This followed his previous and more success effort to leave this idiotic option open, which probably also cost time (and therefore hundreds of millions). www.kuow.org/stories/wher...
Natural resource econ, outdoor recreation, conservation by day. Urbanism, Zags, Seattle things the rest of the time. Personal account, views my own.
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This followed his previous and more success effort to leave this idiotic option open, which probably also cost time (and therefore hundreds of millions). www.kuow.org/stories/wher...
Remember when Harrell tried to add years of delay and half a billion in cost so we could (checks notes…) REDUCE Sound Transit ridership just to please Amazon? www.theurbanist.org/2024/05/23/s...
I thought about this as soon as he held this press conference
The articles comes as the Seattle City Council is scheduled to vote next week to expand CCTV surveillance cameras throughout the city that directly connect with SPD's RTCC, powered by Fusus software. The expansion would cost the city $1 million and could further enrich Axon Fusus.
Extraordinary news from @theintercept.com: As Seattle PD was looking to sign a $1.8 million contract with Fusus for its Real Time Crime Center, the company offered testimony from an Atlanta PD officer. But it did not disclose that the cop was on the board of Fusus. theintercept.com/2025/09/02/a...
Another damning detail from this article: the Seattle Auditor's Office was looking into Fusus as a solution to retail theft...and the auditor said she never saw evidence that it reduces retail theft. Surveillance is generally much more about social control than it is about public safety.
@seattlebikeblog.com and South End community members recently organized a bike-to-canvas event that brought together more than 50 Seattleites to share our campaign’s message of public safety and affordability for everyone. Thanks, volunteers!
What the hell? Did Councilmembers Bob Kettle and Sara Nelson really just ask Trump to send us more SPD officers?!? Am I misreading this email somehow? I honestly can't believe they just said this.
DOE's embarrassment of a "climate science" report is 150 pages where as this response from the scientific community is 500. My take: It takes much more effort to refute nonsense than it does to generate it, a tax on the time of all who care about fact and accuracy sites.google.com/tamu.edu/doe...
Just going to note here that the main reason rail to West Seattle and Ballard was even able to be included in ST3 in 2016 was that Mayor Mike McGinn insisted on ST advancing the planning work for those lines in exchange for supporting using our subarea funding for Bellevue’s tunnel.
He is nothing if not consistent!
That sounds like Bruce Harrell to me! www.thestranger.com/stranger-ele...
Harrell caused many of these delays, including by pushing for revisions to station locations in SLU and supporting Dow Constantine’s changed station locations near CID. Harrell has also not done anything meaningful to accelerate planning or bring in funding.
Remember when SNG did an emergency Human Protected Bike Lane here and SDOT dropped these spare Toronto barriers down? Sure seems like a MISSION ACCOMPLISHED scenario to me.
@seattledot.bsky.social what would your response time be if this barrier was pushed 1.5ft to the left of the painted white lines (reducing the vehicle lane to 7.5ft)?
@seattledot.bsky.social I just spoke with your 24 Hour Response Team to check the status of the bike safety barrier at 4th & Pine and was told it will be restored on 9/16. This is not cosmetic. It’s a violation of safety standards and known hazard to life that needs to be treated with urgency.
@seattledot.bsky.social You have a 24 hour response team, but I’m being told Tuesday for a fix. If this barrier was pushed into the vehicle lane, how long would you expect it to be restored? PAX is in town this weekend, and there are thousands of people using this bike lane to get around Seattle.
We aren't planning on having kids because we don't want to, but that decision is made significantly easier by the cost of childcare being more than my wife makes in a year and a two bedroom apartment costing another $1-1.5k a month. There's a reason why friends have kids and then leave the city.
Tomorrow is the first day of school in Seattle. If you live near an elementary school, there is still time to make some simple Katie Wilson posters about this plan and put them up nearby!
Seattle manages 10 public pools and only two are outdoors for ~800k people. Spokane manages 6, all outdoors, for ~200k people, for comparison. The guarded beaches are great but not a sufficient substitute imo.
Another way Seattle’s government fails families is the embarrassing lack of public pools and swim lessons, which definitely contributes to this issue. Will only get worse as warmer summers push people to the lakes, and lake access closes due to bacteria more and more.
Happy that the paper by @tomdavidoff.bsky.social @lausterna.bsky.social Tsur Somerville and I on the outcomes of the multiplex upzonings in Kelowna and Coquitlam is out. While the two zoning reforms look similar on paper, we detail how their real world outcomes differ. doi.org/10.1016/j.jh...
The effect of allowing medium density in Kelowna, relative to nearby neighbourhoods that did not upzone: 2/3
Two upzonings in British Columbia. Kelowna delivered a big increase in construction but Coquitlam did not. Because Coquitlam also imposed red tape, parking requirements, etc. A reason for setting targets for completions, not theoretical "capacity". www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/3
The man literally *removed* plans for additional housing from *his own neighborhood*, an action that the amazing councilmember @alexis4seattle.bsky.social is trying hard to reverse www.theurbanist.org/2025/08/01/r...
The incumbent mayor of Seattle tries to puff himself up as “Mr. Housing”, shortly after leading the most backdoor-dealing and dysfunctional city housing plan to date and subsequently losing to @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social by 10 points in the first round primaries
I sped through Solan’s podcast and 1) he’s parroting Trump’s “crime stats manipulation” conspiracy 2) praising how great it is the feds are in DC 3) indeed sounds excited for the show to come to Seattle There should be grave concerns about who and what SPOG members will show loyalty to here soon.
Mr Housing (is going to cost a lot more)
@vivmccall.bsky.social Release the Harrell tapes!
Like I said. Should’ve been its own story.
Not the first time this sort of thing has happened either: nwasianweekly.com/2023/08/harr....
I have a feeling picking fights with constituents in public won’t win him many votes. One of these days it’s going to be on camera. @thestranger.com endorsement interview coverage in their Wilson endorsement gave him too much cover. That he yelled at them should’ve been its own story.
"I tried to challenge him on sweeps and his opposition to social housing. He threw a bunch of numbers and stats at me and also legitimately brought up having gone to high school in Seattle like five times. Also called himself 'Mr. Housing' one point 🤮"
omg so the mayor was hangin around MLK labor picnic today and my friend (city worker) got into an argument with him haha. "He told me I was privileged and that he went to high school here." this is his full retelling of the interaction:
Since Bruce loves talking about supporting workers, let's check his homework: • SPOG contract: $96M for police • City worker layoffs: 76 people • Affordable housing raid: $287M • Tenant assistance cuts: $1.8M His Labor Day post reads like satire when you know the numbers.
The first time we met was on the light rail and I remember calling this intersection out when we went by. Hoping the Mt Baker Blvd project (kicked off last spring!) will give this area even more of that “oomph”.
the first time i saw this intersection i got off the light rail & observed from the ped bridge. i was like “whaaaat???” i was happy to learn we had a design that could be attached to the MLK bike project i visited often during construction its kind of a down payment on what’s possible for Rainier
The Complete Streets Ordinance gets a lot of flack because it is nonbinding. This incident reveals its strength. By forcing staff to write down their reasoning and daylighting discourse within the agency, the Checklist exposed the real priorities of the administration. Now we can vote them out.
A great example of this is the exec sending staff to "community meetings" like it's their job to navigate the political challenge of policy. Ludicrous norm we've developed.
you want civil servants to be relatively free with professional opinions, but to avoid conflicts of interests and personal bias.
It is very nice! I would want to live there!
I see a lot of marine debris out on the Olympic peninsula, but was surprised by this Japanese aerosol can - I'm assuming from its condition it's too recent to be tsunami debris. Either way, I bagged it in case it's carrying any invasive stowaways.
Can Vance kill Trump with the same black magic he used on Pope Francis? We asked three MAHA moms at a Bob Evans in the north Cincinnati suburbs.
the thing about Zohran is he is really fucking good at politics and everyone on the Dem side behaving like he’s a liability has lost their minds I don’t care how you define It, he has It
My statement on @nadler.house.gov’s decision not to seek re-election next year.
When I fight for safe streets and walkable communities, know it is in large part because I crave space for my kid to play!
I just want my kid to have what I had. And I don’t think that’s totally unreasonable.
I fucking love Seattle.
Here's an excerpt from the email telling me that this intersection is already as safe as it can be.
SDOT once told me that this intersection is designed as safe as we know how to design it.
This is just outside my line of sight from my apartment, so I couldn’t tell exactly what happened. But I did hear it…and it did not sound good at all… 🙁
Seattle Fire just responded to a driver hitting someone walking at 35th Ave S and S Alaska Street in Columbia City. The person who was hit was transported to the hospital.
The "do nothing" political strategy is poisonous. It depends on pushing ownership of decisions down into agencies, further from voters. It also prevents executives from communicating clear missions to agencies. Both of these undermine the civil service and basic democratic governance.
This is the correct take. Pushback is good if it’s tied to the mission of the agency. If you don’t like the mission, quit and become an activist. They are different jobs. This is why the Complete Streets Checklist is good. SDOT has conflicting mandates. Fighting about them reveals tradeoffs.
If the agency's direction is in conflict with their mission and the public good, a civil servant should try to fix that. But that requires connecting their objections the agency's mission and public good. Quietly vetoing obvious projects is the opposite of that.
In addition to economic and policy uncertainty, there has been so much new supply on this corridor over the last few years. Makes sense for folks to wait and see in those conditions but I am majorly bummed.
Still holding out hope for the “Accessible Mt. Baker” plan
Which demonstrates to me that Harrell has the ability and know how to get what he wants quickly when he wants to.
@pushtheneedle.bsky.social I’ll add that the Deputy Mayors frequently appear in PDRs putting the ixnay on good decisions. Greg Wong shows up stalling the Ferdinand Festival Street and Emery (when she was Deputy Mayor) immediately intervened to roll back Bicycle Weekends when Parks wanted to expand.
I believe one of the two Jumbo buildings was slated for 100% affordable units so the ST article’s explanation about the problems in that sector might have something to do with it.
Unfortunately no similar progress along Rainier between CC and Mt Baker. Both the Genesee (Jumbo) and Letitia sites are stalled out, and the Letitia site went on the market earlier this year. I did see fences go up at @r343l.bsky.social’s favorite knotweed patch near Charles though.
2531 16th Ave S has construction fences up (they weren’t there a couple weeks ago). Permits from 2021 show plans for a 7 story 84 unit apartment building with ground floor retail on Beacon Ave. www.seattleinprogress.com/project/3033...
An Amazon software engineer spent 4 weeks in jail this summer due to Seattle Police faulty interpretation of surveillance video and credit card transaction data.
So, while TOD vetoed bus-only lanes on Denny, the only reasons they provided were the sunk cost of programming their ITS software and things that might happen in a decade or two.
The TOD concern trolling continues: "Pending decisions for light rail station location [Ed: Scheduled to open in 2039! (But probably later)] and Harrison Street Transit Corridor [Ed: Metro has said they plan to keep transit on Denny even after Harrison] may affect operational needs on Denny Way."
Amazing, right? Ok, so let's see what the Transportation Operations Division (TOD) said in response. TOD is the division often nicknamed the Seattle Car Advisory Board. Before she joined Mayor Harrell's office, Adiam Emery, the current SDOT director, led TOD.
"...Think of designing for how we want our city to operate [Ed: ‼️], not accommodating how it currently operates. A road diet could provide potential for bus lanes and/or medians that would could (sic) create some ped friendly crossings at the unsignalized locations and slow traffic speeds."
When we PDR’d the SDOT and Parks records for Lake Washington Blvd and Lake Park Dr stop sign removal from the plans I was very impressed with the staff’s insistence that they do it the right way. There were lots of emails to senior staff that never received responses.
I feel bad for the SDOT team member who proposed a project on Denny Way more congruent with our city’s stated vision and goals and was basically shot down.
According to the project team, "There is a large opportunity to transition this area which is quickly densifying from a through route to something more that fits in with our big picture for Vision Zero..."
When SDOT repaved Denny Way (2022-2025), they had an internal discussion about adding bus-only lanes for the Late 8. Let's take a peek at what they said.🧵
I read somewhere (I think @amysundberg.bsky.social) that their explanation is that other parties already record them, so it’s no different. (YMMV with that explanation.)
If anyone wants further proof. These 3 cars came down the Hill around 5 they aren’t venders. They picked nothing up. As I sit here typing this 4 more cars have gone by. So where is this no car experiment happening?
The SDOT cameras would be part of the program but I’m not sure if SPD would be given control of their movements.
This intersection is so much better than it was when I first moved to Seattle it is insane. Thank you @spottnik.bsky.social for pushing for what I assume were contentious decisions here. Hope the whole of Rainier/MLK can see this level of improvement and more soon.
Single Stair apartment building on the east slope of Beacon Hill under construction. Guessing 6+ units on what was formerly a vacant lot. The east slope doesn’t have too many apartment buildings - mostly single family with a growing number of townhomes.
It’s the traffic cameras. It’s the freight route arterials every time.
Hillsides and different housing types are such a great combination because you get some pretty cool layering going on.
unacceptable even if we weren't in the midst of an authoritarian takeover
Just an FYI campaign yard signs are not permitted on public property in Seattle, including in planting strips and medians along arterials and traffic circles on residential streets. Feel free to remove if you find them, and campaigns please discourage volunteers from doing this.
Sitting at Reuben’s on 1st and Seneca with my napping son post aquarium. Fellow dad with kids in tow shares the only reason they’re here is the kids insisted on riding the light rail on their day off. 🚊👶🏻
And whenever the Mayor’s Office is asked to comment on anything other than a ribbon cutting, you get some comms hack giving a quote instead of anything from Harrell. Can’t hold him to his word if he never says anything.
Yup. It’s all rooted in a deliberate effort to avoid accountability. You saw this during the Transportation Levy planning pretty explicitly. I asked SDOT at CC Farmers Market that I wanted to see more clearly defined deliverables and they told me they were avoiding that this time.
See Adrian Diaz.
I AM CO-HOSTING A FUNDRAISER FOR 🍕KATIE WILSON🍕 ON QUEEN ANNE. Would you like to join me? I think it will be fun and you may even feel a delightful sense of tranquility and joy knowing you helped her get elected.
a perfect encapsulation of the shameful lack of any kind of political will or vision in the mayor’s office rn
The Bruce Harrell pitch: Over the last four years, I have been your mayor. And with your support, I will be the mayor again!
Bruce Harrell is currently in the "ok guys what do you want, just tell me and that's what I'll be" phase of his candidacy.
Harrell was at the farmers' market Friday w/ campaign folks. As I shopped, one asked @valeriecosta.bsky.social why she preferred @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social, when he had so much experience in city hall. Simple: she can learn City Hall a hell of a lot quicker than he can unlearn business-as-usual.
What does the evidence to date say? 1️⃣ Environmental benefits (like cleaner air) are often distributed pro-poor. 2️⃣ Policy costs (like carbon taxes) can be regressive—but context and design matters.
🌍📈 Paper “The Economics of Inequality and the Environment” out today in the Journal of Economic Literature @aeajournals.bsky.social, joint with Jasper Meya, Lutz Sager & Ulrike Kornek. See short summary and PM by PIK linked below, and the paper here 👉 pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/...
I'd add that it's the role of the executive to own their choice, which I'd really say is what Bruce Harrell is weakest at. He's making decisions, but he's pretending that it's the staff making them.
Anyway, Katie Wilson for mayor
Ok but how sweet is it to have all those mtb loops just up the hill now?
I’m pretty sure we’ve gone backwards on transit and walking share in the last five years.
Today at the Bike the Drive in Chicago.
SDOT needs it's leadership cleaned out they MUST put Bus lanes on Denny through SLU and LQA, it's not optional
