Seattle Nice

City Councilmember Bob Kettle joins Seattle Nice to answer some questions and talk about his priorities for 2025.  Our editor is Quinn Waller  Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com Support the show Your suppo...

Seattle's minimum wage just hit $20.76 per hour for all businesses. The pod takes a closer look at the hike and the politics of the minimum wage in Seattle.  Plus, should Seattle sympathize with Amazon workers because they're being forced back to the office 5 days a week? Or should the city celebrate the move, which could help revitalize downtown? We discuss and debate.  Our editor is Qu...

You asked and we answered your questions on topics including the 2025 Seattle mayoral election, the race for city council position 9, and what we'd like to see happen in city politics next year.   Quinn Waller is our editor.   Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you wan...

This week Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell fired former SPD chief Adrian Diaz following an investigation by the city’s Office of Inspector General. The report found Diaz violated a number of city policies in the course of a workplace relationship that he tried to cover up. We take a closer look at the report, which includes some salacious details and Star Wars references, and talk about the fallout for...

Seattle's City Council is considering legislation to remove restrictions on the use of “less lethal” weapons for crowd control. Should SPD be allowed to use "blast balls" on protestors? Erica's been covering it . We take a closer look.  In Part Deux we discuss the brewing controversy over a Ballard bar applying for an "adult cabaret" license . A nearby property owner...

Tammy Morales has announced she's quitting the city council in January . She accused some colleagues of treating her very poorly and also told Erica she sees no point in continuing because she can't make any progress whatsoever passing progressive legislation with the current, more centrist council.   Is the current council toxic? Is Morales right to quit? Is she abandoning her progressi...

We take a closer look at the council's tie vote on Cathy Moore's proposal to tax the rich. Does the vote foreshadow more progressive things to come? We debate that and other juicy budget tidbits.  Note: this episode taped on Wednesday Nov 20, before the full council vote on Moore's proposed capital gains tax.     Quinn Waller is our editor.  Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for s...

King County Executive Dow Constantine has announced his plan to step down at the end of next year. We take a closer look at the move and the emerging tension between the centrist Seattle City Council and King County government, which has moved further left. Erica highlights the struggle in this recent story about a city council proposal to turn a sobering center into "a secure facility for pe...

It was a dreary election night for the left, but Seattle progressives celebrated city council candidate Alexis Mercedes Rinck's decisive victory over incumbent Tanya Woo. By Thursday afternoon Rinck's lead had grown to around 16 percentage points. Are voters sending a message to the centrist city council majority, led by Sara Nelson?  Erica and Sandeep debate and discuss.   Quinn Waller...

On this deeply troubling election eve, Seattle Nice invites you inside the podcast for a comforting conversation about local politics. First, we take a closer look at the juicy allegations swirling around SPD Chief Sue Rahr's decision to place former Chief Adrian Diaz and his chief of staff on leave .  Second, a recent poll finds progressive city council candidate Alexis Mercedes Rinck has a...

Erica’s out this week, so we bring you a preview of a new podcast called " Blue City Blues. "  Twenty years ago, in the wake of a searing presidential defeat, Dan Savage encouraged progressives to move to blue cities and to fortify them into an “ Urban Archipelago ” of culturally separatist bastions that rejected the reactionary politics of the larger red American landscape. And he got h...

With Erica gone this week David and Sandeep take a one-week vacation from city politics to take a closer look at the root causes of the problems facing Seattle Schools, including a controversial push by some district leaders to close up to 21 schools in the face of a nearly $100 million deficit . Said special guest Robert Cruickshank, “This is one of the few issues where Sandeep is not wrong.” Rob...

This week special guest Daniel Malone, the Executive Director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center , answered some difficult questions about the politics of homelessness, troubles at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, and other issues.  Malone also turned the tables with a question of his own. "When are you guys going to start arguing with each other? I thought I was going t...

We discuss and debate Erica's in-depth interview with SPD's interim chief Sue Rahr. Plus, Kshama Sawant's campaign against Kamala Harris , and Erica's latest on the city budget .  Our editor is Quinn Waller. Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to...

Did Tanya Woo or Alexis Mercedes Rinck win the Seattle Nice debate for a citywide city council seat? Does it matter?   Our editor is Quinn Waller.   Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com Support the...

This week's episode is our Seattle Nice City Council Position 8 debate from Tuesday October 1.  Special thanks to candidates Tanya Woo and Alexis Mercedes Rinck, the amazing pros at Town Hall and to the hundreds of civic-minded superstars who turned out to watch both the city council and vice presidential debates.  Our editor is Quinn Waller.    Send us a text! Note that we can only respond d...

This week Seattle Nice debates Erica's take on Mayor Bruce Harrell's new budget. TL;DR Harrell avoided big budget cuts but progressives are pissed that he tapped the lucrative payroll tax on big business known as JumpStart to pull that off.    Don't miss the city council debate and VP debate watch party at Town Hall this coming Tuesday October 1.  We kick it off with a livestream of...

This week Seattle's city council voted to send two competing measures to the ballot to fund affordable housing.  Initiative 137, the measure social housing activists support, proposes a new, "excess compensation tax" on big business. Council member Maritza Rivera is backing a new, "alternative" measure that would rely instead on existing JumpStart taxes on big business. Er...

Caleb Banta-Green of UW medicine joins the pod to debate the pros and cons of Seattle's current approach to drugs.  The conversation kicks off with Barnett and Banta-Green blasting the city council's latest plan to create six new “stay out” zones for drug crimes.  The conversation then broadens to a deeper debate about whether some coercion helps or harms people who are struggling with a...

The city council is making plans to speed up the process for building in downtown Seattle by exempting certain buildings from design review. Erica and Sandeep agree about the merits of the proposal, while David as devil's advocate tries to insert some skepticism into their urbanist love fest.    We also talk about the King County Council's about-face on earlier plans to close the youth j...

Surrogates are calling Mayor Bruce Harrell's downtown recovery plan a "roaring success" for the city. Are they right?  We debate that, and whether "return to work" is overrated. What is the good life, Seattle?   To advertise or just get in touch you can reach Seattle Nice at realseattlenice@gmail.com  Our editor is Quinn Waller.  Send us a text! Note that we can only respo...

Seattle Nice takes a lively look at a proposed ban on prostitution "loitering," and proposed Stay Out of Stay Out of Area of Prostitution (SOAP) zones. This follows the proposed banishment of some drug users from select areas downtown, called SODAs or “Stay Out of Drug Areas." Check out Erica's extensive coverage on Publicola , and while you're at it please donate to Publi...

Seattle Nice was on our best behavior this week because had company—Scott Greenstone, a politics reporter at KUOW radio and host of the new KUOW podcast Sound Politics!  We discussed the statewide election results (Scott reported that the vibe at Republican gubernatorial candidate Semi Bird's party was weirdly "optimistic") and the race to replace Frank Chopp as 43rd District state...

There's an election coming up for a citywide seat on the Seattle City Council, and the question everyone's asking is: Can a progressive challenger beat a member of the Class of 2023? Tanya Woo, the citywide Position 8 incumbent, actually lost her race for a single-district seat last year but was elevated to a citywide position anyway—not by voters, but by the new centrist City Council ma...

Seattle's City Council says it needs more options to jail people who commit misdemeanors. Criminal justice reformer and MacArthur "Genius" Grant winner Lisa Daugaard joins us to debate and discuss. Daugaard is best-known for helping launch Seattle's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program. Plus, Lisa weights in on a recent Seattle auditor's report looking at &quo...