Bothell landlord adds a twist to rental ‘discrimination’

Not long ago, reports came out about apartment companies giving discounts to tech workers. A bunch of people spoke out against it, and The Stranger even tried to claim it was illegal discrimination, though there’s zero indication that it is illegal.

“This issue is especially threatening to the pursuit of equity in our city because it’s not discrimination, it’s preference,” wrote Lorena González, a civil-rights attorney running for a citywide council seat. “If you want to know what privilege looks like, this is it … We must pass legislation making preferential renting practices illegal within the Seattle city limits.”

As if these employees didn’t earn their roles at Amazon or Microsoft. This is them trying to motivate the progressive base to put them in office.

Related: Seattle rental discrimination claim is preposterous

Well, now there’s a twist. We have a landlord in Bothell giving renters a discount based solely on an ideological perspective. That perspective: vegetarianism.

He’s giving out vegetarians discounts because he views the diet as environmental activism.

Landlord Jinesh Varia has a motivation for the rental discount.

“I really believe, just like the no-smoking policy that all landlords have today, we can also promote this as a way to spread the awareness of vegetarianism and veganism,” Varia told KING 5.

He’s got a really great townhome with a modern kitchen, a beautiful fireplace, and Jacuzzi tub. And it’s close to a park. It has great “curb appeal.”

And if you’re a vegetarian, you get $200 off the rent.

Is this wrong? If giving a discount to tech workers is wrong, this should be wrong as well &#8212 right?

I’ve reached out to Seattle City Council candidate Lisa Herbold, who opposes the discounts to tech workers, and Gonzalez. Neither have responded. I don’t expect them to. I actually like both of them as candidates, but I suspect they’d dodge this by saying it’s Bothell, not Seattle.

I find myself OK with this discount because I think an individual landlord should be able to give deals to any tenant they want to &#8212 so long as it doesn’t violate any protection that’s on the books.

I will never begrudge people a discount, even if it’s ideologically based.

I’d be against penalizing people for not believing in what you believe, but I’m fine with this even though it is arguably worse than giving someone a discount based on their job. Because when you give an Amazon employee a discount it’s because you know they’ll be a tenant who will pay the bills on time and will be at work 24/7, thus less of a wear and tear on the house.

But ideology is hardly indicative of the quality of the tenant.

Where is the outrage and outcry? Where’s the long news features on progressive blogs that similarly went after the Amazon discounts?

I’ll tell you, they won’t complain because their mission is to give an advantage to others who believe what they believe. They’re not against apartments offering tech workers discounts &#8212 they’re against tech companies. They blame tech companies for high housing prices (they’re mostly right but it’s a perspective that lacks context). They blame tech companies for gentrification (which they pretend is always a bad thing for everyone. They don’t like that tech workers tend to be white men (even though they ignore that white men are the ones who go into college programs that give degrees out that these tech companies want their workers to have).

All their complaints are ideologically based, so it wouldn’t be surprising that they’d support tenants who share their beliefs, even if it outs them as hypocrites.