I love incompetence: Seattle will void seven months of parking tickets after failing to give parking cops the proper authority to write citations following the City's attempt to “defund” the Seattle Police Department by off-loading parking enforcement to Seattle Department of Transportation. This adds up to about 100,000 cancelled tickets and another 100,000 paid tickets that the City will refund at a cost of up to $5 million. 

The City owes me at least $300. I got dinged every day for a week after parking with no tabs on a neighborhood street in Othello. The joke's on them, because now they’ll cancel my tickets and I STILL haven’t paid for tabs. Not great for The Taxes ™, but good for us who could wipe out like a whole day of work with one parking ticket.

Bad day for corporate Pride: Amazon wanted to kickoff Pride, maybe take a cute picture for Instagram with “#thegirlsgaysandtheys,” but, unfortunately, actual queer people didn’t like the e-commerce giant celebrating while simultaneously offering for sale an anti-trans guidebook for parents. Wrapped in the trans Pride flag, 30 employees staged a die-in at Amazon’s headquarters while the company tried to fake allyship by raising a fucking flag.

Which reminds me: Mayor Bruce Harrell sent a Pride flag up the flagpole at City Hall yesterday. He also authorized 24 sweeps this month, according to a sweeps calendar from a City employee. What a way to celebrate a community whose youth have a 120% higher risk of experiencing homelessness! 

Good news. Very Good news: Ben and Esther's, a vegan Jewish deli, is coming to Capitol Hill. I can’t wait for a bagel with a cruelty-free schmear.

Baby’s first day in Council Chambers: Believe it or not, I, a reporter who covers the happenings within City Hall, actually went to City Hall yesterday. When I got hired at The Stranger, everything still happened over Zoom, but yesterday the council hosted its first hybrid in-person committee meeting since the pandemic. Going to City Hall after watching on my computer for so long was crazyyyyy though. Like, I saw Public Safety Director Andrew Myerberg blow bubbles with his gum on the steps of the building as a Blue Lives Matter caravan drove past. And he refused to talk to me IN PERSON. Amazing!

First presentation back: Anyway! The council saw a presentation from the Low Income Housing Institute. Coincidentally, Committee Chair Andrew Lewis said that the last presentation the Homeless Committee saw before the pandemic was also from LIHI. This time, LIHI bragged about the reported success of the tiny shelters (which, though a favorite emergency shelter option, are not housing and will never be housing. No hate, just a reminder.)

Fuck the NRA: Also at City Hall, the Seattle Student Union gathered outside to mourn the tragic massacre in Uvalde, Texas and to demand that Gov. Jay Inslee call a special session so the Legislature can ban semi-automatic weapons. 

More protests: Students also called for gun control in Olympia. 

I-135: House Our Neighbors only has about 20 days to collect all the signatures it needs to get a future with social housing on the ballot. Tonight, the advocates will host a panel if you want to learn more. But if free food and complaining about rising rents is more your style, the Seattle Democratic Socialists of America will also rally in Othello Park tonight at 6 pm. 

ICYMI: Cafe Red is back. And it is So. Fucking. Good. 

This makes me feel carceral: Two boaters got in trouble for boating too close to an endangered whale. Don’t fuck with whales, my guy.

Also making me feel carceral: President Joe Biden shrugged his shoulders and admitted he didn’t understand the severity of the formula shortage until much later in the game. 

I’ve probably rambled on enough. Here’s a new song/music vid from a high school fav:

 

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