SIGH. Other cities manage to do this. Seattle could barely keep it going for a year despite near-universal public support. www.theurbanist.org/pike-place-p...

Pike Place Pedestrian Pilot Poised to Scale Back for Winter

Thru traffic would be diverted off Pike Place only on weekend days from October to March, under SDOT's latest proposal for the pedestrian pilot's next phase. The recommendation came from vendor survey...

theurbanist.org

SPD has a history of demonstrating that in every encounter it escalates the problem

HistoryLink.org@historylink.bsky.social · 2d ago

#OnThisDay in 1969, in the wake of riots in Seattle's University District, the police agreed to step back and let the community self-pacify. It worked. historylink.org/File/1266

I cannot emphasize enough how this city, like major metro, is functionally occupied by an organized crime protection racket. Cops do not exist to help you. They're here to extort you. Until and unless we can hire and fire our public safety folks at will, we'll never have public safety.

Glen Stellmacher@glentalk.bsky.social · 2d ago

Seattle police officer says that an entire SPD squad quiet quit after the 2020 protests.

Cities aren't loud, cars are loud.

You guys we all participated in pushing the discrimination up to a 6 or 7 but now it's reaching an 8 or 9, so we all need to pivot and be concerned.

Opinion | What’s Happening in Kansas Should Alarm Us All

Is Kansas just the beginning?

nytimes.com

Heyyy we’re doing something about this ! When we build, at least 1/2 of our units will be 2 beds or larger! “Fewer than 1/2 of available rentals in the Seattle area have 2 or more bedrooms, the smallest share among major metro areas across the country.” www.seattletimes.com/business/rea...

Seattle area doesn’t have ‘enough family-sized units to go around’

Fewer than half of available rentals in the Seattle area have two or more bedrooms, the smallest share among major metro areas across the country.

seattletimes.com

We've gone to the Henry Moses Aquatic Center in Renton twice this week now, a half hour drive away from West Seattle. We should not have to go this far from our neighborhood of 100,000 people for something like this.

We are 7 months into Wilson's tenure as mayor of Seattle with an interim director of SDOT and no public plans to find someone permanent. Our previous mayor conducted a search over 6 months with a process that involved the community to find and select a suitable candidate.

Some alternative headlines @kuow.org could have picked for this article, based on what Rahr said: "Former interim chief Sue Rahr surprised to learn that most of command staff out of town during shooting." "Former interim chief Sue Rahr says refreshing to see a decisive mayor fire SPD chief." 1/

Robert Cruickshank@robertcruickshank.com · 3d ago

More headline games, this time from KUOW. Rahr did say this, yes. But Rahr said Mayor Wilson made "the right decision" to fire Chief Barnes, and that "it's refreshing to see a political leader in Seattle make a decision and stick by it in the face of huge pushback."

There is not a single pedestrianization project in the city that has created more opponents than supporters following implementation. Mayor Wilson needs to fast-track these projects so that we live with them for a few years and come to actually love + defend them, well before her next election.

I think it's interesting* that the Governor of Washington State could be bothered to do a presser on cost overruns and delays for a highway but the head of Sound Transit hasn't faced the media over a derailment (maybe two) and multiple major project delays. www.theurbanist.org/ferguson-kot...

Ferguson, Kotek Pivot to Phasing Plans to Expand I-5 Over Columbia River

Washington and Oregon will focus on replacing I-5's twin Columbia River bridges with a new freeway bridge ready to carry light rail to Downtown Vancouver, Governor Bob Ferguson announced Wednesday. Th...

theurbanist.org

One has the gun. The other has the briefcase. Murder is murder, right?

The Associated Press@apnews.com · 3d ago

BREAKING: Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Seattle is a K-shaped economy: A floating class of tech money, business, and property owners, and then everyone else they rely on to run, clean, and maintain this illusion. Wilson's advent is the 1st time the former has had to acknowledge the latter's existence in a while, and they cannot stand it.

I enjoyed this. ordinaryabundance.com

Ordinary Abundance

A walk through a modern apartment, through the eyes of the people for whom everything in it was new.

ordinaryabundance.com

Joy Hollingsworth and Dan Strauss being super cute together about their plan to harass and harm homeless people rather than just put them in housing or eliminate the many barriers to building housing in Seattle

Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 6d ago

Strauss Legislation Would Require RV Residents to Get Permits, Accept "Appropriate" Shelter RV residents who violate the permit terms— for example, by declining shelter too many times or failing to “comply with all laws”—would permanently forfeit their right to park overnight in Seattle.

Hope left

@prayingforrain.bsky.social · 4d ago

This is so insane. How is this still even being debated?!?!?! If we're having this much trouble doing something so obvious, what hope do we have for the rest of the city.

this entire issue is downstream of the fact that kids are trapped in car-dependent suburbs, unable to develop any sense of autonomy until age 16, when they're suddenly allowed to drive a 4,000 lb vehicle

Central NJ Yimby 🏗️🚲🚇🇺🇸@princetonyimby.bsky.social · 4d ago

The moral panic about e-bikes... "In New Jersey, the state legislature passed a law requiring registration, a license and, in some cases, insurance for anyone to ride an ebike...In this regulatory wild west, legal ebikes are caught in the crossfire." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Habitat for Humanity is pushing for housing at Fort Lawton. Join their campaign! 20 years of study is more than enough! habitatforhumanityseattle.quorum.us/campaign/167...

Habitat for Humanity Seattle

Habitat for Humanity Seattle

habitatforhumanityseattle.quorum.us

Three things are true: 1. Natural Born White Americans are lazy AF 2. Business owners are greedy AF and don’t pay workers enough to entice them to take these jobs 3. Oligarchs are evil AF and have created a country where cost of a descent life greatly exceeds the pay from essential jobs

Goldy@goldy.horsesass.org · 4d ago

They call it market "capitalism." But by far the greatest constraint on economic growth in our 21st century market economy isn't the availability of capital. It's the availability of people—as workers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and well-paid consumers. #MarketHumanism

Was in Ballard over the weekend and was shocked to see how many eco-blocks are illegally taking up parking spaces. I guess business owners and NIMBYs get irate only when bike lanes remove parking but not when their xenophobia consumes block after block of curbside parking

PubliCola@publicola.bsky.social · 6d ago

Strauss Legislation Would Require RV Residents to Get Permits, Accept "Appropriate" Shelter RV residents who violate the permit terms— for example, by declining shelter too many times or failing to “comply with all laws”—would permanently forfeit their right to park overnight in Seattle.

Great explainer on how screwed up America is. Middle class pays tax to support low paid workers (because business owners hoard productivity wealth) while also paying for tax subsidies for wealthy business owners. All while the wealthy & corporations cheat the IRS of $700 BILLION each year.

Kathryn Anne Edwards@kedseconomist.com · 2w ago

Companies are benefiting from soaring profits, historically low taxes, and a Congress willing to make middle class salaried workers subsidize low-wage work instead of making the jobs better paid. My latest on the collapsing sense of fairness in our tax system: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

crazy how literally a handful of people have prevented the puget sound from being the thriving, sustainable, equitable, and affordable region it should have been.

Just wanna emphasize that at a Seattle council meeting today, multiple council members accused the mayor's office of lying about why a police press conference about a recent shooting was delayed, implying that it was the mayor's fault and they're trying to cover it up.

Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 6d ago

"I think you could answer today why there was a five-hour delay. I think you just don't want to share that with us," Juarez tells the mayor's public safety advisor Allison Holcomb. She also insists, bizarrely, that Wilson should have ordered an SPD media officer to be at this council meeting.

I can't believe we're still doing this. Thank you, SEPA. www.theurbanist.org/seattle-is-s...

Seattle Is Still Studying Housing at Magnolia's Fort Lawton

Another environmental analysis of the longstanding Fort Lawton housing plan tees up another public hearing at the end of this month. Some worry that the State Environmental Policy Act is leading to an...

theurbanist.org

These choices have *generational* impacts, and we need to stop giving short term businesses owners veto power. They do not know the city better than the rest of us. We need to stop asking kids to clean up the mess of our previously failed projects.

Hey Seattle could use this! @mayor.seattle.gov

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · last wk.

Mamdani has just unveiled his Public Interest Technology (PIT) Crews: five "game changing" teams of public interest hackers who will remake NYC's digital services: www.nyc.gov/mayors-offic... 36/

Similar to Pike Market in Seattle. Business owners are their own worst enemies

Brent Toderian@brenttoderian.bsky.social · last wk.

Vancouver’s Water Street in Gastown is still the most obvious pedestrian street in the city. Ideal scale & character, the right businesses to benefit, great synergy with cruise ships and hotels, & more. But businesses fought the 2024 open street summer pilot, so now it’s just on sundays, like today.

Seattle likes to be known as a progressive safe haven. It’s become an identity. But we are only as safe and progressive as the people who live here make it. The cops and state government have made it clear they wont stop this. What does it say about our community if we don’t meet the moment?

WA Whistles@wawhistles.bsky.social · last wk.

July was ICE’s busiest month yet in the Puget Sound region. It’s a stealthy surge, without the helicopters or smoke grenades of Chicago and MN. But the surge is real, with real people taken every day. Each red pin is someone’s family member, neighbor, coworker, loved one.

Bezos’ ball is looking small these days. Sad for him

Landlord, Michael E Heijer accidentally CCed the entire Seattle city council, asking fellow landlords to testify against rental junk fee banning. Said renters who testified in favor of banning junk fees were the “unemployed left trying to stick it to the man.” Still think this isn’t a class war?