Jean Godden

Jean Godden wrote columns first for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and late for the Seattle Times. In 2002, she quit to run for City Council where she served for 12 years. Since then she published a book of city stories titled “Citizen Jean.” She is now co-host of The Bridge aired on community station KMGP at 101.1 FM. You can email tips and comments to Jean at jgodden@blarg.net.

Twelve Suggestions for Seattle’s New Mayor: Take a Councilmember to Lunch!

Your buddy Norm Rice lunched each month with a different councilmember at a neighborhood restaurant of his/her choosing. By all accounts, it worked to cement relations.

Me and Kshama: Our Mad Love For “Succession”

What's next? Will I suddenly discover that the city's resident Marxist has a taste for Dutch Babies and Fran's chocolates? That she's bought a copy of Hillary Clinton's best seller?

How Kamala Harris Could Get Her Mojo Back

Savvy politicos point out that Biden himself had early missteps as Obama's vice president. Those pols are now offering suggestions for Harris.

Running in Reverse: What Overturning Roe V. Wade will Bring

Should the court overturn Roe v Wade, it will trigger laws in more than 21 states to make abortion illegal.

Three Books Out of COVID

I am thinking about some books I've read that use the pandemic as a main character

Former Chief Carmen Best’s Book: Why I Quit

Best asks, "l couldn't help thinking: Are they dismissing me because I am a Black woman or is the city council refusing to include me because they don't want to be seen as working with the police?" 

How Seattle has Led the Way on Paid Family Leave

While the nation has been disgracefully derelict at providing parental leave, Washington, along with six other states and a number of municipalities, does offer such a benefit. It was Seattle that first led the effort.

The “Year of Wise Fools”: Nick Licata and the Rise of Campus Activism

Licata argues that the student power movement, too often packaged along with civil rights and anti-Vietnam War actions, deserves to stand as a separate entity. The movement involved more than just gaining student rights at individual schools. It fostered social justice beyond the campus.

Goodbye to Dick Kelley, 71, Renaissance Man of Local Politics

Last week, Seattle laid to rest a true renaissance man, and one of the best local politicians we managed never to quite elect.

Seattle’s Ailing Downtown, and Some Suggestions

A friend, a student of urban planning, advised that downtown needs more businesses that work well for the city's captive participants: those living in downtown apartments and condos, residents of retirement communities as well as the office workers, many of them younger, who will return when their offices reopen.    

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