Fuck you and your scooter! -Jenny Durkan, probably
"Fuck you and your scooter!" -Jenny Durkan, probably Vasyl Dolmatov/Getty Images

Mukilteo residents don’t fuck around: Neighbors have united for 13 years to fight against the development of 112 houses in Mukilteo, reports KING5. Yesterday morning, they banded together and used their cars to physically block a flatbed carrying a bulldozer. The community’s alleged reason for banding together against the development is that “the land is at risk for landslides and erosion could send polluting sediment into the nearby salmon-bearing Picnic Point Creek.”

Hooray! They’re all set to take down the precarious Alaskan Way viaduct: Every time I’ve had the unfortunate opportunity to travel along its path—many over the years—I can’t help but visualize the utter chaos that would be if the Big One were to strike at that very moment. Which level of this shanty-way would be worst to be on? I'd wonder. But visualize no more! Kiewit Infrastructure West, the contractor for the demolition of the Viaduct is ready-to-fucking-go. According to the Seattle Times, the $75 million demolition will take 5 ½ months. Listen close for the sound of destruction this February and take solace knowing that piece of junk is being done away with for good.

Mayor Durkan hates scooters: Doug Trumm at The Urbanist has the scoop on Mayor Jenny Durkan’s disdain for the two-wheel transport vehicles. She says if we put them out in the public that we’re going to “have people use them knowing they’re going to get hurt,” and she doesn’t “think that’s responsible.” Doug points out that in our country “37,000 people die annually in car crashes.” Honestly, the only scooter-related issue that bothers me are the jokers at skateparks on those two-wheeled tragedies. Parents, do your child a favor and buy them a skateboard (and a helmet).

Woman charged with murder extradited from Japan: The body of Toshio Ota was found in the Columbia River in August of 2012. After a woman named Kyung Hee Dowdle was charged with first-degree murder for the killing, she fled to Japan. Last week she was extradited back to the U.S. and booked into jail on Thursday on a $5 million bail. “According to the charges,” reports the Seattle Times, “Dowdle rented a minivan and paid two men $150 each to help her move and dispose of a large suitcase she said was filled with books.”

Don’t throw away your N95 masks yet! Wildfires ain’t going anywhere, and in fact, experts say the risk they pose is only getting worse in Western Washington. A varied group of authorities on the subject gathered Monday at a conference called Managing Western Washington Wildfire Risk in a Changing Climate. They see the number of fires increasing on the Western side of our state, where populations aren’t as used to them, and generally less ready to react, so the main concern at the conference was figuring out how to educate the populace on the risks, and what to do in threatening scenarios.

So pretty... But soooo cold:


Ever heard of McNeil Island in Pierce County? Neither had we. Alas, Washington State is spending $500,000 on cleaning up 100-year old debris off of the polluted little Puget Sound island. KING5 reports that “the only residents on the six-square-mile island in southern Puget Sound are the 200 sex offenders living in a special state facility.” But the state isn’t cleaning up the island for them, they are cleaning the island to create long stretches of undisturbed shoreline to improve the conditions for aquatic wildlife.

Hold up: Just one second. Whose grandma makes doughnuts of any variety? And why haven’t I met her yet?! My grandma never made any doughnuts. She did, however, make sausages and potato pancakes!


Another one bites the dust: Scratch Deli in Capitol Hill is set to close, according to Capitol Hill Blog. Scratch opened on 12th in 2012, and I’m sad to say I never even got a chance to go. They’re slated to close later this month, so if you are a fan, or want to try it, this may be your last few weeks to go.

Did you know the U.S. had a government owned international news network? Because they do! And NPR says that “President Franklin Roosevelt created the VOA during World War II to broadcast behind enemy lines.” VOA stands for Voice of America, and they claim to be a “free press.” It became a relevant thing to bring up when President Trump recently tweeted that “Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!” Hey, you learn something new every day, it’s just, you kind of hope the President isn’t learning things about the government he is running at the same rate you are.

What kind of animal is this, you ask? It is my spirit animal, on these cold days. This is absolutely my mood. Too bad, unlike this creature, I got shit to do.


Tonight's best Seattle entertainment options include: An evening of not-quite R&B, not-quite ambient, not-quite club music with How to Dress Well, a reading of Truman Capote's touching short story "A Christmas Memory" with Brad Craft, and a four-course Vermouth Dinner at Barnacle.