Seattle Nice

This week, Erica, a Mississippi native, celebrates a historic Senate win back home she never thought she’d see. Then: Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson ran against expanding police surveillance cameras. Now she’s decided to flip the switch on more of them. With the usual Seattle Nice sniping, we dig into what NYU’s civil liberties audit actually found, what the cameras can (and can’t) do, and whether new...

What does a former rock star know about crime and justice in Seattle? We put that question to this week's guest, King County District Court Judge Bardi Martin, who played bass for the hugely successful Seattle rock band Candlebox in the 1990s before trading the traveling circus of rock and roll for the strange theater of the American justice system. These days, he confronts some of the region...

Holy shit. That wasn't just a blue wave. Democrats drove a political steamroller through some of the reddest states in the country last night, and we're here for it. We recorded this special emergency edition of Seattle Nice at 9 p.m. on election night, with results still rolling in across the country. So, what's Seattle's piece of the story? After the first count, progressive...

Seattle's progressive new city attorney, Erika Evans, is bringing back a version of the community court that her predecessor, Republican Ann Davison, axed in 2023. Evans hopes to fix what she sees as flaws in the old system by giving people accused of relatively minor crimes better access to services and treatment, with more accountability. Evans joins us on Seattle Nice, along with Jenna Rob...

Our planned District 5 debate had to be canceled after one of the candidates came down with COVID. But we got together and blabbed in front of the folks who showed up anyway! Thanks to the National Nordic Museum for hosting us and to everyone who came out. One of the more surprising things we talked about was how Mayor Katie Wilson’s new homelessness plan is bringing together some strange bedfello...

Bad news about tonight’s debate. It’s cancelled because one of our two candidates for Seattle City Council District 5 has a nasty cold that turned out to be COVID. But the show goes on! We’re still going to show up at the National Nordic Museum to tape a live episode of Seattle Nice . We’ll talk about the upcoming election and other spicy issues in Seattle politics. Tonight, Wednesday, October 21,...

The big Seattle Nice City Council District 5 debate is right around the corner! Join us at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the National Nordic Museum , where we’ll be drawing out candidates Nilu Jenks and Julie Kang on their positions – and their differences. It’s free and will be an informative and illuminating debate. We hope to see you there! In this episode of Seattle Nice, taped a couple of...

First, a quick invitation: Seattle Nice is hosting a live debate for City Council District 5 between Julie Kang and Nilu Jenks. Join us at the National Nordic Museum on October 21 at 6 p.m. On this week's show: What happens when government agencies can't keep track of millions of dollars? And why aren't Seattle voters more upset about it? First, the King County Regional Homelessness...

Mayor Katie Wilson joins Seattle Nice, along with Budget Director Aly Pennucci, to defend her first city budget as some City Council members argue she's got her priorities wrong. Wilson came into office facing a $175 million projected General Fund deficit. Her answer is a budget with nearly $50 million in General Fund cuts each year, no new taxes and a promise to balance the books through 203...

Seattle still needs a lot more housing. But construction has fallen off for some types of housing, and developers say one reason projects aren't getting built is Seattle's Mandatory Housing Affordability program, or MHA. Seattle City Councilmember Dionne Foster joins co-hosts David Hyde, Erica C. Barnett and Sandeep Kaushik to talk about the fight over MHA and splits on the left over how...

Editor's note: We recorded this episode before Mayor Katie Wilson announced her plan to reduce gun violence this week. Wilson's plan emphasizes community violence interruption, as opposed to the "focused deterrence" approach that CM Maritza Rivera has been advocating. Although Wilson has expressed support for some form of focused deterrence, she does not support CM Rivera'...

In the latest episode, with David away at an undisclosed (but no doubt bougie) location, Erica and Sandeep are (re-)joined by friend of the pod Daniel Malone, Executive Director of Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC), Seattle's largest shelter, housing and behavioral health homelessness services provider.  In the episode, Daniel provides us with a first anniversary update on DESC's...

Seattle has had nine police chiefs in seventeen years. Now the carousel is spinning again as Mayor Katie Wilson launches the hunt for yet another leader for SPD. With the messy, hasty exit of Shon Barnes still fresh, we have to ask: Who actually wants this job? We break down the search, the political stakes for Mayor Wilson, and whether Seattle is doomed to repeat the same hiring mistakes. We also...

A pair of Seattle residents have filed to recall Mayor Katie Wilson. But the recall effort probably doesn't have a chance of clearing Washington's high legal bar. So why do it? And what does it reveal about the zeitgeist in Seattle right now? Then we dig into Councilmember Dan Strauss's plan to deal with RV encampments. Is it a compassionate attempt to get people the help they need...

This week on Seattle Nice, the only podcast that tells you what's really happening in Seattle politics, we break down the primary results and what they mean for the city. Did Mayor Katie Wilson try the Mamdani play? Did it backfire? We debate whether her endorsements in the 43rd and 46th legislative districts actually mattered, why Seattle isn't New York, and how The Stranger remains the...

In one of the most disorderly weeks at Seattle City Hall in recent memory, Police Chief Shon Barnes has officially resigned. In this follow-up to our Emergency Friday Episode when the outcome was not 100 percent clear, David Hyde, Erica C. Barnett, and Sandeep Kaushik break down the chain of events from the mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle festival to the closed-door negotiations that led to B...

Note: This episode was recorded Thursday morning, before Barnes's resignation was confirmed.  Hosts Erica C. Barnett, Sandeep Kaushik and David Hyde break down the chaotic 24 hours that preceded Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes's official ouster. Rumors of a forced resignation . A defiant chief and the NAACP and Urban League rallying to his side. The mayor's office went silent for h...

This week on Seattle Nice, (the only podcast that tells you what's really happening in Seattle politics), we get into three topics: Should buying sex on Aurora Avenue be a felony? King County's top prosecutor is pushing state legislation to upgrade paying for sex from a misdemeanor to a felony. But some county public defenders are pushing back. We dig into the numbers and debate whether...

Welcome to Seattle Nice, the only podcast that tells you what's really happening in Seattle politics. Join Erica C. Barnett (PubliCola), David Hyde, and political consultant Sandeep Kaushik as they break down the latest from City Hall. In this episode: Transit Tax Showdown: Seattle's transit measure is poised to head to the November ballot. We break down the City Council's marathon...

Six months into her tenure at City Hall and Mayor Katie Wilson has a message for Seattle: things are going great, actually. On this episode of Seattle Nice, hosts Erica C Barnett, David Hyde and Sandeep Kaushik dig into Publicola’s two-parter with the mayor: a "spicy" interview that covers everything from whether she's the next "sweeps" mayor to whether Chief Shon Barnes k...

Just as urbanists thought they had a deal to jumpstart stalled housing construction, it fell apart. We unpack the rise and fall of a proposed temporary break on Seattle's Mandatory Housing Affordability program, which taxes new development to fund affordable housing. Those tax dollars have all but dried up as building costs have soared and construction has stalled. Developers and density advo...

While Seattle celebrates hosting the World Cup, the city's unsheltered count just jumped 21 percent. What explains the increase? Can we trust the numbers? And why are we seeing shelter capacity shrink right when it’s needed most?  Also: Mayor Katie Wilson's "zero-tolerance" push in Little Saigon. Is this the same old policing playbook, or something genuinely new? Can a progress...

Last August, an alarming, high-profile audit of King County’s Department of Community and Human Services’ spending on “high-risk” youth program providers found widespread problems and indications of potential fraud. So now, 10 months later, has DCHS been able to clean up the issues that led to the serious internal control problems the audit surfaced?  New DCHS Director Susan McLaughlin joins Erica...

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Seattle Nice , which takes up Mayor Katie Wilson’s proposal to double the current transit sales tax. It’s a familiar Seattle policy dilemma: how do we pay for the reliable public transit we need without relying on regressive taxes?   Next, we examine the newly passed Housing Opportunities Package (HOP). It’s a massive set of zoning changes and regulatory...

Daryl Fairweather, Chief Economist at Redfin and author of Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work , joins us to explain why the housing market is doing something it almost never does here: cooling off. In this episode we break down the recent headlines that stopped Seattleites mid-scroll: prices here are dropping here faster than anywhere else in the country. Fairweather poin...