OPINION | Under Sara Nelson, More Money for Cops, Less for Communities

by Gennette Cordova

Earlier this month, Seattle City Councilmember Sara Nelson was elected president of the council, much to the dismay of the city's progressives.

Throughout the city, you'll often find posters, flyers, and street art plastered on the sides of buildings, stapled to utility poles, and glued to postal boxes, declaring the social or political views of many of Seattle's inhabitants. If you've paid attention, you may have seen stickers that read: "Sara Nelson hates poor people."

These stickers were likely created by someone who is aware that Nelson illegally installed massive cement eco-blocks around her Ballard beer-brewing company in an attempt to keep unhoused people away. Or perhaps the sticker is referring to Nelson being the councilmember to lead the charge to criminalize public drug use, a move that disproportionately impacts people who can't afford to do their drugs indoors. This has been seen as hypocritical by some people paying close attention, as Nelson is a professional alcohol peddler who once said in an interview that "drugs are fun," before course correcting.

In her first speech as the newly elected president of the City Council, Nelson emphasized more spending on police, tax breaks for business owners (like herself), and less reliance on taxes from businesses, including tech giants like Amazon.

Her inaugural proclamations as council president shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Like many in the business community, her focus is centered on the goals and desires of the business community, and she's been staunchly pro-police since joining the council.

In addition to being strongly in favor of the criminalization of public drug use, she pushed for the Seattle Police Department's (SPD) $15,000—$30,000 hiring bonuses and opposed a proposed police budget that didn't include expanded funding for graffiti removal. She also opposes restrictions on how SPD can use any salary savings it incurs, despite the police department having money in its budget for over 100 officers that it has no hope of hiring.

She's also recently taken aim at the city's JumpStart tax, which taxes Seattle's largest employers. An August 2023 report on the JumpStart tax revealed that 80% of the revenue comes from less than a dozen of the city's businesses, and that the tax is generating $250 million, or a quarter of a billion dollars, annually. This money is used mainly to fund solutions to the city's worsening homelessness crisis and for community development projects. It has also acted as a bandage, covering the holes in our city's general fund budget.

Nelson's grand vision of giving more money to our police — who on average rake in over $150,000 annually — and implementing more tax breaks for businesses inevitably means our already concerning budget deficit will grow.

And in many devastating ways, our city is already in crisis.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report shows that homelessness is growing at an unprecedented rate both nationwide and in Washington State. The number of people living homeless in Washington rose by 2,825 people to 28,036 from 2022, according to the state's Point-in-Time Count. That's likely an undercount.

Simultaneously, we're dealing with a record-breaking addiction crisis, spurred on by a boom in fentanyl, which last year killed over 1,000 people in King County alone. Predictably, people without homes are excessively overrepresented among the lives claimed by this ravaging force. While the homeless population makes up around 1% of King County, they make up roughly a quarter of overdose deaths.

Similar disparities exist for homelessness and incarceration, which data shows have a reciprocal relationship.

Our newly elected City Council president championing more money for our already overpaid police force and less tax money for affordable housing and other programs will almost certainly result in more disproportionate arrests of unhoused people, poor people, and People of Color, with continued and worsening underinvestments in our communities. Nelson's successful push for the criminalization of public drug use will only compound this matter. This may seem counterintuitive to some, but tossing unhoused people experiencing addiction in jail en masse solves neither homelessness nor drug use. Furthermore, it's an extremely expensive route to take for a city with holes in its budget and overwhelmed courts.

How long will our city continue to lean into this particular brand of costly and inhumane futility?

With Nelson at the helm, we're wandering further away from anything resembling sustainable, long-term solutions to both homelessness and public safety. The silver lining of the new makeup of our City Council is that conservatives and moderates alike will no longer be able to scapegoat progressives for Seattle's policy failures.

The South Seattle Emerald is committed to holding space for a variety of viewpoints within our community, with the understanding that differing perspectives do not negate mutual respect amongst community members.

The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the contributors on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the Emerald or official policies of the Emerald.

Gennette Cordova is a writer, organizer, and social impact manager. She contributes to publications like Teen Vogue and Revolt TV and runs an organization, Lorraine House, which seeks to build and uplift radical communities through art and activism.

📸 Featured Image: A sticker that reads, "Sara Nelson hates poor people. Boycott Fremont Brewing." in a Seattle neighborhood. (Photo courtesy of Gennette Cordova.)