Seattle Nice

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. Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.comThanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comSupport the showYour support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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?     Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.comThanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comSupport the showYour support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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. Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.comThanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comSupport the showYour support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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.Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.comThanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comSupport the showYour support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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.  Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.comThanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comSupport the showYour support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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.Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.comThanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comSupport the showYour support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

Did Tanya Woo or Alexis Mercedes Rinck win the Seattle Nice debate for a citywide city council seat? Does it matter?  Our editor is Quinn Waller. Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comSend us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.comSupport the showYour support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

This week's episode is our Seattle Nice City Council Position 8 debate from Tuesday October 1.  Special thanks to candidates Tanya Woo and Alexis Mercedes Rinck, the amazing pros at Town Hall and to the hundreds of civic-minded superstars who turned out to watch both the city council and vice presidential debates.  Our editor is Quinn Waller.   Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.comThanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comSupport the showYour support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

This week Seattle Nice debates Erica's take on Mayor Bruce Harrell's new budget. TL;DR Harrell avoided big budget cuts but progressives are pissed that he tapped the lucrative payroll tax on big business known as JumpStart to pull that off.    Don't miss the city council debate and VP debate watch party at Town Hall this coming Tuesday October 1.  We kick it off with a livestream of the big Vice Presidential debate between Tim Walz and J.D. Vance on the big screen. Then, we go local with the Seattle Nice City Council debate for citywide Position 8 between Tanya Woo and Alexis Mercedes Rinck.  Town Hall's cafe will be open for folks to purchase beer, wine, cider, and a few straightaway cocktails. Doors for the VP debate open at 5:45 pm. Get your debate tickets here.  Submit your questions in advance here. Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comOur editor is Quinn WallerSend us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.comThanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comSupport the showYour support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

This week Seattle's city council voted to send two competing measures to the ballot to fund affordable housing.  Initiative 137, the measure social housing activists support, proposes a new, "excess compensation tax" on big business. Council member Maritza Rivera is backing a new, "alternative" measure that would rely instead on existing JumpStart taxes on big business. Erica says Rivera's alternative would raid the JumpStart tax and effectively kill the social housing concept voters approved last year. See Erica's reporting on the two measures here. Sandeep defends the alternative, saying he's skeptical social housing backers actually know how to build or manage housing. He suggests the more modest $50 million dollar alternative proposal would give them a chance to prove themselves before potentially getting more funding.   The pod also briefly debates a proposed increase in police hiring bonuses. Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.comOur editor is Quinn WallerSend us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.comSupport the showYour support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.