Whether it's his well-known temper flare-ups, his late night threatening texts to a Councilmember, or cutting funding to official neighborhood groups when they don't produce the answers he wants, Mayor Ed Murray acts more like he thinks he's King every day. This behavior is neither flattering nor wise for a first-term Mayor coming up for reelection in 2017.

Now his lordship, as he is referred to in some circles, seems to be willing to sell out the future of downtown Seattle in order to hang up a political victory banner to boost his reelection campaign. And the development community is right there with him as the King’s Court, chomping at the bit to line their pockets with the gold from the Grand Bargain treasury in the name of a noble cause, affordable housing.

Those of us who actually live downtown and walk the streets and alleys every day realize what is really happening. The Grand Bargain is not going to solve the homelessness issue, either. 

We're some of the ones who actually volunteer and donate to Compass Housing, Plymouth Housing, Mary's Place and many other worthy housing causes; we're some of the ones who actually voted for the Housing Levy; and we're the ones who really understand that if you trade downtown livability for political expediency, you will “kill the goose that lays the golden egg” for affordable housing.

As “Seattle politics keeps getting more and more divorced from reality”, as Danny Westneat so eloquently stated recently, those of us who care about the future of downtown Seattle are going to have to fight for it in the halls of government, in the legal codes that guide development, and maybe even consider peaceful protests in the streets if necessary.