Rachael

Mamdani: "I thought that if I could build a campaign of universality ... if I behaved well enough or bit my tongue enough ... it would allow me to be more than just my faith. I was wrong."

About 27 minutes in. The casual bigotry directed at Muslims in the United States is pretty egregious. It happens all over. :(

T'Challaween | Family Friendly Halloween Event | Seattle, WA, USA Join us for T'Challaween, South Seattle’s annual free, community-powered, family friendly Halloween event happening October 25th from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Beacon Hill.

Do you know about one of South Seattle's halloween traditions? It's quite close to us. Some years we volunteer but too exhausted this year. www.tchallaween.org

Yes!! I love this one so much. Kind of back and forth with The Day of the Triffids. An updated to today adaptation (with appropriate technological and cultural changes) would be such a better climate change allegory movie than whatever that movie was a few years ago. Also! Actual competent women!

Is Harrell's campaign hell bent on alienating literally every woman in town? Because pretty sure most moms in town either have help from family for childcare or wish they had more such help!

IT'S HAPPENING!!

The reaction to this here is in microcosm familiar to me the reaction of Nikkita Oliver when she ran for mayor and expressed skepticism about prioritizing the BGT "Missing Link" given Seattle's issues with housing & other issues. She got a lot of flak for it from the biking community.

One thing that kept me from trying to start a walking or bike bus at kiddo's elementary (aside from dealing with health issues) was me realizing I didn't have the community connections or organizing skills to be confident I wouldn't just create a "well off white parents" walk/bike bus.

I still think bike buses do more harm than good because of how they reinforce stereotypes about biking being an elite activity. In communities like the Seattle neighborhood I live in with big wealth and racial disparities it's only kids...

Nothing like a population stat to tell me how much of an outlier I am. I was 31 when we bought our very small 104 year old house.

The Amtrak station has a bathroom but you have to ditch your bag and it closes well before the last buses of the night. The nearest gas stations in my experience refuse access to their toilets. So a concrete wasteland where you have to hold it or break the law if you have an urgent need.

I am not a big "go get a coffee at a shop" person but I do go to The Station (Beacon Hill) more than any other coffee shop. Also: they have never denied me access to the toilet unlike many other businesses all over the city which is helpful given the library two blocks away is sometimes closed!

South End Gem Awards | Jose Luis Rodriguez and Leona Moore-Rodriguez: Building Community, One Latte at a Time From Beacon Hill to Columbia City, Jose Luis and Leona pour love, culture, and connection into every cup at The Station — where the South End feels at home.

South End Gem Awards Winner:

Jose Luis Rodriguez and Leona Moore-Rodriguez: Building Community, One Latte at a Time at The Station

From their coffee shops near Beacon Hill and Columbia City light rail stations, the couple blends Mexican and Black roots to create spaces where everyone feels at home

And one that was finally approved to go forward in Seattle (First Hill / Capitol Hill) probably wouldn't be going forward at all without many many advocates in the community pushing against a lot of resistance!

Watch the ad HERE and read the full transcript below: Voiceover: Bringing people together to achieve real results. That’s Girmay’s way. Girmay worked across the county with Democrats and Republicans, leading efforts to build more housing. Governor Bob Ferguson: Girmay delivered five new mental health and addiction centers. Voiceover: And raised the minimum wage. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal: My guy, Girmay! Crowd of supporters: Our guy, Girmay! Councilmember Girmay Zahilay: We won’t let Donald Trump divide us. The only way to create lasting change is to listen and work with everyone. Together, we will make King County more affordable and safe for all. Voiceover: Girmay for King County Executive.

The Girmay Zahilay campaign hasn't responded to my question about their new TV ad, in which Governor Bob Ferguson credits Zahilay with "delivering" five mental health and addiction centers - clearly not true. Only one of those centers is currently open, and it wasn't directly stood up by the county.

The replacement of Spotts with Adiam Emery as SDOT director has been a downgrade. We had a mother and child hit less than a mile away on Rainier Ave S. Adiam came out for a walk of the area in June – big freeway interchange! – and she promised quick action and working with WSDOT. I’ve heard zilch.

Cherrypicking Data, Harrell Paints Misleading Picture of Seattle’s Traffic Safety Progress » The Urbanist # While Bruce Harrell is touting a drop in the number of pedestrian deaths in Seattle last year, that number has shot up again in 2025. And despite his promotion of safety spending in a newly approved...

Bruce Harrell is touting a reduction in the number of pedestrian deaths on city streets, even as overall traffic fatalities have increased during his term, and 2025 looks very bad for pedestrian safety.

I dug into his actual track record since taking office.
www.theurbanist.org/2025/10/21/c...

The sad part is this has long shown up in SDOT outreach where they do broad and open surveys like "how do you currently get around in your neighborhood" and "what ways would you want to get around your neighborhood more" and "more often by not-car" comes out on top on every survey I've seen.

Relatable to only do the work right before it's due. Of course, I learned that was a bad way to work when I was in high school and college.

Oh! One more! It's FALL so it's time to swap summer clothes from my dresser drawer with cold weather clothes from the box we stash in the attic. Snuggly warm wool base layer season!!

Also, have other #Seattle folks noticed how delightfully red so many leaves are?! I know it's like this every year, but still a delight.

Tiny bits of recent joy:

- Sang in church choir yesterday and it was delightful and I really love singing those songs.
- Attended a very crowded protest on Saturday and while exhausted after it was because I smiled and laughed and walked, not just being in a crowd for so long.

I imagine a transit system has stricter rules and testing for automation. But yeah it doesn't seem THAT complicated.

Yeah the station wasn't designed to allow stair use except in emergencies. But I can totally do 14 floors and one of my two (known) panic reactions is to be crammed in an elevator. I can mostly control that reaction but greatly prefer stairs if available.

tbqh a lot of companies I think do this. it's expensive (& hard) to build out a team that can manage a truly robust cross-cloud & cross-region service. But since users expect near 100% availability, better to use AWS to get nearly there and blame it when your service fails.

with the absurd plans for the new downtown stations being so deep they are absolutely going to need timed elevators.

But failing that, you'd think they could time the train arrival and just call two elevators when a train arrives.

What if they let me use the stairs. I would climb those stairs over being crammed in an elevator.

The food banks are HEMORRHAGING cash

As we approach the end of the year and you have some potential disposable income to share, consider supporting your local mutual aid projects. This year has been rough but next year promises to be even more difficult for people.

There are definitely orgs in your communities that can use support.