Amazon made a surprise announcement on Valentine's Day that they're cancelling their planned HQ2 expansion in New York City...
In brief: Amazon made a surprise announcement on Valentine's Day that they're cancelling their planned HQ2 expansion in New York City, the snow finally turned to slush and then mostly disappeared, Councilmember Mike O'Brien announced that he won't be running for re-election, and conservative initiative maven Tim Eyman was caught on video stealing an office chair from Office Depot.
Before the weather got warmer and the snow largely melted later in the week, SeaTac Airport measured 20.2" of snowfall in the first 11 days of the month, making February the 7th snowiest month in Seattle's history since records started there in 1891. We received more snow in a month than we have since January of 1969 (which saw 45.4").
KUOW reminded Seattleites that it's our responsibility to shovel the sidewalks in front of our homes and businesses...but our results on that front were pretty spotty.
As temperatures were warming and the snow was turning to rain at the beginning of the week and soaking into the existing snow, the resulting heavier, rain-soaked snow broke tree limbs and even caused some structures to collapse.
The company said that it won't reopen its HQ2 search and will instead focus on expanding in Northern Virginia (the other location announced as part of the search) as well as in other cities in which it already has a presence.
Amazon has 2 million more square feet of office space under construction in Seattle, which will bring its total footprint to 14 million square feet here--a spokesman initially told the Seattle Times that the company would stop expanding in Seattle after that, but walked back those comments later in the day and said instead that it's possible they could continue to expand here further.
The housing affordability crisis:
KING 5 and KUOW looked at the efforts of Seattle's Navigation Team to get people experiencing homelessness off the streets and into temporary winter weather shelters.
KING 5 looked at a number of cases in which participants in an affordable housing program appear to have purchased their homes as rentals, in direct violation of the owner-occupancy requirement of the program.
The two Seattle Public Schools levies that were up for renewal in Tuesday's special election both passed with more than 65% approval.
After 10 years on the City Council, incumbent Mike O'Brien announced that he won't be running for re-election this year for his District 6 seat representing Fremont, Ballard, and Green Lake.
A Fremont doctor named Jay Fathi and a former legislative aide to Councilmember Sally Bagshaw named Dan Strauss both announced their candidacy for O'Brien's seat.
Keep an eye out for your Democracy Vouchers in the mail, and be sure to donate them to candidates you support!
Real Estate Corner
The Bellevue house in which Jeff Bezos founded Amazon is on the market for $1.5 million.
The Encore condo building by the Columbia City light rail station--formerly called Sonata--announced a pre-sale event on February 23rd and began listing homes on the MLS, with prices ranging from $300k for a 368 sq ft 1 br to $700k for an 864 sq ft 2 br. Completion is estimated for sometime in 2020.
And Curbed Seattle's Sarah Anne Lloyd looked at what $1400/month will rent you in Seattle right now.
Thank you to everyone who's sent me a real estate referral or used me as an agent yourself! The city of Seattle is my geographic area of expertise, and while I'm also very good at helping sellers get top dollar for their homes, my true passion is helping first-time homebuyers get homes that they love quickly and easily.
If you need a residential real estate agent to help you buy or sell a home of any kind--or you know someone who does--I'd love to be of service. My website is here, or see here for client reviews.
Quick Takes
Former state Senator Joe Fain, who lost his re-election campaign last year after Candace Faber said publicly that he raped her in 2007, was chosen by the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce to be their new CEO. [KUOW]
Aaron Kunkler looked at the City of SeaTac's planned redevelopment of a vital hub for the city's Somali community. [Seattle Weekly]
Deborah Wang looked into what constitutes a Seattle accent. [KUOW]
State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is considering suing the Trump administration over its declaration of a state of emergency to build Trump's border wall. [KUOW]
Ferguson also wrote a strongly worded letter to the sheriffs of 12 rural counties who have said they won't enforce Washington's newest gun control regulations until a lawsuit attempting to overrule them runs its course. [KING 5]
In the oddest story of the week, conservative initiative maven Tim Eyman (whose current statewide initiative is designed to gut funding for Sound Transit) was caught on a security camera apparently stealing an office chair from Office Depot. [Seattle Times]
And the months-long demolition of the viaduct began, symbolically, with the destruction of the Columbia Street on-ramp. [Curbed Seattle]
