Very nice color palette at the new tiny shelter village
Very nice color palette at the new tiny shelter village Courtesy of LIHI

Breaking: This just dropped, so I'll give it to you straight. "The city of Seattle agreed to pay nearly $200,000 and improve its public records process in a settlement with The Seattle Times this week," reports the Seattle Times. "While the settlement can’t restore the texts, it does force the city to make changes in how it retains and releases government communications going forward. State law generally requires government records to be saved and available to the public, to ensure voters have unvarnished information to hold elected officials accountable." In the settlement, the city denied any liability for the way it handled the public records requests. Woof.

Gay football! Our friends over at the Capitol Hill Seattle Blawg (I see Jas and Rich refer to CHS this way and I just want to fit in) reported that "the Super Bowl of inclusive football" is coming to Seattle's Gayborhood! You can see the players sweating up a storm in Cal Anderson.

Evening abortion read: Some words in Teen Vogue from public defenders on the future of criminalizing abortion. Spoiler: It's not good. Here's a snippet:

"The end of Roe unleashes these states to worsen their abuse of pregnant people, and we should all expect to see more horrifying prosecutions, which will likely target the people already most entrapped by American criminal law: low-income people and Black and brown people in hyper-policed jurisdictions. These are the same people who most rely on public defenders. This means that public defenders will be the primary safeguards for people on the front lines of antiabortion legislation."

After lots and lots of drama: The celebrities of Seattle's homelessness crisis (CM Andrew Lewis et. al) met up yesterday to celebrate the public grand opening of the Southend tiny shelter village, which is expected to house around 60 people in 40 tiny shelters. The village did not open without struggle. First of all, Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) just sort of built the damn thing. While I admire the aggressive approach to providing shelter, LIHI found itself in a pickle when it couldn't immediately secure funding from King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA). Eventually after a bit of back and forth — including a KCRHA staffer calling tiny shelter villages "shantytowns" — the two organizations finally worked something out. LIHI got a last-minute $250,000 grant from the Lucky Seven Foundation and $500,000 from KCHRA so it can get people in the dang sheds!

PubliCola reported that shelter enrollments from city referrals dropped significantly in the first part of this year: And those numbers weren't even that great to begin with. Crazy how we don't have enough shelter and also no one wants to go to them and we haven't like tried something else ??

Enter I-135: Social housing could be the key to making this hellscape somewhat affordable and hopefully solving that dastardly homelessness crisis in the longterm. Today, House Our Neighbors, who is currently gathering signatures to create a public development authority, tweeted out that Rep. Nicole Macri endorsed the initiative.

Macri also defended the plan in a Seattle Times story focused on the growing opposition to the initiative. Low-income housing developers don't want to have to compete for funds with a housing solution that would actually give poor people power. That would suck.

As an ally to gamers everywhere, I feel compelled to share this: Looks like Gameworks might be... coming back?

Liberate Leah: The Liberate Leah Campaign accused a Pierce County Courthouse judge of violating their supporters' first amendment rights. In a press release, Kristina Jorgensen accused the judge of saying he might consider releasing a 22-year-old Snohomish County woman charged with attempted murder of her abusive ex-boyfriend in 2020 if her supporters stop making such a ruckus.

Seattle Central College, big-time hater of trades: So I made a little fuss about Seattle Central College nearly nuking its culinary program, but that's not the only target for cuts. There are other programs in danger, including the Seattle Wood Technology Center, which is in the Central District and under the Seattle Central College umbrella.

Fuuuucking boats man: The Montlake Bridge will close midday Saturday for a boat parade. Basically, traffic will be a nightmare.

Small business week comes to a close This week was #NationalSmallBusinessWeek! Since most small businesses revolve around fun treats, me and Councilmember Sara Nelson both love them! Nelson tweeted about her adventures this week in between fighting her goofy hiring incentives fight.

The economy: Usually the only Dow we care about is Mr. Dow Constantine, but the Washington Post reported that we might want to take a look at the Dow Jones. It's not so pretty right now.

Greene for Congress: A judge decided girl-queen and absolute nut job Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene qualified for re-election, despite allegations she participated in an attempted coup. It's not a done deal yet. Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger gets the final say.

My official statement on Will's Slog AM blurb about me, a narrative I never asked to be a part of:

Swifties: This feels like a fever dream. I heard more conspiracy than legit announcement, but it happened. In what is expected to be the beginning of 1989 (Taylor's Version) summer, Miss Taylor Allison Swift released her re-recorded version of her pop ballad, This Love, which is one of the best songs of all time and could not have been written about a man. Not even Harry Styles. Sorry not sorry.

Please admire the simple, utterly sapphic beauty of this chorus:

This love is good
This love is bad
This love is alive
Back from the dead
These hands had to let it go free and
This love came back to me
This love left a permanent mark
This love is glowing in the dark
These hands had to let it go free and
This love came back to me

I love this woman.