The Stranger has thrown the spotlight on a company that profits from Capitol Hill tenants while working to help defeat the marriage equality effort many of them support:
A property company that owns a slew of condo and apartment buildings on gay-friendly Capitol Hill has donated thousands of dollars to Preserve Marriage Washington—the campaign battling gay marriage in our state—after allegedly trying to prevent two tenants from hosting a pro-gay-marriage fundraiser in the courtyard of one of its apartment buildings.
Tenants of the Granada Apartments say Breier-Scheetz Properties, LLC, only allowed the gay-marriage fundraiser to take place after they threatened legal action.
And one week following the event, Breier-Scheetz Properties made a $20,000 contribution to Preserve Marriage Washington, helping push the anti-gay marriage campaign’s fundraising total to $524,944, according to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC).
Slog reports that Breier-Scheetz Properties owns the following buildings in the neighborhood:
The Hillsborough Condominiums, 740 Bellevue Ave E
· Lenawee Apartments, 1629 Harvard Ave
· Terrace Crest Apartments, 517 9th Ave
· The New McDermott Apartments, 1514 Bellevue Ave
· Mission Inn Apartments, 1743 Boylston Ave
· The Granada Apartments, 1736 Belmont Ave
· Corinthian Apartments, 1705 Summit Ave
· Second and Pine Apartments, 211 Pine St
· And a duplex on Howell Street located at 604 E Howell St
One way to get involved and push back against this kind of big donation? The Approve R74 folks at Washington United for Marriage have set up an action center on E Pike.
Typical hypocrisy from the other side. We’re good enough to take our money, but not human enough to grant equality. What a bunch of douche bags!! It’s unfortunate that we’re now stuck with them.
Now I know who the slumlord of Capital Hill is…..
Curbed Seattle wrote an article about this after it appeared on SLOG. It listed a bunch of cheap condos in the area for sale as an alternative to renting from homophobes. http://seattle.curbed.com/archives/2012/09/gayfriendly-condo
If you look at the link, it shows Thomas Matthews, Mary Matthews, and Breier-Scheetz Properties have given a total of $140,000 to Preserve Marriage Washington. Amazing.
http://www.pdc.wa.gov/MvcQuerySystem/CommitteeData/contribut
To check the Preserve Marriage Washington Donations. At least those they have bothered to report. There is wide reporting of PMW illegally not reporting certain contributions.
> WA UNITED FOR MARRIAGE
> BEZOS JEFF AND MACKENZIE – $2,500,000.00
I thought we were all up in arms about the 1% and big corporations buying elections? Or is it okay as long as they buy the right elections?
(Spare me all your hair-rending and shrieks of horror, I’m voting Approve. Nonetheless, I do find this state-of-affairs to be the pinnacle of hypocrisy.)
I unfortunately live at one of these places and our rents just went up considerably in September. I will start looking for a new place to live. But this makes perfect sense now. You should see the bumper stickers on this guys car. How can people be so hateful.
Check it! hawksnest.sportsblog.com/