Spady: Amazon, New York & the progressive push for no growth

About 10 months ago, after the tax on jobs was passed in Seattle, I had a very simple response during an interview with King 5. Growth is good!

At the time, I said:

This issue isn’t revenue, the issue is how this revenue is being spent & the type of city we are building. And whether we are building it for Seattle of old or the global amazing city Seattle could be if we worked together… [The city of Seattle] is trying to force on us this concept that growth is bad. Growth isn’t bad if it’s stewarded under good hands… In fact growth is the most important thing to all of us getting to a better place…. I think the city of Seattle is so panicked by the situation that they have at hand, that they are literally trying to pass a law that will aggressively mitigate growth to give them an opportunity to catch their breath and maybe come up with a solution.

This leaves me with a question: when did the pro-growth Progressive die?

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Answer: The moment the national Democratic Party bought into the lies coming from Seattle. That all the growth in our region from Amazon is bad and destroyed our city. In fact, those journalists should’ve considered talking to others beside Seattle council members Teresa Masqueda and Lisa Herbold.

In this circumstance, the national media proved how lazy they are. They’ve failed to comprehend that many of our local problems are because of our elected official’s anti-growth policies that include a 60 percent budget increase in four years with no audits; a 35 percent increase on property taxes and finally a systematic destabilization of the rule of law by non-enforcement of hard drug dealing/usage.

Mark my words, if the anti-growth Progressives win the battle for the Democratic Party, Donald Trump will win re-election in 2020. America is moving left on social issues, but an overwhelming majority supports politicians who are in favor of and steward economic growth. In fact, New Yorkers supported the Amazon deal by 56 percent (34 percent were against it).

Similarly, Seattleites pushed back vehemently on the City Council in the face of the anti-growth tax on jobs and a clear rational opposition to poor policy. When will politicians both locally and nationally realize that those of us left behind by the radicalization of the left and right will be forced into yet another catch-22 election?

Why must we choose between socially liberal policies and economic growth? When will the rational opposition rise behind the wings of new politicians that are simply available to their constituents, fiscally responsible, transparent, and accountable to results?

What we are witnessing is an extremely vocal minority hijacking the party of Kennedy and Clinton to develop something completely new.

Take Seattle for example. Our city has put its head down and worked hard for over 50 years. From our tiny corner of the world we’ve enacted incredible change since the 747 first took flight 50 years ago. Now seven fortune 500 companies have been founded here and make Seattle home, including the two largest corporations in the world and the largest philanthropic charity in history. Truly tremendous accomplishments.

Now I have a final question for the progressive anti-growth Democrats at our local and national level. Why have we worked so hard as a region and as a country to build, create and change the world if growth is so bad?