‘The bill is due’: Gee says Seattle’s wealthiest neighborhoods are socializing a $2 billion problem they created

More than 60 years ago, residents in some of Seattle’s richest neighborhoods asked the city to bury their power lines so they wouldn’t have to look at poles and wires. Now the cables are falling apart, The Seattle Times reported. The fix could cost $2 billion, and KIRO host Gee Scott said everyone needs to understand why the past matters.

“Sometimes people say, ‘Well, why do we talk about the past?’ Because it’s the past, and the stuff that we see today is because of decisions that were made yesterday,” Gee said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “Decisions to beautify these neighborhoods in the ’60s. Here we are in 2026, and the bill is due. And so the bill is due, and all of the equity that has been gained in these places. I don’t know if you guys noticed or not, but the median price in Seattle for a home is $900,000.”

In the 1960s, residents in neighborhoods like Laurelhurst, Madison Park, Magnolia, and Queen Anne petitioned the city to bury their electrical lines. The cables were buried directly into the wet Seattle soil without protective conduit. Now, 60 years later, those cables are deteriorating and causing long, repeated outages, according to The Seattle Times. Seattle City Light estimates that replacing all 330 miles of aging underground cable could cost $2 billion, a cost that would likely be spread across the utility’s entire customer base through higher rates.

About 8,000 lots in nearly 50 districts had their power lines buried in less than 10 years after neighbors petitioned one another to participate. Once a district was approved by 50% of residents, participation was mandatory, creating what a 1980 analysis described as class fissures between wealthier and lower-income residents within the same neighborhoods, The Seattle Times reported. The media outlet created a map of the underground cables, seen here.

Gee compares Seattle’s $2 billion bill to the bank bailouts

Gee said the pattern is familiar: the gains stay private, and the problems get shared.

“If we go back to the bank bailouts, back in the day,” Gee said. “It’s interesting when they are able to make their money, so they privatize those gains, and these rich neighborhoods, you get those gains, and ‘This is private, we worked hard, and all the money is going up.’ But when things go wrong, all of a sudden, you want to socialize for help.”

He added that there are people who weren’t even allowed to live in those neighborhoods when the cables were buried who are now being asked to help foot the bill. But Gee said he wouldn’t use the moment to pile on.

“I’m not going to say, pull yourselves up by your bootstraps,” he said. “I’m going to say, we’re all together, we’re all community, and I believe that we all need to help, because I don’t want anybody to go away. I’m going to keep that same energy because rich people and poor people can all need help. I’m not going to be the one that uses and says, ‘Well, they need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps,’ because that’s not fair. But I just want to remind people that sometimes when you’re privatizing your gains, you’re socializing your problems.”

He said he planned to hold onto the story as a receipt.

“In the future, when we’re having a topic, I’m going to keep this little receipt right here on this story,” Gee said. “Because, ‘Gee, you always want to give people money. Gee, you always want to be helping people.’ I’m going to come back to this story.”

Ursula calls for a special neighborhood fee

KIRO host Ursula Reutin said the solution should be simple: if the buried cables benefit specific neighborhoods, those neighborhoods should pay for the fix.

“If you are in one of those neighborhoods, Laurelhurst, Magnolia, Queen Anne, Madison Park, and have the benefit of having those buried cables and electrical lines, how about have a special neighborhood-specific fee to pay for this thing that you directly benefit from?” Ursula said.

She noted that in those particular neighborhoods, home prices run well into the millions.

“Why does someone in South Seattle have to pay for Queen Anne or Laurelhurst to have underground wires?” Ursula said. “That makes no sense to me.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.