Seattle Nice: Our Hopes and Predictions for Seattle in 2026 It's our annual New Year's extravaganza! publicola.com/2025/12/22/s...

turns out that as you get older, taking a drug that causes you to lose muscle mass, as one of the direct "benefits"—35-45% of weight loss on Ozempic-type drugs is muscle loss—is bad, actually (unrelated, wtf is going on with that illustration) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/h...

This Week on PubliCola: December 20, 2025 SPD Invites Cops to Evangelical Event, City Attorney Quadruples Drug Prosecutions, and Seattle Approves Eight-Unit Apartments Everywhere publicola.com/2025/12/20/t...

In Seattle, Choe usually crashes press events wearing nasty hospital-grade slides, mudflap-girl track pants, and a ratty hoodie and baseball cap. Would be interested in hearing what @dieworkwear.bsky.social thinks of our local Charlie Kirk acolyte's MAGA glowup.

Seattle Times opens up its pages for random people to just complain and complain about how hard it is to park in downtown Seattle, how there's supposedly shit all over the sidewalks, and oh yes, how we aren't MAGA enough. www.seattletimes.com/opinion/some...

very frustrating to see stories irresponsibly blaming addiction for Nick Reiner's alleged murder of his parents, and stating as fact that addiction can "lead to" murder. We know nothing so far about any mental health conditions he may have used drugs to self-medicate. So can we all just take a beat?

Sent the Seattle Police Dept two sets of questions about two different stories: A sting they did on a strip club where they claim they found "human trafficking" and the "john letters" they are sending to men suspected of soliciting sex workers. Both were on SPD's blotter. Just got their response./1

Gen Z seems smaller in this Seattle count because the cohort only includes a 12-year span here, while millennials and Gen X are 15-year generations. If all 15 years were included, Gen Z would have Gen X-like numbers—and Boomers, chopped up here into two cohorts, would be similar to millennials.

More news from this week: Council Passes Watered-Down Consultant Ethics Bill, Wilson Appoints SDOT Director Who Headed Waterfront, Mercer Projects publicola.com/2025/12/19/4...

Due to an editing error by SOMEBODY, this post was originally posted over an unrelated one. HERE is the new, improved link! publicola.com/2025/12/19/s...

Seattle City Council Approves Eight-Unit Apartment Buildings Everywhere The changes are part of the city's long-delayed comprehensive plan, which still isn't finished—giving the new mayor and councilmembers an opportunity to add urbanist improvements. publicola.com/2025/12/18/c...

It’s been a tumultuous year in local politics, with voters supporting new leadership in the city & county. Journalists @ericacbarnett.bsky.social, @sanfordnate.bsky.social, & Greg Kim break down biggest stories of 2025 & what they mean for year ahead. Watch full show w/ @callananseattle.bsky.social

Drug Prosecutions Quadrupled In Final Months of City Attorney Ann Davison's Term Incoming City Attorney Erika Evans says diversion, not punishment, "should be the default response for people dealing with substance use disorder.” publicola.com/2025/12/18/d...

Just got 10 form messages letting me know that the Seattle Police Department has moved my "placeholder date" for the records requests they are ignoring, going back te 2023, to the end of NEXT year. Almost unbelievably, they have only provided ONE set of records on ONE request (from 2024) this year.

NYT accidentally argues for taxing the rich www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/d...

NEW: Mayor-elect Katie Wilson has chosen Angela Brady, director of the Office of the Waterfront, Civic Projects and Sound Transit, as head of the Seattle Department of Transportation. Brady will replace Adiam Emery, former mayor Bruce Harrell's SDOT director and his former deputy mayor.

SPD Paid for Top Exec to Stay at Four-Star Hotel for a Month; Unclear Whether New Contract Would Have Let Police Handle Auderer Case Internally Today's Afternoon Fizz: publicola.com/2025/12/16/s...

everybody stop complaining the Seattle Times posted a Manhattan Institute editorial that says you're just whining unnecessarily about the cost of living "Some have high expectations that their incomes can’t meet" like being able to go out occasionally www.seattletimes.com/opinion/affo...

ICYMI: The Seattle Police Department invited officers to attend a retreat hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, headed by Trump ally Franklin Graham. Four years ago, then-chief Adrian Diaz had to rescind a dinner invitation from the same group over its anti-LGBTQ views.

SPD Invites Officers in "Officer Involved Shootings" to Attend Billy Graham Evangelical Ministry Retreat The fundamentalist ministry, run by Donald Trump ally Franklin Graham, is anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice—and teaches that a woman's place is in the home. publicola.com/2025/12/15/s...

I remember a time when the Seattle police actually put police reports on its website! Today, I got a notice that if I want them to pull 3 police reports—a job that I know, from long experience doing this, takes moments—I will have to file records requests, which SPD does not meaningfully fulfill.

This Week on PubliCola: December 13, 2025 A 14-point plan for incoming Mayor Wilson, a new police contract that raises cops' pay another 42 percent, a parking enforcement labor slowdown, and more. publicola.com/2025/12/13/t...

Seattle Nice: New Police Contract, Wilson Keeps Police Chief, and We Celebrate our Four-Year Anniversary That's literally hundreds of podcasts, including this one: publicola.com/2025/12/12/s...

Parking Enforcement Officers On Work Slowdown After Contract Negotiations Stall The PEOs have been working without a contract for two years. One issue: Their pay caps out at $37 an hour, compared to $52 for other city employees they say do similar work. publicola.com/2025/12/12/p...

I am OBSESSED with FARM Rio—what other company will advertise a pinstripe spaghetti strap dress with a massive monstera leaf on the shoulder as a wardrobe "staple"?

Sara Nelson did not just refer to political disclosure as "an opening of the kimono" (she did)

City of Seattle news: Marshall Foster, the longtime head of waterfront programs (most recently as head of Seattle Center, which now oversees the waterfront), is leaving the city to become the director of development for Sound Transit, the regional transit agency.

Mayor-Elect Wilson Will Retain Police Chief Shon Barnes Barnes, appointed by Bruce Harrell a year ago, says SPD is poised to become "a national model for exceptional policing." publicola.com/2025/12/10/m...

Seattle Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson will retain police chief Shon Barnes, PubliCola has learned. Barnes' detractors in Wilson's orbit highlighted his missteps with the LGBTQ+ community and his old-school views on policing, including statements that he will fight any reductions to SPD's budget.

Hearing that mayor-elect Katie Wilson will announce today that she will retain the current police chief, Shon Barnes. More to come.

Divided Council Passes New Police Contract That Raises Officer Pay 42 Percent, With Few Accountability Concessions The contract, which provides $126,000 paychecks to rookie cops after 6 months, also imposes new restrictions on the CARE team of unarmed first responders. publicola.com/2025/12/10/4...

still thinking about the person protesting the police contract yesterday who yelled "let her drink herself to death!" about Councilmember Sara Nelson, and the fellow protester who came up and asked them to stop because stigmatizing addiction is why we have a police-first response to people in crisis

literal toddlers (but with less taste) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/u...

I'm in council chambers for the city council's vote on a new police contract that gives cops $126,000 a year after six months without any significant accountability gains.

Feds Yank Homeless Funding Process for “Revisions,” Adding More Confusion to Changes that Could Impact Thousands in Seattle Local providers were already reeling from the changes, which would end federal funding for most permanent housing and subject homelessness providers to ideological tests.

At least TWO 'no' votes are now expected on the Seattle Police Officers Guild contract this afternoon: Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Rob Saka, who just sent out a press release announcing his opposition.

Watching this morning's city council public safety committee meeting (which unfortunately conflicted with the mayor-elect's "meet the transition team" meeting). They're discussing Bob Kettle's "strategic framework for public safety" and some other items; will post about anything spicy!

In which we suggest a new version of Wilson's 14 Points, including: 1. Reopen the Comp Plan 3. Have an Office of The Night Mayor 4. Let CARE do Their Jobs 6. Make City Government Transparent Again 13. Defund (parts of) the Police 14. Hang Out with State Sen. Jessica Bateman. ... All 14 here:

Extreme Seattle moment: A bottle carrier I was using to carry water from Trader Joe's got wet and broke, spilling bottles everywhere. Two women turned around, looked at me, looked at the bottles rolling down the sidewalk, and got right in their SUV. Tried to glare but they were looking at their feet

Seattle City Councilmember Bob Kettle, defending the city's police union contract that gives new cops starting salaries of $126,000 a year with no major accountability improvements, says critics just don't understand how labor relations works or what arbitration is.

A 14-Point Plan for Mayor Wilson Channeling the original Wilsonian 14 Points, we offer 14 policy suggestions for the incoming mayor. publicola.com/2025/12/08/a...

HUD has withdrawn the Notice of Funding Opportunity for homelessness program announcing the news during a hearing in a lawsuit by @naehomelessness.bsky.social against new rules that preclude low-barrier housing and require agencies to implement discriminatory rules. www.hud.gov/hud-partners...

Missed this—the Times accuses the city attorney-elect of winning by unfairly "painting" Ann Davison as a Republican. She is openly Republican, and ran as a Republican in a partisan race for a statewide position! She talked about why she's a Republican as recently as our Seattle Nice election debate.

The Seattle Times in its infinite wisdom argues that banishing men who pay for sex from Aurora Ave. N is an effective way to address sex trafficking, which they appear to define as any trade of money for sex. At least they didn't run their usual "disembodied legs in high heels" stock photo?

Since Durkan took down the Seattle city employee directory, I've been publishing my own version on PublICola. I haven't posted a new one because the city department that has this database has kept pushing my records request, from last June, forward. Today they gave me a new date: NEXT MARCH.

I’d add from my own reporting that one group that needs cheap transit repeatedly gets their bikes stolen with little to no help — the homeless themselves www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

A Seattle Times editorial board member had his $3,500 bike stolen, immediately called the King County Prosecutor's Office (because his bike is so expensive, "it's a felony," he noted), then concluded that police need to spend more of their time tracking down bikes stolen and used by homeless people.

This Week on PubliCola: December 6, 2025 Overtime cuts and media training at SPD, layoffs at King County, a big grant to private club closely linked to Harrell, and more. publicola.com/2025/12/06/t...

we all make fun of NYT headlines on here but not enough is said about their apparent lack of basic copy editing

The Seattle Police Department just got a huge infusion of cash for new surveillance cameras that they claim help them solve and prevent crimes. Here, the cameras seem incidental to the fact that the guy walked off and was arrested immediately by county cops that were right there.