Slog AM: Chinook Nation Rally, a Missing Bike Mystery, and Juicy Neighborhood Gossip

“That’s a lot of death.” What’s going on at Seattle’s jail? There have been five deaths by suicide so far this year, a level that far outstrips the national average. Incarceration has been steadily increasing over the last year, and experts think potential factors include isolation in some cases, crowding in others, and psychological trauma.

Another day, another mass shooting. A gunman in Bend, Oregon killed two and injured three at a shopping center. After a large police response, the shooter was found dead from a gunshot wound.

Chinook Indian Nation will host a rally today at the Federal Building. The tribe gained federal recognition in 2001, but then the Bush administration revoked that recognition and declared that the tribe doesn’t exist. Members have spent the last twenty years trying to get the federal government to reverse that reversal, and today they’ll rally at 1st Ave and Madison at 11:30 am, asking Congress to introduce legislation to restore their recognition. It’ll be streamed live on Facebook here.

Fire season is in full swing. With widespread drought and windy conditions across the PNW, numerous fires continue to burn across the state. Some of the biggest: The Vantage Highway fire (around 30,000 acres in Kittitas County), Cow Canyon in Yakima County (4,878 acres), and the Mohr wildfire in Douglas County. The US Forest Service has 12 crews out battling fires on Forest Service land. Air quality around Seattle looks like it’ll stay pretty clean this week, though the same can’t be said for the eastern part of the state.

Just pathetic. I always get complaints when I refer to Seattle’s waterfront project as a failure, but, come on, just looks at how it compares. Yes, yes, I know it’s still under construction. But this multi-lane freeway won’t look any nicer when it’s done. We really coulda had something nice here. Oh well.

vancouvers waterfront vs seattles

we have no vision pic.twitter.com/LsFZKXwe9z

— Pushing The Needle (@pushtheneedle) August 27, 2022

Do not eat the rabioli. If you’re going for a hike and come across a tasty-looking fishmeal pouch in the forest, please do not take a bite. It contains a rabies vaccine and was dropped by the USDA in an attempt to reduce infections among raccoons.

Good riddance, but probably only temporarily. Twitter gave a temporary suspension to Libs of TikTok this weekend. The move comes after the right wing troll account targeted yet another hospital for having the temerity to provide medical care to trans youth.

Finally, some good news. Nebraskan Duane Hansen has set a new world record for the longest river trip undertaken in a giant hollowed-out pumpkin–38 miles.

Who took these bikes? We’ve got a bit of a mystery on our hands here: Someone’s gone and scraped up bike markings off the road in Rainier Valley. I’m giving SDOT the benefit of the doubt and not jumping to the most obvious conclusion, which is that it’s their fault, but it’s hard to imagine whose else it could be. I’ve got an email out to the comms team and will let you know when I hear something back.

#Seabikes any reason why the Rainier Valley greenway markings have been scraped off south of Henderson? And maybe even this speed bump is getting removed? It’s the only non-Rainier/arterial route to the library & there’s already no sidewalks here. pic.twitter.com/yYixXd6EbA

— Anna Zivarts (@AnnaZivarts) August 27, 2022

Now open in Tacoma: Even bigger traffic jams. WSDOT completed its highway expansion a little ahead of schedule in Tacoma on Friday and re-striped this weekend–a twenty-two-year (!) and 1.4-billion-dollar (!!) project that adds new HOV lanes and widens other roads for cars. The benefit of HOV lanes is pretty dubious, according to studies. It’s not all bad news, though. The agency is also doing some habitat restoration, which is a bit like building a doghouse in the backyard of a home you just set on fire.

Funny what’s considered “big money” when it’s for anything other than cars. That one single HOV project cost $1.4 billion, slightly more than what the state set aside for active transportation projects over the next sixteen years (!!!). Still, that’s way more than has been available in the past, and thanks to a streamlined grant process even small towns are starting to ask for money for pedestrian and bike projects. Of course, ped infrastructure is nice, but it also needs housing reform (specifically, eliminating exclusionary zoning) to really get people out of their cars. Who’s going to use those brand new sidewalks when everything is too far to walk to?

Oh, that’s juicy. Please enjoy these two fun pieces of local drama: First, the urbanist-advocate who goes by Pushing the Needle got ahold of a memo stating the reason the Design Review Board rejected the application from the person behind the account. The best part is that because they wrote the doc in Word, the edit history is visible, so PtN can see exactly who wrote what. Drama #2 occurred between members of the Thornton Creek Alliance; one is pushing for the City to accommodate more growth, and the other lives in a fantasy world where the city’s population might shrink … and also seems to be unaware of her organization’s own membership.

Speaking of juicy … Somebody please get one of these and let me know how it is.

Y’all I found them, the viral peach ice creams. $13 for 3 but in all fairness, I wouldn’t complain if this was the dessert at a Michelin Star restaurant. 10/10. Btw, Asian Family Market on 99 in Seattle. 🍑 🍨 pic.twitter.com/RlWLjNCLtJ

— Amy Bonaduce (@AmyBonaduce) August 27, 2022