Category: This Week on PubliCola

This Week on PubliCola

This Week on PubliCola: February 15, 2025

An illogical argument against density, a last-minute effort to kill social housing, a brand-new podcast starring Erica and Josh, and more.

By Erica C. Barnett

Monday, February 10

Council’s Fight to Scale Back List of Neighborhood Centers is a NIMBY Canard

In the latest installment of “Maybe Metropolis,” Josh Feit points out the mendacious reasoning behind a common argument against density: The claim that cities shouldn’t build housing until all the infrastructure people need, including frequent transit, has already been built out in low-density neighborhoods.

Seattle Nice: Banishment Orders and Housing Bans

On this week’s episode of the Seattle Nice podcast, we discussed the city’s minimal use of what was supposedly a critical new tool to stop drug trafficking: Stay Out of Drug Area banishment orders. We also discussed the city’s ban on housing near the stadiums and the potential unintended consequences of a crackdown on sex buyers on Aurora.

Tuesday, February 11

Announcing “Are You Mad At Me?,” a Brand-New Podcast About Our Favorite Movie, Shattered Glass

Josh and I have started a podcast! Our subject: Shattered Glass, the 2003 movie about the rise and fall of journalism wunderkind Stephen Glass. On its surface, the movie is a satisfying comeuppance story about a guy who fabricated dozens of stories for venerable magazines like Harper’s and The New Republic in the 1990s. But it’s also an extremely timely story about the lengths journalists will go to in pursuit of the truth, even if it tarnishes their own institutions.

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Emails Reveal Last-Minute Lobbying Efforts to Keep Social Housing off the November Ballot

In the days leading up to the Seattle City Council’s vote that relegated the social housing measure to the February ballot (and put it in direct competition with a competing measure that would not build social housing), the Seattle Chamber proposed multiple ballot alternatives to council members and urged them to reverse an internal decision to put the social housing measure on the ballot last November.

Wednesday, February 12

New Crowd Control Law Includes Few Restrictions on Use of “Less-Lethal Weapons”

The council adopted legislation that effectively affirms policies the Seattle Police Department adopted several years ago, in defiance of a law restricting the use of “less lethal” weapons for crowd control. A majority voted to reject amendments that would have placed some guardrails around the use of such weapons, including a private right of action, a requirement that police from outside the city follow Seattle’s policies, and a proposal to require SPD to get approval before deploying new types of weapons against Seattle residents.

Friday, February 13

Social Housing Crushes It, City Workers Sue Over Workday, Court Says Jan. 6 Cops Can’t Hide Identities

Friday’s Morning Fizz: Social housing ended the week with a (updated) 25-point lead; city employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the city’s faulty new payroll platform; and the state Supreme Court ruled that Seattle police officers who were outside the US Capitol on January 6 do not have a right to anonymity.

housing, This Week on PubliCola

This Week on PubliCola: February 9, 2025


Monday, February 3

Two Stranger Reporters Resign After Investigation Into Allegations of Ethical Breaches

After a weeks-long investigation into allegations of dishonesty and bullying, two Stranger reporters resigned last week. The union that represents editorial staff at the paper declined to mobilize on their behalf and both the union and Stranger management said they were satisfied with the outcome.

Social Housing Is a Homelessness Solution

In an op/ed urging a vote of “yes” to Proposition 1A, the social housing measure on the February 11 ballot, the homeless shelter providers SHARE and WHEEL argue for mixed-income public housing—and against an alternative measure that “raids the JumpStart tax proceeds for $10 million a year and restricts the funded housing” to traditional low-income apartments.

Tuesday, February 4

Seattle Nice Interviews New City Council Appointee Mark Solomon

On this week’s episode of the Seattle Nice podcast, we interviewed new Seattle Councilmember Mark Solomon about whether he’ll vote to reduce density in the comprehensive plan, what restrictions there should be on less-lethal weapons like blast balls, and his goal of moving “negative activity” away from places like 12th and Jackson.

Wednesday, February 5

The City Council Should Restore Affordable Housing to the Stadium District

In a guest editorial, representatives from the city’s stadiums argue that it’s past time to allow housing south of downtown, as the city’s plan for industrial land originally called for. The council is considering legislation that would make housing legal in the stadium district, where offices are already allowed.

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Thursday, February 6

Councilmembers Claim City Didn’t Do “Broad Engagement” on Comprehensive Plan

After homeowners complained that the new comprehensive plan allows too much density near single-family houses, councilmembers called for slowing down the process to hear their concerns, arguing that advocates for apartments—and the renters who live in them—have had too much sway over the plan so far.

Misleading Mailers Inaccurately Imply Social Housing Is for the Rich

A series of anti-social housing mailers have argued, using dubious math, that mixed-income social housing would mostly be for people making “up to $144,000” and that almost none of it would be for low-income people.

Friday, February 7

New State Bills Could Force Seattle to Reform Parking, Historical Landmarking Rules

Two new bills would, if passed, stymie Seattle’s anti-housing status quo. The first would eliminate minimum parking requirements in some residential areas in Seattle (and impose the same modest restrictions on parking mandates that are in our proposed comprehensive plan statewide). The second would bar cities from landmarking buildings without the owner’s consent and set the minimum age for landmarks at 40 years (in Seattle, it’s 25).

 

This Week on PubliCola

This Week On PubliCola: January 18, 2025

SPD Recruits Still Overwhelmingly Male, Blast Ball Approval Moves Forward, Stranger Investigates Its Own Reporters, and More

By Erica C. Barnett

Tuesday, January 14

New Police Recruits Remain Overwhelmingly Male, Despite “30 by 30” Pledge

The Seattle Police Department pledged four years to boost the number of female recruits to 30 percent by 2030. Although Mayor Bruce Harrell touted SPD’s latest hiring numbers, he failed to mention that just 14 percent of both applicants and recruits are women—a number that hasn’t budged meaningfully since the city made the pledge.

Bill Allowing Police to Use Less-Lethal Weapons, Including Blast Balls, Moves Forward

The city council is rapidly advancing legislation to adopt new policies authorizing police to use less-lethal weapons, like blast balls (rubber grenades that can cause serious injuries), for crowd control. Most of the amendments that would have placed restrictions on how and when blast balls can be used failed to advance, and the council rejected an amendment restoring a private right of action for people injured by these weapons.

Wednesday, January 15

Kevin Dave, Officer Who Struck and Killed 23-Year-Old Student in 2023, Appeals His Firing

A PubliCola exclusive: SPD officer Kevin Dave, who remained on the job at SPD for two years after striking and killing Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk while driving almost three times the speed limit, is trying to get his job back. In a disciplinary report, interim police chief Sue Rahr wrote that “it is inconceivable to me” that Dave didn’t understand his duty to avoid endangering others when responding to a call.

Thursday, January 16

Seattle Nice Debate: Should The City Go All-In on Social Housing?

We hosted a debate between supporters of both “social housing” propositions. Arguing for Proposition 1A, which would use a marginal business tax on employee income above $1 million to create publicly owned mixed-income housing, was Tiffani McCoy, director of the House Our Neighbors campaign. Arguing for 1B, which would use existing revenues from the JumpStart tax to pay for low-income housing, was Jessie Clawson, a land-use attorney. It was a lively and informative debate about a complex issue and I encourage readers to have a listen before you vote.

Friday, January 17

Two Stranger Reporters Put on Leave for Investigation Into Potential Ethical Violations

Two reporters at the Stranger, Ashley Nerbovig and Hannah Krieg, were put on paid leave this week while the paper investigates allegations that they knew about an unethical encounter between a former Stranger editor and a candidate for City Council, failed to disclose it and lied about it to their editors, and attempted to enlist others in a cover story. The allegations, if found true, would constitute significant breaches of ethical standards for journalists.

City Council, Density, housing, neighborhoods, This Week on PubliCola

This Week on PubliCola: January 11, 2025
Cathy Moore says she won’t “sacrifice” her neighborhood to three-to-five-story apartments around an intersection Maple Leaf (circled on map)

Cathy Moore Says Young People Want Yards, Bob Kettle and Rob Saka Test Blast Balls, and PubliCola Predicts the Future

Monday, January 6

Anti-Housing Activists Hope for Receptive Audience as Council Takes Up Comprehensive Plan Update

As the city considers density increases so modest that its own planning commission called them utterly inadequate, single-family preservationists are creating petitions to oppose any changes in “their” neighborhoods, especially those that allow more renters to live in more parts of Seattle.

Tuesday, January 7

SPD Fires Officer Who Struck and Killed Pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula Two Years Ago

Kevin Dave, the police officer who struck and killed 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula while driving almost three times the speed limit, finally got fired after spending two years on SPD’s payroll after killing Kandula, whose family is suing the city for more than $110 million.

Wednesday, January 8

It’s Time to Appoint Another New Councilmember!

Tammy Morales’ resignation opens a spot for yet another new council appointment. The appointment process, which should wrap up before the end of this month, will result in a council with only one member, Dan Strauss, who has served for more than three years, including seven members who have served one year or less.

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“I’m Not Prepared to Sacrifice My Neighborhood”: Councilmember Cathy Moore Takes Hard Line Against Apartments

One of those recently council members, Cathy Moore, came out hard against a proposal to allow apartments along the periphery of single-family neighborhoods, saying that allowing three-to-six story apartments within 800 feet of 30 transit stops across the city would destroy neighborhood character, denude the landscape, and produce “unstable” housing occupied by renters, who, she said, aren’t “engaged socially and politically” the way property owners are. About six in ten Seattle residents rent their homes.

Thursday, January 9

Seattle Nice: Bob Kettle Talks Public Safety, Density, Why He Opposed the Capital Gains Tax, and More

The Seattle Nice podcast sat down with City Council public safety committee chair Bob Kettle to talk about his priorities for 2025, how much density the city should allow in single-family neighborhoods like Queen Anne, and at what point the new council will stop blaming their predecessors for the real and perceived public safety challenges in Seattle.

Afternoon Fizz, SPD Edition: Councilmembers Test-Drive Blast Balls, SPD Sued Over Records Violations, and More

Four stories in this week’s afternoon Fizz: Bob Kettle and Rob Saka take a field trip to SPD’s firing range to test blast balls for themselves; the Community Police Commission proposes changes to SPD’s proposed policy allowing the use of “less lethal” weapons, which is moving forward at breakneck speed; the Seattle Times sues SPD for violating an agreement over public records requests; and former police chief Adrian Diaz loses his longtime attorney.

Friday, January 10

PubliCola’s Seattle Predictions for 2025

PubliCola’s founders give you our predictions for 2025. Sandeep thinks Seattle will fail to break out of its political inertia; Josh says you’ll start to hear more open MAGA rhetoric in public places in Seattle (which, he also predicts, will still be riddled with dogs), and I predict that new, even more stringent tree protections will be used to prevent housing for renters in the name of the environment (despite the fact that car-oriented sprawl, which results from insufficient housing in cities, is an existential environmental risk.)

Also, despite a $2 million budget setaside, I predict that SDOT will find reasons not to remove an 8-inch traffic safety curb that prevents dangerous left turns into the parking lot of the preschool Rob Saka’s kids attended, which Saka claimed his constituents found “triggering” and “extremely traumatizing” because it reminds them of Trump’s border wall.

This Week on PubliCola

This Week On PubliCola: January 4, 2025
The proposed Comprehensive Plan update includes small nodes of density, called “neighborhood centers,” that are already being contested. Otherwise, it sticks to the decades-old policy of crowding renters, who make up more than half the city, onto loud, dirty arterial roads.

By Erica C. Barnett

Sunday, December 29: Seattle Nice: Your Questions Answered!

On the latest edition of Seattle Nice, we answered listeners’ questions about how much new housing the city plans to allow over the next 20 years, the upcoming mayoral and city council elections, our wishes for local politics in 2025, and more.

Monday, December 30: PubliCola Questions: King County Executive Candidate Claudia Balducci

King County Councilmember and former Bellevue mayor Claudia Balducci sat down with PubliCola to talk about her campaign for King County Executive. Pull quote: “Encampment resolutions are not sweeps. They are not, ‘post a date, show up with a team, and move everybody who’s there.’ It’s an application of services. You work with the residents of an encampment over a period of time, some weeks, and eventually people are offered housing.”

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Tuesday, December 31: PubliCola Questions: King County Executive Candidate Girmay Zahilay

Girmay Zahilay, who represents South King County on the county council, also spoke with PubliCola about his campaign for county executive. Pull quote: “What I hear from my constituents is not just, ‘We’re tapped to our economic limit, and we can’t deal with any more levies.’ They also are saying that they don’t feel like they’re seeing problems being solved.”

Thursday, January 2: PubliCola Questions: Seattle City Attorney Candidate Rory O’Sullivan

In our final interview this week, we sat down with Rory O’Sullivan, a longtime legal aid attorney and onetime Democratic candidate for a state House seat who’s running against Seattle’s Republican city attorney, Ann Davison. Pull quote: “Right now, the city attorney’s office is way behind on DUI prosecutions. So we are being put in danger, our public safety is worse off, because the current city attorney is prosecuting protesters and spending resources on other things that don’t improve public safety.”

This Week on PubliCola

This Week on PubliCola: December 14, 2024
Phases 5 and 6 of SPD’s “Crowd Management, Intervention, and Control Strategies.”

Seattle prepares to repeal restrictions on “less-lethal” weapons, SDOT loses a leader, and much more.

Monday, December 9

Police Deny Request to Produce Records in a Timely Fashion; Burien City Manager Filed Complaint Against Progressive Council Member

Two stories to kick off the week: First, an update on the Seattle Police Department’s ongoing refusal to follow a settlement prohibiting its practice of “grouping” multiple public records requests, including PubliCola’s, into a single mega-request, a delay tactic that keeps public records out of view. Also, we learned that Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon filed a complaint against a city council member who raised concerns on X about the number of high-level staffers leaving the city.

Tuesday, December 10

Discussion of Women at SPD Skips Over Men’s Behavior

SPD has set a goal of having a 30-percent female recruit class by 2030, and has begun laying out steps toward that goal. Despite women in the department consistently reporting a culture of misogyny created by men, most of the recommendations focus on creating more flexibility for women to raise babies and young children.

City Transportation Director Greg Spotts Will Leave After Two Years on the Job

Greg Spotts, appointed by Mayor Bruce Harrell in 2022, will leave the department in February. Urbanists liked Spotts because he advocated for (and oversaw the construction of) bike lanes and pedestrian safety improvements, like restrictions on right turns at red lights; these priorities may have put him at odds with Harrell, who has not placed much emphasis on Vision Zero despite mounting road fatalities.

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Thursday, December 12

Legislation Would Remove Restrictions on SPD’s Use of “Less Lethal” Weapons for Crowd Control

The city council is considering legislation to get rid of existing restrictions on the use of “less lethal” weapons for crowd control, which SPD has called unworkable and has ignored in favor of its own internal “interim policy.” The bill would allow SPD to set its own policies, subject to a general list of “values and expectations,” and is seen as a final step to end a 12-year-old federal consent decree.

PubliCola on News, Views, and Brews: Less-Lethal Weapons and Two High-Profile Departures

I went on Brian Callanan’s “News, Views, and Brews” podcast this week to talk about the less-lethal weapons legislation, Spotts’ departure, and the ongoing fallout from last week’s news that Tammy Morales is leaving the city council a year after winning reelection.

Friday, December 13

Old-Fashioned Furor Erupts Over Plans for Adult Cabaret License in Ballard

Opponents of a bar that plans to feature burlesque, drag, and other adult entertainment in its upstairs event space have tried to stir up opposition to the venue, arguing in a petition that a “strip club” in Ballard will hurt property values, lead to crime and prostitution, and harm area children.