What a provocative title! It certainly demands the attention of all fair minded people of Asian descent or not. But the article (without byline and therefore free of accountability to an individual) fails to note a significant fact: developers love price inflation. Could it be that Jenny Durkan, in her voiced opposition to Cary Moon’s tax proposal, is actually campaigning on behalf of Seattle real estate developers? Price inflation is certainly a problem for home buyers in Seattle. It has been so bad that some properties have been flipped even before being occupied by the purchasers! Developers laugh all the way to the bank!
There are only two ways to combat price inflation in properties. 1. Socialize property and lease it out to “worthy causes” 2. Remove the inflation by taxing away the profits. 1. Ain’t gonna happen. 2. Is a practical method of addressing Seattle’s runaway property prices which are, it has been shown, aggravated by foreign speculators.
I don’t consider it racist to gather data on foreign speculation in our real estate market. Nor is it racist to tax those foreign speculators to reduce the price inflation resulting from their activity. It does not matter if they are Chinese, Russian, Colombian, or Australian. Foreign speculators should be monitored to determine the impact of their money and a tax implemented to discourage it. That would reduce their influence, at least, on Seattle’s real estate price inflation. Race, in this case, is not the relevant issue. The behavior is.
These points, especially the interest of Seattle real estate developers, should have been discussed in your article.
There is a faction in Seattle City government that reacts allergically to any issue that may, in some minds, have a “racial” component. Now that would be a great investigative reporting topic. ν
— Edward Lowe
SE Seattle