Morning Fizz
No Free Parking
1. The city council's parks committee agreed yesterday that a pilot project to charge for parking at city parks
should start with the recently opened Lake Union Park, where many commuters are apparently using the parking lot as free parking during the work day. The pilot project would cost the city about $27,000---$15,000 for a pay station and $12,000 for operating costs---and would bring in around $100,000 a year
.
Lake Union Park
The city's parks department considered three potential locations where the city might start charging for parking: Lake Union Park, the south lot of Lincoln Park, and the parking lot at Green Lake Community Center.
"My impression is that parking at South Lake Union Park right now is rather difficult," council member Tom Rasmussen said. "It seems like Lake Union would be a good place for a pilot program, especially given the growing number of people working there."
2. At the city council's housing committee meeting Wednesday, members of the stakeholder group that's discussing whether the city should license and inspect all rental housing made it clear that, for the most part, they haven't budged from their respective positions: Landlords and advocates for property owners want to limit the inspection program to cover as few buildings as possible, while tenant and public health advocates want the program to be as widespread as possible to prevent bad landlords from slipping through the cracks.
"I think you all could have probably scripted in advance what all of us as advocates would say," Harrison Benis & Spence partner Chris Benis told the council.
As they did back in January , rental-housing owners groused that mandatory citywide inspections will penalize good landlords while doing nothing about bad ones, who will simply evade the program.
"I've tracked the complaints that are coming from other cities that have mandatory inspection programs, and unfortunately the complaints are still ongoing in those cities about substandard units, so I don't think that it is appropriate to suggest that any kind of mandatory inspection program is going to get to the real heart of the issue," Washington Multi-Family Housing Association government affairs chair Joe Puckett said. "Landlords who operate outside the law are going to continue to operate outside the law even if we have a mandatory inspection program."
Tenant advocates, in contrast, argued that a mandatory program is critical because tenants often fear retaliation if they complain to the city about substandard conditions, which the current complaint-based inspection system requires them to do.
Because of the ongoing stalemate, code compliance director Karen White said the group's recommendations, which were supposed to come out in February, won't be ready until at least July.
3. Freshman state Sen. Nick Harper (D-38, Everett) unveiled legislation yesterday to amend the fiscal note process for evaluating bills. Harper wants fiscal notes to put a price tag not just on the immediate cost of implementing a new program or the immediate upfront savings from a cut, but also on the longterm financial impacts .
When people are cut from the Basic Health Plan , for example, or seniors lose in-home care hours, or there are cuts to K-12, Harper notes in a statement, "these short-term cuts cost us all more in the long run."
In addition to tracking those costs, Harper tells the Fizz, fiscal notes should tally up the longterm savings on spending bills. Harper says one dollar in family planning spending can save the state four dollars in the same year.
Harper has bipartisan support, including Democrats Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36, Seattle) and Sen. Sharon Nelson (D-34, Maury Island), and Republicans Sen. Pam Roach (R-31, Auburn) and Sen. Steve Litzow (R-41, Mercer Island).
Introduced yesterday, after Monday's cutoff, Harper says he'd like to see his legislation written into the budget itself as an amendment.
4. And, of course, there is terrible news from Japan today after a massive earth quake and tsunami
Lake Union Park
The city's parks department considered three potential locations where the city might start charging for parking: Lake Union Park, the south lot of Lincoln Park, and the parking lot at Green Lake Community Center.
"My impression is that parking at South Lake Union Park right now is rather difficult," council member Tom Rasmussen said. "It seems like Lake Union would be a good place for a pilot program, especially given the growing number of people working there."
2. At the city council's housing committee meeting Wednesday, members of the stakeholder group that's discussing whether the city should license and inspect all rental housing made it clear that, for the most part, they haven't budged from their respective positions: Landlords and advocates for property owners want to limit the inspection program to cover as few buildings as possible, while tenant and public health advocates want the program to be as widespread as possible to prevent bad landlords from slipping through the cracks.
"I think you all could have probably scripted in advance what all of us as advocates would say," Harrison Benis & Spence partner Chris Benis told the council.
As they did back in January , rental-housing owners groused that mandatory citywide inspections will penalize good landlords while doing nothing about bad ones, who will simply evade the program.
"I've tracked the complaints that are coming from other cities that have mandatory inspection programs, and unfortunately the complaints are still ongoing in those cities about substandard units, so I don't think that it is appropriate to suggest that any kind of mandatory inspection program is going to get to the real heart of the issue," Washington Multi-Family Housing Association government affairs chair Joe Puckett said. "Landlords who operate outside the law are going to continue to operate outside the law even if we have a mandatory inspection program."
Tenant advocates, in contrast, argued that a mandatory program is critical because tenants often fear retaliation if they complain to the city about substandard conditions, which the current complaint-based inspection system requires them to do.
Because of the ongoing stalemate, code compliance director Karen White said the group's recommendations, which were supposed to come out in February, won't be ready until at least July.
3. Freshman state Sen. Nick Harper (D-38, Everett) unveiled legislation yesterday to amend the fiscal note process for evaluating bills. Harper wants fiscal notes to put a price tag not just on the immediate cost of implementing a new program or the immediate upfront savings from a cut, but also on the longterm financial impacts .
When people are cut from the Basic Health Plan , for example, or seniors lose in-home care hours, or there are cuts to K-12, Harper notes in a statement, "these short-term cuts cost us all more in the long run."
In addition to tracking those costs, Harper tells the Fizz, fiscal notes should tally up the longterm savings on spending bills. Harper says one dollar in family planning spending can save the state four dollars in the same year.
Harper has bipartisan support, including Democrats Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36, Seattle) and Sen. Sharon Nelson (D-34, Maury Island), and Republicans Sen. Pam Roach (R-31, Auburn) and Sen. Steve Litzow (R-41, Mercer Island).
Introduced yesterday, after Monday's cutoff, Harper says he'd like to see his legislation written into the budget itself as an amendment.
4. And, of course, there is terrible news from Japan today after a massive earth quake and tsunami
