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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, at the National Nordic Museum in Ballard. Start time: 6 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. We hope to see you there! Special Thanks to Our Patreon Donors This podcast is a labor of love and a public service, and you help make it possible. For this event, the National Nordic Museum generously donated the venue and its staff time. But our additional expenses for a board operator, editor, and other help add up to nearly $1,000 for just this one event. So thanks to everyone who believes in democracy and local journalism for chipping in to make these live events, and serious discussions about the issues facing Seattle, possible.  Click the following link if you want to help: patreon.com/seattlenice Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 weeks ago while Erica was away, Sandeep and David invite Walter Hatch, a former Seattle Times journalist, retired professor of politics at Colby College, and frontline homelessness volunteer, to discuss why Walter, the co-author of two recent pieces on the topic at Post Alley, believes Seattle’s homelessness response is failing. Walter is a staunch progressive, and our conversation exposes disagreements over housing costs, addiction, encampment removals, and government spending, but also substantial agreement: Seattle needs more housing, more shelter, better services, and a system that people can actually navigate. Walter contends that Seattle’s homelessness crisis reflects a community failure rather than simply a collection of individual failures, and he argues that Seattle’s primary obstacle to making progress on homelessness is a fragmented system organized around nonprofit providers rather than the needs of homeless individuals, along with an inhumane overreliance on sweeps. He argues that inconsistent data sharing, disconnected caseworkers, and weak coordination force people to repeat their stories and paperwork without making progress. Drawing on examples from other cities, he calls for stronger political leadership, shared information, and clear responsibility for getting each person appropriate help. We don’t entirely agree with Walter’s diagnosis, with Sandeep and David defending both Katie Wilson’s continuation of the previous administration’s relatively fast pace of encampment removals and Sandeep arguing that the biggest problem with the current response is insufficient resources commensurate with the scale of Seattle’s homelessness problem. “Our system here in Seattle can’t even be called a system,” Walter contends. “What we have in Seattle is just a shit show of failing both at the political, moral, economic level, and I think we’re all responsible, and I think we can fix it.” Walter Hatch and Mark W. Garrett, "The Homelessness Blame Game: Let's Challenge That," Post Alley, May 6, 2026. Walter Hatch and Mark W. Garrett, "Seattle Homelessness Is a Complex Problem: Here's How to Solve It," Post Alley, Sept. 10, 2026. Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 Authority says it's solved the mystery of the $8 million it previously claimed Seattle and King County owed it. Turns out, according to the agency, it was an accounting error. So how did the agency get something this big so wrong? Then there's the city's roughly $13 million mistake in overpaying Seattle Police Department employees. How did the city manage to send out millions in extra paychecks? Why did it take so long for the mistake to come to light? And will taxpayers ever get that money back? The police union says it wants the city to sort out its ongoing Workday payroll problems before its members pay anything back. Meanwhile, the King County Council has approved another well-meaning sales tax increase to help children and families, including those experiencing homelessness, but without a detailed spending plan yet. Plus, at the top of the show, we talk with Transportation Choices Coalition Executive Director Kirk Hovenkotter about Proposition 1, which would double Seattle's transit sales tax to pay for more bus service.  Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 2030. But some councilmembers are pushing back. They want things like more surveillance cameras, more cops and different public-safety priorities. Some are questioning Wilson's cuts to fire department overtime, and Councilmember Bob Kettle has even floated cutting affordable-housing funding to free up money for other priorities. So who's got Seattle's priorities right? And if the city spends more on public safety or other priorities, what should the council cut to pay for it? Or should the city raise progressive taxes? Co-hosts David Hyde, Erica C. Barnett and Sandeep Kaushik also ask Wilson why she decided not to raise the JumpStart tax, whether she thinks Seattle will eventually need 1,400 cops, why she's still clearing homeless encampments, and why she's scaled back her goal of adding 1,000 new shelter units this year. Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 to build more affordable housing. Foster's proposal would temporarily slash the fees developers pay under MHA to get stalled projects moving again, without ditching the program. It's pretty similar to an idea Mayor Katie Wilson was considering earlier this year before backing away after pushback from some affordable-housing advocates. Foster also wants the city to study applying some version of MHA in neighborhood residential zones, the former single-family areas, which some pro-housing advocates have opposed. So how did Foster manage to bring the fee cut back? Will it work? And why has it taken Seattle so long to rethink a program some urbanists say has been holding the city back for years? Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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's resolution. And the plan she announced this week doesn't include the core law-enforcement deterrence consequences that have been a linchpin of focused deterrence programs in the many cities where the approach has been successful. Crime is down, but Seattleites are anxious about public safety after a series of high-profile shootings. Business leaders are demanding action and critics are questioning Mayor Katie Wilson's approach. This week, co-hosts David Hyde, Erica C. Barnett and Sandeep Kaushik ask: Is the media being unfair to Seattle's mayor on this issue? Or are there legitimate questions about her approach to public safety? Then we get into the latest City Hall fight: Councilmember Maritza Rivera wants Seattle to try “focused deterrence,” an approach that targets the tiny percentage of people that studies have shown are most likely to be involved in (or victims of) serious violence in cities across the United States, via an integrated, unified front approach that combines community leaders, social service providers, and police. Rivera is proposing that the city spend $418,000 to bring in national experts to help Seattle do it. Wilson rejected the proposal in a recent KUOW interview as “grandstanding and politicking.” The community violence intervention approach that she is currently backing, in contrast to focused deterrence, involves deploying former gang members or others with lived experience of violence as ambassadors and outreach workers who proactively engage with at risk youth and young adults, and does not integrate police into that outreach effort.  Read more about the mayor's new plan here: KUOW: Seattle mayor's new gun violence reduction plan pushes prevention over police And for more insight into the policy differences between advocates for focused deterrence and more progressive, law enforcement-skeptical advocates for community violence interruption approaches, we recommend reading:  Greg Berman, "No Program is a Panacea: The Fate of Focused Deterrence," Vital City, Jan 15, 2022.  Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 Opioid Recovery & Care Access (ORCA) Center, which Daniel tells us has been a major success, with 10,000(!) encounters with people experiencing addiction in Year One (either at its fixed site at the Morrison Hotel on 3rd and Yesler, or through its ORCA POD community outreach efforts). And the vast majority of those people are either currently or recently homeless, with many initiating Medically Assisted Treatment for opioid addiction via buprenorphine or methadone.   Then the conversation turns to an update on DESC's STAR Center, a successor to the Navigation Center that used to be located in Little Saigon. In its new location, the STAR Center is now a 95 bed facility that fills a crucial gap in the city's homelessness response system, typically providing medium-term shelter for people experiencing serious behavioral health instability. Once those issues come under better control residents move on to housing or lower acuity shelters -- typically after about 90 days.  Finally, we turn to Daniel for an update on the ongoing saga of the Trump administration's efforts to sharply reduce funding for Housing First programs in Seattle and around the country. The lawsuits are ongoing, Daniel says, and so far have been able to stave off big local funding cuts to homelessness services. But the cuts are likely coming, and the City and County continue to work with providers to identify local funding to backfill the expected loss of federal funds.   Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 get into Erica's story about interim Chief Andre Sayles, who filed a potentially career-ending complaint against a veteran hate-crimes detective for speaking at a pro-LGBTQ rally, despite having permission to do so. The complaint was quickly dismissed, but the episode raises serious questions about Sayles' judgment as Seattle searches for its next permanent chief. Then, layoffs are hitting the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) hard. We unpack the chaotic rollout and the awkward reality of an agency that's slowly being gutted while officials avoid saying the quiet part out loud. Plus, for our Patreon supporters only: A candidate meltdown saga. Losing candidate Ron Davis has released another manifesto blaming The Stranger's “cheat sheet” for the fact that he came up short. We take a closer look at his use of stats and wonder if there might be some additional explanations. Hear that along with our entire episode by signing up to become a Seattle Nice member on https://www.patreon.com/seattlenice.   Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 while cleaning up the streets? Or a crackdown without enough shelter or services to actually work? Plus, Seattle's new interim police chief Andre Sayles promises he won't be "Barnes 2.0." Erica explains what that means. Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 city's most influential political endorsement despite, in the eyes of some, barely covering City Hall. Then we turn to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. The city and county are taking back hundreds of contracts and hiring dozens of new employees to manage them. KCRHA, meanwhile, hasn't laid anyone off. We unpack what that says about the agency's future. Thanks to everyone who's helped Seattle Nice make the jump to video. If you value independent, deep-dive coverage of Seattle politics, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon: https://patreon.com/seattlenice. Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 Barnes's departure. In this Patreon supporter perk episode we get into: ·       The $700,000 Settlement: Why the city agreed to a massive payout for a chief who served less than two years. ·       Mayor Wilson's Communication Crisis: The political fallout and growing friction between the mayor's office and City Council. ·       The "Cultural Fit" Question: Was Barnes ever the right match for Seattle's political landscape? ·       Enter Interim Chief Sayles: What we know about the new appointment and whether his residency status will repeat past controversies. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app and to help us make the jump to video and support independent local journalism, join us at Patreon.com/SeattleNice. Sources: ·       Police Chief Shon Barnes is Out, His Deputy Andre Sayles Will Serve as Interim Chief - PubliCola ·       Mayor Wilson Announces Resignation of Chief Barnes and Appointment of Andre Sayles as Interim Chief ·       Seattle Mayor Wilson defends asking police chief to resign - KNKX Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 hours. We were recording in the middle of the chaos, when it still wasn't clear how it would end. Then we shift gears to Council member Eddie Lin's push to eliminate a key path for public appeals in the city's land use process, a fight that came down to a single swing vote from Bob Kettle, and pits housing advocates against neighborhood opponents. Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 tougher penalties are the right approach.Mayor Katie Wilson loses press secretary. Sage Wilson is out in early August, weeks after communications director Seferiana Day resigned. Is this a sign of friction inside City Hall over issues like sweeps and renters' protections? That's what co-host Erica Barnett thinks. Seattle's housing pipeline has nearly dried up. We talk about why housing starts are down, the fallout from the failed MHA fee reform, and whether Council member Eddie Lynn has found a modest path forward to get more construction projects moving again.Thanks to everyone who is helping Seattle Nice make the jump to video. If you know someone who loves this podcast and hasn't become a member yet, please suggest they contribute too, at: Patreon.com/SeattleNice Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 Thursday meeting, including a failed attempt to "water down" the levy and a "shut up" maneuver that brought the speechifying to a screeching halt.Lunchroom Politics: Universal free school lunches or vouchers for low-income families? We dig into the clash between Mayor Katie Wilson's priorities and council members Joy Hollingsworth and Dionne Foster's push for means-tested support.The Denny Blaine Ruling: A judge has weighed in on Seattle's nude beach, addressing what counts as "lewd" behavior and what the ruling means for the future of the city's parks.Mayoral Travel Diaries: Why did former Mayor Bruce Harrell spend around a quarter of his time in the air, while Mayor Wilson travels far less?CORRECTION: In this episode Sandeep mentioned that Council President Joy Hollingsworth previously worked at Food Lifeline. That was incorrect: Hollingsworth was previously affiliated with the Northwest Harvest Emergency Feeding Program.  Support the Show: We're on a mission to bring Seattle Nice to video, since that's where podcasting is headed. But we can't do that without your support. If you value independent, deep-dive coverage of Seattle politics, help us keep local accountability reporting alive, become a supporter-listener-viewer on Patreon. Patreon.com/seattlenice Subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts to help other Seattleites find the show. #SeattlePolitics #SeattleCityCouncil #SeattleNews #SeattleTransit #LocalGovernment Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

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 keeps his job.  Plus, why the council keeps finding out about Wilson's legislation the same way the rest of us do: by reading PubliCola. And what she's doing to fix the tense relationship with the council. Also: a school lunch program got ambushed the same day the mayor bragged about it. World Cup hangover / promise. Seattle's role in the World Cup is over and Sandeep is back to driving his gas-guzzler to work at Pioneer Square, but the vibes (and the Occidental Park jumbotron) haven't fully left. Will Wilson pedestrianize more of downtown for good?The Pioneer Square playbook. Sandeep makes the case that the PDA-led shelter-and-services push that cleared the neighborhood for the World Cup actually worked, and that Wilson wants to replicate it citywide. One catch: there's no money in the budget for it yet.The "Sweeps" Mayor Dilemma: Erica presses Wilson on encampment removals. Wilson's answer boils down to political triage: stop all sweeps and you lose the "political will" to build more shelter. $175 million hole. We discuss the deficit and the looming push for new progressive revenue (capital gains? JumpStart again?), and why Wilson admits there's "no silver bullet."SPD budget in the crosshairs and Chief Barnes stays, for now. Every department's been told to model budget cuts, including police, even as SPD keeps hiring at a pace the city may not be able to afford (starting pay tops $126K after six months). But will they actually cut officers? In the middle of that squeeze, Wilson confirms she's retaining Chief Shon Barnes. The council relationship: still a mess, but improving? Wilson owns some of the dysfunction from the shelter-legislation fight earlier this year, admitting her office was "slow to staff" council relations. There are reportedly efforts now to rebuild those one-on-one relationships, but meetings aren't going great yet.Looking Back: How does Wilson’s first six months compare to former Mayor Bruce Harrell?Read the two-part interview in PubliCola: Mayor Katie Wilson at Six Months In: "Incredibly Proud of What We're Accomplishing" (Part 1) Mayor Katie Wilson Says She's "Doing a Reset" on Housing Agenda, "Very Hopeful" About Police Chief (Part 2) If you appreciate the in-depth, behind-the-scenes coverage of Seattle politics, help us keep the lights on. We're a bare-bones operation trying to expand into video, and we can’t do it without our listeners.  https://www.patreon.com/seattlenice     Support the show Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.