As I walked towards my car the morning after Halloween, I saw the door was slightly ajar and I knew immediately what had happened: Heidi Wills had broken into my car.
Shortly after, I tried to log in to NextDoor to share my story and discovered my account had been suspended.
My posts about Amazon’s spending in our local council races, shown below, were likely targeted by Wills’ supporters on NextDoor to get my account suspended.
Typically, posts about the district election have been allowed, here’s one poster’s highly repetitive support of Heidi Wills:
This year’s election has divided Seattle, those that think more policing will solve the homeless problem, it won’t. Seattle can’t hire police quickly enough because candidates can’t afford to live here. Not even their lip sync skills can lure new officers.
And then Amazon’s Jeff Bezos gave $1.5 million to the city council races in his blatant attempt to buy the election. Amazon’s money goes to the CASE PAC that then goes to city candidates aligned with Amazon and big business, including Heidi Wills. Her supporters think Amazon will address their concerns but instead it will prioritize Amazon’s concerns.
Comedienne Sarah Silverman says it best, of Bezos: “No one becomes a billionaire without screwing the people that got em there.”
Jeff Bezos is Attacking Democracy
Amazon’s money is an affront to democracy and the Seattle community. Most of the challenges Seattle has today: crime, traffic, homelessness, gun violence, road violence and the wealth gap are a result of Amazon’s failure to play its commensurate part in the community over the past decade.
SNL’s Elizabeth Warren understands Jeff Bezos too: “Mr. Bezos the government is a little like Amazon Prime. You reap the benefits, you have to pay a little fee and that’s called Taxes!”
I guarantee you Amazon is not concerned about homelessness in Magnolia and North Seattle, if anything its city council will divert resources downtown and what the community needs will be considered less and less.
“No one becomes a billionaire without screwing the people that got em there.”
Comedienne Sarah Silverman
You know what would help some of the concerns in our neighborhoods More affordable housing, more permanent housing for our vulnerable populations and more money to assist police and grow staff if necessary. But an Amazon led council will never raise taxes on itself to meet the needs of our growing community.
I hope Seattle residents will vote with democracy in mind and elevate the importance of maintaining a city government independent from Amazon … think the separation of Prime and State.
Who Should You Vote For?
I support The Stranger’s endorsements:
D1 – Lisa Herbold, D2 – Kshama Sawant, D4 – Shaun Scott, D5 – Deborah Juarez, D6 – Dan Strauss and D7 – Andrew Lewis.
Back to NextDoor
It’s hard to know whether an automated algorithm or an ill-informed moderator suspended my account — or if a Heidi Wills staffer or volunteer is one of the moderators on my NextDoor neighborhood. But if NextDoor wants to suspend me for posting this (which I am posting to NextDoor), they should just delete my account.
I don’t want to participate in a community that can be easily gamed to suspend some voices while allowing others.
Postscript
My car actually was broken into November 1st. Nothing was taken and there was no damage to the vehicle. I don’t know how they got in. And, it probably was not Heidi Wills. At least I have no way of knowing if it were Heidi or someone else.
Sorry, Heidi, but I hope you don’t win.
Update: After I posted about this on NextDoor, the moderator deleted it. I do suspect more and more that a Wills staffer or volunteer is moderating my NextDoor neighborhood.
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