Everything Is Political … in South Seattle: Dumpster Fires, Rent Fixing, and the Not-So-Slow Creep Into Authoritarianism

Federal Building Battlezone

If you haven't had your head under a rock — not that anyone could blame you for wanting to put it there — you are surely aware that our sitting president deployed military troops to Los Angeles to break up a constitutionally protected protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) gestapo-style immigration arrests. While our homegrown anti-ICE protests haven't prompted President Donald Trump to send Marines to Seattle, it's not for lack of trying.

Protesters, whose main goal is to stop ICE's at times illegal detentions of immigrants, have been posted up at the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building on 2nd Avenue since Tuesday, June 10, clashing with officers from the Seattle Police Department and Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service. Love her or hate her, the best play-by-play coverage of the ongoing action is coming from Hannah Krieg.

While protests are ongoing at the federal building, an even bigger "No Kings" protest of the Trump administration is planned for Saturday, June 14, at Cal Anderson Park. Stay tuned for in-depth coverage via South Seattle Emerald founder and publisher Marcus Harrison Green, who is bringing his considerable talents home. While clashes between law enforcement and protesters have been limited to a few arrests and scuffles around Lime bike barricades, demonstrations have already been intensifying. Late on June 11, protesters lit a dumpster on fire in the middle of an intersection downtown and clashed with phalanxes of bike cops.

Another interesting side note here is that Police Chief Shon Barnes said during his confirmation hearing that he "will probably go to jail and be in prison, because we have an administration that has threatened to jail politicians and indeed has done so in Milwaukee and has threatened to jail a governor."

While Trump has certainly threatened to jail politicians and actually jailed other officials for refusing to help him enforce his deportation blitz, it's worth noting that Seattle's "Welcoming City" (read: "Sanctuary City") policy that has the entire right-wing so riled up is not one that requires local law enforcement to do anything besides nothing. All it asks is that our local officers not aid and abet immigration detentions. But we might not be making it over that low, low bar here.

As Krieg and Real Change's Guy Oron documented, SPD has so far been helping fight protesters back from the federal building's exits. Late on June 10, SPD officers deployed pepper spray and blast balls to make space for a white van to exit the federal building. ICE wouldn't tell Krieg who was in the van, but some presume it was detained immigrants. Maybe Barnes doesn't have so much to worry about.

How About a Nice, Relaxing Round of Golf (Policy)?

If you're anything like me, watching the no-longer-slow creep of American authoritarianism gives you intense anxiety. While this next item may not be the most newsworthy thing to grace this column, I picked it because it is so mundane — so the opposite of everything happening at the federal building and in the streets all across the country — that reading about it was actually soothing. Without trying to put our heads in the sand here, let's enjoy a little bit of golf-related wonkery.

On June 10, the five members of the City Council's Parks, Public Utilities, & Technology Committee heard a presentation about a bill authorizing Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) to enter into a new operating agreement for the city's four public golf courses. After a request for proposals in 2024, the new contract was awarded to Premier Golf Centers, the current operators of all four courses. The committee has to vote the bill through to full council, and the full council has to approve it, but judging from Bob Kettle's Caddyshack jokes and Chair Joy Hollingsworth's general jolliness about the whole thing, it's a done deal. Boring, right?

But wait! Here's the moderately exciting part: The new contract includes $1.5 million of capital investment on Premier's part over 15 years, plus a much clearer financial picture for everyone. Even more exciting is the fact that it makes explicit Premier's obligations around provision of public benefits.

Per a memo from SPR: "The current agreement with Premier does not include formal public benefit requirements. The new agreement includes a new section 6.8 on public benefit reporting, a description of public benefits, and an annual review for adjustments to public benefits and metrics. Examples of public benefits include low-cost access, access to school teams, and non-golf uses of the facilities for community gatherings and events."

I know it's just golf, but we still love to see it. Anytime we are letting a private company make money off a public resource, we need to, at the very least, be very explicit about what's in it for us. Neoliberalism has been a disaster for the commons, but hey, at least we've got cheap golf!

Au Revoir to Algorithmic Rent Fixing?

At Wednesday's meeting of the City Council's Housing & Human Services Committee, Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Cathy Moore, Rob Saka, and Mark Solomon (with Council President Sara Nelson absent) voted unanimously to recommend a bill banning landlords from using algorithmic rent-fixing software or services to the full council. The bill, which already included a private right of action for anyone harmed by the perhaps soon-to-be-illegal use of these services, was amended once to add in legal costs to the potential amount awarded to plaintiffs.

I spend a lot of time in this column writing about legislation we don't like (especially when Cathy Moore is the primary sponsor!), but I want to make sure not to miss legislation we really, really do like. Like this. Now, in an ideal world, we wouldn't need to put this common-sense renter protection in place at a city level, because Senate Bill 5469 would have passed in this year's legislative session and it would already be enshrined in state law, but here we are.

For some great context about why we need such bills, head over to Heidi Groover's piece in The Seattle Times, which explains a lot about what RealPage rent-fixing software is and why we're trying to legislate it out of existence here. A key bit: The Washington State Attorney General's Office estimates that the software, which is designed to help landlords extract more rent from their tenants, was used to set rent for over 800,000 leases from 2017 to 2024.

Rinck, in her closing comments at Wednesday's meeting, did not mince words on why we absolutely cannot be having that.

"Rent fixing is criminal," she said. "In the age of AI and new technologies, it is essential that our law keeps up with the times. … For an algorithm to decide whether or not someone is able to afford to keep their home or potentially be priced out of the city just in service of maximum profit is unconscionable."

Moore was a little more magnanimous, just thanking Sen. Jesse Salomon (D-Shoreline) for his help crafting the city's version of the bill, but made sure to establish her renter bona fides.

"As somebody who rented for 36-plus years of my life, raised my entire family in rental housing, and understands the need to have affordable housing, I'm pleased to be carrying on the torch that you started here," she told Salomon. We love a little working-class cosplay, don't we, folks?

Given how unpopular algorithmic rent fixing is and how much of an obvious political win banning it is, I will be very surprised if this does not pass full council. One of the two landlords on the council was even part of this committee vote. That said, it would not hurt to send in a public comment or two (thousand) voicing support for this thing.

Got something *political* I should know? Tell me about it: Tobias.CB@SeattleEmerald.org.

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.

Tobias Coughlin-Bogue is a writer, editor and restaurant worker who lives in South Park. He was formerly the associate editor of Real Change News, and his work has appeared in The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Vice, Thrillist, Thrasher Magazine, Curbed, and Crosscut, among other outlets.