In 2020, most of Seattle agreed they wanted civilian crisis response, but bringing that vision into reality has been a rocky ride. Here's the latest on the CARE team along with some possible paths forward that might allow them to answer more calls.

Attn @tonydowler.bsky.social

This was my contribution to a certain meme going around in March 2020, as you may recall. But does this particular instance count as a meme if it never spread, though?

no, you dipshit, before you get on you ask SAY, WHERE IS THIS ROCKETSHIP HEADED

Watching all the lit nerds go through what Rolling Stone subjects rock nerds to once or twice a month.

Tony is one of the best to ever do it! Throw him a follow if you love awesome dungeon maps.

“We are the publication that has spent a decade arguing that this region can house its people, protect its land, move its workers and students, and preserve what makes it worth loving, all at the same time, and only if we are honest about the tradeoffs.”—and that is why I’m a subscriber.

ORDINANCE PASSES UNANIMOUSLY SHARED STREETS ARE LEGAL IN THE CITY OF SEATTLE THIS HAS BEEN MY DREAM FOR YEARS AND NOW IT IS HAPPENING IF YOU COME HOME FROM EUROPE WISHING WE COULD HAVE WHAT THEY HAVE THEN WHY NOT DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT SOMETIMES YOU WILL SUCCEED

If FBI Director Patel wants to pass out branded bourbon or pop bottles in a locker room, he should stick to podcasting. This is a serious job & I don't believe the American people can count on him. Patel should never have been confirmed. He should resign or be fired.

Now that is a promising statement for candidacy.

I’m not exactly sure why, but I feel I need to be sure that @johnharper.bsky.social has seen this opening credits sequence. Also back in the days of our Attacks of Opportunity blog, one of us—perhaps @tonydowler.bsky.social most likely?—would’ve pitched a game based on this.

His follow-up clarifies “the song should be something nigh-universal for millennials but that didn’t really escape our generational cohort” and man, you are not paying attention if you think only Millennials liked The Postal Service. Or LCD, or the YYYs… really I doubt any of those songs qualify.

I have the very strong impression that the urgency to cut back on ST3 projects *right now* is driven by people outside Seattle who feel they’re paying for Seattle-specific service that they think has no benefit to them, and do not want to see Seattle get that service.

SCL doesn’t ask the public if we want safe transmission lines. SPU doesn’t ask the public if we want safe watermains. Boeing Field doesn’t ask the public if we want a safe runway. WSDOT doesn’t ask the public if we want safe bridges. Why does SDOT put safe streets up for debate?

The News About Sound Transit Is Grim. Why Are Most Seattle Politicians Pretending It Isn't? Only Dan Strauss, whose Seattle council district stands to lose an entire voter-approved light rail line, seems appropriately pissed. publicola.com/2026/05/08/t...

To celebrate Star Wars day I write up what lessons you can learn from Han Solo when wanting to play a character who really doesn't want to go on this adventure, thank you very much.

Ah, here’s ya problem! See, dat says Megadungeon MONTH, but ya started April 7 and tried to end May 1—dat’s only 25 days! Time Guild Law says it’s gotta be AT LEAST 28 days to qualify as a month, could be up to 31. It should run down on its own in the next coupla days, maybe by Friday.

While there’s a certain kind of fun in taking light rail to Northgate, the former mall area still feels so desolate that it’s not fun walking the length from the station to B&N. This is much easier and more pleasant to get to; I’ll finally use the gift certificate I got at Christmas!

Incidentally, while the madness of the Neverending Megadungeon Month persists, why not take a look at @tonydowler.bsky.social‘s Salamander Mines and give him a well-deserved pledge, too? www.backerkit.com/c/projects/t...

Incidentally, while the madness of the Neverending Megadungeon Month persists, why not take a look at @tonydowler.bsky.social‘s Salamander Mines and give him a well-deserved pledge, too? www.backerkit.com/c/projects/t...

Doing my part to keep driving @kierongillen.bsky.social mad. Proud to be the 2,111th backer 😎 on @BackerKit Crowdfunding for DIE: Metadungeon! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/r...

“The property […] still sits inaccessible behind a fence.” Not exactly inaccessible—when I walked by a few weeks ago, several people were in the area using it as an off-leash dog park.

This is probably one of the most consequential stories I'll write this year, about the majority of WA state Supreme Court seats up for grabs this November.

I know Microsoft typically puts datacenters in nearby smaller towns, where “nearby” could be as much as 30 to 50 miles away. The obvious reason: real estate costs and property taxes. The blog post does say the proposals are “in the Seattle area”; I doubt this moratorium is necessary.

NEW OP-ED// Op-Ed: Seattle's Convention Center Should Be a Public Commons, Not an Underused Corporate Plaything By Ivan Schneider via @theurbanist.org

“‘I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now!’, that’s not hard is it?!”

Kettle continues to be a terrible out-of-touch reactionary who should have no place on the council. We can’t get him out of office too soon, and we’d be much better off without him or Suarez meddling in public affairs.

Bus Lane... or SCANDAL? 😱

Thanks to @kierongillen.bsky.social reposting, I’ve just learned about this game with only hours to spare; this is SO MUCH a @goplaynw.bsky.social type game that I had to pledge for a copy to put in our games library.

Thinking about AI controversies in writing, and all the cautionary instructions to not use em-dashes, or semicolons, or short sentences, so that readers don’t think your book is AI-generated, and… well, first of all, get knotted with that rubbish.

I’m (still) surprised the Preservation Board has not been trying to completely ban bikes and scooters from the historical district. I guess they won’t mind if people park the bikes and scooters directly in front of the business entrances, so long as not a single historic parking space is lost.

This is EXCELLENT news! The only thing not mentioned is how people on southbound Stewart and westbound Denny are still routinely blocking that intersection while trying to get to the Yale Ave onramp, despite a traffic camera supposedly monitoring there. Maybe that part has improved recently?

I haven't been showing this art enough! Funding now on Backerkit. The Crossroads connects the great stair to the deep mines and other dungeon regions. The once luxurious baths now play host to a variety of creatures and dangers, but also fabulous treasure. www.backerkit.com/c/projects/t...

Sound Transit can halve the cost of light rail to Ballard and West Seattle by building them as a connected automated light rail line with slimmer stations, according to two transit experts who have launched the Sound Transit Now campaign. Guest op-ed: www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-reconn...

This kind of thing at Substack (including their Nazi problem and trans hate problem) are why my newsletter is at Ghost.org and always has been. Andrew Tate is a spectacularly vile human being accused of numerous violent crimes against women and hugely corrosive for young male minds.

I did a lot of reporting last year that sought to connect some dots at a more local level. Very hard to do due to so much chaos and information overload. I've given less focus on this so far this year for a couple reasons: 1. I've turned more attention to ICE/detention centers, and 2...

“Lack of outreach” claims from landlords, businesses, and homeowners ALWAYS mean “the city is still proceeding with the project we oppose, despite all the noisy fearmongering we’ve done and money we’ve thrown around to kill any efforts to help other people”.

We cannot have peace, stability, or order until Trump is GONE FOR GOOD. He cannot do this! He is intellectually and ethically incapable of laying out a course of action in pursuit of a goal and sticking to it. He will continue to wildly bounce from thing to thing until he is removed, permanently

Well, here's some news. Going forward, the Seattle City Attorney's Office will have a full-time attorney devoted to working on wage theft and worker rights violations. On the one hand, I can't believe we didn't have this before. But otoh, it's a positive change.

I spent 4 years of Trump’s first admin posting regularly: The Trump administration and its GOP enablers are an existential threat to our citizens, our society, and the world. They must be removed from office. I meant it every time, I was correct, it’s still the case, and it’s ever more urgent.

The quality of photos from Artemis II of the moon surface is incredible to witness in real time.

Very important theological analysis

At a bar, playing ‘90s pop-rock hits: ehh, all this is such mediocre mainstream stuff, I don’t care about any of it. “Semi-Charmed Life” starts playing: …okay but this one’s good. What can I say, I’m not immune to a good “doo-doo-doo” choral line. I may be a hipster but I’m not a _monster_.

If we had the population density of Boston (about 13,977 per square mile), we could house nearly 2 million people in the city, more than double our current population, and we’d STILL be a long long way from “New York Alki” as some of the original settlers dubbed their new home.

This is good news, and I’m hoping @mayorofseattle.bsky.social will be able to push this through despite the inevitable loud opposition of many well-off householders and some reactionary councilmembers.

Street trees (and trees in parks, where MOST of the city's tree loss is happening) are THE solution—not private lawns. And you can add them in places that don't have them, cooling down neighborhoods and improving the streetscape. Imagine how much better San Francisco would be with street trees!

Apple is 50 years old tomorrow. Today I have a new piece on Six Colors talking about the time 38 years ago when I first encountered a Mac, and how it changed my life: sixcolors.com/post/2026/03...

Given Weir’s age (born in ‘72), I’d guess he absorbed TOS through endless reruns on TV while he was a very young child—and his rejection of its socio-political aspects reflects a child’s superficial awareness and lack of curiosity into more sophisticated elements beyond his grasp.