Hopefully the state will rezone the land near the light rail stations for.high density housing

Yeah property tax is really high in Texas because it makes up for all the tax cuts over the years and lower sales tax. I paid more in taxes for a small condo I had there that was about 1/5th of the value of a small townhouse I eventually bought here. I had kept it thinking I'd move back, but Seattle won me over and Austin became less welcoming, so the property taxes made it not worth it even as an investment with the prices starting to rise at the time. Back then the cost for small homes was about 3-4 times Austin, now it's around 1.5 to 2 times the cost from what friends have shown me. Looking at current average cost it looks like Seattle is about 875K, Austin is about 510K and Houston is about 260K. I don't know about rent now, but at the time it was about double Austin's in Seattle.

But other than property tax, which is just generally ridiculous in Texas compared to many other states, the cost of living here is significantly higher. Food (I miss HEB prices), gasoline, electricity, trash, car registration, rent/house prices, internet service (screw Comcast and their virtual monopoly, though it is getting better lately), almost everything was more here when I moved from Austin but that was over a decade ago. One thing that was cheaper is public transportation, though. I do appreciate that, living in the city.

You bought property in Seattle proper? Wow.

I’m one of them.

My life is defined by letters. I don’t have anything else to live for. It’s my identity. If you take out the 2 then I don’t exist.

You should or else you’re an asshole. That 2 is a person you know..:

2SLGBTQIA+ is a result of being more inclusionary, and it is the standard for the Canadian government. The 2S at the front represents two-spirit people, which is a term that Indigenous people use (also why it was placed at the front, as a sign of respect since they were here before everyone else). The QIA+ are literally additions to include queer (which is a catchall), intersex (who were previously medicalized and excluded), and agender/asexual/aromantic people (who have historically been excluded/ignored), and the + obviously is to include anyone who doesnt feel reflected by the other letters. This is literally the least exclusionary way to do it.

GSRM has been attempted many times but framing people as minorities when providing allegedly inclusive terminology is generally out of fashion.

I’ve never even heard of GSRM, so that’s another new one for me.