Streets are for people.
Streets are for people. Matt Baume

Okay, it snowed. Now what? Here’s what this week looks like: Snow sticking around for a few days with very cold temperatures, then maybe more snow and rain on Thursday, with warmer temps melting it over the coming weekend. Watch out for ice as the wet weather thaws and freezes — if you’re out walking, take small slow penguin-steps to keep from slipping.

Here’s the latest on warming shelters: You have a bunch of options, including City Hall.

This makes literally no sense, SDOT. Parking will be free, with no time limits, all day today, which SDOT says is “to discourage unnecessary driving.” What? How? Why? We’re going to make driving more attractive by subsidizing car storage … but we’re also eliminating the need to move cars, thereby reducing availability and forcing drivers to spend more time driving around looking for a space? What is going ON??? Anyway, it should be a law that for every day of free parking there must be a week of free transit.

Which landlords belong on the Shoveling Wall of Shame? It’s the responsibility of property owners to clear sidewalks in front of their property, but many just don’t. Have you encountered naughty landlords who leave their sidewalks an icy mess? Send me their details so we can name and shame them, starting with:

Speaking of people behaving badly… don’t drive around the “street closed” signs.

What are urbanists going to be working on in 2022? Here’s a nice roundup of local priorities, like reducing the need for expensive upkeep on Washington highways, eliminating design review, and urbanizing Bellevue.

Desmond Tutu has passed away. The Archbishop who helped end apartheid in South Africa was 90.

It’s been one year since a guy blew up a block of Nashville. You want to hear the wildest part? There was a reward for information about who was responsible, and the girlfriend of the bomber called the FBI to tell them he’d been building bombs. But she didn’t get the reward money — it went to cops instead. Now she’s suing for her fair share.

Thought Tumblr censorship couldn’t get any worse? Tumblr users — all five of them who remain — have recently noticed that a lot of Tumblr content is suddenly blocked on iOS devices. Posts that use certain tags appear to be blocked, tags like “girl” and “Tony the Tiger” and “insomnia” and “TERF.” What’s going on? Reading between the lines of a Tumblr staff post and an engineer’s analysis, appears as though Apple’s bonkers app-approval process is to blame.

I know this dumb stunt is the least of anyone’s concerns, but. Cops in Puyallup staged a photoshoot of themselves “arresting” the Grinch against a backdrop of one of their military assault vehicles. And yes it’s just a dumb jokey ha-ha … but I can’t stop thinking about how it perfectly encapsulates cops, and how they see a problem that is famously solved through nonviolence but think that incarceration is the preferred solution. Oh well! Maybe their lips got tired before they reached the end of the book.

Here’s some nice photos & videos from over the weekend. Enjoy.

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