By a unanimous vote, the Seattle City Council April 14 buried the Urban Reststop public hygiene proposal, seven months after Norm Rice--with the help of what was essentially a $350,000 bribe from the Downtown Seattle Association--reneged on the already-funded Glen Hotel site. The final vote was to fund a variety of inadequate, scattered sites, none of them with any plans drawn up, and none near the precious downtown retail core the city has apparently vowed to keep the homeless away from. It will be years before any are open. Hope you have a big bladder and don't mind waiting.

In its final insult, the P-I's buried inside story on the vote made no mention of the Glen Hotel fiasco, painting the vote solely as a progressive triumph for the homeless: "The vote paves the way for a coalition of housing interests--including the Univ. of Washington, the Dept. of Housing and Human Services, the United Way and the Downtown Seattle Association--to begin plans for as many as five sites with toilets, showers, and laundry facilities."

Or as few as zero sites, since the real point of the vote was to kill the Glen Hotel site that was already planned. Aside from the implication, for those not following the story, that the "controversy" must have been between these housing advocates and people not wanting to "plan" any facilities at all, calling the Downtown Seattle Association a "housing interest" is ludicrous. DSA's Big Business members are largely responsible for the 80% loss of low-income housing in the downtown periphery in the last decade. The University of Washington, which has a similar role in the U-District, is no advocate for housing rights, either. The Times and P-I both went well out of their ways throughout the Glen Hotel struggle to kiss up to the DSA and trash its opponents, far beyond the usual bias to power and liberal nice-speak they display each day. The coup de grace, implying the DSA is a group of concerned citizens looking out for the homeless, is kinda like saying the ATF cared deeply about the Branch Davidians in Waco.

The real housing advocates--the ones not mentioned by the P-I--are the targets of these "interests." The Low-Income Housing Institute (LIHI), owners of the Glen Hotel and backers of the original Urban Reststop plan, received a commitment three weeks ago for a private loan for the hygiene facility--using no city money at all. After literally two decades of various activists trying to get the city to address this basic social need, including three years of meeting every legal and bureaucratic hurdle for city funding for the Glen, LIHI was forced to go to the private sector to find someone who cared. It was still told by the city that our socially progressive Mayor and City Council would do everything possible to stop the project from proceeding. Apparently sucking up to big business, and driving undesirables away from The Places Where Nice People Go, is more important than either basic human rights and dignity or private property rights.

Alongside April 15's housing advocacy article, the P-I's stadium update led off with Paul Allen's rejection of a compromise: "Rep. Steve Van Luven, R-Bellevue, offered compromise proposals that would require Allen to throw more of his own money at the project and also boost the taxpayer subsidy for it."

The P-I's choice of words--"throwing money at" rather, than, say, "investing" (it is, after all, his private business)--is remarkably loaded. If a new stadium is a waste of money for Paul Allen, why isn't it a waste of money for taxpayers? And, the assertion (and self-evident fact) of "taxpayer subsidy" counters stadium boosters who insist this deal isn't a use of public money for a private business (a violation of numerous laws and the state constitution).

That was on page one of the local news section. On the front page was a gee-whiz article announcing that Paul Allen has a new web site! You can take a tour of his interactive mansion! Find out what his favorite books and movies are! And (oh, yeah) learn about the Seahawks!

The front page article, far removed from the icky politics of Olympia, reveals all this and more: Paul's favorite books, his hobbies, his favorite places to go scuba diving. It says nothing about any possible link in the timing of the web site (or the article) to Allen's desire for public sympathy while he gears up for a possible June vote on getting at least $300 million in corporate welfare from taxpayers.

Three days later, a surge in Microsoft stock value increased Allen's net worth by $980 million in one day--enough to fully build two of his stadiums, with $130 million left over for game-day parking.

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