Rian Watt

One week on @theurbanist.org:
-Two original Sound Transit stories
-Two fully reported Seattle budget stories
-Dispatches from both Clyde Hill & Kirkland
-One story about Katie Wilson's transition team
And a book review!

I know I'm biased, but I really think we punch above our weight.

I'm so excited for The Urbanist to roll into 2026 at full strength, covering new admins at the city and county and major stories elsewhere, including at Sound Transit.

I hope you'll consider joining us at our holiday party to support that work. It's also fun!
www.eventbrite.com/e/the-urbani...

Excited to see this team get to work:

www.seattle.gov/documents/De...

when will Seattle's Democrat Council President cease her unrelenting war on Christians

Supporter’s Shield but for baseball is a great idea.

If you expand to 32 teams you can also do a balanced 186-game schedule where each team plays every other team three games home and three away each year.

You can do an October tournament with the top four for fun.

This baseball game has officially outlasted the NWSL match next door that started 2 1/2 hours after it

where’s Michael Barrett when you need him

peace be with Adam Wainwright as he tries to get his coworker to make a different point in the meeting

How Ballard and West Seattle Light Rail Became a $30 Billion Undertaking » The Urbanist # Since voters approved West Seattle and Ballard Link in 2016, the two projects have been caught in a perfect storm of factors that led to the eye-popping cost estimates that we have today. While the ...

It's not an exaggeration to say that @typewriteralley.bsky.social is the only reporter in the region who could write this story in quite this way.

Please consider donating to @theurbanist.org to help support our work. theurbanist.org/donate

www.theurbanist.org/2025/10/10/h...

I was on @kuow.org's Week in Review this afternoon. A good time!

www.kuow.org/stories/week...

We can end homelessness, and therefore we should World Homeless Day reminds us that it is possible to end homelessness.

Five years ago, for the 10th World Homelessness Day, I wrote this brief call to action. Five years gone and little progress. But I stand by each word:

community.solutions/homelessness...

There's two blocks between the East Precinct and 12th and Union. Two blocks, two reversed decisions, one week.

Do you need management experience to get it wrong this reliably?

Reversing Decision, SPD Removes Controversial Captain Tietjen from East Precinct - PubliCola By Erica C. Barnett Two days after PubliCola exclusively reported that  Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes had promoted controversial police…

Then it was this whole mess in the heart of Capitol Hill:

publicola.com/2025/10/09/r...

SDOT Backpedals on Plans for Capitol Hill Bus Lane Removal » The Urbanist # Work will continue on upgrades to E Union Street that will allow Route 2 buses to return to the corridor, but the idea of reopening the street to all westbound traffic has been taken off the table -...

First, it was eliminating a bus lane advocates fought for for years after developers wanted space for their right turns from the East side. Advocates fought back and the city immediately reversed.

www.theurbanist.org/2025/10/02/s...

If Bruce Harrell's case for re-election is his management experience, what should we make of two separate instances in the last week of city decisions made under his watch being immediately reversed after huge community blowback?

COLUMN | What This Mayoral Election Owes 'Black Seattle' From City Hall to the Central District, Seattle's mayoral race raises deeper questions: Who speaks for "Black Seattle," and what does real representation look like beyond the ballot? Marcus Harrison G...

Extraordinarily thoughtful and nuanced from one of Seattle’s best, Marcus Harrison Greene:

southseattleemerald.org/voices/2025/...

It is 8 am on Saturday at Madison/12th/Union and … no work crews in sight 😊 What a beautiful sight, thanks to so many transportation advocates!

Harrell needs to pick up any anti-fascist/anti-authoritarian book, quickly. Radical hope, love, resistance, and a bold social program are the only hope we have to combat fascism. Telling people to not hope is dangerous.

I take no credit here and will transfer my kudos to @csgreenways.bsky.social volunteers who have been piling on the pressure

Incredible mobilization by so many to make this happen, including @typewriteralley.bsky.social and @alexis4seattle.bsky.social and @gordonofseattle.bsky.social and many others.

Spotted at the 150 stop: Week Without Driving champion Jorge Barón!

I live near this stop. It is the way I plan to get to downtown or Seattle Center. I was not asked before the lane was deleted. Process for me but not for thee.

At a bare minimum we should require disclosure of any use of ChatGPT for official business. Excellent reporting from @cascadepbsnewsroom.bsky.social .

The main thing they’re using DHS for is a continual, indefinite effort to expand the population of those who they can effectively treat as beyond legal rights and protections.

Guest Rant: Seattle Progressives Won Big Tuesday, Now Comes the Hard Part Seattle progressives like Erika Evans, Dionne Foster, Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Katie Wilson won big in Tuesday's primary elections. Now they have to eliminate the structural barriers in the way of th...

Friday afternoon, @thestranger.com let me make an obvious but important point: If progressives don't use their time in power to clear away structural barriers to progress, they'll be at risk of getting swept out again in four years:

www.thestranger.com/guest-editor...

'What Speaks to Me About Abundance': My Full Interview With Zohran Mamdani The meteoric Democratic Socialist candidate and I talk about where we disagree about policy, where we agree about politics, and how to change our mind when we're wrong.

Most notably, one of the authors of Abundance explicitly makes this connection:

www.derekthompson.org/p/what-speak...

And then Yglesias (who I have mixed feelings about) explored the issue prominently recently:

www.slowboring.com/p/learning-f...

Very much part of the discourse.

Yeah, it's definitely related. I think the problem with deliverism was not that delivering wasn't a good idea but that it's important to deliver on the things most centrally important to voters, rather than things they view as marginal or secondary.

Hello! I used to run @theurbanist.org and I'm talking about it. You'd be surprised!

The broken Seattle Process™️ prevents elected officials from delivering for constituents, and helps fuel cynicism in local government.

Call that whatever you want -- abundance, sewer socialism, Get Shit Done Party -- but it's key to our ability to *keep* living out our progressive values -- not just from 2025-29, but for decades.