On this deeply troubling election eve, Seattle Nice invites you inside the podcast for a comforting conversation about local politics.

First, we take a closer look at the juicy allegations swirling around SPD Chief Sue Rahr's decision to place former Chief Adrian Diaz and his chief of staff on leave.

Second, a recent poll finds progressive city council candidate Alexis Mercedes Rinck has a ginormous lead over incumbent Tanya Woo. If accurate (Sandeep's skeptical), what would a big progressive win mean for the council's centrist majority heading into 2025?

Third, we discuss council member's Rob Saka's effort to remove, "a traffic safety barrier that prevents him from turning left on Delridge directly into the parking lot of his kids’ preschool." Is this a good look?

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Erica’s out this week, so we bring you a preview of a new podcast called "Blue City Blues."

Twenty years ago, in the wake of a searing presidential defeat, Dan Savage encouraged progressives to move to blue cities and to fortify them into an “Urban Archipelago” of culturally separatist bastions that rejected the reactionary politics of the larger red American landscape. And he got his wish.

Over the last two decades, rural places got redder and urban areas much bluer, and America’s bluest cities developed their own distinctive culture and politics. They became the leading edge of a cultural transformation that reshaped progressivism, redefined urbanism and remade the Democratic Party.

But as blue cities went their own way, as they thrived as economically and culturally vibrant trend-setters, these urban cosmopolitan islands also developed their own distinctive set of problems. Inequality soared, and affordability tanked.

And yet, as these cities evolved together and formed their own, increasingly shared worldview, the public conversation about this brave new pan-urban world-unto-itself stagnated, relegated to localized conversations in narrowly provincial regional newspapers or local NPR programming.

On this pilot episode of Blue City Blues we pick up where Savage’s Urban Archipelago idea left off, with a national perspective on the present and the future of urban America.

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Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

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.

With Erica gone this week David and Sandeep take a one-week vacation from city politics to take a closer look at the root causes of the problems facing Seattle Schools, including a controversial push by some district leaders to close up to 21 schools in the face of a nearly $100 million deficit.

Said special guest Robert Cruickshank, “This is one of the few issues where Sandeep is not wrong.” Robert is a Seattle parent and progressive activist, who currently leads Washington's Paramount Duty, which advocates for increased school funding.

Robert and Sandeep agree that the school district is floundering under bad leadership, but they provide different diagnoses of where to place the blame. Is the problem with our schools “neoliberal austerity” (Robert) or “wokery run amok” (Sandeep)? Or both? Listen to find out!

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

Send us a text

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

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.