(Image: Savage Citizens)
Broadway business owner and Capitol Hill character Rachael Savage has entered the Seattle mayor’s race.
The Savage campaign joins a flurry of Capitol Hill-flavored longshot challenges to incumbent Bruce Harrell emerging in the early run-up to the August primary. A former District 3 candidate for the Seattle City Council is also an early rival in the race to lead Seattle.
On her Savage Citizens site, the first-time candidate explains “why I am running as a Republican.” Apparently, it is for more than just the attention.
“We can save Downtown, the International District, Capitol Hill, First Hill, Queen Anne, Pioneer Square and Ballard if we dramatically change the way that we have tried to help the addicted and the mentally ill,” Savage says. “We can have a city free from the death, dereliction and cruelty that current policy is creating.”
Harrell hasn’t done it, Savage says, and the Democrats can’t. “To build our city for this century we need a new leader. A leader who as a small business owner has suffered first hand the direct consequences of attempting to treat and to house the addicted and the mentally ill in our city neighborhoods,” Savage writes.
Savage, owner of Broadway’s The Vajra shop since 1998, has grown her Savage Citizens effort with opposition to the planned development of a Downtown Emergency Service Center facility on Belmont Ave as a critic of the city’s approach to addiction and supportive housing. Savage was featured in a notorious tour of Broadway and Capitol Hill Station with Republican Washington Attorney General candidate Pete Serrano. Serrano lost handily to Democrat Nick Brown.
It’s a long way from the crystals and incense at the Broadway boutique. In 2014 as The Vajra marked 25 years of business, Savage told CHS about the “great wisdom” behind the store. “Everything in the shop is picked for its spiritual or awakening value,” Savage told CHS in 2014. “When people come in here, they’re seeking: They’re seeking comfort, they’re seeking enlightenment, and sometimes they don’t even know what they’re seeking, but they’re drawn in.”
Savage’s mayoral platform eleven years later is rougher stuff. She promises to lead an end to “the addiction and mental illness epidemic” with a major crackdown in which the city’s police and prosecutors “arrest, charge and convict every person committing crimes on the streets of Seattle no matter how small those crimes are.” The convicted would be assessed for addiction and “history of violence.” Some would be diverted to treatment, others to a “multi-year treatment and work program.”
“The city must build temporary secure facilities away from the city neighborhoods to handle the influx of people into the jail and the new treatment system,” Savage says.
(Image: Armstrong for All)
Meanwhile, another Capitol Hill-connected candidate is also mounting a longshot challenge to Harrell. Former D3 city council candidate Ry Armstrong has entered the race and stands as the only campaign other than Harrell’s to report any campaign contributions so far — just over eight grand. The labor leader says housing will be the “Armstrong for All” top priority.
2025 will bring a swarm of local election decisions. Mayor Bruce Harrell announced he is seeking a second term, launching his reelection campaign with themes around “common values,” “public safety solutions,” and “proven leadership to stand up for our values.”
Last week, Seattle Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck announced she was launching her re-election bid to retain her citywide seat on the council.
Seattle City Council president Sara Nelson will face a battle to keep her seat on the council. Newly appointed Mark Solomon, selected to replace Tammy Morales, said he would not take part in the election to select a permanent District 2 representative.
City Attorney Ann Davison has also launched her re-election campaign.
You can learn more about Savage at savagecitizens.com.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍
25 years ago, Broadway was a vibrant place. “Progressive” policies that have allowed drug addicts, criminals and the mentally ill to do whatever the fuck they want has sucked the vitality out of neighborhood. While I am not a republican, I see how 25 years of putting up with this crap would shift a business-owners politics to the right. What does she have to lose at this point? I appreciate Savage’s boldness to speak the truth and challenge the homeless/drug/mental illness/crime orthodoxy that has degraded the quality of life in the city. She is right that Capitol Hill has become the dumping ground. We already have more of our fair share of failed harm-reduction/housing projects to warehouse people that should be institutionalized.
25 years? Nobody has been “putting up with” anything for 25 years around here. We take action.
COVID is the reason we have many of these lingering issues. We have not done our best and let it linger. Cops quiet quitting. Who let’s a street takeover continue till someone’s shot? It’s not us. It’s the cops. And don’t whine “But we are afraid to arrest anyone” trip. Or the “People hate cops” trip. What if the Marines did that? We’d be speaking Russian.
So yeah…You are gonna get some poverty, drug use, homeless filth when NOBODY can be within’ 6′ of you. The perfect caper! I need paper towels! And a backpack full of candy!!!
That is a once in a lifetime thing. That period of time made better criminals out of criminals. And criminals out of the desperate. We are still seeing the effects.
I had suggested all hands on deck. Start in the PIKE/PINE-Broadway core as home base. Clean it top to bottom. Then keep it clean.
2 cops at all times on that beat. Walking and Biking. Then spread out from there doing the same.
I mean..>QFC right? A little slice of Hell. It’s WAYYYY better now doing as I suggested above. That’s all they did. What I just suggested.
Granted…It’s still grungy. If they did as I suggest? Pressure wash 3 AM-5AM daily it’d be fine. They came by over the weekend and swept this area for the first time in months. Not weeks, months. That area at QFC bike racks was a muddy, leafy bog. Slick as hell. My wheel spun under any acceleration like ice. Mooshy leaves. Get the Lime scooters a designated place on every block. No more using public bike racks. I literally can’t use them in the mornings they are packed completely. Maybe a scooter stencil or something. Something simple for rentals to be parked. There is NO place to park them. Thus? They are everywhere.
Not having designated rental areas is stupid. And dumb. And self defeating. And disorderly unorganised nuisances. That said? They sure are fun! I LOVE mine. Takes me everywhere I need to go. I can take it to the airport! Go on vacay to FL. and back. On a little scooter with 7 mile range.
Point is? Where there’s a will there’s a way. The little kids I told my story to still can’t figure out how to ride a scooter to FL. with only 7 mi. range.
What action are you taking? I’ve lived just off Broadway for 30 years and have put up with a fuck load of shit. Please believe me. Only now thinking of leaving cuz it seems to be only getting worse.
What are designated rental areas? Rarely if ever agree with you but you seem to have finally jumped the shark. Great you like your scooters. I fucking hate them.
But dude…If you ride them the way they are meant to be? They are fine. It’s just too many amatures ride them. I am ‘that dude”. I do the laws, even hand signals when needed, and am bright colored and lighted etc. I am totally with you on that. Shit needs to change.
On the “designated areas” for scoots.
All you need is a stencil and paint. Find a spot on/near each corner and make an “area”. Like a picture of a scooter wire frames as a symbol. Mabe local it up somehow (No on the rainbows people). Then make the scooter companies stage them there from now on. I think the scooter co. and the people can dig that.
25 years ago, rent was 1/4 of what it is now. Rent to income ratios were 50% of what it is now. And that is for the entire area. There’s also 200,000 more people here since then.
That’s a problem that, its correct, democrats have no real solutions for, because nobody would rather pay and have their home value go down, or have undesirable apartments in their neighborhood. The offered right-wing solution, as it has always, is to jail the non-people who don’t belong, not accept lifestyle changes in a growing city.
> What does she have to lose at this point?
Her business
You’re so close…yes, there are 200,000 more people over the 25 years and Seattle’s 84 square miles have remained static. There are two options: don’t build (or simply replace existing SFHs) and watch housing costs skyrocket or build density like other cities have done.
The comment above yours trashes “progressive” policies but there is nothing in any progressive platform about land speculation and wealth accumulation through rentier capitalism. What we are seeing is libertarian/propertarian policies, where property rights outweigh human rights. Deaths from exposure or social/institutional violence are just collateral damage.
You may personally be opposed but I assure you, there are thousands of Seattleites who are willing to turn a blind eye to that rather than live one inch closer to someone they don’t know. Density and transit are the way out of this — that or a devastating earthquake that upends the property market like we are seeing in LA.
I hope the people who are willing this into existence are able to keep up with this game of musical chairs…
Welcome to the AI world and RealPage.
It’s a MAGA thing. Not a progressive tool.
25 years ago. The wages were a very very low. Math works on both sides
Fully agree. It’s exhausting when you love a place that has been home for so long and see it declining – granted a point of view – but you can’t argue when businesses are covered in graffiti, vandalism is rife, gun crime more and more prevalent. If the current government keeps doing more of the same, we need a change in politics. If it doesn’t work, let’s go back but let’s try something different.
Like what?
“but you can’t argue”
You can’t argue that covid was not the major contributor to the worlds issues regarding all the stated stuff you stated.
The Covid effects are going away now. It’s getting better and we learned some things along the way.
“While I am not a Republican” is what every Republican on here says. I’m sorry but Savage is not brave for saying the same thing that most Democrats have said too, including Harrel. You’re also buying into her “tough on crime” BS while the party she supports literally worship a felon and unironically believe that the J6 rioters and any other criminal who happens to be conservative deserve to be free from any consequences. Aside from that, she’s actually insane, have you read any actual stories about her? She’s a nut, this article is unironically whitewashing her beliefs. It’s sad that a local resident actually thinks she’s cool and deserves to be mayor. I dislike Harrel, but I’ll gladly vote for him to prevent pariahs like Savage from even entertaining the thought.
“While I am not a Republican” is what every Republican on here says.”
They are too embarrassed. The MAGA politicians are hiding from their voters…lmao!
Dems. are getting 10-20+ at their town halls.
Scary.
Not buying what you are saying. Trump is a nut. Trump is insane and running our country. Harrell deserves to be mayor? I think he’s proven he doesn’t and I’m not alone in that thought. Try again.
You seem to conveniently forget the crack epidemic of the 90s. The use of drugs is,a health issue not a matter for police, arrest,court,jail,release, street,etc.
This lady is not “right” about anything. She’s an insane racist weirdo and makes Goodspaceguy look normal.
Have lived in CH since 2000. I agree with you 100%
https://www.rebelsaintsmeditationsociety.com/about. She has a lot going on
As someone who attended Rebel Saints a few times but was skeeved out by its association with Noah Levine (a guy who faced very public allegations about predatory behavior with his mediation students and was kicked out of all of his orgs) … I can’t say this about-face surprises me.
The realm of hungry ghosts is one of the realms of rebirth in Buddhist cycle of existence, and those reborn there are said to have led lives consumed by greed and spite. Hungry ghosts are often described as having enormous stomachs and tiny mouths, forever thwarted in their search for food.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/rel_books/5/
War (waged upon people who use molecules) is arguably the most powerful narcotic. Seems that the phrase “hungry ghost” describes Savage’s own lust for power and magisterial control over the bodies, minds, and lives of others. Like fraudulent shrinks, she prefers that her subjects remain “poor and barefoot”.
It’s a shame she won’t win. I’m just glad someone is speaking out against the drug crime that has taken over our neighborhood.
Like uhhh…Who ISN’T???? EVERYONE talks about it. Shit…Dunn got someone of their fat asses in no time. Everyone’s on the problem. With some common sense, elbow grease and fucking common sense. I think we can turn it around. It’s already coming back. It won’t take a bunch of money to shine up the joint. Cops are back working instead of dragging their feets. It shows. SODA is now a thing. There’s simply not the issue their used to be. We are down to the 10-20% of the issues. The hardest cases.
I do not want to see businesses using a situation to further their personal agendas w/o considering the people who LIVE HERE. They? Do not live here. They fight for NIMBY at home. And their nest feathered here as well. Everyone else is irrelevant. EI: Kiosks…Not exactly a needed item. No, do not care if they buy it. Train station Kiosks are a better solution for everyone.
Organize something. I will show up. I am old, sweet, and kind of naive in my daily life, and a former bleeding heart liberal, and basically still, but, so done with the far left in Seattle. Organize. I’ll show up. With practice, can imitate something fearful. Very very fearful. You will be surprised. AARGGHHH!!
Fuck Trump. Fuck Musk
I’ll neither confirm nor deny that is happening as we speak ;OP
I clear got ideas and energy. I also clearly have no life and 1/2 to 100% “insane” as one commenter so astutely pointed out.
I mean, I got “cult leader energy”.
I’m convinced you’re the person posting those deranged squirrel signs everywhere…
“Everyone talks about it”… Talking with your friends or posting on an internet comment board is hardly the same as running for public office on a platform of aggressively cleaning up the neighborhood and removing addicts and criminals from the streets. Savage’s platform is a radical improvement on what any other candidate is saying.
Well, you are 1/2 right…It’s radical.
Ya know what they all lack that I have in spades???
Lived experiences. Huge difference when it comes to problem solving. Also? Men by nature ARE problem solvers. When the shit gets real? Generally a dude takes charge. If it is some abstract thing? We’ll find a way to make it work. Or completely fail….lol…But the point is, we are fearless at jumping in to help.
Agree!
But she won’t fix it or has any good understanding of root cause. So screw her and her racist ass
The root cause is a bunch of people are scumbags
New age hippies turning Republican? That’s so 1980s. Time to turn that crystal shop into a Christian bookstore.
It’s simply to drain the MAGA funding tank. MAGA voters are all dreamy eyed and will send money. Freed advertising. She’s found that advocating can be monetised.
Anyone running as a republican doesn’t care about LGBTQ rights. Prove to me otherwise. Basically her campaign is dead on arrival right there. FYI you can be a democrat and still think Seattle’s core neighborhoods are far too bleak and gross! Lots of us do!
Maybe she thinks she can take over the (withered) R party apparatus to stand out rather than try to fight it out with whoever the corporate democrats want to hand pick. Hate him as much as you want but that’s essentially what bad orange man did.
Part of caring about LGBTQ is not constantly exposing them to assaults.
I’ll vote for her…never say never. The neighborhood is tired and she may be just what wakes people up to get out and vote for change.
Nope. Really nope.
Then – Organize something AS YOU SAY, lol.
Will you really vote for her? I’m tired too but not willing to vote for that. Yes ok you can laugh, deservedly so, I guess. I wish I was the organizing type but so not. Incapable, personality-wise, not just lazy.
No. Don’t need those person.
So SHE’S behind Savage Citizens??? Was she also the one commenting on here as “Tim” back when that commenter was advocating so hard for Savage Citizens, while disingenuously railing against the well-being of our currently homeless Seattleites by advocating against building services within city limits?
Now I see why those scammers were trying to get people to “mindfulness” their way out of homelessness while advocating to move mental health and transitional housing services waaaaay out of the city…away from the people who need it so they can enact their Yarvin-esque network state for the wealthy in downtown…fascist freaks.
Savage Citizens is a thinly veiled, identity politics based SCAM, who by running a republican candidate, is now politically linked to more scams than one could feasibly count thanks to Trump, and a Nazi and Apartheid apologist in Musk to boot…great plan of attack in a city that just voted it’s socialist heart out!
I’ll be nice and just assume Rachael Savage is uneducated and not a true “savage” as her politics suggest. *spits*
Yunno man…I had not thought about it. Never crossed my mind. But I vaguely remember folks here commenting on it when the “Capitol Hill is Dying” Video came out starring her. Where they went to revive/”save and rescue” fenty zombies on the street while in a fold. Terrified to go into the light rail station with 2 grown men escorts.
That one…That Savage Citizen.
Only one issue with that. Her spiritual shield should be enough to protect her from bad stuff. Granted. No running from the smell of urine in the elevators though as we all know too well.
I do not suffer fools. Nor pretentious and condescending. Lying cheating and stealing. Irresponsible.
She’s running as a Republican Fascist for only one reason and one reason only.
She wants to MAGA for the money. She flat knows she’s gonna get vaporised. It’s just how much money you can raise. You don’t give it back. You keep what’s left. Nobody will run as MAGA. She’s in her own lane. It’s free pub. Everyone will hear her name and the business. Get in early for maximum effect. Alone? She’s nothing. But some money and the MAGA fascists will be gaga over her. Why? She’s a fascist in liberal clothes. Kinda like Hollingsworth is a conservative. But black and grows weed. They are nice “tokens” for the MAGA. Image is everything.
So yeah, it’s free publicity and a way to rally some money from MAGA’s waiting for the Great Pumpkin again.
Hey, grifters gonna grift I guess!!!
But the real question is: when are we gonna get these irresponsible, bloodless, and ideologically bereft “conservative” politicians off our dang streets already??!! Fascist more like it.
Rachael Savage clearly doesn’t care about anything to the point of wanting to scam a base of fearful and old republicans…pretty sick if you ask me. Those are our grandparents and neighbors! We may not agree politically, but no one deserves to get scammed by someone like her–a candidate with no real solutions.
People like her ruin this city by just existing…no one wants to see people like her in parks JUDGING people based off of income or HURTING people in our neighborhoods through classist fundraising efforts and through spreading fear-mongering propaganda.
When will people like her just get out of our city or leave us alone?? SEATTLE CITIZENS ARE TIRED OF OUR CITY’S PROBLEMS BEING EXACERBATED BY GROUPS LIKE SAVAGE CITIZENS. PROVIDE MATERIAL SOLUTIONS OR GET OUT.
I doubt she has much shot at a win, but she is bringing important issues to light. Broadway has degraded in the past 30 years, and nobody in authority seems to give any F’s about it. We have a whole contingent of political animal actively enabling the crime and drug abuse to continue, by stuffing the neighborhood full of low-barrier apartments and ignoring obvious daily drug dealing and use up and down Broadway and nearby.
She is an abysmal moron, who are you kidding? I hate Harrell but we need to go back left, not right.
“by stuffing the neighborhood full of low-barrier apartments”
Oh? Where are all these places?
Summit between pine and denny. Walk down there sometime.
This blog has reported on recent 4 lihi buildings, the new building on 10th with the dog incident, you might consider the ywca building, and then whatever is on the blocks of Belmont and Boylston south of Denny. This is in addition to the SHA’s buildings.
To add: the DESC and new youth buildings that are in the works.
I must say, being sandwiched between two LIHI buildings has been ..colorful.. and I’m done living next to it.
Right 4…let’s double it to 8 for arguments sake.
“stuffing the neighborhood full” was the statement.
As I said…”Where are all these places”?
Also?
MOVE! If you do not like it? MOVE!
I thought it polite, not to provide an address for the low-barrier buildings, but rather the housing provider and a reference for details on said building, as discussed in this blog.
6 of buildings, mentioned above, opened since 2020. They have changed the fabric and safety on my block. Drug dealers? Yes. People in crisis? Yes. Residents assaulting other residents? Yes. Individuals throwing items out the windows? Yes. Constant flooding of units? Yes.
2 buildings are within a 90 second walk from each other. I am sandwiched between constant madness.
A gofundme would help me gather the funds to relocate. I’m stuck here, in my market rate building, of 20+ years.
Until then, I will won’t be bullied into thinking all is great in the area and that our neighborhood is a healthy place to live.
This is enormously depressing.
I feel for you. It must be really frustrating/depressing to not be able to move.
More like…SO DONE! Haha I see what you did there!!!111
How exactly is Ry Armstrong a “labor leader”?
Not sure. This is a candidate that got less than 50 votes for city council member and now thinks they can be Mayor. To say they are a leader in any sphere is laughable.
It’s brave to run. Nobody else is. Why not you? Prolly same reason I’d never run for anything. It sucks giant donkey. Nobody wants the job.
I give anyone respect for running for any political office. Even Cheetolini running from criminal charges.
With all the time you put into the comment section here, you should throw your hat into the ring, @smooth
:O)
As a widely recognized national literary treasure, nominated for the Mark Twain Award, and known to sometimes wildly declare: I mean, I got “cult leader energy”, with truly unsettling abandon, I do believe that the uber-evil Magister Savage, and perennially creepy Goodspaceguy deserve a run against their “dim money”!
And he will probably win, assuming The Stranger endorses, even now without the Smith, Krieg, Nerbovig triumvirate. Marxist Mudede still rules supreme apparently..
The Stranger endorsed mayoral candidate hasn’t won a primary or general election since McGinn in 2009, what are you even talking about? We’ve been under the Seattle Times and business communities preferred candidates that entire time 🙄
Well the progressive and democratic policies have run the city into the ground a bit so clearly the status quo is not the way forward although the voters will still clutch their progressive pearls and then cry why things are so bad
So now the progressives are pearl clutching? I thought that was a pejorative for anyone right of NTK. ‘Splain me please.
The number of people calling to put a swath of their fellow citizens into forced labor camps is too damn high.
agree
Me too. We are next.
Who is calling for that? Forcing people into rehab or acute mental health care when they clearly cannot make decisions for themselves is not forced labor.
Oh? Because it’s a blatant dog whistle she didn’t say it?
mkay
Google “Guantanamo” Maybe. It’s not who’s calling for it. It’s happening.
LOLOLOL!
So I am NOT crazy or insane after all!
That’s literally the first thing that came to mind. Forced labor for profits. Private prisons. In rural towns…Same as the Confederacy.
Why? Those towns get revenue based on population. Prisoners are counted as residents. Nice infrastructure they do not deserve. Commerce they do not deserve. You get the picture.
It costs tax payers to house them. And business gets the free labor and rural towns get a huge windfall of power in congress far exceeding their voting numbers. Prisoners can not vote.
This is really really something we all need to pay attention to. Astute and correct.
This has been the for-profit prison playbook for a while now, sort of the loophole to the no-slavery thing…
WA state agencies are required to buy furniture and other items that our state prison labor force makes for meager wages (although higher than some states and at least a wage unlike some others).
Wake up folks, rights aren’t given, we have to work together to make sure the rich and powerful stop trying to take them from us, and we sure as hell need to stop giving it to them willingly.
Prosecuting criminals with the punishments our elected government has put on the books is not putting people in forced labor camps
Checking my notes on the WW2 work camps, as I recall those were punishments an elected government put on the books. This is a really bad take, even for you man…
Please point to our current law that is being used to put people in forced labor camps
You’re really working hard to fight for a system that was rapidly propped up after slavery was abolished to maintain as much of the status quo as possible. See my comments elsewhere here about state requirements to purchase prison labor made products. Those centers are exempt from any for-profit prison rules and almost all are run by contractors. So essentially, a criminal justice system that has been shown to disproportionately incarcerate those at the margin has created a mechanism by which to complete their prison sentences people are forced to work for artificially deflated wages… What’s so hard to understand about that?
Now, in the midst of the first tumultuous weeks of this fascist regime, where Guantanamo and Rikers are being used for mass detentions and deportations, Savage comes out as a Republican in favor of more rural work camps with mass arrests and you all are carrying water for her. It’s bad enough that we’re giving her any of the free publicity she wants from this, but the fact people are going along with it shows how many of you really are okay with facism and authoritarian society.
Putting them into commercial prisons in rural areas may not be forced labor camps but certainly raises some issues dontcha think?
Because they’re in rural areas?
Commercial prisons?
https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=72.68.110
Ooh, you missed the exception for state work release centers, most of which are run by contractors…
Work release is not prison dude
Prison by any other name is still a prison, you’re really splitting hairs to justify slave wage labor for profit…
“All incarcerated persons can be referred to reentry centers 30 months prior to their earned release date.”
What are they being released from dude?
https://www.doc.wa.gov/corrections/incarceration/reentry-center/default.htm
That photo is painful
It actually is.
Why gasp?
When did it become a crime to think outside the box to solve problems that have plagued the City?
I don’t care it’s Democrats or Republicans… someone needs to do better in serving the citizens.
— Homeless, crime, graffiti, etc
— Crumbling infrastructure, takes billions to fix anything and they are perennial behind schedule
— Public school system collapsing and 70% of kids don’t know how to read / do maths
Just to name a few…
It’s not a well-run City or country. A change of course and new ideas are needed.
Yeah for real. It’s pretty shameful that Justin, the guy behind this supposed journalism, is writing this shite. FWIW, bud, I’ve never voted for a Republican, I’ve owned a business in Seattle for 13 years, and I have considered running for Council many times, as … ***gasp*** a Democrat. You should also know that it’s incredulous, presumptuous drivel like this that got me to swear off buying ads on CHS years ago. You don’t even try to remain neutral in your coverage, and you frequently censor comments on your own blog. Your snark makes more enemies of your cause than friends, btw. Screen shotting this so I can post it to Reddit if you choose not to allow this comment.
You don’t like this publication because it doesn’t swear enough fealty to you…in your opinion? Got it!!!
Hope this earns you some hefty Reddit gold, good sir!
I bid you farewell, Traveler! Tip, tip, tippin my hat to you…good sir.
Not from Savage though.
Problem: There’s no outside the box thinking here. It’s the same ol crap.
Useless old people who have sat on their property to the tune of millions while preventing anyone from building more housing and now complain that their million dollar property is surrounded by homeless people. Just leave the city already, go live in Gig Harbor (sorry Gig Harbor!) and live your happy 1980s life out of the way of people who actually want to live in the current day city.
so i’m guessing you hate the 30-something year olds who moved into their late relative’s home to raise their families?
Also when you complain about useless old people moving to Gig Harbor, I invite you go door to door in the CD, Mount Baker, Rainier Valley, and Beacon Hill and tell that to elderly Black and Asian homeowners. You might get an earful and learn some lessons. You think Gig Harbor is welcoming to non-white people? the place is over 80% white.
Very helpful comment. Thanks so much .
Yes. A very well thought out comment. Hope you also find somewhere else to live. Bye.
I’ll vote for anyone who will remove criminals off the street – including hard drug users and the dangerous mentally ill people who need compassionate care OFF the streets.
How do we remove homeless-hating classists from the streets? Any candidate doing that?
They’re off the street because they go to their jobs and home to their families because they aren’t junkies.
When you know you can’t win as a democrat in Seattle you make the desperate hail mary play.
Rectified to Big Orange Daddy standards by the Homeland Thought Police:
“Everything in the shop is picked for its spiritual or
awakeningvalue,” (Savage, 2014)… the widespread acceptance of notions of racial hygiene and genetic determination in both medical and policing circles made it easy for the state to increasingly marginalize drug consumers as asocial, psychopathic, or genetically deficient. New measures were taken to strengthen the existing policing and social welfare work against addiction. And new groups, such the “Imperial Committee for the Struggle against Drugs” were created to bring the medical, policing, and political experts together in the war against drugs. Starting in 1935, the Nazi government created the “Imperial Center for the Struggle against Drug Crimes” at the Prussian Criminal Police Office in Berlin, which acted as a central information-collecting office for drug crimes from various district police offices. Drug users faced a number of possible sanctions, from conviction under the Opium Law to findings of mental and legal incompetence resulting in forced internment in a treatment or withdrawal center.
“Germans on Drugs: The Complications of Modernization in Hamburg”; Stephens (2007); pp 16-17:
https://books.google.com/books?id=N6X5bA9CUVAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
… in Nazi Germany … The highly elastic diagnosis of “feeble-mindedness” provided legal grounds in most cases; the diagnosis of schizophrenia accounted for the second-largest group. … The propaganda campaign portrayed its targets as less than fully human. … Staffed by thousands of physicians and assistant physicians, the clinics operated under the aegis of regional public health offices and created vast hereditary data banks for the regime’s future use.
“In the Name of Public Health – Nazi Racial Hygiene”; Bachrach (2004):
https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/07192004-nazi-racial-hygiene-bachrach.pdf
So, in short:
– jaywalking and minor speeding are jail-worthy crimes now
-people with mental illness should be punished for existing
-and apparently Seattle can create a forced labor program, that’s totally within the mayor’s normal scope of operations
That’s not the platform of a person who believes in democracy.
People in Seattle by simply existing are exposed to dangerous mentally ill people who assault and kill them
The world is full of them. What’s your point?
Truth is Red states are the poorest, most crime ridden. Just because a few blue cities have high crime simply means it’s a big city. The “per capita” numbers are a true measure.
I’d say the true measure is the experience of the person living there.
Show me a graph says my 7 bus ride isn’t completely bat shit.
And the junkies are making my egg prices go up gerd dernit!!!!
I certainly don’t think the junkies help grocery prices.
Ah, the woman with a culturally appropriative store who made a ridiculous video about crime that did a scare zoom in on a Black man as he sat idly on a bench. Who acts as a NIMBY about new housing going up that would ideally help low income people because she expected them to be rehab or halfway houses. A wonderful candidate in the current ignorant and hateful political climate.
I’d never vote for a Republican, including this one, but it’s no secret that Seattle progressives and their policies are hostile to small business owners, and they will continue to lose elections until they take their concerns seriously instead of treating them like Capitalist pigs.
your boyfriend owns a business right? The pinball joint.
No.
“Continue to lose” is rich considering Kshama Sawant was on the council for 10 years and championed some of the most popular progressive policy pushes this city has seen.
Also, those business owners are capitalist by definition…owning a business and all! But the pig part is up to them…they don’t have to actively vote against progressive change every chance they get…it’s not like their greedy F’n landlords are looking out for their commercial tenants’ best interests. There’s always bigger fish looking to swallow you up…political strength is in numbers if you don’t have the money.
Small business owners should side with their workers and local customers instead of the corporate establishment…who knows, maybe they’d be surprised at the political good-will those positions would engender.
Oh dear. Kshama. You think she helped this city?
As much as my reactionary kick wants a card table to maim frequent theft from retail areas, my core is against that thought. Savage’s platform is my lizard brain, knee-jerk reaction, to all the awful, that is common, that isn’t sustainable, for long term living, here. Shrug, blow off, and scream weakness towards us not adjusting to new, nonsensical, and gun shot crusty urban living.
I want savage to explain how a mayor will call in the military to do local enforcement. Wa Nat Guard is already deployed to foreign countries, on leave from their daily career, away from families. She wants them to stop homeless and addicts in Seattle? Call in the Army? Does she know how this all works?
As a mayor she will round up, prosecute, stream individuals into fail / treatment / work camps? Has she met the ACLU and policies/law beyond her comprehension?
Does she realize that the mayor has to play nice with the SCC, KC exec and all employees under KC – Public Health, Jail, Metro(?) (-maybe more that contract to support Seattle), KKC, judges, and everyone in between? The mayor is henpecked at all sides.
Be a flamboyant clown to be retweeted on X and air on Fox. Savage, you are actually hurting more moderate people.
As a life long democrate, I feel she is moderate. The Democratic party has failed working people. Always follow the money and broken promises.
GRANDMA!! THE COOKIE TIMER!!! FOX NEWS WAS SO LOUD ON THE TV THAT YOU COULDN’T HEAR THE TIMER!
Now they’re burnt grandma :(
Surely you can do better than attacking age or status. This was low hanging fruit. Try to do better.
I never agree with chhill but relax. It was kind of funny.
I am moderate
I do not think this person is moderate.
I like many of her ideas for a fresh approach to homelessness/drug addiction. However, a Republican….and a trump supporter at that…has exactly 0 chance of winning as mayor of Seattle. That is just a fact.
The cop supporter likes authoritarian policies.
I’m shocked. SHOCKED.
Well…not that shocked.
Fresh approach? Nothing fresh is coming from the right on this. It’s all SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP from those ghouls.
Let’s do jail instead of sweeps. I agree.
This is a recurring topic. What do we do for the street addicts in the encampments who refuse to go into shelter bc it prevents them from smoking meth and fentanyl? Just let them be while they continue stealing from residents and feeling entitled to commit petty crimes as we all deal with it?
Yes
Unfortunately, it appears that way, but Rachel like many others are sick of what is happening here and, in the US, I believe there are many many closet Trump supporters and Republicans. It should not be about a party. Personally, I prefer our elected officials to argue and discuss items instead of railroading what every crazy in place because it’s the party line. Unfortunately, the US and Americans have become extremists
Then why did your side lose handedly in last two elections. Social housing won overwhelmingly
Sides are weird when it comes to housing. In general Republicans are more pro housing than democrats.
what? “In general” meaning what?
Fact is progressive revenue and affordable housing are NOT “Republican” supported issues. We just had an election proving that.
As a previous business owner on Broadway 90, 91 and 92 and a resident of the hill since 1988, I whole support her. Where do I sign up to help her. Who cares if she is running as a Republican!
We care. But she does take away votes from Centrist Stooge Bruce Harrell
If you are thinking anyone to the left of Harrell can win you are nuts.
The progressive brand is unbelievably toxic.
AMR got more votes than Harrell ever did. Or any city elected official for that matter.
Harrell didn’t have the advantage of running against a crazy person.
Weak sauce comeback
How so? Lorena Gonzales was a much more serious candidate than Andrea Suarez. So you disgree with that?
Rachael was pretty aloof and rude when I went into her shop once. I left without buying anything.
In what way is Ry Armstrong a “labor leader”?
Savage and her ilk would have been cheering on the work camps in WW2! You all are disgusting…
Judging from this comment section, Savage can look forward to receiving approximately 6 votes in the election.
OK so… arrest em (not enough space in jails to hold), charge em (courts are backed up), ship em out to “temporary secure facilities” (camps) that the city will build soon… outside the city, I guess? And do a multi-year “program” paid for by whom?
This isn’t a policy proposal, it’s a fairy tale with scary overtones.
Remember, every major city is facing these same issues. Covid, fentanyl, and soon massive federal dysfunction and unemployment are not mysterious plagues summoned by Kshama Sawant’s dark communist rituals. These are systemic problems that don’t have simple solutions like arrest em all.
King County opened up more jail beds for Seattle to use for arrested gross misdemeanor suspects, so your claim there is no longer accurate. I am in favor of arresting drug users and (especially drug dealers). The latter should be charged and prosecuted, and the majority of the former should be diverted into treatment programs, with careful oversight.
Well then you better start working on your JD and become a public defender, because there’s currently a massive shortage creating a backlog of getting people into drug treatment and other facilities… If Savage or any of you were actually interested in problem solving there are obvious pinch points that don’t require authoritarian power grab and rural work camps, but it’s more about virtue signaling in the hopes that someone else will fix things for you 🙄
lol no money for any of that and KC Jails are full too.
This is disgusting, she’s talking about building concentration camps to “help” unhoused people.. punitive arrests like she wants to do are a stupid plan, objectively! It’s been proven over and over and over again to NOT WORK! I wonder if she has any understanding of the connection between housing prices and homelessness, smdh… BAD IDEAS, BABE!