Amazon led a tax rebellion. A year later, Seattle is gridlocked

A pedestrian passes in front of a makeshift tent encampment on a street in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. A year after Amazon.com Inc. and other companies beat back Seattle's effort to raise money for homeless services through a tax on large employers, the lobbying win has left the campaign to help one of the country’s biggest homeless populations in limbo, with a patchwork of philanthropic offerings rather than a comprehensive effort to address the issue. Photographer: Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg

The wine was flowing as a group of Seattle’s business elite gathered at Bar Cotto, an Italian restaurant in the city’s trendy Capitol Hill neighbourhood, where the menu features an expansive selection of salumi and pizzas topped with truffle oil or Calabrian chili. The topic up for discussion: how to solve the region’s intractable homelessness crisis. 

The usual ideas came up. Donations to charities. Tax-code tweaks.