Lake Union Living, Seattle

From the Department of Planning and Development (Shoreline Master Program Update):

The Department of Planning and Development (DPD) has begun the process of revising Seattle’s Shoreline Master Program (SMP) for the first time since 1987. The SMP establishes policies and regulations governing land use along marine and freshwater shorelines. Seattle’s shorelines include Puget Sound, Lake Washington, Lake Union and the Ship Canal, the Duwamish River, and Green Lake. The area affected by the SMP is generally 200′ landward from the waterline.  DPD is working with the Washington Department of Ecology to complete the update of Seattle’s program by the spring of 2010. If you are interested, participation in the process is through the Citizens Advisory Committee and their schedule is posted.

ANNUAL MEETING & BYLAW AMENDMENT
March 12, 2009
7 PM @ CYC Club House
Shilshole Bay Marina
7755 Seaview Ave. N.W.
Seattle, WA 98117

For more information contact Madhuri R. Hosford 206.478.6621 or email her at madhuri@madhurihosford.com.

TWO GREAT GRASS ROOTS IDEAS
By Kevin & Linda Bagley – Mar 9th, 2009 at 3:21 pm EDT

Fact: The financial crisis began with the housing & lending industry. As the sub-prime industry began to fail, an increased number of houses came on the market through foreclosures and short-sales (Sales where lenders agree to take less than what is owed). This, combined with more restrictive lending practices made it difficult to sell houses. This affects everything – builders, lenders, appraisers, carpet layers, drywallers, bankers, etc. etc. These are the people that buy cars and boats, and games, and TV’s. Hence the waterfall began. The reason that the car industry is hurting is not because we don’t make good cars, it is because PEOPLE ARE NOT BUYING. We can get people buying again, by turning the economy around, not by bailouts, or revamping the car industry. The auto industry is a SYMPTOM, not a CAUSE.

The same holds true for the Banking industry; it is a SYMPTOM, not the cause. The root cause of the financial crisis is the housing industry. Fix that, and the economy will revive. We are concerned that too much money and energy is being focused on fixing the symptoms, rather than the cause. This crisis began with a collapse of the housing industry and it will end with a recovery of the housing industry. WE MUST FIX THE HOUSING INDUSTRY!

Here are 2 Grass Roots ideas that we have come up with (incidentally, we are in the housing and lending industries) that we believe are cost effective and will have a direct affect on improving the housing industry.

1. National Open House Weekend: We believe President Obama should immediately announce and emphatically endorse a National Open House Weekend that would preferably occur this spring, during the time that is normally an upsurge in purchasing. This would be a day when Agents would focus on having open houses and invite lenders to attend and offer special incentives to encourage buyers to act.

2. Government Match of Interest Rate Discount: Use some of the TARP,or Housing recovery funds to encourage lenders to pass on reduced rates to clients by offering to match interest rate discounts below 5%. i.e. if a lender offers a rate of 4.5% (without discount points of course), then the government would match .25% to the lender. If a lender offers 4%, then the government would chip in .5%.

Help us get these ideas up the political ladder!

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Lake Union Living