Robert Cruickshank
@robertcruickshank.com
Digital Strategy for California YIMBY. Seattle resident. Personal account -- what you see here represents my own opinions, for better or worse.
There’s a lot of important truth in this thread
M. Nolan Gray 🥑@mnolangray.bsky.social · 2h agoSome things I've learned about legislative advocacy, and I think my record speaks for itself. 1. Start by asking for everything you want. Stop preemptively negotiating against yourself. The process of passing the bill will whittle it down. Why started with a whittled down product?
This is one of the many reasons a growing number of Seattle progressives are urging voters to no longer just default to the Stranger - they don’t know what they’re talking about and are no longer worthy of the trust people placed in them.
Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 37m agoYikes: The Stranger made a classic amateur-hour mistake in its supreme court election results writeup, reporting only King County (Seattle-area) results in statewide races. The statewide results are completely different, which makes their analysis inaccurate. Amazing that no one there caught this.
Seattle voters don't want "tough" on crime policies or politicians. They want leaders to be "responsive" on crime -- to show up with a range of solutions that demonstrate urgency, seriousness, and effectiveness. This is why Nilu Jenks is winning District 5. She gets this. Julie Kang just panders.
we really need a serious pandemic retrospective conducted by someone who isn't a delusional crank defector.com/were-just-go...
We're Just Going To Keep Doing 2020 Again Until All The Wrong Stuff Is True | Defector
In a bunch of ways, there is no real percentage in remembering what things were actually like during the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond all the uncertainty and suffering and death, there...
defector.com
Danny Westneat and the Seattle establishment media are struggling to accept that WA has become a pro-tax deep blue state. They keep expecting a backlash that is never coming. These results shouldn’t be a surprise. People here want to be governed by liberal Democrats.
Income tax backlash? Nowhere to be seen for WA Democrats
It's long been radioactive in Washington politics to push for an income tax. So would there be backlash for Democrats in Tuesday's voting? That's a big no.
seattletimes.com
At the same time, the library levy is passing bigly, and Nilu Jenks is on course to be the 4th progressive vote on the City Council. Wilson’s agenda is getting strong support from voters and that should put some wind in her sails.
Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social · 14h agoNot a great night for Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, on the heels of what had already been a very bruising week or so. One of her endorsed candidates (Ron Davis) appears to be shut out of the general election, and the other (Hannah Sabio-Howell) is significantly trailing her opponent.
The Seattle library levy is on track to pass with 80% voting yes. The Seattle Times came out against it and was resoundingly ignored. Seattle voters want nice things and are willing to pay for them.
So far, voters overwhelmingly approve Seattle library levy
A property tax levy to fund the city's public library system over the next seven years is solidly ahead after the first release of vote totals Tuesday evening.
seattletimes.com
I think watching the Seattle Mayor’s policy agenda get passed through City Council is way more interesting and telling than watching the media circus about the Mayor’s weakness.
Glad Abdul El-Sayed won. Curious as to why there was such a significant polling miss.
Literally a week after Barnes was fired the hours of the CARE team were expanded from 12:00 PM - 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM - 1:00 AM. Firing Barnes got results fast! www.instagram.com/p/DboFnMosVVJ/
Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 6mo agoSeattle's crisis response team leader Amy Barden hasn't met with Police Chief Shon Barnes since Bruce Harrell appointed him in 2024, despite the fact that the two departments are supposed to work together to decide which 911 calls require cops and which require a social work/mental health response.
At the same time, the library levy is passing bigly, and Nilu Jenks is on course to be the 4th progressive vote on the City Council. Wilson’s agenda is getting strong support from voters and that should put some wind in her sails.
Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social · 14h agoNot a great night for Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, on the heels of what had already been a very bruising week or so. One of her endorsed candidates (Ron Davis) appears to be shut out of the general election, and the other (Hannah Sabio-Howell) is significantly trailing her opponent.
Investigating an SPS trend, I came across this map layer: predominant year housing built by Census tract. The black lines are middle school boundaries, but not really relative to my current thoughts...
Haven’t voted yet? Here’s how to stop using the Stranger and combine the @electioncheatsheet.org and @theurbanist.org to make progressive choices!
Robert Cruickshank@robertcruickshank.com · 3w agoHow should progressives in Seattle vote without using the Stranger? I just filled out my ballot, and this cheat sheet was how. I know a lot about most races. But where I didn’t, I looked at this site. Where there wasn’t consensus, I went to @theurbanist.org to read their excellent analysis.
Republicans 🤝 Julie Kang 🤝 Tree Action By the transitive property…….
James everything is analog@analogist.net · 22h agoTree Action Seattle: totally not *endorsing*, just wink-wink recommends: Julie Kang King County Republicans: totally not *endorsing*, just “best choice”: Julie Kang
This is a crucial article to read - it lays out very clearly the long record that justifies Mayor Wilson rightly firing the police chief.
PubliCola@publicola.bsky.social · 20h agoIssues With Former Police Chief Barnes Weren't Just About His Travel or Where He Lived In a frenzy to condemn the mayor, her opponents seem to have forgotten why Barnes' future at the city was tenuous to begin with.
Make sure the TV at your election party tonight is tuned to KIRO 7 - where I’ll be live in studio from 8-9pm discussing the results!
Seattle News, Weather, Traffic & Sports | KIRO-TV – KIRO 7 News Seattle
Seattle News, Weather, Traffic and Sports
kiro7.com
This is worth reading
Jeff Yang@originalsp.in · 24h agoThe brilliant voices behind RogerEbert.com asked me to expand my thread on Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY as a pointed assessment of America as “empire at dusk” into a full essay, which I was honored to do. Please read/share—and thanks to @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social @briantallerico.bsky.social for the invite!
Kettle is on course to lose his re-election bid next year, especially with ridiculous crashouts like this. (Wilson has in fact left most cameras on, but you wouldn't know that from him and her critics on the right.)
Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 23h agoSeattle City Councilmember Bob Kettle had an emotional meltdown at a meeting this morning, calling Mayor Katie Wilson's decision to study police camera surveillance "unconscionable."
How should progressives in Seattle vote without using the Stranger? I just filled out my ballot, and this cheat sheet was how. I know a lot about most races. But where I didn’t, I looked at this site. Where there wasn’t consensus, I went to @theurbanist.org to read their excellent analysis.
Lefty Cheat Sheet@electioncheatsheet.org · 3w agoAre you voting this weekend? Wondering how lefty organizers on the ground are thinking about this primary? ElectionCheatSheet.org has you covered no matter the level of detail! Switch from a quick voter guide, to deep research on each lefty orgs’ endorsement pages, in just a few taps!
Lots of great stuff in here. A competent transit agency with good leadership would not hesitate to embrace these ideas. Will Sound Transit? Will Dow Constantine? Or will they keep pushing back and ensure we get the 2060 date rather than 2035?
Seattle Subway@seattlesubway.org · yesterdayCheck out our latest op-ed for the Urbanist! TLDR: - Getting to Ballard "around" 2060 is unacceptable, but we're glad ST is finally acknowledging how dire the situation is - Their plan to get to 2042 is too vague - 2042 is still not good enough, the goal needs to be 2035 as originally promised
Just did a quick check and as far as I can tell David Malcolm has absolutely no relevant expertise and has never done any bike or safe streets advocacy previously. Why did the Seattle Times Opinion publish his uninformed opinion?
Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · yesterdayMaybe there's a compelling case beyond "kids are getting in bike crashes!!" to argue for heavy regulation of all e-bikes, but this op/ed doesn't make it. Lots of vague stats, unrelated/irrelevant info (teens have "hormones" and don't wear helmets), and unsupported claims ("ask any ER doc," etc.)
If you know someone 18-25, or you or friends have young adults home for summer, get them to vote! They want to but sometimes have obstacles finding their ballot, deciding who to vote for, how to vote, etc. Show them electioncheatsheet.org if left leaning - and use ballot boxes, not mail.
Lefty Cheat Sheet — Aug 2026 Primary
A quick guide on how to vote lefty using sources YOU trust!
electioncheatsheet.org
Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social · 4d agoIt's time to post the current election turnout breakdown by age bracket chart again and remind you that ballots are due by Tuesday!
Incredible that team Collins keeps responding to criticism of her Kavanaugh vote by saying she did such a good job vetting him. Reporters literally had his Bush-era emails saying of Roe that the Supreme Court "can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so"
She Voted for a Justice Who Overturned Roe. Now it Haunts Her on the Trail.
Senator Susan Collins, who supports abortion rights, endorsed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination for the Supreme Court. It has emerged as a major issue in her campaign for re-election.
nytimes.com
Tree Action Seattle, a sponsored organization of the Seattle Parks Foundation - a 501(c)3 org - put up an Instagram post last night promoting candidates who had been endorsed by TreePAC. I do not believe that little disclaimer at the bottom is going to cut it here.
The only way to defeat the powers that have co-opted our institutions without destroying everything is to build parallel institutions
The Independent@the-independent.com · yesterdayEx-60 Minutes boss wants to create rival broadcast with fired staffers: report
Iran is straight up winning this war, a colossal defeat for Trump.
Aron Lund@aronlund.bsky.social · yesterdayIran has now gobbled up nearly all U.S. ATACMS and PrSM ballistic missiles, plus half of Tomahawk cruise missiles and a very considerable share of the THAAD and Patriot interceptors, sources tell @reuters.com’s Erin Banco, Jonathan Landay, and Michael Stone. www.reuters.com/world/us-has...
