The number of people who park and leave their cars in bus stops in Seattle is wild. The busses can't safely pick up and drop people off and it is incredibly inconsiderate. Busses should be equipped with cameras to take photos and have the cars fined or towed. This is especially bad in front of the CVS in upper queen Anne.

You moved out about a month ago, when I was out of town. I had always assumed that I’d be the one to move out of the building first, and had planned to leave you a note along the lines of this one, but you beat me to it. Now, that letter only exists in the Realm Of Thing That Nevered, and therefore, I write this in hopes that you see it.

I always admired your nouveau-Appalachian punk sensibilities (I am very curious as to where they came from), and was so pleasantly surprised the morning you asked me how it was going when I was on my way to work. You were walking your dog (who was the gentleman I expected him to be). I always felt stupid for not being chattier then, but stand by my decision to keep well-measured with my neighbors.

While your dog has taken well after your cordiality, he could do more to glean from your allure.

I don’t know if you moved in with a partner, to somewhere closer to work, somewhere with a yard, or what, but I do know that crossing paths with you at the bar on Capitol Hill this summer was one of the highlights of mine.

Let me invite you for a round?

Hi friends,

I left the charger for my Magicycle Cruiser Pro ebike outside on accident, and it was stolen. While the new one I bought is being shipped, I would greatly appreciate it if someone could lend me a charger for a day (or just an afternoon).

I promise I am not evil, I'll give you my full name, address, and number and will bend the knee to you if you desire.

Thank

My ex is taking my kids to see the Gorillaz on Saturday. My 10-year-old gets overwhelmed and overstimulated in loud, crowded spaces. Does anyone know if the arena has a calm room or space where my kid can go if it becomes too much? Will they have any issue bringing non-electronic soundproof earmuffs in?

Found a gold bracelet on the corner next to PopRox on Saturday the 25th of October. Let me know if it's yours and I'll get it to you.

I moved here in 2008, and it was legitimately the best decision of my life. I met amazing people, embraced the incredible culture where I felt, for the first time in my life, I could actually fit. Strange, I know, given the notorious "Seattle Freeze". I've seen it, of course, and I know how it happens.

Yet through all of that I just found such an incredible community here to love, was loved in turn. I was lucky.

I found the love of my life, with whom I'm continuing our journey as we make our move to Norway.

It's bittersweet. I'm excited about what's to come, and I'm heartbroken about leaving this beautiful place behind.

Stay weird, stay beautiful, stay passionate.

Hello all,

Biking through the BG, that part where it's all super bumpy, and my cargo net came undone and spilled my lunch and right hand glove onto the ground. I went back when I realized they were gone, and found my green garden grown tomatoes and my fuji apple, but the glove, sammie, and yellow ripe tomato was gone. I hope it went into a happy belly (!), but I am just hoping to get my glove back.

I posted some flyers on the BG, but thought I'd zip a note here.

Just trying to see if anyone might have seen it and grabbed it. Please pm me if so. Thank you kindly.

Does anyone know what this ship was doing in Seattle? I think is saw it in the ship yard a few days ago, and am wondering what it is, what it was doing here, and where it’s off to next.

First, I want to apologize AGAIN. It's been a week. Honestly it's been a last 3 years. Mom has been on hospice care for a year now and is nearing the end. She asked me to come help them last week so I booked the very first flight I could. Last night was the return trip.

I'd spent the week helping her bathe, use the toilet, feeding her, doing as much laundry as I could, organizing her clothes, going through old photos, helping my father as best I could, dealing with his little dogs and the shit my sisters pull. Mom can't remember the word "underwear" but could only say "I need help." It's been a week with more to come.

I could have sworn I'd booked a window seat! But apparently I booked the aisle. I plopped my ass right in that window seat and you asked me so nicely, "Did you book a window seat? Do you want the window seat?" and I replied, "Yes I booked a window seat and yes, I want it." You kindly asked to see my seat assignment, I showed you. You were so nice when you said, "You're in seat F, not D."

I was sooo embarrassed! But you offered a deal -- I could keep the window seat if no one took the middle seat. I agreed. Later on you asked if you could use the middle seat no one took along with the tray, and ma'am, you bought all of that with your kindness.

We hear, see, and read a *lot* about flying freakouts, but not so much about the kindness of strangers. You had no idea anything about me, but you chose to be kind. I can only hope I have the same opportunity to be like you. Bless you.

Title change:
WA landlords can ignore tenant unions, and Tacoma wants to change that

TACOMA — Below the warm glow of string lights in their century-old apartment building, Bearett Hoffmann and his neighbors overwhelmingly voted to do something that may sound terrifying to many renters: voluntarily stop paying their utility bills.

By standing together, the renters hope they can pressure their landlord to change the utility billing system they say has saddled them with unfairly high costs.

“This is the type of escalation that we need to do,” Hoffmann said, “because (the owners) have not been willing to negotiate with us on a regular basis so far.”

The group’s newly formed union is part of a growing movement in Tacoma that could soon have more power. A measure on the city’s November ballot could force landlords to negotiate with tenant unions like this one — the first law of its kind in the state. 

A push for more renter power comes as tenants nationwide struggle to afford housing and other basic needs. Tacoma’s tenant organizing is part of a surge in renter activism over the past five years that has stretched well beyond coastal metros to Kansas City, Mo., and Louisville, Ky., said Peter Dreier, a politics professor at Occidental College who has written about housing and renter issues. 

As home prices remain out of reach, fewer renters in their 20s and 30s see homeownership on the horizon, leaving them with a “sense of tenant consciousness,” Dreier said.

“Both low-income and middle-class tenants are feeling like their backs are to the wall,” Dreier said, “and that they need to protect themselves as renters because they may wind up being renters for a long time.”

Initiative Measure No. 1 on the Tacoma ballot this fall could give that organizing more leverage. Supported by progressive and socialist groups, the measure would require landlords to meet with tenant unions that are supported by renters in a majority of a building’s units. The measure would also bring a suite of other changes, meant to stiffen penalties for landlords who violate tenant safety and habitability laws. Landlord groups are pouring money into an opposition campaign.

Existing laws, such as Seattle’s, sometimes protect renters’ rights to organize but usually do not require landlords to negotiate with tenant groups. San Francisco in 2022 began requiring landlords to meet and confer with tenant unions, but Tacoma’s would be the first law of its kind in Washington.

Landlords argue the requirement opens property owners to potential lawsuits over technicalities, such as the mandate that landlords meet with tenant unions at least once per quarter for up to two hours. 

Those types of rules are “not effective, and it’s not helpful,” said Jake Mayson, government affairs director for the Washington Multi-Family Housing Association, which represents landlords. “But what it does do is create paths and avenues for people to extract money with lawsuits.” 

Property owners are “worried about the massive cost of lawsuits and the amount of litigation that’s going to come out of this,” said Mayson, whose group is campaigning against the measure along with other landlords and the state Realtors association.  

Eviction risks

At the eight-unit McIlvaine Apartments in the city’s Hilltop neighborhood, tenants started getting together informally more than a year ago to talk about issues with their utilities. The landlord uses what’s known as a ratio utility billing system, in which the total utility costs of a building are divided based on a unit’s size and occupancy and other factors, rather than each apartment’s actual use.

Renters say that has meant high costs for their water, sewer and gas bills with little transparency. 

“If there is a leak in the building or if the building manager comes in and leaves the sink on in a vacant unit, we’re the ones that pay for that,” said Daphne Jaesler, who has lived in the building for about a year. “All of these extra costs around owning the building get pushed on to us.”

Hoffmann said his water, sewer and garbage charges are usually around $180 a month.

The group, now organized as the McIlvaine Tenant Union, plans to begin their utility strike on Nov. 1, hoping to see movement from their landlord after raising their concerns for months. Ultimately, they want individual meters for each apartment or a flat monthly rate.

“Just showing up to the table doesn’t mean that we call off the strike,” said Rachel McDonald, who’s lived in the building for a year and a half. “It’s really about demonstration of bargaining in good faith.”

In a statement, the building’s owner, Rainier Valley Partners, said it respected tenants’ “right to express their views,” but that obligations to pay utility bills “remain governed by applicable law and the terms of each tenancy.”

The company said it looked into converting the building to individual utility metering but found the project would cost $328,000 and was “not economically feasible at this time.”

For the tenants, going on a utility strike to try to force some action comes with risks. 

Like worker organizing, the goal of tenant unions is to leverage collective power. But unlike labor unions, tenant groups don’t have legal protections for actions like strikes, and landlords are not required to negotiate with them. Tenants could face eviction for failure to pay utilities or rent.

Sipping lime seltzer and coffee, McIlvaine tenants laid out the risks before taking the vote this month. They could receive notices to pay their utilities or vacate, the first step toward an eviction. But, they noted, evictions will soon be restricted under Tacoma’s winter eviction ban, which limits most evictions between Nov. 15 and March 15 except for limited reasons, including illegal activity. They viewed a utility shut-off to the entire building as unlikely.

Potential eviction is the biggest fear. Tenants said they plan to set aside the money for each month’s utility bills for eventual payment, and to reassess if anyone receives a pay-or-vacate notice or eviction filing. They plan to consider a rent strike if the landlord moves to evict anyone in the building. 

“We won’t let anyone be picked off,” Hoffmann said.

‘Trying to survive’

The McIlvaine tenants are one of five groups in Tacoma, representing 10 apartment buildings, that have organized with the help of Tacoma Tenants, a nonprofit with the goal of building “supermajority strike-ready unions,” said lead organizer Devin Rydel Kelly. 

Rent strikes are not the ultimate goal of organizing, but tenants need financial leverage over their landlords to make change, Rydel Kelly said.

“There’s really only two things that will usually get a landlord to negotiate, and one is financial pressure — the ability to go on a rent strike, and or really credibly threaten one,” he said. “And, less common but sometimes, social pressure.”

Renters have organized like this for generations, dating back to the 1930s when they fought evictions during the Great Depression.

“It comes in waves, basically, when tenants feel threatened,” said Dreier, the professor.

Not far from the McIlvaine Apartments, Sarah Gray and her neighbors at the Dreher Apartments joined with tenants in two other buildings owned by the same landlord. After hearing their buildings would be sold to new owners, the group feared the worst. 

“We had reasonable questions about what’s going to happen with rent, leases, maintenance and, frankly, our ability to stay in our homes,” Gray said.

With many tenants in Gray’s building on month-to-month leases, their union hopes for longer-term agreements, timely repairs and no rent increases for the first year of new ownership.

“That’s giving us time to prepare for a reasonable rent raise,” Gray said. “The union wants an opportunity to have a conversation about that so that we know what to expect.”

In an email to The Seattle Times, real estate developer Daniel Casey, whose firm is buying Gray’s apartment building, declined to comment on tenants’ concerns, saying his company is unable to communicate with renters in the building until the sale closes.

“What I can say is that our intent is to keep current residents in place, and we take building conditions seriously,” he said.

Tacoma tenants’ organizing efforts come as the city changes around them.

“We see gentrification happening, and it’s hard to watch,” Gray said. “We don’t want to get pushed out.”

There is no comprehensive data on the number of tenant unions in the state, making it difficult to know how much organizing may be on the rise outside of Tacoma.

The Tenants Union of Washington State encourages renters to form associations or unions in their building when issues are affecting multiple tenants, said membership coordinator Talauna Reed. But the process can be difficult, and some renters are overwhelmed with high costs or safety concerns.

People of color, immigrants and renters for whom English isn’t a first language “are most impacted by predatory landlord practices,” Reed said. “They’re not going to be on the forefront of anything — not right now.”

“People are just trying to survive,” said Reed, who hopes the Tacoma measure could lead to similar efforts statewide. 

And even for those who successfully organize, the outcome can be mixed.

When an apartment building in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood switched to ratio utility billing, tenants faced a “huge spike” in housing costs and soon formed an association, said renter Lexy Salas. They went on strike earlier this year, refusing to pay their utility bills and demanding a flat per-unit utility fee. 

Salas and her neighbors agreed that if their landlord issued pay-or-vacate notices, a precursor to eviction, they would end the strike because an eviction record “can affect your housing for many, many years.” Indeed, six months after they launched the action, they received notices and paid.

In the end, the strike didn’t move their landlord to change the utility billing system, and Salas and others are now pushing for a citywide ban on ratio utility billing. “There is a need for legislative change,” she said.

At the same time, Salas and her neighbors continue to struggle like many tenants across the region. Facing an upcoming rent hike and utility bills that can be as high as $150 a month, Salas is now preparing to look for somewhere else to move.

“So many of us spend over a third or half of our incomes on housing, yet we don’t have a say in our own living conditions,” Salas said, “and that is just inherently unjust.” 

At the McIlvaine in Tacoma, tenants hope for a better outcome, starting with substantive meetings with their landlord.

The most important thing the group can do going forward is to stay in regular communication with each other, Hoffmann told his neighbors after the vote. “That is our real strength here.”

Lots of issues with the link lately.. prayers to those trying to get home tonight. Go Seahawks!!

I've been living in Seattle for 7 years and the bus that gives me the most headache is the 40 line. It is chronically late. I feel that it is more frequently late than the 8 bus, and for longer stretches. It even starts late from its first stop at Northgate station. At night it is wholly unreliable. It is one of the buses I rely on the most based on where I live, and frustrates me to no end. It is consistently very late after 8:00 p.m. Why is this?

I write this as I am waiting on a 30-minute+ delay 40 bus in Ballard at 9:00 p.m. I'm so frustrated that most of the other buses seem to operate within normal timetables, not being late more than 10-20 minutes. Two 44 busses have come and gone as I wait here. But the 40 is consistently late and by very large stretches of time. I've submitted multiple complaints to King County Metro over the years and nothing ever gets done.

I just don't understand why this bus in particular struggles so much at night. Especially when there aren't a lot of cars on the road. I will see empty 40 busses sitting in the Northgate station bus bays, driverless, accruing longer and longer delays. Is it an unpopular route to staff? I just can't figure out why this bus in particular seems to be so miserable. Does anyone know?

This is the second time this year I've seen kids on electric bicycles riding on the highway (not the shoulder but in an actual lane). First time was several months ago on northbound I-5. Last night I saw 3 kids on electric bikes riding through the 99 tunnel around 9pm. Please make sure your kids know how unsafe this is. I was scared I was going about to see all three killed by a car.

Hello, has anyone already been receiving 12 weeks of PFML for their own medical condition or to care for a family member, and then discovered they are pregnant during this leave?

It looks like I am able to extend my current PFML for a pregnancy-related incapacity or serious condition tied to pregnancy, which my doctor will certify and sign the form. (The form is just a checkbox for pregnancy-based medical condition, no further details needed).

Has anyone else done this? Been on leave and then extended that leave essentially from PFML to pregnancy-related PFML to get the extra few weeks immediately after the original 12 weeks of PFML you’re already approved for and currently taking?

It’s unclear if I will need to terminate or if the pregnancy will ultimately result in a live birth, but I am pregnant regardless and have a health condition related directly to that.

I called WA ESD, but they seemed confused and kept referring to the postnatal leave and/or to bond with the baby.

But I just want to take it upfront and stay on my current leave longer.

Has anyone done this? Or have relevant experience or feedback on what this process was or the timeline?

I also don’t want to confuse ESD submitting this updated pregnancy form or look sketchy bc I started with non-pregnancy leave, and then I want to take this pregnancy extension directly after my 12 weeks PFML ends.

It looks like I can get an extra 2-4 weeks, and I’d like to take it upfront. Not after the due date (if it’s a pregnancy I even birth a baby, it’s unclear at this point)

They make it very confusing! Thank you!

As a note, if you have questions regarding this event please be sure to ping me by putting my username in the comment or sending me a message. I don't use the official Reddit site often so please don't use the chat feature.

Hey all, the weekly Capitol Hill Board Game meetup is scheduled to take place this week. This week it will take place this Monday, at 7:30 PM at The Pine Box, 1600 Melrose Ave. We will most likely be seated under the covered patio - if you see a group of Smash Bro gamers out there, then that means we're up in the Mezzanine! If you're ever uncertain of where we're at, you can ask the bartenders and they should be able to point us out.

Please note that The Pine Box is 21+ only.

Start time is typically more like 7:00, as people tend to show up then to order food, chat, and just socialize. Don't worry if you don't see any games as they'll be brought out soon enough. Start time for board games will be at 7:30, so if you don't want to be left out be sure to show up before then! If you're new, look for the collection of board games people usually bring.

We ask that you please order something, even if it's just one beverage. The Pine Box is a public bar, and we need to respect their business needs.

FAQ:

Q.) How often does this group meetup?

A.) Unless stated otherwise, this is a weekly meetup. Meaning every Monday we try to gather up and socialize. If we are skipping a week for holiday or some other reason, it will be noted in this post.

Q.) What kind of games are played? Should I bring mine?

A.) A whole slew of games are played; from short games like Codenames and Liars Dice, to longer ones like Evolution and Colonizing Mars. And feel free to bring your own games, too. You might find some people who are interested in trying it out.

Q.) I don't really know how to play any board games besides x, y, z.... Will I be welcome here?

A.) That's completely fine. There are plenty of people who are willing to explain the rules and do quite a good job at it, too.

Q.) Speaking of being welcome, what kind of people are allowed to attend?

A.) Everyone is welcome, so long as you are polite, respectful, and considerate of the other patrons.

Don't forget to vote by 8pm November 3rd for the general election.

Today is the last day that election officials recommend for you to use USPS to mail in your ballot. Many here (and myself) recommend using a drop box instead of mail.

You can drop your ballot off at a Drop Box. You can also drop your ballot off to any drop box in the state, not just your home county. If you have any trouble you can head to a King County Voting Center.

If you didn't receive your ballot you can print one at home. You can use the King County online marking site to print a ballot at home. Here is a direct link and here is more information. It also supports multiple languages.

Don't have a printer? Check out a Seattle Public Library location. Patrons can print up to 10 pages per week for free. (Luckily the ballot is only 6 pages.)

Today is also the last day to update your voting information online or via mail. After today you should head to a voting center.

If you have questions or issues contact King County Elections 206-296-VOTE (8683) or [elections@kingcounty.gov](mailto:elections@kingcounty.gov).

You can also sign up for Ballot Alerts Here.