These "Health Through Housing" units include intensive services, including health care, for people who need them. Compared to the cost of Seattle's 116-member encampment sweeps team, or a month of jail nights, $2,800 a month for service-rich housing is a bargain.

That Westneat piece, though, doesn't really illustrate that "managing homeless populations" (ew) is the problem; also, he calls the monthly operating cost of $2,800 per housing unit "unsustainable" while linking to a report that doesn't reach that conclusion. It just seems to be his opinion.

In the same editorial section, Danny Westneat has a piece declaring the county's hotel shelter program a failure (his emblematic example being a building that turned out to have structural issues), concluding that "the operating costs for managing homeless populations have been [too] high."

Also, as a woman, you will get me to fly in a pencil skirt, gloves, hat, and heels the day you buy me a private jet.

Leaving aside the obvious rejoinder—people dress comfortably because the deregulated airlines give us no legroom, no schedule, and generally treat us like cattle—flying and mobility used to be only for the rich. Do we want to pay $5,000 to travel across the US? Most of us can't and don't.

this topic "ought not to break the fragile peace of Thanksgiving gatherings," the Times editorial board claims—since flying "used to be the bastion of civility," should it be that way again?

Oh, babes.

Since most of the residential detox and treatment system is private, this information is hard to collate, but I know anecdotally that unless you're rich and can go anywhere (like posh places in California), you're probably waiting. Most places also make you detox independently first.

There's also a whole team of student and youth advisors! And two sports people—from the Kraken and FIFA.

Other Wilson transition team members include Alex Hudson from Commute Seattle (and previously Transportation Choices), Lisa Daugaard from Purpose Dignity Action, Roxana Norouzi from OneAmerica, and Jaelynn Scott from the Lavender Rights Project.

The team also signals a change in focus on transportation. Harrell, who worked to undo progress against traffic deaths by blocking safety projects, had no safety advocates on his team. Wilson has leaders from 350 Seattle, Duwamish River Community Coalition, and the Disability Mobility Initiative.

In contrast, Wilson's team includes people like Lonnisha Landry, a mother whose son Xavier Landry was fatally shot in 2024 and who is looking to Wilson to help families impacted by gun violence—as well as folks like Jon Scholes, head of the Downtown Seattle Association.

(Harrell's transition team also included an entire division on sports. Not a joke! Check out the link!)

This team is less than half the size of Bruce Harrell's ludicrously large team. It also includes a lot of people it is hard to imagine showing up on Harrell's team, which included everyone from Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan to the head of the Seattle Chamber.

publicola.com/wp-content/u...

Harrell's office bristled at the suggestion that the flurry of proclamations, orders, and celebrations had anything to do with the election (which he lost to Katie Wilson), and the city's ethics office didn't seem to care, but the fact that he was using his office to campaign is pretty clear.

My coverage of the proposed HUD changes, which would devastate the region's housing system at a time when homelessness is increasing, here: publicola.com/2025/11/17/f...

In other words, if this is a trend it is a trend about drinking itself, not the use of other substances as substitute drugs.

(Deleted my snark begging people to read my posts, although please do read my posts before telling me I'm wrong.)