Wednesday, March 27

Slog AM: Portland Shooter Kills One at BLM Rally, a Landslide in West Seattle, and Housing Activists Stop a Sunday Sweep at City Hall


Portland police investigate a shooting that took place during a protest for Amir Locke.

Portland police investigate a shooting that took place during a protest for Amir Locke. Nathan Howard / Getty Images

Portland shooter kills one, injures five at BLM rally. An unidentified Portland resident emerged from his house on Saturday night and confronted Black Lives Matter rally organizers, who were gathering to remember Amir Locke. The resident fired on the protesters, killing one. Our sister site Blogtown has the latest.

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City Hall tried to sweep away its neighbors. The city attempted to destroy peoples’ only shelter at an encampment near city hall on Sunday — in the midst of a thunder and hail storm, and on a day when social workers are not available. City workers were only able to clear out a handful of tents before housing activists blocked them. Previous sweeps have resulted in many residents simply being pushed to other encampments, rather than finding more stable housing.

Watch your step. A hillside and a bunch of trees have gone on a little journey in Schmitz Park near Alki Beach. As a reminder, you can check for landslide danger here, though danger levels were relatively low this weekend. Seattle landslides have on occasion been deadly.

Keep an eye out for a dented Scion. While Angel Ojeda was crossing the street near the Kraken Bar this weekend, a driver hit him and then sped off. Angel’s doing ok, but he’ll need multiple surgeries. Look for a black Scion with a dent in the hood and a missing front logo, and if you know of any businesses with cameras in the area, get in touch.

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Thinking you might move someplace cheaper? Hahaha, good luck, “someplace cheaper” is too expensive too. Here’s a depressing article about how housing in Spokane is now out of reach. Spokane!!! The villain of the piece is John Schram, co-chair of the Spokane’s Comstock neighborhood council, who explains why he’s against more affordable housing: “I have nothing against duplexes and triplexes, just not next to my house.” Fuck.

Got any housing questions? I’m interviewing Representative Jessica Bateman today about the Legislature’s (very depressing) failure to pass a bill to build more housing in Washington. If you’ve got any questions you want me to ask, tweet ‘em my way before 10 am this morning.

You will be shocked to hear that drivers created a traffic jam in Pike Place Market all weekend. Is the current situation working for anybody???

Here’s what Pike Place Market could look like if we wanted it to. But instead, let’s spend the next eight years holding one public forum after another without actually doing anything.

Bellevue’s rethinking curb-traffic. Bellevue’s running a survey right now about how they could reform certain street spaces currently reserved only for cars. They’re spending a quarter million to update their curb management plan to account for non-drivers, who might like to use public space as well — go ahead and weigh in here.

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Enjoy the crocuses while they last. Temperatures this week could shoot down into the 20s at night, ughhhhh. Wrap your seedlings in burlap or hay to protect them. (Also: Great timing for that sweep outside your office, Bruce!)

Here’s the latest on stitching South Park back together. Here’s a nice get-up-to-dater on the efforts to remove SR99, one of Seattle’s many traffic sewers that sever neighborhood connections. When I interviewed state Sen. Marko Liias a few weeks ago, he hadn’t even heard of the Reconnect South Park proposal; now he’s one of its champions. Nice.

Feast your eyes on a transportation infodump. Yesterday afternoon we got a fresh look at a bunch of funding proposals for various transportation projects around the state. Lots to look through, and not much time — the proposal gets a hearing this afternoon. Fortunately Ryan is here with some highlights. Some of my favorite bits: Money for lidding I-5, removing freeways in South Park, upgrades for Rainier and MLK Way, and four million for high-speed rail planning. But the biggest surprise: Plans to fix Aurora must be complete by Halloween of this year, with construction to start no later than June of 2023. Wow.

Want to check out the Stone Cottage? You can now buy tickets to visit the structure in its temporary home. The Stone Cottage is such a fascinating little story — it’s historic in that it’s somewhat old, but not historic in that it’s not particularly significant. It’s just (kind of) cute and has lasted a long time, that’s all. And unlike many other historic sites, it was able to be moved from its old spot rather than getting torn down.

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Puppies!!! Please adopt these very good pups, and then invite me over to play with them.

So I guess I have to start watching Euphoria now? I know literally nothing about this show, but judging from these clips from the latest episode it looks like Glee except they’re not even pretending straights are involved.



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