Livability Is A Human Rights and Equal Rights Issue

Many Downtown residents are being denied the livability rights that others enjoy. We propose the Downtown Livability Bill of Rights be enacted now to correct this injustice.

We believe that everyone, no matter their economic status or where they reside, is entitled to a healthy, livable environment. Residential Development Standards should include the right to light, air, privacy and safety and should be granted to all downtown residents equally.

Residents of some areas of downtown are being denied these rights while others in parts of Belltown and South Lake Union have them. This is an equality issue and an injustice of which progressive Seattle should be ashamed.

How can you justify enacting codes and standards that grant livability to some downtown residents and tell residents of other areas that they cannot have them because developers deserve more rights than residents do? This is happening right now to thousands of downtown residents in four central downtown zones. It is discriminatory and placing a higher premium on bricks and mortar rather the livability rights and needs of human beings.

DOWNTOWN LIVABILITY BILL OF RIGHTS

We the people declare in order to form a more perfect Downtown union that all downtown residents be treated equally and have the right to a livable environment no matter where they live downtown.

These rights include:

1. The right to reasonable daylight seasonally and at different times of the day.

2. The right to reasonable access to air circulation through tower and alley setbacks.

3. The right to reasonable privacy through alley, sidewalk and tower set backs and tower separation.

4. The right to open spaces that create a livable neighborhood.

5. The right to safe and workable alleys and streets adjacent to their homes.