The Hustlers of the Waterfront: Regulating Seattle's Hotel Runners
In 1878, the Seattle City Council cracked down on the aggressive solicitors who haunted the docks, requiring them to wear badges and pay a quarterly tax for the right to hawk boarding houses.
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.
An ordinance to control and regulate the conduct of runners for hotels, inns, taverns and boarding houses. The City of Seattle does ordain as follows: Section 1. That any person, who upon the public streets, or on any dock, wharf or vessel within the limits of the city of Seattle, shall in any manner solicit custom for any inn, tavern, hotel or boarding house, shall be deemed to be a hotel runner, and shall be required to take out a license for the exercise of such calling or business, for which he shall pay the sum of seven and a half dollars quarterly. Such license to be for any period not less than one quarter or three months. Section 2. That any person acting as such runner without having first taken out a license from said city, or who shall act as such hotel runner after the expiration of such license, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars; to which may be added, in the discretion of the Court, imprisonment in the city or county jail not exceeding twenty days. Section 3. That every runner licensed under this ordinance shall wear upon his hat, while engaged in such business, a suitable badge, bearing the name of the inn, tavern, hotel, or boarding house for which he is soliciting custom, and a failure to do so shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and on conviction the offender shall be fined in any sum not exceeding fifty dollars.
“Any person, who upon the public streets, or on any dock, wharf or vessel within the limits of the city of Seattle, shall in any manner solicit custom... shall be deemed to be a hotel runner.”
The struggle to regulate the chaotic, competitive tourism and housing industry is a historical constant in Seattle. While the 'hotel runner' with a badge on his hat has been replaced by digital platforms and aggressive online booking incentives, the city's attempts to manage street-level commerce and transient housing remains a defining feature of the local political landscape.
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