Four Mayors in Three Months: David Kroman covered Acting Mayor Bruce Harrell’s announcement that he’d no longer like to act as mayor. The council will likely vote one of its members into the Mayor’s office on Monday. That member would serve until November 28 when either Cary Moon or Jenny Durkan will take over.
Tied Mayoral Race: The contest to be the fourth mayor of 2017 is knotted up, according to a poll released by Cary Moon’s campaign. Heidi Groover breaks it down this bit of mayoral news.
Jenny Durkan, Avatar of White Comfort: Brett Hamil criticized Jenny Durkan’s campaign for sending out a mailer bragging about bringing police accountability shortly after two SPD officers shot and killed Charleena Lyles, a pregnant black woman, in Sand Point. “Durkan is giving white voters permission to stop caring about police accountability–if they ever even did in the first place–and furthermore, to punt on all the other calamities currently facing the city, too,” Hamil wrote.
He Abused Me, Too: Here’s The Seattle Times piece ($) that finally pushed Mayor Murray to resign. In his interview, Murray lashed out at the Times for reporting the story and attributed his relative’s motives to a family feud: “There’s been numerous fights between our two families for many years, and much ugliness. I guess they see me down and out, and they want to finish me off.” Personally, I say good riddance.
Drawbridge to Nowhere: Seattle Subway makes a convincing case against Ballard Link’s drawbridge option for crossing Salmon Bay, arguing only a fixed high bridge or a tunnel meets Sound Transit’s long term goals.
A Subways Grows In Dallas: The Dallas City Council gave the thumbs up to a plan to build a downtown subway under Commerce Street and expand some streetcars. The Dallas Tribune has the scoop and is nice enough to provide two free articles per month.
New Seasons Coming to 23rd & Union: Portland-based New Seasons announced it would be the grocery store to anchor the new development under construction at the northwest corner of the 23rd Ave and Union St intersection. Lake Union Partners is also redeveloping the MidTown Center–with Africatown getting a 20% stake–in the kitty corner block.
Explaining Rainier Beach’s Lack of TOD: A South Seattle Emerald piece by Erica C. Barnett tackles the question of why development hasn’t sprung up near Rainier Beach Station, despite plenty of vacant lots.
Bike Commuting Levelling Off: Streetsblog broke down the trends in bicycling mode share. Rates are flat or slipping in many cities across the nation including Seattle and Portland, but “Pittsburgh, Washington, Detroit, and Cleveland posted all-time highs.” One explanation, Pittsburgh recently upgrade its infrastructure with more bike lanes.
Extending 2nd Ave PBL: Cue Seattle finally catching up on some items in its implementation plan for its bike network. Seattle Bike Blog looks at the plan to extend the Second Avenue facility as far north as Denny Way.
The featured image is courtesy of the Seattle Channel.
Doug Trumm is publisher of The Urbanist. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrianizing streets, blanketing the city in bus lanes, and unleashing a mass timber building spree to end the affordable housing shortage and avert our coming climate catastrophe. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2019. He lives in East Fremont and loves to explore the city on his bike.