The Great Cow Ordinance Defeat
Citizens from the Ninth Ward pack a House of Delegates meeting to ensure their livestock can continue grazing on neighborhood streets.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Ninth ward assembled in considerable force last night at the meeting of the house of delegates. Latona, Brooklyn and the Denny-Fuhrman addition contributed about eighty representatives. In order not to keep them waiting, the rules were suspended and the ordinance extending the cow limits to that part of the city was read out of order. There was not one word of discussion, however, and the bill was defeated by a vote of 5 to 4. The lobby then dispersed.
“The Ninth ward assembled in considerable force last night at the meeting of the house of delegates.”
Today, Seattle debates the 'missing middle' and zoning density in neighborhoods like Latona and Wallingford; in 1893, the debate was literal, centered on whether suburban residents had the right to let their cows roam free. It is a striking reminder of how recently these now-dense residential districts were semi-rural peripheries.
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