Civic research and planning at operating speed.
When a business closes because the city failed to enforce basic public safety, that is an economic taking. When a property owner pays to remove graffiti the city ignored, that is an economic taking. When a 911 call results in property damage because response times have tripled, that is an economic taking.
This is not a new idea.
On December 20, 1781, the New Jersey state legislature passed an act authorizing county appraisers to inventory every damage claim from citizens harmed during the Revolutionary War. Not just by British forces. By American forces too.
Each county appointed appraisers. Each appraiser met with claimants starting August 1782. Each claim was itemized: livestock, household goods, food stores, building materials, cash. Each item was appraised. Each inventory was filed with the legislature.
In Westfield alone, from a single day of plundering on June 26, 1777: 92 houses entered, 115 claimants, approximately 11,000 individual items documented, total damages of 8,702 pounds (roughly $1.5 million today).
Source: NJ State Archives, Series SLE00003. 7 volumes, 2 microfilm reels. Journal of the American Revolution.
We are doing the same thing. The appraisers are APIs. The inventories are databases. The legislature is the public.
This tracker quantifies the cumulative cost of Seattle's policy failures as a liability the city owes its residents and businesses. Five categories, all sourced from public data:
Each incident is a line item. Each line item has a cost. The running total is updated as data pipelines connect. This is not a legal claim. It is a public ledger.
Have a claim?
If your business closed, your property was damaged, or you bore costs the city should have prevented, submit it below. We will add it to the Claims Ledger.
⚖ TBC Intelligence
The full ledger of issued invoices, line-item methodology, and cumulative outstanding balance is restricted to TBC Intelligence members.
33 invoices issued. Civic Negligence Ledger billed to the City of Seattle. Capital Flight Ledger billed to the State of Washington.
Join
Invoices Issued
Each invoice is a quantified economic taking caused by civic negligence. Invoices accrue a 7% penalty at issuance. If unpaid after 30 days, an additional 7% penalty is applied and the invoice is remanded to a federal employee for collections.
1. Business Closures
--
Every business license that disappears from the city's active registry. Diffed nightly against the previous snapshot. Each closure assigned an estimated economic impact based on industry, employee count, and tax revenue lost.
Data pipeline pending. Will diff active license snapshots to detect closures.
2. 911 Calls with Property Damage
--
Break-ins, burglaries, vehicle prowls, property destruction. Every call where a citizen's property was damaged and the city's response time exceeded acceptable bands. Filtered by call type: BURGLARY, PROPERTY DAMAGE, TRESPASS, VEHICLE PROWL.
| Call Type | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 YTD | Avg Cost |
|---|
| Burglary | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Property Damage | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Vehicle Prowl | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Trespass | -- | -- | -- | -- |
3. Homelessness & Encampment Violations
--
Encampment complaints, public health incidents, unauthorized camping reports. Every incident where the city's failure to enforce existing law created a cost borne by residents, businesses, or property owners.
Data pipeline pending. Will combine SPD encampment calls with Find It Fix It reports.
4. Graffiti & Vandalism
--
Every graffiti report filed through Find It Fix It or the Graffiti Report Line. Tracked by response time and resolution status. Unresolved reports = cost transferred to property owner. 31,000+ reports in a recent two-year window.
| Status | Count | Avg Response (days) | Est. Private Cost |
|---|
| Resolved | -- | -- | $0 |
| Unresolved (city) | -- | -- | -- |
| Unresolved (private) | -- | -- | -- |
5. Property Foreclosures
--
Tax foreclosures, forced sales, and distressed properties in Seattle. Tracked via King County Assessor foreclosure data. Each foreclosure mapped to neighborhood decline indicators: encampment density, 911 call volume, business closure rate.
Data pipeline pending. Will cross-reference foreclosures with neighborhood policy failure indicators.
Methodology
Each category pulls from public APIs maintained by the City of Seattle and King County. Data is queried, diffed, and scored automatically. The "economic taking" valuation assigns a cost to each incident based on published averages (FBI UCR property crime costs, SBA small business closure impacts, KC Assessor assessed values) and city-specific multipliers. The running total is the sum of all categories. This is not a legal claim. It is a public ledger.
Data Sources
Burnham Civic · Seattle, WA · operations@burnhamcivic.org