Soundside

An estimated 45% of riders paid to get on the light rail in Seattle according to Sound Transit estimates from 2023. When you tap your Orca card at one of those yellow stands, or maybe you don’t, you’re making a difference to Sound Transit’s bottom line because the organization has been hoping to rely on that revenue to make up 40% of light rail’s operating budget. Last year, only 14% of the budget was covered by fares. It’s an ambitious goal, one that Sound Transit has had since the agency formed in the 90s. Sound Transit’s board says that goal is probably too ambitious. It’s time to revise expectations downwards to reflect the reality of lowered ridership, increasing costs, and rampant fare evasion. Guest(s): Ryan Packer, contributing editor at The Urbanist. Related Links: The Urbanist: Sound Transit Lowers Farebox Recovery Goals, Opens Door to Fare Capping, Is Sound Transit Closing In on Fare Gates for Link and Sounder?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was Thanksgiving in 1996. Seattle newscasters are reporting that the “Hollywood” Bandit has locked himself in an old camper in a backyard in Ravenna after robbing the Lake City branch of Seafirst Bank of over 1 million dollars in cash.  The Seattle Police and FBI Task Force that’s been hunting him for years finally have him surrounded…  But to understand how we got here, like any good crime story, we’ve gotta flash back to the beginning, where Scott Scurlock, inspired by movies like Point Break, gets the wild idea to move on from cooking meth… to robbing banks. GUESTS: Co-Directors: Stephen Robert Morse & Seth Porges LINKS:  https://www.netflix.com/watch/81427740https://historylink.org/File/9043 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Western sandpipers migrate thousands of miles each year, from their breeding grounds in the upper reaches of Alaska to the coasts California and South America. One location, in particular, is an irresistible pit stop for sandpipers: a wide mud flat on the Fraser River Delta near the U.S./Canada border. Not far away from those mud flats is one of British Columbia’s most important shipping terminals, and a new report by Seattle Times reporter Lynda Mapes says an approved expansion of that terminal could threaten the unique organisms sandpipers stop to feast on.  Guests:  Seattle Times environment reporter Lynda Mapes. Read Mapes' full reporting on sandpipers, phytoplankton, and British Columbia's push to expand a container port here.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Community members greeted kids on their way into Garfield High School in Seattle’s Central District, after Mt. Zion Baptist Church, and the organization 100 Black Parents organized a massive show of support. Classes started up again Tuesday morning after a shooting on campus that claimed the life of 17-year old student, Amarr Murphy-Paine.  The shooter, believed to be another high school aged boy, has not been found or identified by Seattle Police.  Monday, a 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, among other charges, in the shooting death of a classmate at Ingraham High School in North Seattle in 2022.  In the wake of that shooting, Seattle Public Schools and local elected leaders pledged to step up mental health support for students and improve safety on school campuses and in surrounding neighborhoods. But nearby gun violence has since repeatedly shattered the peace at Garfield, putting the school on lockdown, and now another Seattle student has lost their life at school.   So – what’s the answer? How do we protect kids at school –  the place where the LAST thing they should be worried about is dodging gunfire? GUEST: DeVitta Briscoe, Gun Violence Prevention Liaison for the city of Seattle, and founder of the Black Women’s Coalition to End Violence.LINKS: KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/stories/gun-violence-prevention-advocate-starts-work-in-seattle-mayor-s-office South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/tag/devitta-briscoe/ Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/a-lesson-from-my-losses-we-cannot-afford-to-completely-dismantle-the-police/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us are familiar with how our food grows. Fruit trees, crop plants -- they all put out blossoms. From there, honeybees spread pollen and collect nectar to grow their local hives. That buzzy work is a critical piece of agriculture, because without bees, the food we'd like to grow... won't grow. But a recent glut of almonds in California is disrupting a bee renting ecosystem -- a "bee-cosystem," if you will -- that Northwest farmers depend on.  Soundside caught up with Anna King about her recent story on local beekeeping and its relationship with California almonds. King covers Washington and Oregon mainly east of the Cascades for the Northwest News Network.  Read Anna King's full reporting on the Washington beekeeping industry here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr has a big mandate: Hire more officers, and clean up a department culture that has led to half a dozen lawsuits from high ranking SPD officers who say they were the victims of discrimination, harassment or retaliation.  Many parents and city leaders are also asking what more can be done to protect kids in Seattle schools, following a shooting at Garfield High School on June 6 that left one 17-year-old student dead. One idea that’s gained some attention – and pushback – is to bring Seattle Police Department community resource officers back to Seattle Public Schools campuses. Soundside host Libby Denkmann sat down with Chief Rahr to discuss her vision for the Seattle Police Department, and the crisis of school safety. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) has a new leader: the agency’s board announced this week that starting Aug. 1, Kelly Kinnison will head the agency. Kinnison is a policy director at the US Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. and takes over at an uncertain time for KCRHA. The agency has been without permanent leadership for more than a year after the agency’s founding CEO, Marc Dones, left in May of 2023. Additionally, the city of Seattle -- one of the KCRHA’s largest funders -- announced in February that it was pulling back financial support from the agency, and there have been calls from local officials to restructure the organization.  So what kind of agency will Kinnison be taking the helm of? Soundside is joined by Erica Barnett, co-founder and publisher at PubliCola. Read Erica Barnett's latest reporting on the KCRHA's vote for a new permanent CEO here. Read PubliCola's broader reporting on the KCRHA here.  Read the latest reporting from the Seattle Times' Greg Kim on the departure of the agency's interim CEO, Darrell Powell, here.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2013, Amazon founder and then CEO Jeff Bezos told 60 Minutes that his company would be delivering packages via DRONE within 5 years. It took a little bit longer… but not much. Since December 2022, customers in College Station, Texas have been able to get small packages delivered by unmanned Amazon aircrafts. And last week, Amazon announced that the FAA has authorized its drone program, called Prime Air, to fly even farther, beyond the view of human operators.  Amazon joins Google’s subsidiary Wing, and companies like UPS and Zipline, which have already received similar approval from the FAA.   Guests: Matt McCardle, Director of Global Regulatory Affairs and Strategy for Amazon Prime Air Paresh Dave, Senior Writer for Wired Related Links: Amazon Drone Delivery Plans Move a Small Step Forward Amazon’s Delivery Drones Won’t Fly in Arizona’s Summer Heat Amazon’s Drone Delivery Dream Is Crashing See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft hit a milestone when it docked at the International Space Station on Thursday morning.  The journey to get this spacecraft off the ground in the first place was bumpy, and expensive. It ended up running seven years behind schedule, and went more than $1 billion dollars over budget. But for many, this mission signifies a turning point for the relationship between NASA and commercial spaceflight. And, it may give Boeing the boost it needs to repair the company's public perception.  Soundside host Libby Denkmann talked to Greg Autry, the director of the Thunderbird Initiative for Space Leadership, Policy and Business at Arizona State University. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Wing Luke Museum in Seattle’s Chinatown International District is working to reopen after roughly two dozen staff walked out in protest. At issue: a new exhibit called “Confronting Hate Together,” which looks at how Seattle’s Black, Asian-American, and Jewish communities have faced prejudice both historically and in the present.  On the day it was set to debut, about half of the Wing Luke’s staff walked off the job. Those workers said in a statement that parts of “Confronting Hate Together,” which the museum had been working on since before October 7th, conflated Anti-Zionism with anti-semitism. They also criticized the absence of Palestinian, Muslim and Arab voices.  Soundside host Libby Denkmann spoke with Wing Luke's executive director, Joël Barraquiel Tan, about how the museum is responding to staff’s demands while also balancing the autonomy of its partners in this project. Guest(s): Joël Barraquiel Tan, executive director of the Wing Luke Museum  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.