Heading to the Graham Block Party today, thinking about how we're almost at the 10th anniversary of the death of Ronacin Tjhung at MLK and Graham. Are we any closer to creating an MLK that is safe to bike on? No, we are not. www.seattlebikeblog.com/2017/01/24/d...

Dad killed while biking to 2nd job, leaves 5 kids orphaned in Philippines

Ronacin Tjhung was working more than 60 hours a week at two jobs to send money back to support his five children in the Philippines. Those children, between 9 and 16, lost their mother in the terri…

seattlebikeblog.com

SPD Overpaid Officers By $13 Million. Now the City Wants It Back. Officers got retroactive paychecks that were as much as $32,000 too high. If the city wants to recover the money, they have to cut a deal with the police union. publicola.com/2026/10/01/s...

SPD Overpaid Officers By $13 Million. Now the City Wants It Back. - PubliCola

. By Erica C. Barnett The Seattle Police Department overpaid police officers, management, and civilian staff a total of more…

publicola.com

Are shots fired increasing? No we're just displaying years backwards on charts now? Violent crime may be down, but graph crimes are here to stay I guess.

The Urbanist@theurbanist.org · 5d ago

NEW STORY// Councilmembers Seek to One-Up Katie Wilson on Police Spending By Amy Sundberg via @theurbanist.org

Seattle's map of paid parking areas is actually wild. The blocks of the city outside downtown where the curb is actually priced are essentially microscopic.

@streetsalliance.bsky.social has a good explainer too www.streetsalliance.org/get-involved...

#Recall: Gazelle USA Recalls Urban Arrow Cargo Electric Bikes; The front bolt in the seat post clamping mechanism can break, causing the seat to become loose, posing a fall hazard. Get repair. www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2027...

Big new South Downtown Hub doc: www.soundtransit.org/sites/defaul... Here's the traffic analysis they used to kill pedestrianization plans for 2nd Ave Ext and Dearborn (p 38):

Waking up to the news you’ve been endorsed by The Washington Education Association (WEA) over longtime House Education Chair 🤯

Many of us who live in Seattle don't have a ton of personal space. That's why the public spaces we all share are so important. My proposed budget includes $1.4 million for 12 new public restrooms across Seattle so everyone can explore our beautiful city with comfort and confidence.

To be clear, Kettle is suggesting Seattle reduce its overall funding for affordable housing in order to fund more police.

Although the council is acting shocked and horrified that Wilson's budget doesn't continue tens of millions in one-time spending they added last year with one-time funds, it is very explicit in their budget that their one-time spending was in fact one-time.

Woot! You can now RSVP for this #WeekWithoutDriving outing, with Transit Trekker and King County Parks. We'll enjoy the trip and also talk about the barriers we need to remove to put much more outdoor recreation in easy reach for nondrivers. transittrekker.com/2026wwdmaury...

RSVP: 2026 Week Without Driving Transit Trek to Dockton Forest — Maury Island Natural Area — Maury Island Marine Park

RSVP to join the October 1st outing to Maury Island with Transit Trekker and King County Parks as part of the 2026 Week Without Driving.

transittrekker.com

Transit Trekker@transittrekker.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Join me for a #WeekWithoutDriving event. Pencil in Oct. 1 check back for RSVP link & more details on this trip audit, enjoying one of King County's most beautiful park complexes that could be a beacon of transit-accessible recreation with just a little help! transittrekker.com/2026/08/03/w...

"This was surprising to me to learn, that currently applicants need 30 plus permits from eight different departments to build housing in the city." -Seattle Budget Director Aly Pennucci just now

Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social · 7d ago

SDCI is set to hike permit fees again by 10%+ in the face of declining permit volumes, a direct result of having a fee-funded permit department. These fees already saw an 18% increase last year. The per-unit fee on the 230 unit building was $1,193 in 2025, now it will be $1,513. That's +$73K total.

At the community listening session for the police chief search last night, the number one point one table wanted to share from their discussions was that weekend closures of LWB are unsafe, particularly the swing gates which, allegedly, were closed and unable to be opened by SPD and SFD

Saka is wrapping up by again complaining that Wilson didn't fund council's district funds, which the budget he approved last year funded with one-time rather than ongoing money. If they want to restore money for this or anything else, they'll have to come up with cuts or use familiar budget tricks.

I'm not sure why Strauss spent so much time humiliating the women who came to speak before his committee with questions that were basically unrelated to the budget, like why service on his bus route hasn't been restored. Felt bad for both SDOT and mayoral staffers.

As a reference, here is Bruce Harrell's proposal, which the council approved, including every single location that Rivera voted for. sdotblog.seattle.gov/2024/10/10/s...

Mayor Harrell’s One Seattle Budget proposal would double school safety zone cameras to support safer travel for Seattle students - SDOT Blog

Safety cameras enforce the speed limit in school zones and help protect our youngest residents near schools throughout the city of Seattle.

sdotblog.seattle.gov

Maritza Rivera is now asking about the status of a specific project on Sand Point Way in her district. I'm not sure why they're all doing this in a public meeting on the budget, given that they have access to these department heads any time??

This chart shows how much spending at SDOT spiked in former mayor Harrell's election-year budget, which dramatically increased spending and set up growing nine-figure budget deficits in 2027, 2028, and 2029.

omg they described a police shooting in the active voice

The Seattle Times@seattletimes.com · last wk.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene in an incident to be investigated by the state Office of Independent Investigations.

@adamsmith.house.gov, this is your guy?

Seth Cotlar@sethcotlar.bsky.social · last wk.

Here’s Chris Rufo and his podcast co-host addressing “the Indian question,” a reference to “the Jewish question.” That question was whether Jews could be incorporated into European society, and the Nazis were the ones who claimed to have developed the “final solution” to that “problem.”

What does it say about our priorities that I can use find it fix it to report the scooters blocking the sidewalk, but not the truck?

Join us today to help shape streets, support local businesses, & pilot new innovations in Capitol Hill! Where: Cathy Hillenbrand Community Room, 10th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98102 When: Anytime between 1-4pm FREE food! Registration optional RSVP: seattle.gov/transportation/low-pollution-neighborhoods

Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins is claiming that proposed cuts to overtime in Katie Wilson's budget will immediately reduce public safety around the city. "It's gonna mean longer response times," he said. Here's a story I wrote last year about SFD officers' excessive and costly use of OT.

Nearly 200 Firefighters Made More than $200,000 Last Year, Amassing Thousands of Hours of Overtime - PubliCola

By Erica C. Barnett Last year, 180 Seattle Fire Department employees—almost one in five—made more than $200,000, doubling or tripling…

publicola.com

I've been posting all day (except when on the radio or calls) about a public safety budget meeting at the Seattle City Council that was truly an all-timer on the batshit scale. I'll have a longer post after I breathe into this bag for a while. Meanwhile, please support my work covering City Hall!

And also: you work to elect someone who shares (most of) your values. Then you push them to enact those values. When they compromise (which they will), you get to push again. You only get to push them out of the boat once.

Kyle Jacobson@ks-jacobson.bsky.social · 2w ago

The Mayor just proposes a budget; council passes it. If you want to redistribute funds from police to services (and you should), you need votes on council. If you want accountability for the department that remains, you have to tackle SPOG. You need #waleg AND votes on council.

The Mayor just proposes a budget; council passes it. If you want to redistribute funds from police to services (and you should), you need votes on council. If you want accountability for the department that remains, you have to tackle SPOG. You need #waleg AND votes on council.

Juarez also claimed, again completely falsely, that "in the real world, we are seeing more crime because we have less officers to go out and keep our community safe." In fact, crime is down and continues to decline.

Debora Juarez, 2020: "When I hear people say there's just a few bad apples on the police force I adamantly disagree with that. It's just not a healthy tree. We need to plant a new tree, we have to completely re-imagine, re-vision what community policing is." www.kuow.org/podcast/news...

Bad apples? Seattle Police 'not a healthy tree' says city council member

Chants of "defund S-P-D" have become a common message at protests in Seattle, and for the first time the idea is getting serious attention from the city council.

kuow.org

Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 2w ago

Debora Juarez, an unelected councilmember, claimed, completely falsely, "I watched this mayor sream defund, come here and here and scream defund the police, abolish the police. So [fully funding 1,250 officers] is political, and I think that's offensive, and it's not fair and ain't right."