KUOW Blog
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Is Seattle still 'weird'? Today So Far
Is the Northwest weird? Is Seattle weird? Should we even be using the word "weird" so much?
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for May 31, 2023.
There has been a notion that our region is "weird." For example, in the 1996 documentary "Hype!" about the explosion of Seattle music into the mainstream, one person credits the unique sound to the weirdness that was so potent throughout the Northwest. This regional weird was promoted in pop culture, such as "Twin Peaks" or even "Northern Exposure." Growing up around here, embracing this weird was a form of pride.
As we've all found out over the past few weeks, KUOW's Bill Radke has an obsession with words. He's pushed back against the overuse of "legendary" or "dive bar," for example. This week, Radke explains his disdain for "weird." He has even banned the word in his own home.
"I tell my kids to avoid the word 'weird' because I tell them that it doesn't describe whatever it is we are talking about, it just says they are having a reaction, and we are better off naming our reactions, and exploring our reactions ... So I move that nothing is weird, we banish the word," Radke explained on the most recent "Words in Review."
Erik Davis is author of "High Weirdness," which is about drugs. In a way, he specializes in weird, and overall, embraces it. "I think every place gets its own weirdness," Davis said.
"I write about California weirdness probably because I'm a Californian ... there's a certain inflection up there (in the Northwest). The woods are darker and gloomier, and there is perhaps more of a funky, magical mushroom energy permeating in the Pacific Northwest."
"[Weird] is kind of a wastebasket word," he adds. "We put things that we don't really know what else to say about. While that sometimes is a meaningless dodge, or a way of not articulating our feelings to ourselves, or not describing exactly what might be peculiar or unusual about the thing we are talking about, the fact we are relying on 'weird' also tells us something about weirdness in our lives and what we do with things that don't really fit."
Davis notes that if you pull out everything we put in that weird wastebasket, they might not relate. An uncomfortable interaction could be weird, so can a bizarre movie, or a spooky dream, or an unusual flavor. Weird is a category unto itself, with a diverse range of meanings, he argues.
"It lets us see something about reality that no other word really does," Davis said. "It's one of those words where you have to unpack it a little bit, but 'things that don't quite fit' is probably the best way to put it simply."
I've always felt that humans evolved to seek out patterns, normalcy. It's a way to survive. That "weird" sound in the bushes could be a giant animal coming to eat you, so knowing patterns (normalcy) and also things that stand out, have been important to us over our evolution. To me, weird is something that doesn't fit into a pattern. It can eventually become "normal" and fit in. And not fitting a pattern doesn't make something bad, it's just something that stands out. When Seattle music started making an impression in the 1980s and 1990s, it didn't fit the pattern the music industry had established, so it stood out. That was a good weird.
I would argue that Seattle is not weird. It once was, but that weird character has faded over the years. We still have the gum wall, and Archie McPhee (thank goodness!), but Seattle is more of the same these days — same buildings, same problems, same bumper stickers, same Teslas if you live in Ravenna. And what was once deemed weird is now just wearing socks with sandals as if that's just normal.
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Federal judge ‘extremely skeptical’ that SPD could soon exit consent decree
A federal judge is still considering how much longer the Seattle Police Department should remain under his oversight. At a hearing Tuesday, Judge James Robart asked wide-ranging questions but did not rule on a joint motion by the U.S. Justice Department and the city of Seattle to find SPD largely in compliance with a consent decree in place since 2012.
Robart did say he is “extremely skeptical” that Seattle could complete remaining milestones in the consent decree by the end of 2023. Attorneys agreed that the timeline was “ambitious.”
Robart said he is “immensely proud” of the police department's strides under the consent decree, including improved supervision, data collection, “revamped” training, and reducing its use of force by 60% since federal oversight began a decade ago.
But he noted that fatal police encounters, while few, have remained relatively stable during that time.
Harriett Walden, founder of Mothers for Police Accountability, said that statistic has been a disappointment to many community members who advocated for the consent decree after the fatal police shooting of First Nations woodcarver John T. Williams in 2010.
“If you don’t ask the right questions you don’t get the right answers and for us, accountability meant that the shootings would go down,” Walden said.
Kerala Cowart, an attorney for the city of Seattle, told the court that police shootings are so rare that it’s hard to draw statistically significant conclusions about them. She said the agency had three fatal police shootings in 2021, and four in 2022.
She said those shootings are rigorously investigated, and pointed to a new training for Seattle police on how to respond to people carrying knives as an example of how the department continues to try to resolve dangerous situations safely.
The proposed motion calls for continued oversight of the police department's crowd management policies and its accountability system for officers who commit misconduct.
Robart also said he’s concerned about racial disparities in police stops, and about whether ongoing contract negotiations with the Seattle Police Officers Guild, or SPOG, could undercut the accountability system.
Walden also co-chairs the Community Police Commission, which supports returning police oversight to local officials and community members. She said she found Robart’s comments encouraging.
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Who likes a hotter climate? Northwest mosquitoes
A warming climate has meant better conditions for mosquitoes in much of the Northwest.
A report from the nonprofit Climate Central says mosquito season is now 32 days longer in Seattle than it was 40 years ago.
The season with sufficient warmth and humidity for mosquitoes has grown two weeks longer in Portland and Eugene.
The group analyzed temperature and humidity record at 242 locations in the United States between 1979 and 2022. In nearly three-fourths of the studied locations, mosquito season — with temperatures between 50 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit and relative humidity of at least 42% — increased over that period. In only one-fourth of locations, mostly in the South, where temperatures often exceed 95 degrees, did mosquito season shrink.
“With changing climate, there's winners and losers, and a lot of pest species are winners,” said Aimee Code, who directs the pesticide program at the Portland-based Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “The warmer the weather, the faster they reproduce.”
Shifting away from the fossil fuels that are heating the planet’s climate would be the surefire way to make the Northwest less amenable to mosquitoes again.
Until that happens, there are ways to fight back against nature’s buzzing bloodsuckers, and they don’t have to involve harmful pesticides.
“These mosquitoes, they're terrible fliers,” Code said. “Just put out a box fan — you don't need to introduce a chemical into the mix.”
A box fan may blow a nuisance into someone else’s yard, but Code says the first line of defense needs to focus on mosquitoes before they are able to fly. Young mosquitoes hatch after 4 to 7 days from stagnant bodies of water, as small as half an inch of water in a soup can left out in the rain.
“Go out there and find that stagnant water that you can dump to avoid those mosquitoes even getting a hold,” Code said.
Code says insecticide spraying and electric bug-zappers are ineffective, since they only kill adults, and they can kill many beneficial insects, from butterflies to honeybees, as well.
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Stranger Things experience turns Seattle upside down
Turns out, I have super powers. You might have them, too. That's what "Stranger Things: The Experience" aims to find out while in Seattle over the summer of 2023 ... or is it 1986?
"Stranger Things: The Experience" is Netflix's in-person, immersive event for fans of its popular show. It has set up in a SoDo warehouse to offer part live-action-role-play, part theater, part photo op, and part 1980s mall complete with a Scoops Ahoy and a Surfer Boy Pizza (there is a full menu).
"'Stranger Things: The Experience' is interactive, it’s immersive theater, there are actors, there are characters, there is 3D," said Isis Arias, marketing for live experiences at Netflix.
“We developed this story line with the Duffer brothers, unique to this experience," Arias said. "If you walk through it, you’ll notice there are aspects from every single season, but with the release of this around season 4, we worked with the Duffer brothers to develop something that would put fans at the center of the adventure and allow them to feel like they have walked into an episode.”
RELATED: Oh. My. Gawd! FRIENDS Experience lands in downtown Seattle
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A fresh effort for an old idea to split up the Northwest: Today So Far
The Greater Idaho movement has garnered a lot of headlines in recent months. It's a fresh effort based on a very old argument, and it faces a lot of challenges.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for May 26, 2023.
The "Greater Idaho" movement is the latest effort in the Northwest to promote that people would be better off by making things more the same, and avoiding our differences. The idea here is to move the border between eastern Oregon and Idaho to the Cascades. This means that eastern Oregon would become part of Idaho. As I've pointed out here before, the resulting map of Idaho would resemble a giant middle finger.
According to “Greater Idaho” spokesman Matt McCaw, there is a logic behind the idea. Eastern Oregon, "Votes like Idaho, lives their lives like Idaho, would prefer to have the state governance of the state of Idaho." McCaw recently told Soundside that there is also the classic argument that has divided the USA since its inception — rural versus urban. Lifestyles are just different between the two, but there are far more people, aka voters, in the cities.
"The west side of Oregon votes very Democratically, left leaning, it's more urban, wealthier, it's less agricultural," McCaw said. "The east side of the state is conservative, rual, has a different economy, votes differently .... Oregon has one major urban area, that is the Portland metro area. That Portland metro area has 2 million people. So whatever the Portland metro area decides, gets implemented across the state and there is nothing eastern Oregonians can do about it. Even if that is not at all what they want for their communities. Even if they vote overwhelmingly against whatever policies are being enacted. They simply don't have the numbers to overcome the other side of the state."
Putting issues aside, you have to admit that scenario would make any person feel quite powerless. Perhaps it's easy for me to comment on news like this, because I live on the side of the mountains that generally gets what it wants. Of course, there are issues at play among all this, and they are hot button ones. There was a move to lower drug possession crimes to a civil citation in Oregon. The east side wasn't for it, the west side voted it through. There was also a gun control measure that the east side didn't favor, but the west side outvoted them again.
The border move also appeals to some in Idaho, because Oregon has legalized cannabis. Some Idaho lawmakers appear to associate pot with the problems of harder drugs like opiates and meth. By moving the Oregon border, many feel it would move the availability of Oregon's cannabis farther away from its largest city, Boise (clearly, these Idaho lawmakers were never any fun at any college party they attended).
"Self-determination matters," McCaw said. "Where that state line is right now between Oregon and Idaho, doesn't make sense and is causing more problems than it's solving. We can move it, solve problems, lower political tension, and get good outcomes."
It sounds sensational, intriguing, and worth plenty of clicks. But this sort of reaction is not uncommon and efforts to split up, break away, move borders, or secede have popped up in the Northwest since the 1800s. There's the state of Jefferson idea that aimed to make a new state out of southwest Oregon and northwest California. There have been pushes for a state of Lincoln, to be carved out of eastern Washington and the Idaho panhandle. In 1937, a representative from Clark County wanted to make King County its own state, using an urban versus rural argument. There was also an effort in the 1990s to split off eastern King County into a new "Cedar County." Again, the foundation was an urban versus rural debate.
In 2016, a group of supporters for a new nation called Cascadia met in Seattle. That country would be formed by combining Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Around the same time, in the wake of Donald Trump's election, there was an effort to put the option of Oregon seceding from the United States up for a vote.
Then you have the state of Liberty, promoted by former state lawmaker Matt Shea. This idea to form a theocracy, er, I mean, a new state, would split eastern and western Washington. After Shea allegedly dabbled in domestic terrorism, and left office, other state Republicans took over the idea in Olympia.
In fact, historian Feliks Banel once noted that folks have attempted to carve out new states or move borders throughout the Northwest about 20 times between 1896 and 2019, mostly having to do with the states of Lincoln or Liberty. None have gotten far. Likely because it's quite a tall order. In short, you'd have to convince locals that they want it. Then the state Legislature has to vote in favor (two state Legislatures if you're dealing with two states). Then Congress has to sign off on the whole plan.
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45 candidates are running for Seattle City Council. Who are they and what do they stand for?
The stage is set for the Seattle City Council races later this year.
The primaries will be held in August. The top two vote-getters in each district will advance to the general election in November.
Forty-five candidates are running across the city’s seven districts, including three incumbents.
KUOW’s politics editor Cat Smith has been talking to the candidates since last week’s filing deadline. She joined Morning Edition host Angela King to talk about some of the key issues and races so far.
The Candidates
Broadly speaking, the majority of the candidates, about three-quarters, are first-time contenders.
They're majority white, majority male and generally agree on the top campaign issues: homelessness, housing and public safety.
Five candidates say they have either been homeless or experienced housing insecurity (Margaret Elisabeth, District 2; Ry Armstrong, District 3; Andrew Ashiofu, District 3; George Artem, District 4; ChrisTiana ObeySumner, District 5), and several others currently work in a role — in the legal system, advocacy or mutual aid — that brings them into direct contact with people who are experiencing those issues today.
On the whole, these candidates are generally leaning more left of center.
The Issues
Voters won't be surprised to hear that homelessness and housing are among the candidates' top concerns. Nor will they wonder why public safety is on that list.
However, what might be surprising this year is the general tone of the public safety debate.
It's been a hot-button issue in the Seattle area for years, but it really took center stage after the murder of George Floyd. May 24 was the three-year anniversary of his death. The outcry that resulted from his killing led to the "defund" movement, a message of pulling police funding that was picked up by some Seattle officials, including members of the City Council.
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Small business factor in the Seattle City Council race: Today So Far
- There are 45 people running for Seattle City Council. One initial takeaway: There's a handful of candidates from corners of business.
- The Forward Party welcomes Nirvana's Krist Novoselic to its board. Also, Chris Vance leaves the emerging third party.
- Seattle considers new rules for delivery app companies.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for May 25, 2023.
There are 45 people officially running for Seattle City Council in the upcoming election. It's a lot. But as KUOW's David Hyde points out, "a lot" can be relative. There were 55 candidates in 2019, which is the last time Seattle had seven council seats up for a vote.
Seattle voters approved the city's democracy voucher program in 2015. It was first used in 2017. It's a way to provide public financing for elections with the aim of encouraging candidates who normally wouldn't have access to big donors (this year, there is $5.25 million in available democracy vouchers). After that, a lot more candidates started showing up. It seems that, this year at least, the candidate count has dipped. The deadline for candidates to file was last Friday.
Hyde notes that one potential reason behind the lower number of candidates this year is the "increasingly toxic atmosphere in Seattle politics." Four out of the seven open seats have no incumbents. Council President Debora Juarez told The Seattle Times that, “I’m not seen as a person by some people and it’s not safe for me or my family." She is not running for re-election.
Still, one could assume that Seattle's democracy vouchers are having an influence. At least, they're favored by a majority of candidates — 36 candidates (out of the total 45) are listed as participating in the democracy voucher program, so far.
While chatting on Bill Radke's "Week in Review" last Friday, I made one observation, despite it being quite early to make such a statement, but it's only become more clear since then. A fair number of candidates from corners of Seattle's business community are popping up, including two cannabis entrepreneurs in District 3 alone.
- Stephen Brown is running for District 1. He's owner of Eltana Bagels and says his "career has been spent founding and running companies."
- Tanya Woo is running in District 2, and is a known figure among the business community in the CID.
- Joy Hollingsworth is running in District 3. She works at Hollingsworth Farms, her family's cannabis business.
- Alex Cooley in District 3 founded Solstice, a cannabis company.
- Ken Wilson in District 4 is a small business owner and engineer.
- Pete Hanning in District 6 is the former owner of Fremont's Red Door, and is currently the executive director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce. He's also worked with the Seattle Restaurant Alliance, Washington Restaurant/Hospitality Association, and the Seattle Nightlife & Music Association.
- Jon Lisbin in District 6 built and sold an ad agency in Seattle. He also served on the board of Seattle Entrepreneur Network.
- Victoria Palmer in District 6 is a personal organizer.
- Olga Sagan in District 7 is owner of Seattle's Piroshky Piroshky restaurants.
Then there are what I call "business adjacent" candidates. They're in the business scene, have previously run businesses, are consultants, etc. Like Shea Wilson (District 7), an attorney who helps with business formation, and buying/selling businesses. ChrisTiana Obeysumner (District 5) is the consultant behind Epiphanies of Equity LLC. Maren Costa (District 1) is an advisor for startups, and has worked in a leading role at some of the area's big tech companies (Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon). And Phil Tavel (District 1) who previously ran a business in Pioneer Square, describes himself as an entrepreneur, but primary works as an attorney.
Add that up and that's 13 candidates, about 29% of the field.
In other politics news, have you heard much about the Forward Party? The emerging third-party effort has lost its initial local leader, but has added some Seattle music royalty to its ranks at the same time.
You may recall Andrew Yang as a Democratic hopeful in the 2020 presidential primary. Since then, he's started a movement to develop a third party, mostly filled with folks who don't like the sensationalism, extremes, and general Sharks vs Jets mentality of the two main political parties. The third option he, and a range of other organizers, are offering is the Forward Party.
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Vance out, Novoselic in: Forward Party gets Washington state switch up
Chris Vance says he has stepped down as a Washington state lead for the Forward Party, a third-party effort with emerging branches across the United States. At the same time, the party says it has welcomed Nirvana's Krist Novoselic to its national board.
You may recall Andrew Yang as a Democratic hopeful in the 2020 presidential primary. Since then, he's started a movement to develop a third party, mostly filled with folks who don't like the sensationalism, extremes, and general "Sharks vs Jets" mentality of the two main political parties. The third option that he, and a range of other organizers, are offering is the Forward Party.
They have been setting up state level branches in recent months. Washington has one of its own. Yang was in town this month for a Forward event. A scroll through the party's recent social media posts features a range of volunteers and leaders who are signed on locally.
One name that may sound familiar to Washingtonians is Chris Vance, former King County and state lawmaker, and former chair of the state GOP. He left the Republican Party and has run unsuccessfully as an independent ever since. Vance has called for a more moderate third party over the past few years.
Vance says he was signed on as the Washington state lead for the Forward Party, but recently announced, "I am sorry to say that I just resigned from the Forward Party and am once again politically homeless."
In a tweet, Vance says that he was expecting a Forward Party convention in 2023, and a new party platform, which isn't happening. Not having a strict platform has sort of been the Forward Party's schtick since day one. Vance doesn't think it will work.
Around the time of Vance's exit, Yang welcomed Nirvana band member Krist Novoselic to the Forward Party.
“The only way you do anything is to become really active,” Novoselic said in a statement to Forward Party members.
In an email to supporters, Yang noted that Novoselic is former chair of his county's Democratic Party, and has a history of political activism in Washington. He is now joining the national board of the Forward Party.
"I've been in touch with Krist for a number of months, but our first meeting was last month in Seattle.... He joined me in speaking to the Washington Forward Party, and agreed to join our efforts after meeting the local activists and volunteers in the state," Yang wrote.
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Renton grants help high school grads who can’t afford college
As Dechae Hester started his senior year at Renton High School, he knew he wanted to become a dental assistant. To do that, he planned to take his final year of high school more seriously. And in November, Hester found out he had been accepted into the program at Renton Technical College to become a certified dental assistant.
But he didn’t know how he would pay for it — until earlier this month.
“At one point, I just completely gave up. I forgot about it,” Hester said. “And so when I heard them say, ‘Your school is going to be paid for,’ I was like, ‘Wait, what? What are you talking about?’”
Renton High School graduates like Hester now have a chance to go to the city’s technical college for free. State Rep. Steve Berguist, a Renton Democrat who is also a substitute teacher in the district, spearheaded the pilot program.
Called the Renton Program, the new partnership’s goal is to create a new pathway to higher education for students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend.
It covers up to two years of a student’s first associate’s degree. Graduates at all four of Renton’s high schools are eligible — regardless of their grade point average, income, or ability. The new state budget provides $400,000 toward the free college program.
Liliana Urias, another senior at Renton High School, also wasn’t planning to go to college.
“I didn’t have the resources or a way to pay for college,” Urias said.
She said she couldn’t afford it on her own and didn’t feel she could ask her parents for help when only one of them is working.
Urias also didn’t want to take out loans.
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Looking for mushrooms in all the right places: Today So Far
- Could magic mushrooms also be magic therapy?
- Spring is prime mushroom foraging season in the Pacific Northwest. Here are a few tips.
- Bellevue has a safe lot for people living in vehicles, but no one is stepping up to run it.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for May 24, 2023.
Bellevue has a safe lot for folks living in RVs and vehicles. But it doesn't have anyone to run it. This is like having your own airplane to take you where you need to go, but you can't find a pilot.
The city has set aside a piece of land near I-405 in downtown to be the safe lot. It's already being used by a homelessness charity, so it's a known spot, plus it has bathrooms. The city kicked off an effort to set up the safe lot earlier this year and asked for local service providers to apply to manage it ... no one spoke up.
It can be a tall order. A service provider would have to know how to deal with substance abuse disorders, and provide things like job training, etc., plus manage the safe lot where people are living. There are local organizations who can do that, but according to Nico Quijano, Bellevue’s homelessness program outreach manager, such groups are already too busy with their current workload.
"This really highlights the crisis of homelessness in King County and Western Washington. Eastside suburbs have been criticized before for not enough shelters," KUOW reporter Casey Martin told Soundside recently. "When a pretty affluent city like Bellevue steps up and wants to offer half a million dollars for a one-year pilot program to open up a safe parking lot, and they still can't even open this, it really speaks to that — a lot of service providers are a little overwhelmed."
So Bellevue is left sitting on $450,000 for a safe lot pilot program slated to last until 2024. Read more here.
The Washington state Legislature has ordered UW researchers to get people high on mushrooms. OK, not exactly, but you're super curious now, aren't you? Clickbait!
Last session, lawmakers passed a bill that mandates a study into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin. That's the super fun ingredient in magic mushrooms that makes them so magical. There is a growing body of evidence that psilocybin could remedy ailments ranging from depression to addiction. The doses we're talking about, however, are probably far from psychedelic levels that lead to Hunter S. Thompson books, or make it possible to listen to Pink Floyd's "The Darkside of the Moon" all the way through, nonstop.
Instead, what researchers are focused on are ways to treat PTSD and addiction, specifically among military veterans and first responders.
“Our hope is that in targeting this specific population with these two co-morbidities, we could better understand if this could be a viable treatment moving forward,” said Dr. Nathan Sackett, who is currently setting the study up at UW.
Instead of taking the mushrooms and hiking Cougar Mountain or going to a laser show at the Pacific Science Center, participants will get a dose while with psychiatric professionals in a therapy session. There's a bit more to this, so read here for the full story.
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Are Seattle's democracy vouchers working? The results so far are mixed
Dozens of people are running for Seattle City Council this year, 45 to be exact. And they’re vying for just seven council seats.
But when you look at the last comparable election, the candidate field isn’t as crowded as you might think. There are about 18% fewer candidates than 2019, which is the last time we had seven council seats on the ballot in Seattle.
That's not the trend “democracy voucher” advocates hoped to see.
Democracy vouchers are Seattle’s system of public election financing. Each qualified resident gets four vouchers worth $25 each to donate to the candidates of their choice.
The program is designed, in part, to increase the number of people who donate to campaigns, and that is exactly what’s been happening.
It’s also intended to address some of the problems with “big money in politics,” to give candidates who aren’t wealthy or well-connected a leg up with campaign expenses. When the program idea went to Seattle voters, advocates said it would help level the playing field, neutralize the power of big money in politics, and encourage more regular people to run.
The number of council candidates dramatically increased in 2019, according to one academic analysis.
But this year, the number of candidates has gone in the wrong direction, with 45 candidates running for council compared to 55 in 2019.
It’s not entirely clear why fewer people have thrown their hats in the ring this year. But several incumbents decided not to run for re-election, with some hinting that the increasingly toxic atmosphere in Seattle politics is one reason why they decided to get out.
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Balancing downtown Seattle and the future of remote work: Today So Far
- Seattle is at a crossroads. Can it balance helping downtown's struggling businesses with a future of remote work?
- There's that word again — "gubernatorial."
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for May 23, 2023.
Well this is awkward. On one hand, you have downtown Seattle struggling out of the pandemic era, with low foot traffic and businesses eagerly watching for office workers to return. On the other hand, there are office employees now being asked to come back to the office, but perhaps don't really want to and are willing to protest over it.
Just weeks after Amazon started mandating that employees return to its Seattle offices at least three days a week, a group of workers have started organizing a walkout in protest. The hour-long walkout is slated for noon on May 31, but organizers say they'll only do it if they can get 1,000 co-workers to sign on to participate. Employees at Amazon offices outside of Seattle are encouraged to walk out, too. According to The Seattle Times, there are folks at other offices aiming to participate.
There are two employee activist groups behind this protest. One you've likely heard of, which is Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. They've organized demonstrations in the past, pushing for the company to adopt more climate-friendly policies. The second group emerged after the company recently began its new in-office policy on May 1. The group "Amazon Remote Advocacy" reportedly came about after 30,000 co-workers joined a "remote advocacy" Slack channel in recent weeks. Among their arguments is a statement that employees should have a say in decisions that affect their lives (and the climate), such as returning to the office, as well as the effect on more vulnerable employees.
According to a statement from the groups: "The world is changing, and Amazon needs to embrace the new reality of remote and flexible work if it wants to remain an innovative company that attracts and retains world-class talent."
KIRO Radio recently looked at traffic data and noted that since Amazon's in-office move started, traffic times leading into Seattle have slowed by as much as 38% on some routes. It's anecdotal, but it's being called the "Amazon effect." It should be noted that Amazon is not the only company in town doing this. Starbucks started a similar policy this year.
This is where things get awkward, because there is no easy answer around all of this. For months now, downtown business leaders have been begging everybody from city hall to local offices to bring employees back into Seattle. The core argument here is that foot traffic downtown is a shadow of the Before Times. The presence of office workers is about 26% of pre-pandemic levels (according to reporting from March). Without such people coming into town and leaving their dollars behind, local businesses have been suffering.
The Downtown Seattle Association's most recent data states that incoming worker traffic "continues to improve."
"April 2023 saw the second-highest level of daily worker foot traffic since the start of the pandemic, averaging more than 73,000 visits daily."
It has been a struggle to improve conditions downtown, and that struggle has put Seattle at a crossroads. The city can either double down on the way things were before pandemic disruptions, or carve a new sustainable path. Which is best? Which is easiest? Right now, it seems that the city's leaders are leaning back into the old office ways.
To borrow an oft-used tagline from Mayor Bruce Harrell, this crossroads could be an opportunity to hit "reset" on the city, and build back better to manage our region. That's an argument going around town right now as one solution to downtown woes. The old way meant getting people in their cars to commute into Seattle, cramming everyone into one spot — spend a couple hours in a car to work in a cubicle eight hours. A new way would mean redefining Seattle, perhaps creating a downtown where people can actually live, and those residents can support the local neighborhood. There are indications that this sort of local support happened more widely among Seattle's suburbs during pandemic shifts, places where people live and work remotely. Those Seattle neighborhoods have remarkably low retail vacancy rates. The fact that things worked out differently in downtown should be big red flag for city leaders. Actually, the businesses that catered to downtown residents were the ones who fared better during this time. After all, the downtown area is about half office space ... much of which has not been recently used.
It should be noted that the DSA also recently reported that occupied downtown apartments are at record highs. It also states that the "the pace of growth is moderating" when it comes to downtown apartments.
Fewer commuting office workers means better roads for those who don't have a remote-work option. I'm primarily thinking about our region's health-care workers who are commuting in from more affordable communities. Lower income workers are more likely to hit the road, too.
That's what Seattle faces right now. Groups of employees who prefer to work at home, and a downtown community that would like to see more folks in offices (and their shops). Will the Amazon activists get enough co-workers to sign on and walk out? Will someone point out that this demonstration is essentially over the lunch hour? Will Amazon feel the need to respond? We'll find out on May 31.
KUOW's Bill Radke is dissecting our language even more this week in the latest edition of "Words in Review" all focused on the term "gubernatorial." TSF also covered this work in a recent "Did You Know" segment — you know, that section below that you humor me with as I nerd out about random factoids, which I inevitably link to movies in some way. The gist of that section was that "gubernator" and "gubernatorial" were the original Latin version of the word. It evolved from there and the French added a "v," which the English took on and today we have "governor." Yet, in the USA, we use "gubernatorial" when referencing elections, instead of saying "governor's race" or "race for governor."
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