The SUV in the picture is only performing ritual in Pike Place Market.
The SUV in the picture is only performing ritual in Pike Place Market. SLOG TIPPER SARAH

Seattle Times Wonders: "[Why] are vehicles allowed on Seattle’s Pike Place?" And the answer they get from SDOT: Because they are cars. This is the way things have been since the early 1920s, and it's not going to change any time soon. It's a "a deeply rooted Seattle ritual," and rituals are not meant to make sense of anything. It's a behavior that's repeated because it has been repeated in the past. When an ideology has no rhyme or reason, it resorts to ritual; and the ideology that keeps pedestrian-heavy Pike Place Market open to all vehicles has baked our society for over 100 years.

But there is a real fear here. If the rules change and pedestrians are privileged in Pike Place Market, and everyone is all the happier as a consequence, then it will throw other sections of the city into question. Why isn't Westlake Park just a pedestrian space? Why not dump the whole woonerf thing in Bell Street Park and just ban cars? And so on, and so on. Give the devil an inch in Pike Place Market...

After A Driver Became A Pedestrian on an Auburn Highway: He was struck and killed by a driver. Car problems forced the victim, a 39-year-old man, to use his legs. While walking on the shoulder of the road, he was hit and left to die. KOMO News says there is no information about the suspect.

SUV In Tukwila Swerves off the Road: Hits a 27-year-old man, and doesn't stop to help or do anything. The driver, whose car was damaged and may even have blood on it, never looked back. This hit-and-run, reported by KIRO, happened last night. The victim is currently fighting for his life.

Sister of NBA Star Dies in Federal Way Crash: The NBA star is Isaiah Thomas. He plays for the Boston Celtics. He is from Tacoma. This Saturday at around 5 a.m., his sister, Chyna J. Thomas, apparently lost control of her car and crashed into a pole. She did not survive the one-car collision.

Apple's New Campus Is Not Futuristic: It is straight out of the 1950s. The area for parking in the Norman Foster-designed headquarters, which is in Cupertino, California, and opens next month, will be larger than the area occupied by the building itself. That's pretty backward. I wonder if Apple will allow smoking in the building.

Black Lives Matter and Tax March Protests Dominate Downtown Seattle: Rich Smith covered the tax march. Alex Garland photographed the Black Lives Matter march for Crosscut.


A Man and Woman Found Dead in Kirkland Home: Both are in their 60s. One of the dead, the woman was found in the kitchen. The other, the man, in the garage. The police believe one was murdered, and the other committed suicide. If you live in the US, and you know the gender pattern of domestic violence, which harms and kills far more Americans than Muslim terrorists or Kim Jong-un (but we are doing something about terrorism and Kim Jong-un and very little about what really harms and kills more Americans), then you will not be surprised to learn that the one who committed suicide is the man of the house.

Mike Pence Starts Drumming for War: This is after Rex Tillerson went shopping for war last month and found North Korea. Donald Trump needs a war because there is really nothing else he can do for America. Even if he didn't have a nettlesome relationship with the Russians, he would need a war. There will be no economic growth, there will be a crash and long recession, there will be more and more poor white Americans in the rural areas. There is no plan to make things better. Also, the mainstream media might hate Trump, but it's programmed to be obedient to the generals, who have taken over the US in what amounts to a soft coup.

Reason to Go to War:


Reason to Go to War:


Andrew Sullivan to Black and Brown People: You Are Poor Not Because of White Supremacy But Because You Are Not Hardworking and Intelligent Like Asians: If you doubt that is what he said, then read the third section of his April 14 post "Why Do Democrats Feel Sorry for Hillary Clinton?" Referring to the Asian American, Dr. Dao, who was famously and brutally removed from an overbooked United flight, Sullivan makes the point that the incident had nothing to do with race (or white supremacy) by making the further point that "Asian-Americans, like Jews... [have] done so well... in a profoundly racist society." I wish white commentators like Sullivan, and New York Times' Nicholas Kristof ("Asian Advantage"), would spend a little time with posts like this one in Bloomberg: "It Isn't Just Asian Immigrants Who Thrive in the U.S." The point:

According to Census data, more than 43 percent of African immigrants hold a bachelor’s degree or higher — slightly more than immigrants from East Asia. Nigerian immigrants are especially educated, with almost two-thirds holding college degrees — a significantly higher percentage even than Chinese or South Korean immigrants. African immigrants are also very likely to hold advanced degrees, many of which are earned at U.S. universities. By many measures, African immigrants are as far ahead of American whites in the educational achievement as whites are ahead of African-Americans.
What do these educated black Africans have in common with educated Asian Americans? They are immigrants. As a consequence, a bunch of significant and accidental factors apply to this group that are missing from established POC communities, one of which is they don't have a deep history with racist white Americans, and so they have a greater tolerance for their bullshit.

Also, all of this Asian-American prosperity talk is new. For example, when I came to Seattle in the early 1990s, the talk was not about how Asians are doing better than whites and taking over the universities. The newspapers were instead filled with stories about Asian gangs, and Beacon Hill, which, like today, had a large Asian American population, had the reputation of being a poor and dangerous neighborhood. Things changed rapidly and recently. But let's forget all that and believe its something to do with the Confucianism or the strong Asian work ethic or Tiger moms or what have you.