Seattle's City Council is considering legislation to remove restrictions on the use of “less lethal” weapons for crowd control. Should SPD be allowed to use "blast balls" on protestors? Erica's been covering it. We take a closer look. 

In Part Deux we discuss the brewing controversy over a Ballard bar applying for an "adult cabaret" license. A nearby property owner is circulating a petition in protest, calling it a "strip club." Is moralism making a comeback in Seattle?   

Hear our hot takes and look for Erica's story on Publicola later this week.  

Plus, Sandeep issues a clarification about last week's episode.  

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Tammy Morales has announced she's quitting the city council in January. She accused some colleagues of treating her very poorly and also told Erica she sees no point in continuing because she can't make any progress whatsoever passing progressive legislation with the current, more centrist council.  

Is the current council toxic? Is Morales right to quit? Is she abandoning her progressive allies? We take a closer look at these questions, and speculate on the fallout from the move in 2025.  

As our regular listeners might expect, Erica sides with Morales, Sandeep is less sympathetic, and David questions the consistency of both. 

Our editor is Quinn Waller. 

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We take a closer look at the council's tie vote on Cathy Moore's proposal to tax the rich. Does the vote foreshadow more progressive things to come? We debate that and other juicy budget tidbits. 

Note: this episode taped on Wednesday Nov 20, before the full council vote on Moore's proposed capital gains tax.   

Quinn Waller is our editor. 

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at [email protected].

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King County Executive Dow Constantine has announced his plan to step down at the end of next year. We take a closer look at the move and the emerging tension between the centrist Seattle City Council and King County government, which has moved further left.

Erica highlights the struggle in this recent story about a city council proposal to turn a sobering center into "a secure facility for people arrested for public drug use and possession." King County's not interested.  

We also debate and discuss what prompted Constantine to make the move after serving in the role since the Mike McGinn era, Constantine's legacy, and who will replace him.  

Plus, Seattle City Councilmember Cathy Moore's proposal to tax the rich, and why it's destined to fail.  

Our editor is Quinn Waller.  

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It was a dreary election night for the left, but Seattle progressives celebrated city council candidate Alexis Mercedes Rinck's decisive victory over incumbent Tanya Woo. By Thursday afternoon Rinck's lead had grown to around 16 percentage points. Are voters sending a message to the centrist city council majority, led by Sara Nelson?  Erica and Sandeep debate and discuss.  

Quinn Waller is our editor. 

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On this deeply troubling election eve, Seattle Nice invites you inside the podcast for a comforting conversation about local politics.

First, we take a closer look at the juicy allegations swirling around SPD Chief Sue Rahr's decision to place former Chief Adrian Diaz and his chief of staff on leave. 

Second, a recent poll finds progressive city council candidate Alexis Mercedes Rinck has a ginormous lead over incumbent Tanya Woo. If accurate (Sandeep's skeptical), what would a big progressive win mean for the council's centrist majority heading into 2025?

Third, we discuss council member's Rob Saka's effort to remove, "a traffic safety barrier that prevents him from turning left on Delridge directly into the parking lot of his kids’ preschool." Is this a good look?  

 

 



 

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Erica’s out this week, so we bring you a preview of a new podcast called "Blue City Blues." 

Twenty years ago, in the wake of a searing presidential defeat, Dan Savage encouraged progressives to move to blue cities and to fortify them into an “Urban Archipelago” of culturally separatist bastions that rejected the reactionary politics of the larger red American landscape. And he got his wish. 

Over the last two decades, rural places got redder and urban areas much bluer, and America’s bluest cities developed their own distinctive culture and politics. They became the leading edge of a cultural transformation that reshaped progressivism, redefined urbanism and remade the Democratic Party.

But as blue cities went their own way, as they thrived as economically and culturally vibrant trend-setters, these urban cosmopolitan islands also developed their own distinctive set of problems. Inequality soared, and affordability tanked. 

And yet, as these cities evolved together and formed their own, increasingly shared worldview, the public conversation about this brave new pan-urban world-unto-itself stagnated, relegated to localized conversations in narrowly provincial regional newspapers or local NPR programming. 

On this pilot episode of Blue City Blues we pick up where Savage’s Urban Archipelago idea left off, with a national perspective on the present and the future of urban America. 

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With Erica gone this week David and Sandeep take a one-week vacation from city politics to take a closer look at the root causes of the problems facing Seattle Schools, including a controversial push by some district leaders to close up to 21 schools in the face of a nearly $100 million deficit.

Said special guest Robert Cruickshank, “This is one of the few issues where Sandeep is not wrong.” Robert is a Seattle parent and progressive activist, who currently leads Washington's Paramount Duty, which advocates for increased school funding.

Robert and Sandeep agree that the school district is floundering under bad leadership, but they provide different diagnoses of where to place the blame. Is the problem with our schools “neoliberal austerity” (Robert) or “wokery run amok” (Sandeep)? Or both? Listen to find out!

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

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This week special guest Daniel Malone, the Executive Director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, answered some difficult questions about the politics of homelessness, troubles at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, and other issues. 

Malone also turned the tables with a question of his own. "When are you guys going to start arguing with each other? I thought I was going to arrive at a cage somewhere and watch something happen," he asked.  

Quinn Waller is our editor.  

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We discuss and debate Erica's in-depth interview with SPD's interim chief Sue Rahr. Plus, Kshama Sawant's campaign against Kamala Harris, and Erica's latest on the city budget. 

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

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