Michael Torgerson

Even our most liberal cities are so scared of upsetting the police that they will completely destroy a cities budget to keep increasing police budgets while the rate of unsolved crimes continues to skyrocket. This is not working any more.

All of this while people are dying on street unable to afford basic necessities like food and shelter. It’s a inditement of our culture that we are willing to bankrupt our cities to pour money into clearly ineffective policing while we let our fellow Americans suffer the indignity of deep poverty.

Nearly 400 Seattle cops made over $200k in 2024 With 23 percent raises and backpay, a lot of awful cops got awful rich in 2024. Sleeping Sergeant Paige Maks raked in half a million, while prolific offender Zsolt Dornay took in nearly $360,000.

The city of Seattle spent over $80 million on just 20 cops, including $509,281 to a cop who has been repeatedly caught sleeping on the job and has allegedly held his wife at gun point. www.divestspd.com/p/nearly-400...

Shaq wearing a menagerie of different-colored uniforms throughout his career. Also, "menagerie" is one of those weirds where I feel like I can never actually spell it right on my first try.

Happy Pride month!! 🏳️‍🌈

I was just in an organizing meeting about how to make Seattle more affordable and walkable in the land use plan update (called the "Comprehensive Plan") and all of us were under 40 years old. We could use some older allies to show up at Monday's public hearing to speak up for an affordable Seattle!

If you build infrastructure that connects communities with jobs, leisure, education centers and other resources people will use it. Other countries have gotten this right, we can and should do better.

This is 1 of the biggest problems with urban planning in America. Cities build transit, biking, & pedestrian infrastructure that doesn’t connect, goes nowhere, & is difficult to access. They then use the lack of use of these pointless projects to claim that any infrastructure is not worth the cost.

Market workers like @cascadia14.bsky.social made a real difference

Market to Test Out Long-Requested Pike Place Car Ban - The Urbanist # Car access to Pike Place's main corridor will be restricted to loading vehicles, emergency access, and people accessing ADA parking. The Market is calling the move a

Pike Place Market is launching a limited vehicle access pilot starting tomorrow!

It’s a major step toward making the Market more walkable, vibrant, & people-friendly.

Read more: www.theurbanist.org/2025/04/22/m... via @theurbanist.org by @typewriteralley.bsky.social

The most incorrect name for a food that I can think of

Dense star field. Near center of the image is a long, vertical hourglass structure with ropes of ejected material in red and pink. The center of the hourglass is bright orange.

Wake up nerds, new JWST image! ✨

Two actively-forming stars (protostars) emit dazzling jets of twisting material. Millions of years from now when this dance is over, there will be two stars similar to our Sun that might even form planets of their own.

📸: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

Much easier to avoid thinking about the Geno Smith trade with Formula 1 on the horizon. Surely Ferrari won’t fail me right?

Pictures from the recent pro Ukraine protest in Seattle

With food banks facing a reduction in state funding in the governor's latest budget plans, here's a few you can support:

Pike Market Food Bank: www.pmsc-fb.org/food-bank
Ballard Food Bank: www.ballardfoodbank.org/donate
University District Food Bank: www.udistrictfoodbank.org/donate/

It bears repeating.

Today has shown that it is time for the democratic states and cities to distance themselves from the federal government even more so than they already have. We need a strong coalition to prevent the collapse of civil rights and environmental ruin and it needs to happen now.

Donald Trump is embarrassing the United States on the world stage. We are a country that stands up to dictators and fights for democracy.

Minnesota stands firmly with our allies in Ukraine.

Emily Pike! They're great. "I am not an anomaly for wanting to live in a dense and vibrant city."

Come see my comments regarding making Pike Place Market a safe place for everyone to come experience!