The sane Americans who live on the Left Coast have long since noticed a pattern. When politicians & bureaucrats in one state or city come up with a colossally bad policy, the other two quickly follow. That is why we call California, Oregon & Washington “C.O.W.”
After yet another asinine policy failed in San Francisco,^ Portland and Seattle want to implement it in their cities to hasten their collapses.
PORTLAND, OREGON
Portland is staring down a $50.7 million budget gap this fiscal year due, in part, to the fact that council members, all Far Left, have been funneling tax money to their NGO cronies via worthless projects. A city that cannot fund basic services is now looking to micromanage the real estate market by penalizing the investors it desperately needs to attract? The progressive insanity is mind-boggling.
Portland is exploring a vacancy fee to punish commercial property owners for empty storefronts downtown, as well as fining residential landlords. The proposal, championed by Marxist Portland City Council members Jamie Dunphy and Sameer Kanal, would impose a fee on building owners based on how long their spaces have sat vacant. The city has already commissioned a $62,000 study to examine the idea to address a problem which these politicians have themselves created over the last six years. From my point of view, the problem started when Democrats in the city council and elsewhere promoted and funded five months of rioting in 2020. Portland is already well into an “urban doom loop” SEE ARTICLE BELOW and such idiocy, if implemented, will only hasten Portland’s demise.
Portland’s downtown office vacancy rate sits at roughly 40 percent and the nearby Lloyd Center Mall is being demolished. Retailers and office tenants have been abandoning the city for years as crime, drug use, open-air encampments and rioting/protesting made doing business there increasingly untenable.
Patrick Foley, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Lake Union Partners, reacted to the proposal on LinkedIn. He was not pleased.
“For those who own and operate commercial real estate in cities around the country, especially on the west coast of the United States and Canada, proposals like this in Portland are ridiculous,” Foley wrote. “Believe me, building owners would love to have fully occupied thriving retail spaces. However, it’s widely known that crime, drug activity, and camping have driven retailers and office tenants out of the downtowns. And its city council members like Jamie Dunphy and Sameer Kanal who push for tolerance and a light touch on crime that drives retail and office tenants out.”
Foley also took aim at the illogic underpinning the proposal.
“Portland already has a 40% office vacancy rate and charging building owners who are already struggling to fill space, a penalty tax on vacant space is next-level stupid,” he continued. “Think about it. Cities want to tax/penalize building owners because of a problem they (city governments) created. Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego. We have to stop electing people who think like this.”
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Seattle’s office market just landed another unwanted distinction. The city has the second-highest office vacancy rate among major US markets, trailing only San Francisco who implemented vacancy fees in 2019, according to the latest national office report from CommercialCafe.
The vacancy rate in Seattle sits at 26.6%, well above the national average of 18.5% and higher than regional peers like Los Angeles (14.4%), Phoenix (17.8%), and Denver (approximately 23%). Downtown Seattle is even grimmer, with vacancy rates nearing or exceeding 35% in some reports, and certain submarkets like Pioneer Square topping 50%.
The grim numbers arrived just as Communist Mayor-elect Katie Wilson prepared to take office on January 1, 2026. Wilson, who narrowly defeated incumbent, violence-promoting “of color” Bruce Harrell in November, campaigned on a proposal for a “well-designed vacancy tax or fine” on empty commercial space to incentivize owners to fill it. Business groups have said that her progressive tax ideas could make the problem worse, not better, potentially accelerating the shift of jobs away from the insanity and into suburbs.
The Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) and other business groups have warned that additional taxes on struggling commercial property owners would backfire, pushing more companies across Lake Washington to Bellevue and worsening the very vacancies Wilson aims to address.
Seattle’s heavy reliance on the tech industry is a big part of the problem. Layoffs, footprint reductions at giants like Amazon and Microsoft, and permanent remote work shifts have crushed demand for office space. Many point to the exodus across Lake Washington. “Companies don’t mind moving across the lake to Bellevue,” another commenter noted. “Meta, Google, etc. are opening new offices there and closing Seattle offices pretty regularly.”
Bellevue offers proximity to Redmond, where Microsoft is headquartered, and sits closer to many of the bedroom communities that serve the region. It also has more undeveloped land and room to build. Some argue the city needs to rezone and convert empty office towers to housing. Others say that it is easier said than done, given the cost and complexity of converting modern office buildings.
“Office towers built after the 1950s are notoriously expensive to convert to housing,” one commenter noted. “If it were profitable, more would have already been done.”
Check me out on X @dianelgruber.
In August 2023 I wrote an article entitled “Portland: Death Of A City” which focused on the massive, and continuing crime wave which was created by, and cheered on by, the politicians which Portland’s…
Seattle Is On Life Support, Wilson’s Plans Will Pull The Plug
Seattle’s Communist Mayor-elect Katie Wilson is a twin to New York City’s Communist mayor-elect, but without the hatred. Perhaps that will surface later. Like Zohran Mamdani, Joseph Stalin & Mao Zedong, she plans to control the food supply. This, at a time when Seattle’s economy is on the downslide. The office vacancy rate is now above 33%, according to…
^San Francisco has implemented two separate vacancy taxes—one for commercial storefronts and another for residential homes—though the residential tax is currently tied up in legal challenges. Passed in 2020 (Proposition D), this tax targets ground-floor commercial spaces that remain vacant for more than 182 days in a calendar year.
Approved by suicidal voters in 2022 (Proposition M), this tax was designed to penalize owners of residential buildings with three or more units if they stay vacant for more than 182 days. Beyond the specific “vacancy taxes,” San Francisco requires owners to register any vacant property with the Department of Building Inspection within 30 days: Registration Fee: Approximately $711. Failure to Register: Additional penalty of $2,844.
The author, Diane L. Gruber, is a First Amendment advocate who writes for Substack. She calls her Substack newsletter America First Re-Ignited. Follow me on X @DianeLGruber.
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