No More Tips at Renee Erickson's Three Seattle-Area Restaurants: In a letter, the renowned owner/chef says doing away with tips and replacing them with an 18.5 percent charge means "dollars can be shared among all of our employees. This means a smaller wage gap between back of the house and front of the house workers." Read more about that disparity here. Erickson told Seattle Met she settled on the number because it's 3 percent less than what most people tip. (Keeping this in perspective, tipped workers make up about one tenth of all Seattle workers paid less than $15 per hour, according to Puget Sound Sage.)
Dealing with Downtown "Disorder": Even though downtown doesn't suffer from the most crime (that would be Beacon Hill), Mayor Ed Murray is moving to crack down on the area with a "9½ Block Strategy,” the Seattle Times reports. The strategy includes moving bus stops, restricting access to alleys and parking lots, and nabbing "gun-toting drug dealers." It's not clear from this article how integral the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, which links drug users with services instead of funneling them in and out of jail, is to the mayor's approach. LEAD has been shown to be successful in Belltown at reducing recidivism among those struggling with addiction and mental illness.
Micro-Policing Seattle's Neighborhoods: "Seattle police have divided up the city into 55 communities," KING 5 reports, "each with its own policing plan." Each plan includes making crime trends and alerts more accessible through Nextdoor.com. More info, including a neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakdown, over here.
Less Than 3 Percent of the State Transportation Package Funds Projects for Bicyclists and Pedestrians: We've been laser-focused on the $15 billion package's provisions for building light rail in the Seattle area, as it grinds through the legislature, but Seattle Bike Blog breaks down what's in it for bicyclists and pedestrians: not a whole lot.
The State Legislative Session Continues to Be a Shitshow: In case you missed it, the state treasurer proposed instituting a 5 percent income tax in order to fund education, which nobody seems enthused about. Each party is accusing the other of lying in their respective advertisements and robocalls.
Are ShellNo! Protests the Successor to Seattle's Infamous WTO Protests? This inside look from Sydney into how people are diligently training and assembling a broad-based nonviolent direct action coalition, organized through a spokescouncil, suggests the answer might just be yes.
Washington's Ban on Rent Control: Kshama Sawant and Nick Licata want the entire Seattle city council to go on record opposing it.
Did You Miss This Stellar Investigation into How a Crane on the Tunnel Project Almost Fell Over and Killed a Bunch of Workers? Watch it.