders Union, paid her nearly $73,000 in 2022 according to tax filings, yet her city financial disclosure listed up to $100,000 in income for the same period. When asked by the outlet about the discrepancy, Wilson said it “must be an error.” As mayor, Wilson now makes in excess of $230,000 a year.

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Perhaps We Should Actually Be Focusing On Fixing America

After years of heading in the wrong direction, nobody can deny that the United States is facing overwhelming problems.  So why don’t we focus on fixing those problems first?  The truth is that we can’t do everything because our resources are very limited.  U.S. households are more than 18 trillion dollars in debt, and the federal government is more than 38 trillion dollars in debt.  Even though we have literally stolen trillions upon trillions of dollars from future generations, our major cities are rapidly decaying, our infrastructure is crumbling, corruption is rampant, the middle class is shrinking, most of the population is struggling to even afford the basics each month, mass layoffs are happening all over the nation, our streets are teeming with hordes of drug addicts and homeless people, large numbers of Americans are selling images of themselves online just to make ends meet, and millions of others are living in their vehicles.

So why don’t we use what limited resources we have to fix our own problems?

If you don’t understand the point that I am trying to make, just go take a stroll through downtown Seattle.

The new mayor has decided that it will be her policy to allow people to openly do drugs in the streets…

Seattle’s new ultra-woke mayor has triggered chaos by ordering police not to arrest people doing drugs on the streets of the city plagued by crime and homelessness.

Democratic socialist Katie Wilson, 43, was sworn in as the city’s 58th mayor on Friday.

The progressive politician who co-founded the Transit Riders Union has already taken steps that concerned residents and law enforcement officials say will destroy Seattle.

The president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, Mike Solan, is warning that this will make the lawlessness in the streets of Seattle even worse…

‘We’ve all seen how our streets can be filled with death, decay, blight and crime when ideology like this infects our city, Solan continued in his statement.

‘Now with this resurrected insane direction, death, destruction and more human suffering will be supercharged.’

Lawmakers and residents have reacted to this news in horror, as the city already has a raging homelessness epidemic that they believe this lax drug policy will only amplify.

Once upon a time, Seattle was one of the most beautiful cities on the entire planet.

So what in the world happened?

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Seattle’s New Communist Mayor Katie Wilson Orders Police to Stand Down on Open Drug Use

Seattle’s newly installed Communist Mayor Katie Wilson has effectively ordered the police to stand down on open drug use, turning the once-vibrant Emerald City into a dystopian nightmare of needles, overdoses, and unchecked criminality.

This is what happens when Democrats hand the keys to power-hungry socialists who hate law and order – total chaos!

Wilson, a self-described democratic socialist and co-founder of the Transit Riders Union, was sworn in Friday as Seattle’s 58th mayor after defeating incumbent Bruce Harrell in the November 2025 election.

Almost immediately, an internal order from the Seattle Police Department set off alarm bells across the city.

According to an internal New Year’s Day email from SPD Chief Shon Barnes, officers are now instructed to divert all drug possession and use cases away from prosecution and into the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program.

Under the policy, drug offenders who refuse LEAD may eventually face prosecutorial review.

The program excludes drug dealers, violent felons, sex offenders, and individuals under Department of Corrections supervision, but everyday public drug use is now functionally tolerated unless officers decide it rises to a “priority situation.”

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Seattle mayor rejects locking up repeat criminals during tense debate: ‘Maybe they’re hungry’

Seattle Democratic Mayor Bruce Harrell said during a mayoral debate Thursday night he has “no desire” to put repeat criminal defenders in jail, and he doesn’t know how to answer the question on whether the city is “too lax” on repeat offenders.

“So, let me make something very clear. I was the one that sponsored the ‘Ban the Box’ legislation when everyone opposed it because the criminal system has had a disparate impact on Black and Brown communities, let me lead with that,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a mayoral debate Thursday night when asked a follow-up question about repeat offenders in the city.

Harrell’s “Ban the Box” proposal in 2013 prevented employers from asking about an applicant’s criminal history on applications up front. 

Harrell then said, “When this person is committing six or seven crimes, I don’t know his or her story. Maybe they were abused as a child. Maybe they’re hungry. But my remedy is to find their life story to see how we can help. First, I have no desire to put them in jail, but I need to protect you, and that’s the calibration that we have.

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Delusional Seattle Democrats Blame Trump While Ignoring Their Role In Homelessness Crisis

In a recent op-ed, radio host Jason Rantz argues that Seattle Democrats outraged by President Donald Trump’s new homelessness executive order are ignoring their own responsibility for the crisis.

Trump’s order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” dismantles “Housing First” and “Harm Reduction” strategies, which Rantz calls failed progressive experiments that worsened addiction, street crime, and homelessness. He says local leaders in cities like Seattle and Spokane are “predictably outraged” because the policy is “a direct rebuke to the failed progressive experiments that have crippled Seattle, Spokane, and other left-wing cities.”

Rantz writes that Washington Governor Bob Ferguson called the order “misguided and harmful,” while Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said it was impractical. Rantz counters that their criticisms are hypocritical, as these leaders presided over a surge in encampments, crime, and drug use.

He is particularly critical of “Harm Reduction” programs that distribute drug paraphernalia at taxpayer expense, claiming they enable addiction. “In less than five minutes, I walked away with glass pipes and other fentanyl smoking equipment, no questions asked,” he said of a recent visit to a Seattle facility.

Rantz also dismisses “Housing First” as ineffective, arguing it ignores root causes like mental illness and substance abuse. He claims the program “merely relocates the dysfunction indoors.”

Trump’s order ties federal funding to enforcement of laws against public camping, open drug use, and street crime, which Rantz says restores accountability. “When we stop normalizing drug addiction and homelessness, we offer real compassion — access to treatment, mental health services, and genuine rehabilitation programs,” he writes.

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