Post Up: This Week’s PNW in Review

Sound Transit conceded what it can no longer afford to build. Mayor Wilson lost the lead advisor on her shelter expansion. Meta laid off 1,400 Seattle-area workers on the same day Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht pulled into Lake Union. And the rules tightened about what the region is willing to build, and, what isn’t likely to happen.

The math just ain’t mathing

Bound to actual budgets, promises regional authorities had sold voters, finally met reality. Sound Transit’s marathon board meeting this week cast Ballard light rail into limbo while keeping West Seattle on the affordable list and resurrecting Graham Street Station — a quiet, expensive admission that ST3 is hugely underperforming current economic realities. (The Urbanist; The Seattle Times)

Then there’s housing. Mayor Katie Wilson’s lead homeless advisor on shelter expansion stepped down just as the King County Regional Housing Authority’s response to its audit landed and King County Council began publicly questioning whether the regional body should be abandoned. (Publicola; The Seattle Times) And in SoDo, the housing plan died a quiet death — abundance rhetoric, meet stadium-district political power. (Post Alley)

Building conditions

Interesting movement on the building development front this week. The Seattle Social Housing Developer acquired its first building, near Pike Place Market, an experiment in housing that finally has an address. (The Urbanist) The Seattle City Council’s Land Use Committee voted 4-0 to advance a targeted upzone program seeking to encourage construction of towers, affordable housing, and eco-friendly mass timber buildings. And councilmember Lin moved to curb legal appeals that have slowed every density vote of the last decade. (The Urbanist)

Then, a data center moratorium gained traction in the City Council. Last month the Seattle Times revealed that four companies had proposed energy-hungry projects in the City Light area. The national backlash against AI and all of its accompanying demands on resources, is now roaring at full blast. One idea being floated: Charge data center projects higher electricity rates to mitigate rate increases for other City Light customers. (The Urbanist)

Pressure from outside

Federal and corporate pressure has been brought to bear on regional institutions this week. The Trump administration sued Washington over its refusal to issue undercover license plates to ICE. It’s the latest attempt by the Feds to punish states whose politics Trump disapproves of. And so it’s come to this: the new federalism reduced to a license-plate skirmish. And is it really possible Trump could halt international flights into sanctuary cities including Seattle? Hello! World Cup coming. Homeland Security’s MarkWayne Mullin seems to think so, and even admitted he’d do it to “punish” blue states. The regime seems to be seriously exploring the possibility. (The Seattle Times; KING 5)

On the corporate front, the Big Tech retreat in the PNW continues apace. Meta cut nearly 1,400 Seattle-area jobs — 20 percent of its local workforce, the same day Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s $300M superyacht swans into Lake Union with its $100 million support vessel called Wingman. Billionaire behavior in exquisite balance. (GeekWire)

At Tacoma’s Northwest Detention Center, ICE retaliated against hunger strikers there. Strikers are protesting what they describe as appalling conditions, and while the ICE gulag may not be as headline-catchy as the raids on communities, they’re a disaster for immigrants and due process for us all. (The Stranger)

New Guys in Town

Two new significant additions to the Seattle-area cultural scene. Pianist Orrin Evans arrives to take the helm of the terrific Seattle Jazz Repertory Orchestra (Seattle Times). And the chronically-troubled Seattle Symphony finally picks a new executive director after a series of administrative missteps and an internal rebellion a few weeks ago. Jeremy Rothman is a catch, arriving from the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he’s been the chief artistic officer. Good luck to him.

Finally — Pope Leo’s encyclical about artificial intelligence has attracted a remarkable amount of attention around the world. Two Pacific Northwest thinkers took on what the Pope wrote: Post Alley’s Anthony Robinson parsed Pope Leo’s caution about AI’s threat to “magnificent humanity,” and Oren Etzioni answered in GeekWire that the Pope can talk, but only we can walk. A debate over who gets to set the rules. (Post Alley; GeekWire) And Bruce Barcott at the AI Humanist excerpts what he describes as a remarkable document.

Sources

We monitored 32 Pacific Northwest publications for this report.

Major regional outlets

1. The Seattle Times — the Northwest’s paper of record.
2. GeekWire — tech and business with national reach and deep Seattle roots.
3. KUOW — the region’s leading public-radio newsroom.
4. Cascade PBS / Crosscut — nonprofit, coverage of politics, policy, and culture.
5. KNKX — public radio (NPR news plus jazz).
6. The Stranger — politics, music, film, and culture with a point of view.
7. MyNorthwest — KIRO Newsradio’s site.
8. Seattle Met — dining, arts, and culture.
9. The News-Tribune — Tacoma’s paper of record.

Civic, policy & community publications

10. The Urbanist — land use, housing, and transit policy; influential well beyond its size.
11. Publicola — Erica C. Barnett
12. The Burner — Hannah Krieg
13. Post Alley
14. HeraldNet — Everett’s Daily Herald; the paper of record for Snohomish County.
15. Seattle Transit Blog — transit operations and planning.
16. Seattle Bike Blog — streets, cycling, and traffic-safety.
17. Washington Observer — Washington political news.
18. Salish Current — Bellingham
19. Cascadia — Bellingham
20. Rainshadow — Port Townsend
21. The Seattle Medium — the largest Black-owned newspaper in the Pacific Northwest.
22. Converge Media — Black and urban community culture and journalism.
23. Seattle Gay News — LGBTQ community paper, publishing for 45+ years.
24. South Seattle Emerald — For the community. By the community. In the community.
25. West Seattle Blog — among the most respected neighborhood news sites in the country.
26. Capitol Hill Seattle — community news for the Capitol Hill.
27. Westside Seattle — Robinson Newspapers (Ballard, West Seattle, White Center).
28. Bellevue Reporter — Eastside coverage.
29. B-Town Blog — Burien and the south end.
30. Lynnwood Times — Lynnwood and south Snohomish County.
31. The JOLT — Olympia and Thurston County.
32. Jefferson County Beacon

We aren’t collecting from publications with hard paywalls.