Join us September 14th for our monthly meetup with Nikkita Oliver.
Watch for our general endorsements to drop soon. Many of the candidates we endorsed in the Primary advanced, including Oliver, Teresa Mosqueda, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, and Joe Nguyen. We'll have some fresh endorsements, too.
Our Fall Subscriber Drive is also just around the corner. Donate now if you'd like to get ahead of the curve! We're looking to grow and ensure we can continue to support our second paid employee, our new managing editor Natalie Bicknell Argerious, and we'd love to build on the momentum of our highly successful drive this spring. Many thanks to our subscribers and donors who made this hiring possible. And now some of the biggest stories from the month:
Featured Articles
Appeal Denied: Compassion Seattle’s Charter Amendment is Dead
Since "retiring" in 2017, Tim Burgess formed a PAC, ran negative attack mailers against former colleagues, and then spearheaded the failed Compassion Seattle charter amendment campaign. (Photo by Seattle Channel)
A three-judge panel from the Washington State Court of Appeals has declined a stay request from the campaign for “Compassion Seattle” City Charter Amendment 29 (CA29) that would have blocked King County Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer’s order to remove CA29 from the November ballot.
“We have considered Compassion Seattle’s motion and have determined that it should be denied,” the Court of Appeals panel stated succinctly and without providing further explanation for their decision.
“We’re not surprised by the outcome,” said Knoll Lowney, attorney for the plaintiffs in a press release. “State law requires cost-effective and coordinated homelessness policies, which is why the law does not permit an initiative to impose up to a billion dollars in unfunded mandates without expert input or accountability.”
In a sign of palpable relief, House Our Neighbors, a coalition that formed in opposition to CA29 tweeted, “It’s over! Let’s go win housing for all! Continue Reading...
Sponsor event:
Let's Move Redmond Open Street on September 12th
Let’s Move Redmond is a free community event, celebrating movement, transportation, and play. We will be opening 161st Street between Downtown Redmond Park and the Redmond Central Connector to people walking, biking, scooting, rolling, and playing! This event will feature a kid’s bike rodeo, a pop-up protected bike lane, community organizations, giveaways, and more. Never been to an Open Street style event? Check out this video! What: Free Activities at Let’s Move Redmond: Group run, yoga, Zumba, roller skating, dancing, fix-a-flat workshop, and more! #LetsMoveRedmond When: Sunday, September 12th from 10 AM – 2 PM Where: Downtown Redmond Park, 16101 NE Redmond WayRSVP Here
Sound Transit Board Averts Big Delays with Hybrid ST3 Realignment
A new Link Siemens train at SeaTac/Airport Station. (The Urbanist)
NE 130th Street Station opens in 2025 and Graham Street and Boeing Access Road Stations open in 2031 under the amended plan.
The Sound Transit Board of Directors voted Thursday to pursue a hybrid plan that mostly avoids delays beyond modest “planning delays” to the vast majority of the Sound Transit 3 (ST3) program. An amendment also moved up the opening of the NE 130th Street Station to 2025 as the agency flirted with last year, which is just after the rest of the Lynnwood Link extension opens in 2024.
The realignment plan was long in the making and triggered after an affordability gap of $12 billion emerged at the height of pandemic pandemonium, with the worsening economic outlook a drag on revenue forecasts. After improving forecasts continued to whittle away at that figure, the affordability gap is now estimated at $6.5 billion, and stems largely from jumps in project cost estimates. Legal requirements and hopes of keeping its sterling credit rating pushed Sound Transit to adjust its financial plan to react to the gap. The hybrid plan does that with a mixed approach paired with some measured schedule delays and offsets, which could include new revenue or controlling costs through engineering and design changes. Continue Reading...
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Precinct Results Show Familiar Rich vs Rent-burdened Battle Lines
Mayoral candidates Bruce Harrell and Lorena González advanced to the General. (Photos courtesy of campaigns)
King County Elections finalized Primary Election results on Tuesday and Seattle’s data wizards quickly went to work conjuring maps showing precinct-level results. What emerged was a familiar pattern: left-wing candidates dominated in Seattle’s urban villages, the densest neighborhoods where much of the city’s growth has been funneled by zoning and land use policy.
Center-right candidates like former three-term City Councilmember Bruce Harrell and former Council aide Sara Nelson, on the other hand, dominated along the coasts, view corridors, and in Seattle’s sprawling single-family zones, where the share of renters is much smaller and average household incomes are much higher. Harrell ended up with 34.0% in the Seattle Mayor race and will square off with Council President Lorena González, who pulled in 32.1% in the left lane of the race. In the Seattle City Council Position 9 race, Nelson grabbed 39.5% of the Primary vote, but came up second to attorney, poet, organizer Nikkita Oliver, who won 40.2%, with a broad array of support and endorsements, including The Urbanist Election Committee’s.
Those political fault lines worked out well for the centrist conservative-business coalition in the 2017 mayoral race. Jenny Durkan dominated in homeowner land and much of Downtown, where high-end condos and apartments prevail, and rode into office with a decisive 56.5% win over Urbanist-endorsed lefty Cary Moon. Bruce Harrell’s campaign has been very similar to Jenny Durkan’s, pledging steadiness and pro-business policies rather than progressive boldness and promising to crack down on crime and homeless encampments via removals. Continue Reading...
Regular Night Markets Are a Natural Addition to Seattle
The Richmond Night Market is a popular fixture in British Columbia's Lower Mainland. (Photo courtesy of Visit Richmond BC)
With over a year of Stay Healthy Streets and Café Streets, Seattleites have become accustomed and even approving of the pedestrianization and expanded use of our streets. But Seattle can go farther to create even more vibrant pedestrian environments, and regular night markets should be one route for street use expansion. Popular in East Asia and Southeast Asia, night markets are often street markets that open or remain open in the later hours of the day. These markets aren’t limited to streets; they inhabit a mix of parks, public squares, parking lots, cavernous indoor spaces, and anywhere else people can gather, shop, walk, and dine. Nighttime street markets would be an intuitive evolution of the city’s usage of our streets and public spaces, as they would be similar to farmers markets with hours that stretch into the night, and with a stronger emphasis on eateries.
Events
September 14th Meetup: City Council Candidate Nikkita Oliver
Nikkita Oliver is our September meetup guest and we are excited! They are fresh off a first-place primary finish in their campaign for Seattle City Council Position 9. They had endorsements from The Urbanist Election Committee, The Stranger, and MLK Labor Council. Their campaign has applied an equity and racial justice lens to public safety, to exclusionary zoning, to climate action, and to mobility, and the results are pretty inspiring. Hear more about their platform and plans in office. The Zoom call opens at 6:15pm and Nikkita’s talk starts at 6:30pm. (Photo credit: Oliver campaign photo by Alex Garland.) Register for the link on our website.
October 12th Meetup: Nicole Thomas-Kennedy
Our August meetup guest is Nicole Thomas-Kennedy (NTK) who is The Urbanist-endorsed candidate for Seattle City Attorney. NTK has advocated for an abolitionist approach that would prosecute far fewer misdemeanors and focus more City resources on fighting wage theft and defending new progressive city laws from legal challenges. Investing in the social safety net rather than punitive criminal legal system could get at root causes that really cause crime.. Hear more about abolition and NTK’s platform at our October meetup. To register for the link, check out our events page.
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