Week in Review: downtown Seattle, police, and landlines

Bill Radke discusses the week’s news with Too Beautiful to Live’s Andrew Walsh, author and speaker Jodi-Ann Burey, and the Seattle Metro Chamber’s Rachel Smith.

Have you heard of the Urban Doom Loop? Workers don’t return to the office; offices are vacant; retail shuts down; real estate prices drop; and the city loses tax revenue, so services are reduced, offering less reason to live and work downtown. Is Seattle in a doom loop?

RELATED: As Seattle lost 10K Amazon employees, the company added corporate workers in Bellevue

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell released his idea for the city's growth over the next 20 years — a plan the city updates once a decade. The new comprehensive plan includes some upzoning, but not as much as urbanists called for. Harrell says the plan allows for at least 100,000 new homes. State Rep. Jessica Bateman (D-Olympia) told PubliCola that the city "didn’t aim high enough" with that number. What kind of housing would help downtown the most, and where?

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Seattle is rolling back some progressive moves. The Washington State Legislature just passed three Republican-backed laws which make easier for police to chase fleeing cars, ban income taxes, and outline parental rights. Three more will go to the ballot this fall. The leading Democratic candidate for governor, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, just promised to increase the number of law enforcement officers across the state. What is the right answer for deterring crime and punishing crime?

This week, after a Garfield High School student was shot in the leg at a bus stop, some parents have called for more policing around the school. Is that possible?

RELATED: Put cops back in school and shut down the street, Garfield High parents say after another Seattle shooting

AT&T asked California regulators last year to be relieved of its obligation to maintain a traditional copper-wire phone network. Customers generally pay about $34.50 a month. AT&T says fiber cables are more resilient and easier to repair, although a fiber optic phone will die without a backup battery. This week, The New York Times reported on proud landline users in a digital age. Will we soon see the end of the landline phone?