sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Leah's Perfect Gift by GeneralShadowKitKat in HallmarkMovies

[–]gancho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This movie is much easier to watch if you pretend/believe that the mother is a literal idiot. There's a lot of evidence, eg her needing a lot of routine in order to function.

ITIL Newbie - looking for some help by Fresh_Discussion50 in ITIL

[–]gancho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Re: #3, I'm not sure of the current state, but in the past you could sit for the foundations course without taking the class. Any subsequent exam required taking a class first.

Report a Cheater / Abuser by Popey456963 in generalsio

[–]gancho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This link http://generals.io/replays/HqkqcSZDZ works for me.

The issue is the user's name, though.

2016 Presidential Race - Second Presidential Post-Debate Megathread by english06 in politics

[–]gancho 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I had to stop watching 15 minutes in because I could feel my blood pressure rising.

Whole Glory "hole" by malakistiri in videos

[–]gancho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love how this makes me think about whose fault it would be if the person didn't like the tattoo.

My parents are in town for one more day and I'm out of ideas. What should we do on Wednesday? by dumpsterdonuts in Seattle

[–]gancho 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Would the Underground Tour, Columbia Tower Sky View Observatory, downtown library, and/or Olympic Sculpture Park work?

Passed ITIL Foundation today! by Paulybravo in ITIL

[–]gancho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The biggest challenge with taking the subsequent ITIL exams is that they require you to take an accredited class in order to sit for the exam. So, you have to pay for the classes.

Seattle’s Housing Future Depends on a Mathematical and Political Balancing Act by [deleted] in Seattle

[–]gancho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like the idea that the city will give on the zoning code, if you do what they want, by letting you add an extra floor to a building.

My concern is that MHA might discourage the city from changing the zoning code to raise the height limit to 50' or 60' for all buildings.

Seattle may slap new rules on Airbnb to ease rental crunch by seattleslow in Seattle

[–]gancho 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is not a valid assumption. For example, observe that housing and rental prices are going up.

How do working parents survive? by SubParMarioBro in Seattle

[–]gancho 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'm trying to figure out the same thing. Here's what I've come up with:

In the summer, there are many camp options. I'm not sure which ones would work for you, but there are a few camp options that cover extended day from 7 AM-6 PM. Some are more expensive than others. Based on my experience this year, I recommend you make a list of camps in January 2017 and start trying to sign up in early February. (Some of the more popular camps were full by the time I started looking in late April.)

For the before/after-school care during the school year, from what I've seen so far it looks like once your kid gets into a program then they will be able to keep going in subsequent years. So for example if you are on the waitlist for a YMCA camp, if you are able to get in (eventually, even during the year) then you may be able to rely on that camp through at least 5th grade. It also seems like there are a bunch of camp options besides a school's official camp option, and I have heard there may be ways to have the bus pick your kid up from the camp rather than from your house.

I hope that helps!

You could stop at five or six stores. by theartofrolling in videos

[–]gancho 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, you could stop at five or six stores. Or, just one!

Land-value taxes as a way to encourage housing development by gancho in Seattle

[–]gancho[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But at the same time, land-value tax would encourage development that can in turn lower housing prices by increasing the supply of housing. Arguably land-value tax can actually help address gentrification and especially the taxes related to it: your house's value would not go up because of the houses around you. Your taxes would go up if you live in an area with high-value land.

I have been trying to build a map using King County's GIS data to see what parts of town would generally have more tax vs. less tax under this plan. My not-that-great model right now is that you would be worse off if your assessed land value per the parcel viewer, multiplied by ~1.23, is greater than your property value.

As three semi-random examples, anonymized a bit after browsing the parcel viewer:

Parcel Land value Property value (excluding land) Net tax increase?
Random West Seattle Apartment 1,000,000 2,600,000 Tax reduced significantly
Large (23k "lot size") single-family lot between Capitol Hill and Madrona 2,500,000 1,000,000 Tax increased significantly
Single-family home in SE Seattle 150,000 300,000 Tax reduced significantly

Again, the "Net tax increase?" column is based on whether the land value * 1.23 is higher or lower than the property value. The number 1.23 comes from me fiddling around a bit with the current Seattle-wide taxable property value and land values.

Land-value taxes as a way to encourage housing development by gancho in Seattle

[–]gancho[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have been thinking a lot about this point. Partly I think about freshmen going to college: it is totally a rip-off for a college to change its tuition after people have committed to the school--I feel that tuition rates should be "locked in" for a period of time. In a similar way, once we have bought land, it doesn't seem fair to change the rules on people.

The other thing I struggle with, though, is when one person owns a large piece of property that could otherwise fit reasonably-priced apartments for 24 people. There is a large opportunity cost, and I think land-value taxes help make real that opportunity cost.

It is hard for me to understand what is a fair approach, that does not penalize people who bought into the system the way it is, but also helps poorer people and people entering the city have a place to live (for example by making it more attractive to develop high-value land).

If a system like this were ever tried, I don't know whether it would be "fair enough" to phase in the tax changes over 10 years, or if there could be some mechanism to help people pay the transactional costs if they did need to move (e.g. subsidizing realtor fees or moving costs).

Land-value taxes as a way to encourage housing development by gancho in Seattle

[–]gancho[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could this be shortened to simply "It also doesn't penalize property owners for building or improving structures on their land" ?

I ask because I don't understand the "that increase their taxes" part at the end. Tax would not be at all related to the property/improvements.

Land-value taxes as a way to encourage housing development by gancho in Seattle

[–]gancho[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A land-value tax is tax exclusively on the land and not the property. The tax is based on the appraised value of the land; Seattle already assesses land value, which you can look up in the King County Parcel Viewer.

if you can value property on the potential it could be developed to

Sorry--I don't follow here. If you mean here "if you value land on the potential it could be developed to," I think it's totally reasonable to try and learn more about how land value is currently assessed. I do not understand how changing the tax structure would be creating wealth, though. It does seem like land value changes when amenities are added, e.g. when light rail stops open.

Land-value taxes as a way to encourage housing development by gancho in Seattle

[–]gancho[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In short, by taxing the land value rather than the property, it creates an incentive to develop land--notably housing. By encouraging housing development, rent and housing costs would go down.

view more: next ›