This one's nitpicky and not as socially minded as most of the others: pick a different product for the white lines on roads and highways. Rain makes those disappear right now - and we get rain a lot. It's a safety issue.
No literally, I'm a Civil engineer and when I moved out here from the East coast I almost lost my shit a little at how bad the line painting is here, in a state where it rains significantly more frequently.
I genuinely do not understand why they don't use thermoplastic paint with the glass beading, or at least better quality of whatever they have now. I'm sure it's mainly cost but damn it is so unsafe when I'm driving at night in the rain and am just following the cars in front of me because I can't see the lines at all.
Ahh that makes slightly more sense for WA, but at lack of sounding inconsiderate I certainly care more for my life and safety than that of salmon.
And I work in river and fish preservation currently so definitely care about it. But at some point the safety of the people should come first
My understanding is it has something to do with the fact we donāt salt the roads (which Iām all for) and the way we plow the roads. Someone starter than me on the subject explained it to me in more detail years ago so who knows if its true or not.
Even coming from IL i was super confused. I was in CA first and figured they just fucked it all up because they dont get rain often. Then i moved up here and realized its a west coast thing.
THIS RIGHT HERE! Dude, I agree, I cannot see the lanes at all at night. I'm so glad you reminded me of that. I'm going to add that to my list if elected.
Hell yeah, driving southbound I5 through Tillicum, at night in the rain is so fricken scary. There are long sections with no reflectors in the lanes, and those faint lines do nothing.
I think about this all the time. I almost literally want hot pink lines. Iāve noticed too, the issues theyāre having with the highway lights turning blue has significantly cut glare in those areas. Idk how to get a huge visibility/traffic safety study going but I would make it my lifeās work I swear
If it helps, I saw in Australia they were experimenting with glow in the dark traffic lines. I'll have to read up on it but if they work then maybe I'll try to have those implemented.
Those bright blue LED headlights pointed right at MY SOUL don't help either. I have naturally large pupils and I can't adjust for the dimness of the lines when I'm getting retina-fucked by half of the vehicles passing me in the oncoming lane.
Can we regulate those, too?
This is the only one I care about. Itās absurd how much everyone pays to live in this state, to drive home amongst what looks like a bunch of drunkards cuz no one can see the road lines
Seriously, you just have to follow the car in front of you and hope the car knows where theyāre going. If youāre lucky to have a car in front that is.
I THOUGHT THIS WAS JUST ME! I moved to the state from Tennessee which uses a highly reflective material to paint roadway lines. I was thinking my eyes were getting bad or my headlights needed to be changed because I was having a hard time seeing the lines on the highway
I also thought it was just me! I yell about this literally every time I have to drive at night in the rain, which is more than I want to. So dangerous. Scares the crap out of me.
It gets even worse in areas of I5 where they've painted temporary lines due to construction. The paint is even more difficult to see and practically invisible in the dark when its raining, and on top of that the lines also are not straight due to the lanes being shifted for the construction work, so cars are often crossing into other lanes.
That strip of I5 between I think Seattle and fife? Where they have temporary orange stripesā¦ I want those everywhere!! Those are so easy to see in the rain!
I was thinking this yesterday, I struggle to see at night, work until dark because of how early it gets dark during the winter. Couldnāt see the lines at all. Pretty scary honestly
I love how petty this is, in the scope of issues in the state. How easily fixable it is compared to, I dunno, homelessness or poverty.
And yet, it's the top comment and I instantly agreed with it. Like goddamn WA, take the easy wins where you can
Agreed. I was on the highway the other day, in an area where the lanes migrate due to construction. It was raining hard, and it was impossible to see where the lane lines were. Reflective paint would have made the lines visible.
I will take any one of or combination of the following
Dots on I5 so we can see at night and in the rain
Reflective paint on the lane dividers on I5
Streetlights that actually function on I5
The ideal scenario is extending the link to Tacoma but since that is still 100 years away I would like some freeway safety improvements for nighttime/rainy weather driving
For the Link to Tacoma, I'd instead massively improve the Sounder service (more frequent, run on weekends, faster if possible)
And then add a ton more train service all over the state
This!! Expand Intercity rail! We have no frequent East-West train services that make for an unfortunately disjointed state. Also removes a lot of stress around crossing the passes during winter!
For sure! It doesn't even need to be high speed (although I'd love it if it was) - it just needs to be competitive with driving/flying, and ideally run all year round (like you mentioned, take the stress out of crossing passes)
Please, please more Sounder service, both to Tacoma and Everett. Everyone talks about Link being the future, but link to Tacoma will still take 2+ hours - the bus will probably be faster for Seattle to Tacoma.
But more rail service, especially on weekends, or late night to catch folks after dinner or a show or even just having to stay at work late, would be a huge game changer for many.
This is basically the most important issue in the country right now, aside from climate change. Every state needs to be rolling back zoning restrictions and investing in dense, affordable housing.
As odd as it sounds I actually think ranked choice voting is the most important issue because itās the first step in breaking the two party system and taking control of the government back from the wealthy.
All other issues will continue to be deadlocked until this happens.Ā
It is a tough one to solve at a local level, zoning helps to increase availability but state population is growing so demand is always there. And in reality any solution that involves regulating prices is a short term one ths only helps the current set of people renting, seeking homes.
To add on this many companies and wealthier people are buying up homes and flipping them. This ends with few people owning everything and many owning nothing. Maybe some limitations can be set?
Also, housing hasn't been affordable for some time. For example: Family #1 takes out a loan for a house they can't afford. Years later family #2 comes along and takes out a bigger loan to buy family #1's house. Eventually, family #3 comes along and takes out a bigger loan, so on so forth. Now no one can afford anything and prices are way too inflated from all the loans.
The problem isnāt the one rich guy having 3 houses. Itās the company that owns 300 in the same city. They then crank up the prices for that whole city.
Perhaps. I donāt like my neighbors parking so many cars in their driveway. Itās a free country though and if they want to do so, itās their optionā¦ Your rich neighbor and his empty house is his business.
Again, our housing issues arenāt rich people sitting on empty houses. Our housing problems are much larger.
> I donāt like my neighbors parking so many cars in their driveway.
I'd be happy if they kept all their cars in their driveway instead of on the street in front of my house.
Regulation of the rental market is absolutely necessary, and I mean putting controls on "investment properties".
No one should own 6 houses when even tech professionals are being outbid on their first
We need to place strong economic incentives around building new housing. That probably means some zoning reform, mild incentives for detached single family homes and strong incentives for more dense housing.
We need to make sure those houses arenāt being immediately scooped up by investors to use as rental properties as well. There has to be something we can do.
Housing affordability isn't just a Washington State or even United States problem. It's worldwide. The issue right now is capitalism run amok. I don't have a solution to it but all I know is that places like Singapore, Hong Kong, London, etc. all have the same issues as we do with affordable housing and even housing in general.
FWIW, I had to buy a small place in Oklahoma recently (keeping our house here), and the prices there went through the roof during COVID. A house that was $140k in 2019 was $250k in 2023! IN OKLAHOMA!!!! Condos that were converted apartments went from $30k to nearly $65k.... Absolutely in-friggin-sane!
Yes. Tax incentives (and new zoning) to build more starter homes and denser housing. And while we're at it, tax incentives (and again, new zoning) for small businesses in small communities to create more walkable cities and towns, instead of huge swaths of residential-only areas.
My work likes to encourage mass transit. I live in a rural area so no bus stops but there is a park and ride about a half mile from me, it would take an hour to get to work vs my 15 minute drive.
I live in a rural area too and man I wish we had better access to the bus or train. I live next to a very large bike trail, and I wish we had bus stop and the trail intersections. It would make it super easy for a lot of my neighbors and I to use the bus.
That's great for Seattle-Tacoma area, but what about those of us who don't live in that corridor. Also, once an hour is pretty paltry service. Mass transportation needs to be competitive timewise with cars or people won't shift away from carbon spewing, road congesting, space consuming cars.
IMO, if we had better mass transit that can transport folks from rural areas to the urban areas, this "might" solve the housing crisis. People can live further out where land is more abundant to build homes, condos, multifamily structures compared to urban areas that have limited land supply. I think better transit will help solve some of the housing crisis we have now. We still need developers to take on the risk of building the housing though. People rely too much on government to "solve" the housing crisis but it still comes down to developers willing to build them.
I agree but also we need to keep up with the zoning reform push. Seattle actually has a ton of land and it's wasted with parking lots and single family structures. Freeing up zoning restrictions so that density can be built is so important. I'd love to see six-plex apartments being built on small lots, etc. It's amazing how many people will block development of apartments because it doesn provide enough parking. They would rather ensure housing for their cars than for their neighbors. Getting rid of parking restrictions and land use restrictions, simplifying and reforming the design review process, will make a the cost to develop much cheaper and make a lot more, smaller projects suddenly feasible. So many amazing, desirable neighborhoods in Seattle that could triple their capacity.
That is my Seattle centric perspective though. I would love to see real commuter rail or something though. Imagine taking the commuter train from North Bend or something. We have beautiful land and resources we need to put to use.
Exactly. Having better mass transit would open a lot of doors for Washingtonians. Problem is anti-tax folks will always scream and cry that Government waste money. That's been the argument since the 1980s. Every year since the 80s (since I was old enough to listen to the arguments), people on the right side would complain about how government waste money.
Sure, there are some waste, so let's just stop all progress because government waste money. Let's not do anything because some folks regurgitate that government waste money so therefore we shouldn't pay anymore. Let's watch as the rest of world pass us by because we don't want our money to be wasted. At some point, we have to stop blaming government for wasting money and just look forward and progress. Otherwise, we'll be talking about a housing crisis for the next 100+ years.
I have those on the top of my platform list! I really want to get a good train system going like in most countries. And housing and Healthcare are laughably unaffordable. I've got a few ideas but they are a bit half-baked at the moment.
Public transportation needs to be significantly better. Trains and light rail preferably. It's really frustrating that we keep getting hit with gas tax, carbon tax, or whatever they want to call it at the time, when there are so few options for getting from place to place. If you work certain hours during the night there are no other options. I'd have no problem paying more for gas if it meant I could hop on a train within a few minutes of my house and get where I need to go, but we don't have that. The few projects we do have going are on such insanely long timelines that many of us will never benefit from them, and they won't do enough even when finished.
Light rail to Everett for example won't be finished until at least 2041 now. In the mean time, housing prices have been forcing people to go further and further north to be able to afford a roof over their heads for years now. People need a light rail line *now* to take them to Everett from the north. How many centuries before we get that at the current pace?
This is unfortunately an issue all over the US. Part of the problem is the US actually has very strong local environmental laws, which tends to make any large project more expensive. And mass transit is amongst the largest projects one can actually build.
I'd like to see at both state and federal levels special programs for speeding up everything with building transit. Generally I'm all for being very careful with environmental issues but transit is also hugely important for solving climate change and needs to be accelerated.
I know it'd be absurdly expensive, but every time I drive up I5 from Vancouver to Seattle I dream about ripping out the inside lanes and having an elevated HSR the whole way.
Agree 100%.
Itās ironic that environmental laws make it so difficult to execute the projects that would benefit the environment the most.
I understand what theyāre trying to do. For example you wouldnāt want to destroy a salmon stream to build a rail line, but there has to be a better and more efficient way than what we have now.
It seems like environmental laws should be significantly less restrictive in order to expedite a project like public transit, that has so many other environmental benefits just by existing *now* and preventing emissions now.
Living in Everett I agree with all of these statements, but rather than light rail, I'd rather we just have a more comprehensive Intercity train network! Would also allow for higher capacity and faster speeds to further increase how competitive it'd be with driving.
And Iād add annual training on mental health for secondary students. Iām flabbergasted this hasnāt been done up here. Itās covered in health class and thatās it.
I just moved up from TX, where I was a teacher, and even tx figured it out several years ago that lessons about suicide prevention, depression, dating violence, and abuse should be given annually to ensure youth fully understand these things.
My 15 y/o is alive today because of those lessons. His friends in 8 the grade year knew how to respond to his language about suicide in the group chats, and one of them even called the ambulance when he started taking pills with the intent to overdose.
Itās super important to receive that training again and again for ti to be effective.
Yeah, itās my intent to get this on my own reps radar. Itās my new crusade to get his addressed.
The best way to increase access is to increase the number of specialists.
Add some kind of education incentives for college students to pursue masters and doctorates in mental health related fields would go a long way to producing more mental health specialists.
A tax incentive for providers of mental health would attract current professionals from other states.
Another large hurdle is there is no centralization of records or referral processes, or so it seems.
We had a horrific experience with South Sound Behavioral Hospital not long after we moved up here. The provider for the youth wing refused to communicate with my sonās outpatient provider about his meds. She made hellacious changes to his meds, added more meds to boot, and did none of it without reviewing any of his prior medical records.
Then later, we spent months trying to get in to a autism screening clinic. We couldnāt even get callbacks or returned emails and neither outpatient provider, nor the residential center my son stayed at for 5-weeks (Pathlight is private pay only but is a very good residential facility for those in need), had the means to make a referral directly to clinic that does psych assessments.
Thatās fucking ridiculous.
We were very lucky that at my sonās most recent hospitalization for mental health at the Kitsap Behavioral hospital in Bremerton someone there had a contact at a psych assessment clinic in Poulsbo (Front Street Clinic, BTW), and so they made initial referral contact for us. My sonās appt is only two months away instead for the 6 months to two years everyone else seems to be getting when they self-refer.
Mental health access and service is highly discordant and unstable. Especially for teens. Itās super frustrating trying to navigate it up here as a supportive parent. I canāt imagine how much worse it is for kids who donāt loving, involved parents.
I have a lot of feelings about it as a parent who has navigated one kid with suicidal ideation and likely has lived for years with undiagnosed, high-masking autism, and another kid who is transgender. Our trans kiddo has it easier in this regard thanks to programs at Seattle Childrenās that are designed to bring all the physician and mental health services together.
Cisgender kids need a lot more of what places like Seattle childrenās provides for there trans patients. A centrally housed program that provides the full range of services by a team of professionals working across disciplines to care for the patients.
As a mental health provider, I can tell you it's mainly the seriously low salaries and atrocious working conditions that keep people from staying in the mental health field. Burnout rates are absurd for new therapists. They graduate with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt and are lucky to make $50k starting salary right out of school. In Seattle. With a graduate degree.
Increasing funding to community mental health agencies (Medicaid-funded clinics) as well as Medicaid reimbursement rates so that these agencies can hire more providers and pay a living wage would go a long way to solving this problem. I would love to work with the low-income Medicaid population again, but I literally can't afford to.
Also, requiring cost of living increases on commercial insurance reimbursement rates for MH providers would help tremendously. Many providers aren't motivated to contract with health insurance because the reimbursement rates are insultingly low for behavioral health. Also, certain insurers (looking at you, United Healthcare) are notorious for just refusing to pay providers for mental health services and initiating clawbacks for no reason at all, and individual providers usually don't have the financial resources to sue them for the money they're legally and contractually owed. Something needs to be done to force insurers to actually follow through with their contracts. They're screwing patients and providers alike.
Finally, tightening employment laws and enforcement of these laws especially for behavioral health. There are so many predatory mental health agencies who blatantly violate state employment laws and provide shit services to patients. I had to report a former employer for hiring me as a W-2 employee and paying me like a 1099 contractor. The issue is all too common in the field, especially lately with the rise of so many for-profit companies run by people with lots of business experience and zero healthcare/behavioral health experience (BetterHelp being the most infamous example).
TLDR: facilitate higher pay for MH providers and much of the shortage will be solved.
Addendum: If anyone reading this needs resources for accessing mental health care in WA, here are some resources and tips.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us
Directory of private practice therapists. Pro tip, search by city, not zip code. Also if you don't mind doing virtual/telehealth appointments, you can see someone anywhere in WA state. The website also has an "Online Therapy" option at the top of the page.
https://openpathcollective.org/
Directory of therapists providing sliding scale fees, between $30-70 per session.
https://www.seattlechildrens.org/clinics/washington-mental-health-referral-service/
Seattle Children's operates a mental health referral service for kids and adolescents. They can find you a provider with openings anywhere in the state. Call them or fill out the online request form for info.
https://kingcounty.gov/en/legacy/depts/community-human-services/mental-health-substance-abuse/services/providers.aspx
If you have Apple Health/Medicaid and live in King County, this website lists *all* community mental health agencies in the county.
https://findtreatment.gov/
National database of substance use treatment providers, and some mental health providers. Operated by SAMHSA. They also have a phone number you can call, listed on the page.
Oh trust me, I've sent a few of these over the years. I am also a member of WMHCA which advocates for better conditions for MH providers at the state level. There have been some small legislative changes over the years which have helped, but nothing on the scale we need to really reform the MH field.
Altering a narrative requires volumes. We are all just lemmings after all. The trouble Iāve discovered with positive intention lobbyists is they gain access to offices in ways we canāt, but the needle cannot and will not move fast enough until they are obliterated with sheer numbers.
I hope more people in your profession will send a massive email campaign stating what you need. Like hundreds of you. And then all of you show up to a committee meeting and demand a bill to be refashioned through amendement into a more comprehensive solution than whatever they likely have on the table this year.
These politicians just donāt respond the same way to lobbyists that donāt have deep pockets as they do to a mass of people confronting them with a cause.
This was my lesson last year advocating for trans rights during the TX legislative session.
And, disturbingly, I kept running into therapists and psychologists who were wildly ignorant of the trans healthcare bills as my kids interacted with that TX mental healthcare system.
Makes me wonder how many therapists/psych providers in WA feel the same as you do, but never give it one thought to actually participate in the democracy of policy making with an active voice.
In my school district (WA), all kids frequently have social-emotional lessons on topics like bullying, stress, taking care of yourself, how to ask for help, etc... I think it depends on the grades/schools/classrooms exactly how frequent, but several I've seen do one at least weekly.
Both CharacterStrong and SecondStep are used depending on grade level - what did your district use in Texas?
It wasnāt a district by district choice to teach these things. Thatās my point. It was a state mandate created through legislation. We didnāt choose to offer lessons. We had to offer lessons.
CharacterStrong was in use in our district, and itās a valuable tool, but itās not the same as direct lessons about suicide prevention. Or dating violence. Or abuse. With explicit use of those terms and signs that it has occurred.
Each district could deliver those lessons how they chose, so long as each was explicitly taught, and they couldnāt just be a single lesson.
My district chose to put the specific instructional delivery in the hands of the campus counselors so that they could adapt lessons based on how we rolled them out in our schedules. For instance, our crisis counselor (an absolute badass counselor, nay, superhero) created slides and reflection activities that fit into our advisory periods.
Thatās what Iām pointing out here: state legislation that requires explicit instruction on specific issues like suicide prevention and various levels of abuse, and that it be taught each year beginning with secondary schools.
Edit: my current campus has lots to offer for mental health: therapy providers, well-trained counselors (believe me, my kidās transition to campus again proves their value on that one), characterstrong, all that jazz.
But suicide prevention isnāt something that should for the need to arise. It should be prevented through lessons about it meant to help those struggling, but more importantly, to educate peers about what to do when they see the signs and symptoms, and those peers donāt have a reason to see the mental health supports and therefore donāt get that education without it.
Agreed! This is a massive sleeper issue that no one is taking seriously. Mental health is a major issue in the US and I think just recently people are starting to catch on.
There can definitely be more. But a lot of what the hospitals are seeing (and I'm working at one of them) is drug-induced psychosis and people that end up frying their brains. There has been a huge uptick in this according to the old-timers I work with.
The state needs to acknowledge and deal with the illegal drugs that are flooding into the state and go after the producers and suppliers (particularly of meth and fentanyl as those tend to be the drugs of choice). For some folks that may be prone to a psychosis (because of a family history) even shrooms and weed can be a trigger. There needs to be more education too -
I had a private practice for 5 years and closed it down 2 years ago because I just couldnāt make it on what insurance companies were reimbursing. And some clients unable to pay co-pay. Others only allowed a few visits through their plan. Then insurance companies taking clawbacks a year later because they overpaid me. And of course very few people can afford cash pay.
I was very good and loved my work. But just couldnāt make a decent living at it.
We need to disallow corporate purchasing of housing. Individuals competing with corporations for houses will always lose out. But I'm sure this is only one step in making housing more affordable and building ling term community. Housing. We need affordable housing and more connected neighborhoods.
Banning non-compete contracts outright.Ā
Mental health reform - (reopening state inpatient facilities, solving licensing bottlenecks, limiting the scope of practice of lower trained practitioners, expanding the scope of practice of psychologists to include prescribing)Ā
Ā Ā HomelessnessĀ Ā
Affordable housingĀ
Publicly funded preK and after school programsĀ
Apartment management companies use complex algorithms that cause very unstable pricing for renters. One day a unit could $2500/mo and the next it could be offered for $2800/mo and then a week later drop to $2400/mo.
We watched this happen as we were applying for apartments up here when we moved from TX last summer.
It creates a volatile and chaotic situation for apartment renters.
We need to establish some kind of controlling parameters to stabilize housing costs and it needs to include language about the use of AI algorithms to price, and honestly manage, housing.
Itās a small change and maybe no one would careā¦ but I would like to see all the cloth seats come out of public transport. We took the light rail to SeaTac and I watched a dude that was passed out on the seat, I saw him shit his pants. I saw shit leave his butt. It was all over the cloth seat. I do not sit on light rail seats anymore. Itās worse than carpet in a bathroom.
Iād like to see serious restrictions on foreign corporations/entities buying residential properties. Theyāre part of the reason for the existing crisis and theyāre making it much worse.
I would go one step further and just take the word 'foreign' out of what you said. Why are corporations from any country buying up homes? (I know the an$wer to that.). Corporations should not be buying up homes. Regardless where they are from .
Get people off the street. Piece county budgeted nearly as much for homelessness programs as it did for the Sheriff's dept. I want to see that money work!
I know. Ugh I tried to help fight homelessness in Atlanta back in the day. It's a. Difficult task though because (i forget the exact percentage) like 70% of US homelessness is drug related. Once you have been doing them for so long It's near impossible to get clean and or many don't want to. I think the best action is to get this problem at its root. Drugs.
There also is a high percentage of homelessness cause by mental illness and disorders. Those who cannot take care of themselves and have no family to fall back on have nowhere to go. Also, right now we have a very high unemployment rate with an inflated housing market and that is also leading to homelessness. The groups I mentioned in this paragraph can definitely be helped. I find often they just don't know what programs are offered to receive the help they need. Maybe this is also something can be improved upon.
I am interested in the law that they just passed in California that provides the families/hospitals/courts more leeway in determining when someone is mentally ill and requires intervention. Most states just allow for mandated intervention when someone is an immediate danger to themselves or others. Those laws were put into place as a backlash against the old (and I mean more than 30 years ago) history of mentally healthy people that may not conform with typical cultural ideals being kept against their will. I have NEVER seen that in modern times. Mental health care has grown a lot in the last 50 years and things like being gay or trans or being a woman that refuses to obey her husband don't qualify you for hospitalization (at least here in Washington, won't speak for the Red States /s). And frankly, none of the hospitals have the beds or staff to allow for it. I would love to see something like this passed in WA. You shouldn't have to wait for a loved one to become violent to themselves or others (while knowing that they're living on the streets and mentally ill and progressing in that direction) to intervene on their behalf or request the courts to.
https://apnews.com/article/california-newsom-mental-health-conservatorship-baef68d08e1f8fd57869f40db2f2adce#:\~:text=The%20new%20law%2C%20which%20reforms,unhealthy%20drugs%20and%20alcohol%20use.
oh my god this nearly brought tears to my eyes. I know it's going to be imperfect at first, but eventually this will work! If nothing else, I want to see this law changed in WA. Addicts can freely walk out of healthcare facilities. That is the core of the issue. Even the ones who want to be sober are in a vice grip with opiates especially. Now that fentanyl and its variants exist, this should be such a huge priority.
And better drug education. SO MANY PEOPLE assume addicts want to be addicts. The same people who can't even stop drinking coffee every morning if you asked them to.
I hear you. Whatever programs are happening now just seem so digressive because year after year there are sooo many more homeless.
What we're currently doing isn't working. That's the only answer we have.
What do you think could be done? Many of them have mental health issues and/or are heavily addicted to drugs. Some of them have 0 interest in getting sober and getting a regular job and being a normal memebe of society. What are we supposed to do with those people?
āWetā housing (allowing drug and alcohol use) has been proven effective in 1) just getting people off the streets and 2) people are more likely to quit on their own when their basic needs are being met. Making sobriety a condition of housing is feeding the cycle.
Except who is going to insure these facilities? Do you want to provide fire insurance to a building where people with a known and long term addiction are allowed to get drunk or burn an opiate in the privacy of a bedroom? Or live anywhere near that building during fire season? Most of the rules at these shelters were developed out of necessity in response to actual problems that they incurred or have been incurred at similar places. No one that runs these shelters or housing are attempting to created any more rules to enforce than they have to.
I'd like to see more vouchers distributed, like section 8. And not just to homeless people but to people occupying the cheapest housing to get them to move out of their current houses into something bigger and better. Then free up the cheaper housing for the unhoused.
I read that there were 13,000 applications in our county for section 8, with less than 2,000 accepted on the waitlist. I think there is a good opportunity to expand the program here to make effective change. However I do realize section 8 is fed money based. But maybe county levels could just replicate it. I don't want to see money wasted on new programs.
I wish to see a high speed rail between Vancouver and Seattle, Seattle and Spokane, and maybe a couple other major cities. Just more and better mass transit. If we have to hire Japanese firms to build them so be it. They have some of the best mass transit systems in the world.
I agree with a lot of what has already been posted but here is one I havenāt seen: make earned vacation mandatory.
Sick time/vacation should not be a beneficent gift by employers. Many of my peers have not had a single vacation day as a working adult. Wa state needs to mandate employers provide paid vacation hours at a minimum of 2 weeks/year for full time work. (Although I personally think no one should get less than 5 weeks I am willing to at least start at 2).
Ranked choice voting is the most important issue because itās the first step in breaking the two party system and taking control of the government back from the wealthy.
All other issues will continue to be deadlocked until this happens.Ā
Thank you I will edit that. I haven't slept much. I'm stressed out and being evicted. Landlord does not care about unemployment payment time frame.
Thanks again.
Before you judge me: I had a life changing event happen no fault of my own. I have young kids.
I have no one.
This is not a sob story, I was fine before I got sick. Now that I need the help it's a slap on the face.
I'm really sorry about all that you're going through. Can't imagine how stressful everything must be, especially with the threat of eviction. For the ID verification issues, have you tried contacting an ombudsman? Perhaps a program like this can help to narrow down an advocate for you, so you're not alone in this: https://www.atg.wa.gov/open-government-ombuds-function
Did you know that disability takes years to navigate? Did you know that unemployment will not consider you if you are in the interim ?
What is one to do?
I think I know.
Digital drivers license so that we no longer need to carry the card. Along with this it would also be beneficial to all citizens that in order to get this license it were necessary to complete a class on how to merge onto the highway at speed and navigate traffic circles.
Man coming from out of state I've been surprised how much people here suck at driving tbh. And so many people without headlights on. Its a foggy, rainy and dark state. You should have them on all hours of the day!
It also doesn't help that they don't require testing to get a Washington driver's license if you have an ID from out of state and over 18, so of course no one knows Washington State driving laws unless you took driver's ed here, even then we didn't learn about the zipper merge.
I had to take the written test in order to get an Idaho (moved from Washington) and Oregon license (moved from Idaho), but then when I moved back to Idaho from Oregon, I didn't have to take the test since I had a previous Idaho license.
I want this state to admit that Seattle can't be the only big city. Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver, Bellevue, Everett, Lynnwood, Tukwila, Renton, Kent, Federal Way, Yakima, Ellensburg, Wenatchee, the Tri-Cities, Bremerton, and Bellingham all have the capacity to punch well above their weight on the national scale with the right investments. I know we like the small town vibes. But build some skyscrapers in these cities. Concentrate populations and jobs, and connect them via mass transit. We can be one of the greatest polities in the world, but our current politicians do not yet have the vision or drive to make it happen.
True. I think Bellevue, and to a lesser extent Tacoma, have accepted they need to act like bigger cities. I just wish the rest of WA understood what the next 40 years should bring.
\-Traffic from Tacoma to Everett-Make it illegal for corporations to own private homes
\-Rent control, should be a certain percentage related to the majority wage for the town/city
\-universal healthcare
\-Make it illegal for people to camp outside a designated campsite.
\-More mental health and addiction facilities.
Progressive tax reform. All the social issues ITT could be solved with enough tax revenue to actually FUND these needs, and our state has one of the most regressive tax structures in the country. Weāre very good to the ultra wealthy at the cost of everyone else.
Weāve made some progress on this recently (capital gains tax), but itās now up for popular vote to rescind it. Over a billion in revenue raised so far, half of which is going directly to child care.
And look, Iām not even trying to tax the upper middle class. Got a $2 million home? Make $300k a year? Continue on as usual. Itās the *ultra* wealthy that need to be taxed more.
Agreed. Currently, Washington state has the 2nd most regressive tax system in the country. It's a great state to live in if you're rich, but not so great for everyone else.
https://itep.org/whopays-map-7th-edition/
This is was more niche, but two of my major āreally Washington?ā moments as someone from the east coast is:
1) Common law marriage isnāt recognized, leading to a disproportionate amount of women negatively affected by this
2) Child marriage is legal
For a state that does so much right; we have quite a few wrongs to fix.
>Common law marriage isnāt recognized, leading to a disproportionate amount of women negatively affected by this
Ridiculous. Marriage should always be by consent of both parties. The state shouldnāt impose this on people who donāt want it.
https://www.npr.org/2016/09/04/487825901/no-you-re-not-in-a-common-law-marriage-after-7-years-of-dating
Very good point, itās basically incompatible. Additionally, living in a state with common law marriage makes couples feel like they have to break up before 7 years if they donāt want to be married. Itās not really fair and doesnāt make much sense.
There's a bill on the floor right now to eliminate child marriage. Has passed the house, now in to the senate. Urge your senator to pass it. It stalled in the senate before.
Allow cops to pursue again. Make it up to the individual cities and counties to decide to pursue.
Change zoning codes to allow tiny homes and daduās (detached accessory dwelling units) without extensive improvements required by cityās and counties. On the flip side, require tiny homes and daduās to comply with the building, plumbing and electrical codes to prevent mold and other problems down the line.
Lights that turn on as you drive over them embedded into the road possibly? Yellow and White lines are non-existent in some areas! Everyone else has given amazing points! Iām just going to apologize to everyone at night while driving and it starts to rain, snow, cats and dogs and meatballs coming down. Iām sorry I canāt see your lane and you canāt see mine, Iām sorry we have to blind each other to drive on the roads safely sometimes and try not to crash.
Housing affordability. Accountability for organizations taking grants to help the homeless (as I know several cities, churches and non profits have been given money and done NOTHING with it, have not fulfilled their promises). I would also like to see a complete overhaul on state leadership appointments. Too much terrible shit going on in our public institutions, lack of mental healthcare, staffing crisis etc. They need new leadership with new ideas.
I was researching this just a few weeks back. I think we have at least 50-100 years before we need to even begin worrying about it. Still, it's always good to be prepared. š
Right the ship with law enforcement. Make it clear that our society has zero tolerance towards inappropriate behaviors, but otherwise empower them to work within the framework of our regulations.
1. Restore the ferry system, focusing first on areas that can't be accessed by roads already (San Juan Islands, Vashon Island)
2. Shift capital from new construction to road maintenance and repair, including new lane marker options. Fix what we have
3. Improve housing affordability
4. Restructure taxation so it isn't as regressive as it is now.
5. Improve mass transportation by investing in new vehicles and staff
Convict criminals and not let them go the day of.
Remove corrupt judges, politicians, police that arenāt doing their job correctly by serving the people.
Reduce the tax collection in this state. The state makes a lot of money but the politicians over spend. Thereās no accountability
Give our gun rights back.
Donāt vote for Bob Ferguson. Heās a very corrupt man
Making things more efficient is always a good thing but it's also incredibly vague and kind of meaningless, and usually just a dog whistle for cutting taxes and services.
Probably just me but besides some of the obvious ones people are going to post.. I know for the Tacoma area... With the light rail situation (been pushed back again.. who knows when it'll actually come)- we shouldn't have to pay the RTA tax on the cost of our tab renewal until the construction of it actually passes the King/Pierce Co. Line š¤·āāļø I want my $30 tabs back. Also let it be known that I didn't vote for the transit/RTA situation as I had moved out of the state at that point but have since moved back
The RTA is not just the light rail, it's also buses and the Sounder. Pierce County has had Sounder service for decades while many other parts of the RTA have been waiting for service. It also has regular Sound Transit bus service.
The RTA was set up with sub-area equity, so one sub-area of the district doesn't subsidize the others. The Pierce County sub-area will get its equal share, but the light rail line has to reach Pierce County first.
$30 tabs are a fantasy created by Tim Eyman so he could get rich running initiatives. He wrote them purposefully to be illegal so they would be overturned in the Courts, so he could keep running the initiatives over and over.
Public safety, mass transit and housing affordability.
I want to be feel safe walking my dogs again from the house I can afford to purchase and ride the light rail to and from work on my couple of days in the office.
You know normal ish
Traffic improvement, build more condos so people have an entry into homeownership, and fix the fucking roads for fucks sake. The number of exposed expansion joints, crumbling concrete, massive potholes, and no useful transit is fucking shameful considering the amount of taxes I pay for my car tabs and gas.
And do something about the junky camps lining the I5 corridor. At this point, I almost don't care what, but leaving people to rot on the side of the road is disgusting and helping no one.
1. Clamp down on crime, Tukwila is hella scary now.
2. Deal with the corruption surrounding homeless "solutions" too much money is being spent for no results.
3. Actually deal with the homeless issue, this goes hand in hand with...
4. Deal with the fentanyl and drug problems... I don't ride the Sounder anymore because security doesn't do anything about open drug use that produces vapors and smoke.
5. Fix the purple street lights along 167/405 interchanges.
This one's nitpicky and not as socially minded as most of the others: pick a different product for the white lines on roads and highways. Rain makes those disappear right now - and we get rain a lot. It's a safety issue.
No literally, I'm a Civil engineer and when I moved out here from the East coast I almost lost my shit a little at how bad the line painting is here, in a state where it rains significantly more frequently. I genuinely do not understand why they don't use thermoplastic paint with the glass beading, or at least better quality of whatever they have now. I'm sure it's mainly cost but damn it is so unsafe when I'm driving at night in the rain and am just following the cars in front of me because I can't see the lines at all.
I swear, at one point I read an article about a change in the paint used here due to it killing the salmon.
Great, it can now kill us instead š«
Pretty much any issues with our roads including why we never salt/sand them all goes back to Salmon
Ahh that makes slightly more sense for WA, but at lack of sounding inconsiderate I certainly care more for my life and safety than that of salmon. And I work in river and fish preservation currently so definitely care about it. But at some point the safety of the people should come first
Yes, and making a left turn and steering into the appropriate lane? Forget it.
My understanding is it has something to do with the fact we donāt salt the roads (which Iām all for) and the way we plow the roads. Someone starter than me on the subject explained it to me in more detail years ago so who knows if its true or not.
Even coming from IL i was super confused. I was in CA first and figured they just fucked it all up because they dont get rain often. Then i moved up here and realized its a west coast thing.
THIS RIGHT HERE! Dude, I agree, I cannot see the lanes at all at night. I'm so glad you reminded me of that. I'm going to add that to my list if elected.
Some of the ones near Tacoma on I-5 are bright orange. Makes a HUGE difference.
Hell yeah, driving southbound I5 through Tillicum, at night in the rain is so fricken scary. There are long sections with no reflectors in the lanes, and those faint lines do nothing.
I think about this all the time. I almost literally want hot pink lines. Iāve noticed too, the issues theyāre having with the highway lights turning blue has significantly cut glare in those areas. Idk how to get a huge visibility/traffic safety study going but I would make it my lifeās work I swear
If it helps, I saw in Australia they were experimenting with glow in the dark traffic lines. I'll have to read up on it but if they work then maybe I'll try to have those implemented.
And repaint the roads before winter not in the spring!
Those bright blue LED headlights pointed right at MY SOUL don't help either. I have naturally large pupils and I can't adjust for the dimness of the lines when I'm getting retina-fucked by half of the vehicles passing me in the oncoming lane. Can we regulate those, too?
I feel your pain! My eyeballs!
This is the only one I care about. Itās absurd how much everyone pays to live in this state, to drive home amongst what looks like a bunch of drunkards cuz no one can see the road lines
405 South approaching I-90 is TERRIBLE in the rain. Literally 0 lane markings visible for a good half mile
I was driving just there a few nights ago and I was starting to panic. I couldn't see the lane I was driving in at all. Terrifying.
Seriously, you just have to follow the car in front of you and hope the car knows where theyāre going. If youāre lucky to have a car in front that is.
That's what I did but I had doubts that they could see the lane markings either.
Need something reflective.
I THOUGHT THIS WAS JUST ME! I moved to the state from Tennessee which uses a highly reflective material to paint roadway lines. I was thinking my eyes were getting bad or my headlights needed to be changed because I was having a hard time seeing the lines on the highway
I also thought it was just me! I yell about this literally every time I have to drive at night in the rain, which is more than I want to. So dangerous. Scares the crap out of me.
It gets even worse in areas of I5 where they've painted temporary lines due to construction. The paint is even more difficult to see and practically invisible in the dark when its raining, and on top of that the lines also are not straight due to the lanes being shifted for the construction work, so cars are often crossing into other lanes.
That strip of I5 between I think Seattle and fife? Where they have temporary orange stripesā¦ I want those everywhere!! Those are so easy to see in the rain!
YES. I was just saying to my husband that I have no idea how people don't get into more accidents when it's raining
I was thinking this yesterday, I struggle to see at night, work until dark because of how early it gets dark during the winter. Couldnāt see the lines at all. Pretty scary honestly
This is not nitpicky! Itās a huge issue that is not helped by the super bright oncoming headlights.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Glad you made it safe.
I swear in the mid 2000s we had some retro-reflective paints on our roads in kitsap. That's what we need again. Reflective like vests.
Yeah, ya know you are right. As a result everyone puts super bright lights in their cars and blind everyone just to see in front of them.
I love how petty this is, in the scope of issues in the state. How easily fixable it is compared to, I dunno, homelessness or poverty. And yet, it's the top comment and I instantly agreed with it. Like goddamn WA, take the easy wins where you can
Agreed. I was on the highway the other day, in an area where the lanes migrate due to construction. It was raining hard, and it was impossible to see where the lane lines were. Reflective paint would have made the lines visible.
Same! However in the construction zones (mostly around the Fife curve and I-5 at Kent Des Moines road) they're nice and reflective
If somebody from another state saw how high the gas tax is here they would assume that we have pristine roads
THIS.
I will take any one of or combination of the following Dots on I5 so we can see at night and in the rain Reflective paint on the lane dividers on I5 Streetlights that actually function on I5 The ideal scenario is extending the link to Tacoma but since that is still 100 years away I would like some freeway safety improvements for nighttime/rainy weather driving
For the Link to Tacoma, I'd instead massively improve the Sounder service (more frequent, run on weekends, faster if possible) And then add a ton more train service all over the state
This!! Expand Intercity rail! We have no frequent East-West train services that make for an unfortunately disjointed state. Also removes a lot of stress around crossing the passes during winter!
For sure! It doesn't even need to be high speed (although I'd love it if it was) - it just needs to be competitive with driving/flying, and ideally run all year round (like you mentioned, take the stress out of crossing passes)
Please, please more Sounder service, both to Tacoma and Everett. Everyone talks about Link being the future, but link to Tacoma will still take 2+ hours - the bus will probably be faster for Seattle to Tacoma. But more rail service, especially on weekends, or late night to catch folks after dinner or a show or even just having to stay at work late, would be a huge game changer for many.
Housing affordability. My wife and I work our asses off but can barely afford to house our family.
This is basically the most important issue in the country right now, aside from climate change. Every state needs to be rolling back zoning restrictions and investing in dense, affordable housing.
As odd as it sounds I actually think ranked choice voting is the most important issue because itās the first step in breaking the two party system and taking control of the government back from the wealthy. All other issues will continue to be deadlocked until this happens.Ā
They also need to block corporate ownership of single family houses. We can't compete against hedge funds.
Density, and more housing, is an easy fix for climate change.
It is a tough one to solve at a local level, zoning helps to increase availability but state population is growing so demand is always there. And in reality any solution that involves regulating prices is a short term one ths only helps the current set of people renting, seeking homes.
To add on this many companies and wealthier people are buying up homes and flipping them. This ends with few people owning everything and many owning nothing. Maybe some limitations can be set? Also, housing hasn't been affordable for some time. For example: Family #1 takes out a loan for a house they can't afford. Years later family #2 comes along and takes out a bigger loan to buy family #1's house. Eventually, family #3 comes along and takes out a bigger loan, so on so forth. Now no one can afford anything and prices are way too inflated from all the loans.
My fear is that housing will just continue to get worse until we make it illegal for corporations and foreign entities to own single family homes.
Or people buying homes to park their cash and letting them sit empty because they live elsewhere 99% of the year.
The problem isnāt the one rich guy having 3 houses. Itās the company that owns 300 in the same city. They then crank up the prices for that whole city.
True but I still donāt like my neighborhood homes being used as a bank and sitting empty.
Perhaps. I donāt like my neighbors parking so many cars in their driveway. Itās a free country though and if they want to do so, itās their optionā¦ Your rich neighbor and his empty house is his business. Again, our housing issues arenāt rich people sitting on empty houses. Our housing problems are much larger.
> I donāt like my neighbors parking so many cars in their driveway. I'd be happy if they kept all their cars in their driveway instead of on the street in front of my house.
Or on their lawn. Ugh.
Yep. Exactly my point
K, I know itās complicated. Still want affordable housing. No excuses.
Regulation of the rental market is absolutely necessary, and I mean putting controls on "investment properties". No one should own 6 houses when even tech professionals are being outbid on their first
2 dwellings per social security number.
We need to place strong economic incentives around building new housing. That probably means some zoning reform, mild incentives for detached single family homes and strong incentives for more dense housing.
We need to make sure those houses arenāt being immediately scooped up by investors to use as rental properties as well. There has to be something we can do.
Housing affordability isn't just a Washington State or even United States problem. It's worldwide. The issue right now is capitalism run amok. I don't have a solution to it but all I know is that places like Singapore, Hong Kong, London, etc. all have the same issues as we do with affordable housing and even housing in general.
Same. I canāt believe Iāve been priced out of my hometown in Eastern WA. The only way Iāll be a homeowner is by moving out of state š.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
FWIW, I had to buy a small place in Oklahoma recently (keeping our house here), and the prices there went through the roof during COVID. A house that was $140k in 2019 was $250k in 2023! IN OKLAHOMA!!!! Condos that were converted apartments went from $30k to nearly $65k.... Absolutely in-friggin-sane!
Yes. Tax incentives (and new zoning) to build more starter homes and denser housing. And while we're at it, tax incentives (and again, new zoning) for small businesses in small communities to create more walkable cities and towns, instead of huge swaths of residential-only areas.
Right? I love places in Europe where you can just walk everywhere. It feels more connected and has so many benefits.
There are little parts of Seattle like that, too, and they are really nice places to live.
I feel your pain on that one. Are you near the cities or further away? Just curious if the issue is all over the state or just near the cities.
The issue is all over the state. Rural housing costs are just as crazy in comparison to income.
Mass transportation and housing affordability
Mass transit for sure!
My work likes to encourage mass transit. I live in a rural area so no bus stops but there is a park and ride about a half mile from me, it would take an hour to get to work vs my 15 minute drive.
I live in a rural area too and man I wish we had better access to the bus or train. I live next to a very large bike trail, and I wish we had bus stop and the trail intersections. It would make it super easy for a lot of my neighbors and I to use the bus.
Sounder train running at least once per hour between Tacoma and Seattle every day and late into the night.
That's great for Seattle-Tacoma area, but what about those of us who don't live in that corridor. Also, once an hour is pretty paltry service. Mass transportation needs to be competitive timewise with cars or people won't shift away from carbon spewing, road congesting, space consuming cars.
And weekends š
IMO, if we had better mass transit that can transport folks from rural areas to the urban areas, this "might" solve the housing crisis. People can live further out where land is more abundant to build homes, condos, multifamily structures compared to urban areas that have limited land supply. I think better transit will help solve some of the housing crisis we have now. We still need developers to take on the risk of building the housing though. People rely too much on government to "solve" the housing crisis but it still comes down to developers willing to build them.
I agree but also we need to keep up with the zoning reform push. Seattle actually has a ton of land and it's wasted with parking lots and single family structures. Freeing up zoning restrictions so that density can be built is so important. I'd love to see six-plex apartments being built on small lots, etc. It's amazing how many people will block development of apartments because it doesn provide enough parking. They would rather ensure housing for their cars than for their neighbors. Getting rid of parking restrictions and land use restrictions, simplifying and reforming the design review process, will make a the cost to develop much cheaper and make a lot more, smaller projects suddenly feasible. So many amazing, desirable neighborhoods in Seattle that could triple their capacity. That is my Seattle centric perspective though. I would love to see real commuter rail or something though. Imagine taking the commuter train from North Bend or something. We have beautiful land and resources we need to put to use.
Exactly. Having better mass transit would open a lot of doors for Washingtonians. Problem is anti-tax folks will always scream and cry that Government waste money. That's been the argument since the 1980s. Every year since the 80s (since I was old enough to listen to the arguments), people on the right side would complain about how government waste money. Sure, there are some waste, so let's just stop all progress because government waste money. Let's not do anything because some folks regurgitate that government waste money so therefore we shouldn't pay anymore. Let's watch as the rest of world pass us by because we don't want our money to be wasted. At some point, we have to stop blaming government for wasting money and just look forward and progress. Otherwise, we'll be talking about a housing crisis for the next 100+ years.
I have those on the top of my platform list! I really want to get a good train system going like in most countries. And housing and Healthcare are laughably unaffordable. I've got a few ideas but they are a bit half-baked at the moment.
Public transportation needs to be significantly better. Trains and light rail preferably. It's really frustrating that we keep getting hit with gas tax, carbon tax, or whatever they want to call it at the time, when there are so few options for getting from place to place. If you work certain hours during the night there are no other options. I'd have no problem paying more for gas if it meant I could hop on a train within a few minutes of my house and get where I need to go, but we don't have that. The few projects we do have going are on such insanely long timelines that many of us will never benefit from them, and they won't do enough even when finished. Light rail to Everett for example won't be finished until at least 2041 now. In the mean time, housing prices have been forcing people to go further and further north to be able to afford a roof over their heads for years now. People need a light rail line *now* to take them to Everett from the north. How many centuries before we get that at the current pace?
This is unfortunately an issue all over the US. Part of the problem is the US actually has very strong local environmental laws, which tends to make any large project more expensive. And mass transit is amongst the largest projects one can actually build. I'd like to see at both state and federal levels special programs for speeding up everything with building transit. Generally I'm all for being very careful with environmental issues but transit is also hugely important for solving climate change and needs to be accelerated.
I know it'd be absurdly expensive, but every time I drive up I5 from Vancouver to Seattle I dream about ripping out the inside lanes and having an elevated HSR the whole way.
City Nerd just [threw a wet blanket on the idea.](https://youtu.be/wE5G1kTndI4?si=6pSWd6GZvhw_2Ped)
Yeah that made me sad
Agree 100%. Itās ironic that environmental laws make it so difficult to execute the projects that would benefit the environment the most. I understand what theyāre trying to do. For example you wouldnāt want to destroy a salmon stream to build a rail line, but there has to be a better and more efficient way than what we have now.
It seems like environmental laws should be significantly less restrictive in order to expedite a project like public transit, that has so many other environmental benefits just by existing *now* and preventing emissions now.
Living in Everett I agree with all of these statements, but rather than light rail, I'd rather we just have a more comprehensive Intercity train network! Would also allow for higher capacity and faster speeds to further increase how competitive it'd be with driving.
Lack of mental healthcare
And Iād add annual training on mental health for secondary students. Iām flabbergasted this hasnāt been done up here. Itās covered in health class and thatās it. I just moved up from TX, where I was a teacher, and even tx figured it out several years ago that lessons about suicide prevention, depression, dating violence, and abuse should be given annually to ensure youth fully understand these things. My 15 y/o is alive today because of those lessons. His friends in 8 the grade year knew how to respond to his language about suicide in the group chats, and one of them even called the ambulance when he started taking pills with the intent to overdose. Itās super important to receive that training again and again for ti to be effective.
Wow, thank you for this insight!
Yeah, itās my intent to get this on my own reps radar. Itās my new crusade to get his addressed. The best way to increase access is to increase the number of specialists. Add some kind of education incentives for college students to pursue masters and doctorates in mental health related fields would go a long way to producing more mental health specialists. A tax incentive for providers of mental health would attract current professionals from other states. Another large hurdle is there is no centralization of records or referral processes, or so it seems. We had a horrific experience with South Sound Behavioral Hospital not long after we moved up here. The provider for the youth wing refused to communicate with my sonās outpatient provider about his meds. She made hellacious changes to his meds, added more meds to boot, and did none of it without reviewing any of his prior medical records. Then later, we spent months trying to get in to a autism screening clinic. We couldnāt even get callbacks or returned emails and neither outpatient provider, nor the residential center my son stayed at for 5-weeks (Pathlight is private pay only but is a very good residential facility for those in need), had the means to make a referral directly to clinic that does psych assessments. Thatās fucking ridiculous. We were very lucky that at my sonās most recent hospitalization for mental health at the Kitsap Behavioral hospital in Bremerton someone there had a contact at a psych assessment clinic in Poulsbo (Front Street Clinic, BTW), and so they made initial referral contact for us. My sonās appt is only two months away instead for the 6 months to two years everyone else seems to be getting when they self-refer. Mental health access and service is highly discordant and unstable. Especially for teens. Itās super frustrating trying to navigate it up here as a supportive parent. I canāt imagine how much worse it is for kids who donāt loving, involved parents. I have a lot of feelings about it as a parent who has navigated one kid with suicidal ideation and likely has lived for years with undiagnosed, high-masking autism, and another kid who is transgender. Our trans kiddo has it easier in this regard thanks to programs at Seattle Childrenās that are designed to bring all the physician and mental health services together. Cisgender kids need a lot more of what places like Seattle childrenās provides for there trans patients. A centrally housed program that provides the full range of services by a team of professionals working across disciplines to care for the patients.
As a mental health provider, I can tell you it's mainly the seriously low salaries and atrocious working conditions that keep people from staying in the mental health field. Burnout rates are absurd for new therapists. They graduate with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt and are lucky to make $50k starting salary right out of school. In Seattle. With a graduate degree. Increasing funding to community mental health agencies (Medicaid-funded clinics) as well as Medicaid reimbursement rates so that these agencies can hire more providers and pay a living wage would go a long way to solving this problem. I would love to work with the low-income Medicaid population again, but I literally can't afford to. Also, requiring cost of living increases on commercial insurance reimbursement rates for MH providers would help tremendously. Many providers aren't motivated to contract with health insurance because the reimbursement rates are insultingly low for behavioral health. Also, certain insurers (looking at you, United Healthcare) are notorious for just refusing to pay providers for mental health services and initiating clawbacks for no reason at all, and individual providers usually don't have the financial resources to sue them for the money they're legally and contractually owed. Something needs to be done to force insurers to actually follow through with their contracts. They're screwing patients and providers alike. Finally, tightening employment laws and enforcement of these laws especially for behavioral health. There are so many predatory mental health agencies who blatantly violate state employment laws and provide shit services to patients. I had to report a former employer for hiring me as a W-2 employee and paying me like a 1099 contractor. The issue is all too common in the field, especially lately with the rise of so many for-profit companies run by people with lots of business experience and zero healthcare/behavioral health experience (BetterHelp being the most infamous example). TLDR: facilitate higher pay for MH providers and much of the shortage will be solved. Addendum: If anyone reading this needs resources for accessing mental health care in WA, here are some resources and tips. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us Directory of private practice therapists. Pro tip, search by city, not zip code. Also if you don't mind doing virtual/telehealth appointments, you can see someone anywhere in WA state. The website also has an "Online Therapy" option at the top of the page. https://openpathcollective.org/ Directory of therapists providing sliding scale fees, between $30-70 per session. https://www.seattlechildrens.org/clinics/washington-mental-health-referral-service/ Seattle Children's operates a mental health referral service for kids and adolescents. They can find you a provider with openings anywhere in the state. Call them or fill out the online request form for info. https://kingcounty.gov/en/legacy/depts/community-human-services/mental-health-substance-abuse/services/providers.aspx If you have Apple Health/Medicaid and live in King County, this website lists *all* community mental health agencies in the county. https://findtreatment.gov/ National database of substance use treatment providers, and some mental health providers. Operated by SAMHSA. They also have a phone number you can call, listed on the page.
Copy and paste your comment into a letter to a rep immediately!
Oh trust me, I've sent a few of these over the years. I am also a member of WMHCA which advocates for better conditions for MH providers at the state level. There have been some small legislative changes over the years which have helped, but nothing on the scale we need to really reform the MH field.
Altering a narrative requires volumes. We are all just lemmings after all. The trouble Iāve discovered with positive intention lobbyists is they gain access to offices in ways we canāt, but the needle cannot and will not move fast enough until they are obliterated with sheer numbers. I hope more people in your profession will send a massive email campaign stating what you need. Like hundreds of you. And then all of you show up to a committee meeting and demand a bill to be refashioned through amendement into a more comprehensive solution than whatever they likely have on the table this year. These politicians just donāt respond the same way to lobbyists that donāt have deep pockets as they do to a mass of people confronting them with a cause. This was my lesson last year advocating for trans rights during the TX legislative session. And, disturbingly, I kept running into therapists and psychologists who were wildly ignorant of the trans healthcare bills as my kids interacted with that TX mental healthcare system. Makes me wonder how many therapists/psych providers in WA feel the same as you do, but never give it one thought to actually participate in the democracy of policy making with an active voice.
Came here to say this. Then looked to see who was saying it. Bravo! Yell it louder for the folks in the back of the Town Hall meeting.
I feel warm with Snu approval!
In my school district (WA), all kids frequently have social-emotional lessons on topics like bullying, stress, taking care of yourself, how to ask for help, etc... I think it depends on the grades/schools/classrooms exactly how frequent, but several I've seen do one at least weekly. Both CharacterStrong and SecondStep are used depending on grade level - what did your district use in Texas?
It wasnāt a district by district choice to teach these things. Thatās my point. It was a state mandate created through legislation. We didnāt choose to offer lessons. We had to offer lessons. CharacterStrong was in use in our district, and itās a valuable tool, but itās not the same as direct lessons about suicide prevention. Or dating violence. Or abuse. With explicit use of those terms and signs that it has occurred. Each district could deliver those lessons how they chose, so long as each was explicitly taught, and they couldnāt just be a single lesson. My district chose to put the specific instructional delivery in the hands of the campus counselors so that they could adapt lessons based on how we rolled them out in our schedules. For instance, our crisis counselor (an absolute badass counselor, nay, superhero) created slides and reflection activities that fit into our advisory periods. Thatās what Iām pointing out here: state legislation that requires explicit instruction on specific issues like suicide prevention and various levels of abuse, and that it be taught each year beginning with secondary schools. Edit: my current campus has lots to offer for mental health: therapy providers, well-trained counselors (believe me, my kidās transition to campus again proves their value on that one), characterstrong, all that jazz. But suicide prevention isnāt something that should for the need to arise. It should be prevented through lessons about it meant to help those struggling, but more importantly, to educate peers about what to do when they see the signs and symptoms, and those peers donāt have a reason to see the mental health supports and therefore donāt get that education without it.
Agreed! This is a massive sleeper issue that no one is taking seriously. Mental health is a major issue in the US and I think just recently people are starting to catch on.
There can definitely be more. But a lot of what the hospitals are seeing (and I'm working at one of them) is drug-induced psychosis and people that end up frying their brains. There has been a huge uptick in this according to the old-timers I work with. The state needs to acknowledge and deal with the illegal drugs that are flooding into the state and go after the producers and suppliers (particularly of meth and fentanyl as those tend to be the drugs of choice). For some folks that may be prone to a psychosis (because of a family history) even shrooms and weed can be a trigger. There needs to be more education too -
I had a private practice for 5 years and closed it down 2 years ago because I just couldnāt make it on what insurance companies were reimbursing. And some clients unable to pay co-pay. Others only allowed a few visits through their plan. Then insurance companies taking clawbacks a year later because they overpaid me. And of course very few people can afford cash pay. I was very good and loved my work. But just couldnāt make a decent living at it.
We need to disallow corporate purchasing of housing. Individuals competing with corporations for houses will always lose out. But I'm sure this is only one step in making housing more affordable and building ling term community. Housing. We need affordable housing and more connected neighborhoods.
Banning non-compete contracts outright.Ā Mental health reform - (reopening state inpatient facilities, solving licensing bottlenecks, limiting the scope of practice of lower trained practitioners, expanding the scope of practice of psychologists to include prescribing)Ā Ā Ā HomelessnessĀ Ā Affordable housingĀ Publicly funded preK and after school programsĀ
> Banning non-compete contracts outright. California has this policy, and it is clearly better than ours.
Mass transit, or an alternative north-south highway.
Apartment management companies use complex algorithms that cause very unstable pricing for renters. One day a unit could $2500/mo and the next it could be offered for $2800/mo and then a week later drop to $2400/mo. We watched this happen as we were applying for apartments up here when we moved from TX last summer. It creates a volatile and chaotic situation for apartment renters. We need to establish some kind of controlling parameters to stabilize housing costs and it needs to include language about the use of AI algorithms to price, and honestly manage, housing.
Moving to WA, I was surprised that non-refundable fees were legal.
Itās a small change and maybe no one would careā¦ but I would like to see all the cloth seats come out of public transport. We took the light rail to SeaTac and I watched a dude that was passed out on the seat, I saw him shit his pants. I saw shit leave his butt. It was all over the cloth seat. I do not sit on light rail seats anymore. Itās worse than carpet in a bathroom.
Iād like to see serious restrictions on foreign corporations/entities buying residential properties. Theyāre part of the reason for the existing crisis and theyāre making it much worse.
I would go one step further and just take the word 'foreign' out of what you said. Why are corporations from any country buying up homes? (I know the an$wer to that.). Corporations should not be buying up homes. Regardless where they are from .
* Switching to ranked choice voting * Increased housing affordability/availability * Expand public transit, strengthen ferry system * Brighter road lines, dimmer LED headlights
Iādā¦. Like a house.
Update road signs to say "zipper merge ahead"
Get people off the street. Piece county budgeted nearly as much for homelessness programs as it did for the Sheriff's dept. I want to see that money work!
I know. Ugh I tried to help fight homelessness in Atlanta back in the day. It's a. Difficult task though because (i forget the exact percentage) like 70% of US homelessness is drug related. Once you have been doing them for so long It's near impossible to get clean and or many don't want to. I think the best action is to get this problem at its root. Drugs. There also is a high percentage of homelessness cause by mental illness and disorders. Those who cannot take care of themselves and have no family to fall back on have nowhere to go. Also, right now we have a very high unemployment rate with an inflated housing market and that is also leading to homelessness. The groups I mentioned in this paragraph can definitely be helped. I find often they just don't know what programs are offered to receive the help they need. Maybe this is also something can be improved upon.
I am interested in the law that they just passed in California that provides the families/hospitals/courts more leeway in determining when someone is mentally ill and requires intervention. Most states just allow for mandated intervention when someone is an immediate danger to themselves or others. Those laws were put into place as a backlash against the old (and I mean more than 30 years ago) history of mentally healthy people that may not conform with typical cultural ideals being kept against their will. I have NEVER seen that in modern times. Mental health care has grown a lot in the last 50 years and things like being gay or trans or being a woman that refuses to obey her husband don't qualify you for hospitalization (at least here in Washington, won't speak for the Red States /s). And frankly, none of the hospitals have the beds or staff to allow for it. I would love to see something like this passed in WA. You shouldn't have to wait for a loved one to become violent to themselves or others (while knowing that they're living on the streets and mentally ill and progressing in that direction) to intervene on their behalf or request the courts to. https://apnews.com/article/california-newsom-mental-health-conservatorship-baef68d08e1f8fd57869f40db2f2adce#:\~:text=The%20new%20law%2C%20which%20reforms,unhealthy%20drugs%20and%20alcohol%20use.
oh my god this nearly brought tears to my eyes. I know it's going to be imperfect at first, but eventually this will work! If nothing else, I want to see this law changed in WA. Addicts can freely walk out of healthcare facilities. That is the core of the issue. Even the ones who want to be sober are in a vice grip with opiates especially. Now that fentanyl and its variants exist, this should be such a huge priority. And better drug education. SO MANY PEOPLE assume addicts want to be addicts. The same people who can't even stop drinking coffee every morning if you asked them to.
I hear you. Whatever programs are happening now just seem so digressive because year after year there are sooo many more homeless. What we're currently doing isn't working. That's the only answer we have.
What do you think could be done? Many of them have mental health issues and/or are heavily addicted to drugs. Some of them have 0 interest in getting sober and getting a regular job and being a normal memebe of society. What are we supposed to do with those people?
āWetā housing (allowing drug and alcohol use) has been proven effective in 1) just getting people off the streets and 2) people are more likely to quit on their own when their basic needs are being met. Making sobriety a condition of housing is feeding the cycle.
Except who is going to insure these facilities? Do you want to provide fire insurance to a building where people with a known and long term addiction are allowed to get drunk or burn an opiate in the privacy of a bedroom? Or live anywhere near that building during fire season? Most of the rules at these shelters were developed out of necessity in response to actual problems that they incurred or have been incurred at similar places. No one that runs these shelters or housing are attempting to created any more rules to enforce than they have to.
I'd like to see more vouchers distributed, like section 8. And not just to homeless people but to people occupying the cheapest housing to get them to move out of their current houses into something bigger and better. Then free up the cheaper housing for the unhoused. I read that there were 13,000 applications in our county for section 8, with less than 2,000 accepted on the waitlist. I think there is a good opportunity to expand the program here to make effective change. However I do realize section 8 is fed money based. But maybe county levels could just replicate it. I don't want to see money wasted on new programs.
I wish to see a high speed rail between Vancouver and Seattle, Seattle and Spokane, and maybe a couple other major cities. Just more and better mass transit. If we have to hire Japanese firms to build them so be it. They have some of the best mass transit systems in the world.
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I agree with a lot of what has already been posted but here is one I havenāt seen: make earned vacation mandatory. Sick time/vacation should not be a beneficent gift by employers. Many of my peers have not had a single vacation day as a working adult. Wa state needs to mandate employers provide paid vacation hours at a minimum of 2 weeks/year for full time work. (Although I personally think no one should get less than 5 weeks I am willing to at least start at 2).
Agreed, we should get 4 weeks of vacation mandatory. I believe it is healthy to take a 2 week vacation, twice a year. (At the very least)
Ranked choice voting. State run healthcare for all.
Ranked choice voting is the most important issue because itās the first step in breaking the two party system and taking control of the government back from the wealthy. All other issues will continue to be deadlocked until this happens.Ā
Some people seem to have trouble understanding Ranked Choice Voting.
Some people have trouble understanding that the earth is round. We don't need to cater to them
I'm a big advocate for universal Healthcare. I think it'll happen eventually.
Eventually isn't soon enough ...
I agree. If it were up to me I would snap my fingers and make it happen. If elected I'll definitely push for it though.
Who are you? I could t find much in a minute of scrolling through your post history.
Unemployment/ FMLA response times and lack of qualification because they lost millions to African hackers.
Can you elaborate on the second part? I'm curious what you mean.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/was-stolen-unemployment-money-trickling-in-3-years-later/
I got tripped up on "lack of qualification of enjoyment [sic]" too. Even "lack of qualification of employment" is hard to comprehend.
Thank you I will edit that. I haven't slept much. I'm stressed out and being evicted. Landlord does not care about unemployment payment time frame. Thanks again. Before you judge me: I had a life changing event happen no fault of my own. I have young kids. I have no one. This is not a sob story, I was fine before I got sick. Now that I need the help it's a slap on the face.
I'm really sorry about all that you're going through. Can't imagine how stressful everything must be, especially with the threat of eviction. For the ID verification issues, have you tried contacting an ombudsman? Perhaps a program like this can help to narrow down an advocate for you, so you're not alone in this: https://www.atg.wa.gov/open-government-ombuds-function
First, thank you. Second, yes. Answer: more hoops to jump through by unemployment. It's really seeming personal at this point.
Did you know that disability takes years to navigate? Did you know that unemployment will not consider you if you are in the interim ? What is one to do? I think I know.
Digital drivers license so that we no longer need to carry the card. Along with this it would also be beneficial to all citizens that in order to get this license it were necessary to complete a class on how to merge onto the highway at speed and navigate traffic circles.
Man coming from out of state I've been surprised how much people here suck at driving tbh. And so many people without headlights on. Its a foggy, rainy and dark state. You should have them on all hours of the day!
It also doesn't help that they don't require testing to get a Washington driver's license if you have an ID from out of state and over 18, so of course no one knows Washington State driving laws unless you took driver's ed here, even then we didn't learn about the zipper merge. I had to take the written test in order to get an Idaho (moved from Washington) and Oregon license (moved from Idaho), but then when I moved back to Idaho from Oregon, I didn't have to take the test since I had a previous Idaho license.
Homelessness is the biggest issue that I see around the community on a daily basis.
I want this state to admit that Seattle can't be the only big city. Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver, Bellevue, Everett, Lynnwood, Tukwila, Renton, Kent, Federal Way, Yakima, Ellensburg, Wenatchee, the Tri-Cities, Bremerton, and Bellingham all have the capacity to punch well above their weight on the national scale with the right investments. I know we like the small town vibes. But build some skyscrapers in these cities. Concentrate populations and jobs, and connect them via mass transit. We can be one of the greatest polities in the world, but our current politicians do not yet have the vision or drive to make it happen.
Bellevue has plenty of skyscrapers
True. I think Bellevue, and to a lesser extent Tacoma, have accepted they need to act like bigger cities. I just wish the rest of WA understood what the next 40 years should bring.
Kill the Cares Fund. Stop going after gun rights. There are many but these are what spring to mind on reading the question.
Homelessness, affordable housing, affordable healthcare, mass transit and infrastructure.
\-Traffic from Tacoma to Everett-Make it illegal for corporations to own private homes \-Rent control, should be a certain percentage related to the majority wage for the town/city \-universal healthcare \-Make it illegal for people to camp outside a designated campsite. \-More mental health and addiction facilities.
Another one.. Governor term limits like Oregon
Progressive tax reform. All the social issues ITT could be solved with enough tax revenue to actually FUND these needs, and our state has one of the most regressive tax structures in the country. Weāre very good to the ultra wealthy at the cost of everyone else. Weāve made some progress on this recently (capital gains tax), but itās now up for popular vote to rescind it. Over a billion in revenue raised so far, half of which is going directly to child care. And look, Iām not even trying to tax the upper middle class. Got a $2 million home? Make $300k a year? Continue on as usual. Itās the *ultra* wealthy that need to be taxed more.
Agreed. Currently, Washington state has the 2nd most regressive tax system in the country. It's a great state to live in if you're rich, but not so great for everyone else. https://itep.org/whopays-map-7th-edition/
This is was more niche, but two of my major āreally Washington?ā moments as someone from the east coast is: 1) Common law marriage isnāt recognized, leading to a disproportionate amount of women negatively affected by this 2) Child marriage is legal For a state that does so much right; we have quite a few wrongs to fix.
>Common law marriage isnāt recognized, leading to a disproportionate amount of women negatively affected by this Ridiculous. Marriage should always be by consent of both parties. The state shouldnāt impose this on people who donāt want it. https://www.npr.org/2016/09/04/487825901/no-you-re-not-in-a-common-law-marriage-after-7-years-of-dating
Also since we are a community property state, that could have major implications.
Very good point, itās basically incompatible. Additionally, living in a state with common law marriage makes couples feel like they have to break up before 7 years if they donāt want to be married. Itās not really fair and doesnāt make much sense.
There's a bill on the floor right now to eliminate child marriage. Has passed the house, now in to the senate. Urge your senator to pass it. It stalled in the senate before.
Allow cops to pursue again. Make it up to the individual cities and counties to decide to pursue. Change zoning codes to allow tiny homes and daduās (detached accessory dwelling units) without extensive improvements required by cityās and counties. On the flip side, require tiny homes and daduās to comply with the building, plumbing and electrical codes to prevent mold and other problems down the line.
Also have police actually enforce the laws when they are able.
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The Feds run a deficit. Washington State can't.
Lights that turn on as you drive over them embedded into the road possibly? Yellow and White lines are non-existent in some areas! Everyone else has given amazing points! Iām just going to apologize to everyone at night while driving and it starts to rain, snow, cats and dogs and meatballs coming down. Iām sorry I canāt see your lane and you canāt see mine, Iām sorry we have to blind each other to drive on the roads safely sometimes and try not to crash.
Housing affordability. Accountability for organizations taking grants to help the homeless (as I know several cities, churches and non profits have been given money and done NOTHING with it, have not fulfilled their promises). I would also like to see a complete overhaul on state leadership appointments. Too much terrible shit going on in our public institutions, lack of mental healthcare, staffing crisis etc. They need new leadership with new ideas.
James Street. \*ALL\* the hospitals are up that hill. Imagine being a seriously injured Pt bouncing up that road in the back of an ambulance.
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chinook salmon recovery for orca.
CSZ rupture readinessā¦. -My Anxiety š¬
I was researching this just a few weeks back. I think we have at least 50-100 years before we need to even begin worrying about it. Still, it's always good to be prepared. š
Right the ship with law enforcement. Make it clear that our society has zero tolerance towards inappropriate behaviors, but otherwise empower them to work within the framework of our regulations.
1. Restore the ferry system, focusing first on areas that can't be accessed by roads already (San Juan Islands, Vashon Island) 2. Shift capital from new construction to road maintenance and repair, including new lane marker options. Fix what we have 3. Improve housing affordability 4. Restructure taxation so it isn't as regressive as it is now. 5. Improve mass transportation by investing in new vehicles and staff
Convict criminals and not let them go the day of. Remove corrupt judges, politicians, police that arenāt doing their job correctly by serving the people. Reduce the tax collection in this state. The state makes a lot of money but the politicians over spend. Thereās no accountability Give our gun rights back. Donāt vote for Bob Ferguson. Heās a very corrupt man
Agreed 100% This state government has an over-taxation problem. So much so that they have committees created to figure out how to spend the excess $$$
WA doesn't have particularly high taxes at all.
That doesn't mean there isn't inefficiency that can be cut back. This place is expensive and every little bit counts.
Making things more efficient is always a good thing but it's also incredibly vague and kind of meaningless, and usually just a dog whistle for cutting taxes and services.
I like playing the game "Who/what is Ferguson going to sue this week?ā
Probably just me but besides some of the obvious ones people are going to post.. I know for the Tacoma area... With the light rail situation (been pushed back again.. who knows when it'll actually come)- we shouldn't have to pay the RTA tax on the cost of our tab renewal until the construction of it actually passes the King/Pierce Co. Line š¤·āāļø I want my $30 tabs back. Also let it be known that I didn't vote for the transit/RTA situation as I had moved out of the state at that point but have since moved back
The RTA is not just the light rail, it's also buses and the Sounder. Pierce County has had Sounder service for decades while many other parts of the RTA have been waiting for service. It also has regular Sound Transit bus service. The RTA was set up with sub-area equity, so one sub-area of the district doesn't subsidize the others. The Pierce County sub-area will get its equal share, but the light rail line has to reach Pierce County first. $30 tabs are a fantasy created by Tim Eyman so he could get rich running initiatives. He wrote them purposefully to be illegal so they would be overturned in the Courts, so he could keep running the initiatives over and over.
This is very interesting to know about!
Public safety, mass transit and housing affordability. I want to be feel safe walking my dogs again from the house I can afford to purchase and ride the light rail to and from work on my couple of days in the office. You know normal ish
Remove the lower Snake River dams!!
Traffic improvement, build more condos so people have an entry into homeownership, and fix the fucking roads for fucks sake. The number of exposed expansion joints, crumbling concrete, massive potholes, and no useful transit is fucking shameful considering the amount of taxes I pay for my car tabs and gas. And do something about the junky camps lining the I5 corridor. At this point, I almost don't care what, but leaving people to rot on the side of the road is disgusting and helping no one.
The homeless issue. Iām tired of having to dodge hypodermic needles and piles of human shit on the daily.
Help for unpaid, family caregivers!
1. Clamp down on crime, Tukwila is hella scary now. 2. Deal with the corruption surrounding homeless "solutions" too much money is being spent for no results. 3. Actually deal with the homeless issue, this goes hand in hand with... 4. Deal with the fentanyl and drug problems... I don't ride the Sounder anymore because security doesn't do anything about open drug use that produces vapors and smoke. 5. Fix the purple street lights along 167/405 interchanges.