KUOW Blog
News, factoids, and insights from KUOW's newsroom. And maybe some peeks behind the scenes. Check back daily for updates.
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Stories
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Seattle shows love for backyard cottages: Today So Far
- There has been a surge in new accessory dwelling units in Seattle within just a few years.
- We are three years past the initial surge of Covid in our region. Now, some things are fading away, and other aspects linger.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 9, 2023.
There has been a surge in new accessory dwelling units in Seattle within just a few years. What is an "accessory dwelling unit?" That is fancy city hall speak for "backyard cottage" or a simple apartment in a home. For decades, you have likely heard of these units referred to as "mother-in-law apartments" (my ma-in-law lives with me, so I can say that). These days, you're more likely to hear them called "ADUs."
City leaders had been discussing backyard cottages for years, but little was ever done aside from committee meetings and some studies. Under Mayor Jenny Durkan, the city encouraged and fast-tracked this form of housing, partially by creating 10 pre-approved ADU plans. A homeowner could pick from the plans, which would skip over the time and cost of many permits and processes.
According to a new city report: Since 2019, Seattle has issued almost 1,000 permits to build ADUs in the city, which is more than four times the amount in 2018. Last year, 437 attached ADUs (attached to a house, like the conversion of a garage), and 551 detached ADUs (like backyard cottages) were permitted. A third of these were on property where a new single-family residence was built. Half were on properties with multiple ADUs. And only 11% were used as Airbnbs instead of normal housing.
This all isn't just happenstance, and it all isn't solely because of the former mayor's pre-approved ADU plan (only 130 of the city's pre-approved ADU plans have been permitted since they went active in 2020). Back in 2016, I reported a story about how Seattle had been running pilot programs for about a decade, looking into backyard cottages. The topic only made it as far as those committee meetings and studies I mentioned above. It all spurred criticisms from locals facing costly and lengthy permits, and also pushback from neighborhood groups. The issue evolved at City Hall. In 2019, the City Council approved a series of updates to Seattle's rules and regulations around ADUs. For example, at the time, Seattle did not require developers building massive apartments to provide any parking for the new residents. Yet, the city required a homeowner with an ADU to provide off-street parking.
It took a lot of years leading up to the changes passed by the City Council, but it seems that, after a much shorter period of time, we know the results — a lot more ADUs. The initial success doesn't mean that there aren't more fixes and improvements for the city to undertake. KUOW's Joshua McNichols has that story.
Another outcome I hope emerges from all this is that a lot of residents living in what I have called "speakeasy housing" will not be so worried about city regulations. I previously have lived in such a place, where I'm sure a few city boxes weren't checked (like off-street parking). One year, the city of Seattle held a citywide event where neighborhoods would host block parties for people to get to know each other. I checked out my local meet up and was surprised to discover ... other neighbors on my own street who were also living in ADUs! You'd never have known we were there. But there we were, making it work in an expensive city like Seattle.
We are three years past the initial surge of Covid in our region. A lot has happened since then. These days, cases are trending down, and vaccines are as widely available as toilet paper (phew!). Some final, lingering pandemic measures will fade out in April and May. This means that the free ride is over for Covid vaccines. The shots will still be free for kids. But once the government's supply for free doses is gone, Covid vaccines will come through the private market. Officials still recommend wearing masks in crowded settings.
Despite such measures going away, another aspect of the pandemic will continue to linger — Covid. More specifically, long Covid. About 8% of people who come down with Covid suffer from ongoing symptoms that can range from headaches to chest pain, fatigue, and brain fog. Along with the fact that severity of these symptoms can vary, it's proving difficult to get a diagnosis, or to get into a facility that can treat it. There are now long wait lines at clinics that specialize in long Covid. The people hit hardest by the pandemic are also hit hardest by this lingering condition.
AS SEEN ON KUOW
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Former NBA superstar Shawn Kemp is arrested over a shooting in a parking lot
Former Seattle SuperSonics star Shawn Kemp is facing a felony criminal charge over a shooting involving two vehicles in Tacoma, Wash., that took place Wednesday, according to police records. No one was reportedly hurt in the incident.
The formal charge against Kemp, 53, accuses him of a drive-by shooting. But people close to Kemp tell local news outlets that the case is one of self-defense, after Kemp allegedly confronted someone after tracking a stolen iPhone.
An altercation broke out in a parking lot that escalated into shots being fired, the Tacoma Police Department said. "One car fled," it stated, and one man was arrested at the scene, adding that its investigation is ongoing.
The police department didn't name Kemp in its announcement, referring instead to his age, gender, and a drive-by shooting charge. Online records show Shawn Travis Kemp was booked into the Pierce County Jail shortly after the police report, on a felony charge of drive-by shooting.
Police say the altercation took place at a parking lot in the 4500 block of South Steele Street — an address that corresponds to the Tacoma Mall shopping center.
Citing people who are close to Kemp, local TV station FOX 13 reports that its sources say the former NBA player "had property stolen from his car on Tuesday, tracked his iPhone to Tacoma on Wednesday and when he approached the vehicle, a suspect shot at him. He fired back in self-defense."
Under Washington state law, the crime of drive-by shooting applies to anyone who fires a gun either directly from a vehicle or from "the immediate area of a motor vehicle that was used to transport the shooter or the firearm, or both, to the scene of the discharge," creating "a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury."
Kemp, famously known as "the Reign Man," was a six-time NBA All-Star during his career, with most of those appearances coming during his stint with the Seattle SuperSonics. The franchise moved to Oklahoma City roughly a decade after Seattle traded Kemp to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Kemp has remained active in Seattle, attending sporting events and launching business ventures. He recently opened his second cannabis store in the city. [Copyright 2023 NPR]
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3 years in, Covid still present, but King County has more tools to fight it
Three years into the Covid-19 pandemic, the landscape has changed in King County.
Back in 2020, this was the first epicenter of cases and outbreaks in nursing homes in the U.S. There were no vaccines, and health officials had not yet worked out the best precautions.
Now, health officials say Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths are trending down, immunity levels in the community have risen thanks to vaccines and past infections, and tests, treatment, and masks are far more readily available than they once were.
The county is in a different place as the final emergency measures at the state and federal level are set to expire.
In April, Washington’s mask mandate in health care and correctional facilities will end, but health officials say masking will still be recommended.
And in May, the federal Covid-19 emergency declaration will lapse.
For King County residents, the most direct impacts from this expiration will likely be the wind down of free public vaccines, testing, and treatment.
That’s according to Dr. Eric Chow, chief of Public Health – Seattle & King County's Communicable Disease and Epidemiology Program.
During a media briefing Wednesday, Chow said Covid-19 vaccines will continue to be free for children.
But when the federal government’s stockpile of free shots, tests and antivirals runs out, coverage for adults will switch to the commercial market and be up to insurance providers.
Aside from these changes, Chow said he worries about indirect impacts as the emergency ends.
“Individuals and businesses might take this to mean that it is okay to let go of all those important lessons that we've learned during the pandemic that keep us safe from Covid-19,” Chow said. “The pandemic is not over.”
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No Spoilers: Talking ECCC and our love for cordyceps
Emerald City Comic Con has a new home, and we’re all crazy for cordyceps.
It’s time once again to take a trip to the nerdier side of pop culture with our panel of geekonomy experts, who have promised to follow one very important rule: NO SPOILERS!
Soundside host Libby Denkmann is joined by KUOW Arts and Culture Reporter Mike Davis, along with KUOW newsletter author and producer of the independent podcast/magazine NW NERD, Dyer Oxley.
First Topic: Emerald City Comic Con!
An estimated 75,000 people packed downtown Seattle in their cosplay best over the weekend for Emerald City Comic Con 2023.
This was the first Comic Con in the newly expanded Seattle Convention Center, and the first ECCC to return to the spring schedule, after the Covid-19 pandemic canceled 2020's convention outright, moved 2021's to December, then 2022's to August.
Our first impression: the new venue has lots of windows.
Dyer Oxley: "I was talking to an artist friend of mine who goes there every year. And at one point, we just stopped in our conversation because there was sunlight coming through and we just kind of had to comment ... I'm like, 'Wow, like, no vitamin D deficiency this year.'"
For Mike Davis, it was all about time with his daughter, who he taught how to play Super Smash Bros, and introduced her to the author of her current favorite book. She even got an autograph and a personalized drawing!
One notable absence from the convention though, the "Homegrown" area. Dyer wrote about that last week before the show opened.
Soundside Producer Jason Burrows was at the convention this weekend too, and he’s put together an audio postcard of folks talking about what’s great about being a geek in the Pacific Northwest.
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Ideas for all your pandemic facemasks: Today So Far
- Washington state has put a price tag on carbon pollution.
- Seattle's beloved cherry blossom trees were almost cut down this week.
- TSF readers have a few ideas for what to do with all those facemasks from the past few pandemic years.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 8, 2023.
Washington state has put a price tag on carbon pollution. It's $48.50 per ton.
After years of being crafted and organized by state leaders, Washington's cap-and-invest system went live in February. Companies get a set amount of carbon they are allowed to pump out, and if they want more, they have to buy credits at an auction. The first such auction was slated to have a floor price of $22.20. Turns out, companies were willing to go higher. A total of 6 million credits were sold for $48.50 each. The revenue is slated for climate mitigation programs and clean energy projects. Read the full story here.
Seattle's beloved cherry blossom trees were almost cut down this week. No, not the trees at the University of Washington. The ones near Pike Place Market.
The city is redesigning the sidewalks in that area and the trees were slated to be removed. There were previous public comment sessions about them, and it was decided to replace them with elms. in time, those trees could grow and arch over the street. But in a last-minute move, locals fond of the cherry trees urged city leaders to "stay the execution."
The trees are safe, for now, as City Hall considers how to move forward. Read the full story here.
What are you going to do with all those facemasks from the past few pandemic years? That's what I asked TSF readers on Monday. So far, no one felt my idea to sew them onto jackets and shirts as elbow patches was a good idea...
Liliane suggests saving them "for wildfire smoke season, possible volcano ashes (long shot)." The masks could also come in handy for folks out in the country where smoke from wood-burning stoves is more common. "And, if you live where you can burn your yard waste, you might protect your lungs from the smoke."
Lora says masks can still keep your face warm on cold days and "keep bugs out of your mouth when biking," and also points to others who have made art using facemasks.
Meg says, "Keep those babies! You never know what is going to hit next." She notes that Covid isn't over, and that's pretty accurate. It's going to be with us for a while, like the flu. Meg is keeping masks around for travel, and for potential future outbreaks.
Thekla wrote in with a thought that I felt was a good reminder to us all. While many of us contemplate returning to offices, or taking trips, or what to do with old facemasks, there are still people in our communities who cannot join in so easily. Thekla says she is immunocompromised. Masks help protect people like her, whether she is wearing them, or everybody else is. So Thekla is "not celebrating" the recent decision to remove the mask mandate in health care settings.
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WA bill aims to increase access to Death with Dignity Act
In 2008, Washington voters passed the Death with Dignity Act, a measure allowing terminally ill patients to seek physician-guided assistance with ending their lives. Under the current law, only physicians can carry out a dying patient’s request.
A proposed bill making its way through Olympia, ESSB 5179, would allow nurse practitioners to become more involved in the process.
Darrell Owen, a nurse practitioner, spoke in support of the bill before the House Health and Wellness Committee.
“We are already allowed by law to serve as the attending of record for hospice patients,” Owens said. “We admit hospice patients to the hospital, we sign do not resuscitate orders and death certificates, and we prescribe opioids.”
Additionally, the bill would shorten the patient’s waiting period between oral and written request for the necessary medications from 15 days to seven. It would also allow the necessary medications to be delivered or mailed.
Other supporters like Cassa Sutherland say the changes are overdue and would remove barriers to patients accessing the law.
“The barriers to this law disproportionately affect those living in underserved areas of our state, where participating clinicians are few and far between,” Sutherland said.
But critics like disability rights advocate Conrad Reynoldson call the changes a recipe for disaster.
“This would open the door to more patients potentially being pressured and/or coerced, and to quickly pursuing assisted suicide with little chance for a second opinion or to give it further consideration.”
The Senate passed the bill last month. Washington is among nine states, along with the District of Columbia, that have enacted a death with dignity statute.
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Proposed downtown Seattle makeover, mental health levy, and more: King County Executive's annual address
In his annual address Tuesday, King County Executive Dow Constantine told councilmembers the state of the county is strong.
He struck an optimistic tone about the possibilities of the future. But he also acknowledged the continuing challenges facing the county.
Constantine touched on the homelessness crisis, public safety, the environment, and the fentanyl crisis in his speech.
He urged the state legislature to act to remove a 1% cap on property taxes, saying the county will be forced to make budget cuts if they can’t raise more revenue.
He also called for support of a levy to create new behavioral crisis centers.
“There is currently no walk-in urgent care clinic in King County for a person in mental health or addiction crisis,” Constantine said. “All too often, there’s the emergency room, there’s the jail or — as we’ve all seen — there’s the street.”
Constantine said providing crisis care and treatment beds is not only the right thing to do, but it’s the smart thing to do as jails and hospitals remain full, and the homelessness crisis continues.
King County voters will decide on the property tax levy next month.
If passed, it could raise as much as $1.25 billion over nine years, and fund five new crisis centers around the county, as well as investing in the workforce and helping to replace lost long-term treatment beds.
Redeveloping county sites downtown
Constantine also took the opportunity Tuesday to launch an initiative that would reimagine the county’s government building campus, spanning multiple blocks in downtown Seattle.
Constantine’s "civic campus" plan centers on an area near Pioneer Square that includes the county jail, courthouse, and administrative buildings.
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The cherry trees are safe outside of Pike Place Market — for now
The city of Seattle has postponed its plans to chop down the flowering cherry trees outside of Pike Place Market.
The two rows of flowering cherry trees have greeted market visitors with pale pink blossoms each spring, since 1980.
But the trees narrowly made it past Monday, when the city of Seattle was scheduled to start cutting them down.
The city’s Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects is redesigning the sidewalk and road on the 100 block of Pike Street, and plans to replace the 40-year-old cherry trees with Hybrid elms. It's part of the Pike Pine Streetscape and Bicycle Improvements.
But preservation activists petitioned the mayor and city council in the 11th hour, asking them to "stay the execution."
They decorated the trees with ribbons over the weekend to put their pleas on view. The ribbons hang next to a yellow sign on the tree stating it's due for removal.
"Mounting evidence suggests that these trees were gifts of friendship from Japan post war," said Ruth Danner, president of the group Save the Market Entrance.
The trees evoke the importance of the city's relationship with Japanese Americans, she explained, after so many Japanese Americans were incarcerated in the Northwest during World War II.
They represent fragile, short-lived beauty, Danner added.
"Every spring we see these beautiful cherry tree blossoms. It can't help but remind you we need to enjoy what we have while we have it."
The trees are off the chopping block today.
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What is Seattle's best dive bar?: Today So Far
The definition of a dive bar depends on who you ask, and perhaps which city you're in. Bill Radke has taken a dive into the term "dive bar."
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 7, 2023.
What is your favorite Seattle dive bar?
Before you answer that, consider the latest "Words in Review" with KUOW's Bill Radke. This week, Radke dives into the term "dive bar," which he argues been watered down from its true meaning. This issue is not exclusive to Seattle, but it does feel like a lot of bars, and patrons, tend to throw this term around a lot.
I would argue that there is a range of factors that could add up to a dive bar, and "it depends" is probably the best answer to whether or not a bar is a dive. Beyond that, the modern hype for the dive bar may speak to something larger that Seattle is searching for amid its current evolution.
"I think a dive bar is kind of implied in the name, that it's below society. A dive and its customers are both kind of desperate. It's not a place where the well-heeled gathered to watch sports for example or sing karaoke," Tom Flynn told Radke.
Flynn, who started working in his dad's bar at the age of 10 and tended bar through his 20s, said that when "dive" was previously attached to a bar, it implied a certain desperation. Or as Radke puts it: "I think of a dive bar as doing the absolute minimum to keep its liquor license and keep the doors open. They're not fixing the broken hand dryer in the men's room."
I think I know what Bill and Flynn are talking about. Come with me to a bar in downtown Portland, many years ago. This hole-in-the-wall (you seriously could miss it if you blinked) was around the corner from a bookstore I worked at. While it was open early in the day, I caught the after-hours crowd. The sidewalk punks would bring their pit bull in for a beer after a hard day's panhandling. The culinary offerings were limited to bags of chips and jerky. In the restroom, next to the operational toilet, was a hole in the bare concrete floor where another toilet was supposed to be installed — to this day, I do not know if that hole was truly capped off, I was too scared to look. This was a dive bar to the standards of Radke and Flynn. A bar akin to this one would not be found on this recent list of "The absolute best dive bars in Seattle."
"There is not a dive bar on the list, under the classic definition," Mike Lewis told me. "Jupiter is a great example; nice places are referred to as a 'dive' (on that list)."
Indeed, if you consider Jupiter Bar a "dive," then I assume your standard pub has a dress code and your credit score must be approved at the door. Bill has his bar expert, and I have Mike Lewis — a former Seattle PI reporter who purchased the local journalist bar after the newspaper hit hard times. Now, he operates the Streamline Tavern.
"I think the Streamline absolutely was (a dive bar) back in the old location ... now, it is characterized as one, but from my old-guy interpretation, it's more of a really good neighborhood pub than a dive bar," Lewis said, further noting that the Streamline doesn't have people asleep on their stools, or other classic dive bar characteristics (I would further note that the Streamline has great tacos, which also wouldn't be included among many definitions of a dive bar).
The definition of a dive bar depends on who you ask. Personally, I would consider many places around Seattle as dives, places where the lights are kept low to hide stains on the carpet, or with scrawl on bathroom walls that cannot be repeated here, or with cans of beer for those on a tight budget. Someone actually made a list of dive bars on Wikipedia, which is very heavy on Seattle and Portland locations. I don't know if it's a good thing that I can say I've been to many of these places and can therefore comment that many are not dive bars. My name is on the wall at Holman's in Portland for being part of its whiskey club — not a dive. My grandma was a regular at Joe's Cellar, where I don't think sunlight has entered in decades — dive. Linda's on Capitol Hill has a brunch menu — not a dive. An old lady, and self-proclaimed psychic, read my palm (without me asking) at the Blue Moon in Seattle's U District, before sort of passing out — dive. If you ask Radke, Flynn, or Lewis, such assessments may vary. Lewis argues that times change and modern patrons often call regular, neighborhood pubs "dives."
"The meaning has stretched," he said. "Now it's become something that people want to put in their description of their bar, whereas when I was young, you didn't want (dive) anywhere near the description of your bar, if you cared about your bar."
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Washington needs more than 1 million homes in 20 years, study says
An official state report warns that Washington state needs to build more than 1 million homes in the next 20 years to keep up with population growth.
Ann Fritzel is one of the authors of the Department of Commerce projection, and says that "70% of land in most cities is allocated for single family housing, and that's out of reach for many households."
Fritzel says if the problem is not addressed, Washington will see more of the same issues that it is seeing now, such as homelessness.
She also says the short housing supply is leading to worker shortages, and that hurts local economies.
Under the state's Growth Management Act, counties must work with cities to plan to address the problem. The Commerce Department says 50,000 new units need to be built per year for the next 20 years. And more than half of those new units will need to be affordable to lower-income residents.
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This is what Washington is now charging carbon polluters
The results are in from Washington's first-ever carbon credit auction.
The cost to pollute in Washington state is going for $48.50 per ton of carbon dioxide.
This year, the state is implementing a new cap-and-invest program. Business and government agencies cannot surpass a certain pollution amount, unless they buy credits to offset their emissions.
The first auction was last month, and results announced today show it was highly competitive.
The floor price for carbon allowances was set by the state at $22.20. But all 6 million credits were sold for $48.50 each, more than doubling the minimum. The Department of Ecology reports that the auction ranked high on a competitiveness scale called the "Herfindahl-Hirschman Index."
RELATED: Bidding for the right to pollute, WA's first carbon allowance auction
The state will hold four auctions per year. The state will continue to auction off credits, and qualified bidders can put theirs up for resale.
As KUOW's John Ryan has reported, some big polluters, including fuel suppliers and the state’s two largest universities, need to make steep and immediate pollution reductions of 7% a year. That, or buy their way out of that mandate at the auctions.
But many of the biggest climate culprits, like oil refineries, pulp mills, and other manufacturers don’t have to cut pollution as soon or as fast as others due to fears they might take their businesses and jobs elsewhere.
We don't know how many companies participated — or how much they each spent. That information is protected for privacy.
The state Ecology Department will release a report March 28 with more details on the revenue raised from the auction.
This money will go toward funding climate mitigation programs and clean energy projects.
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Seattle could get 2 new off-leash dog parks
Seattle’s Parks and Recreation Department said this week it wants to add a couple of new off-leash dog areas to some city parks.
The first step in the multiyear process will be studying 30 potential locations around Seattle.
In many parts of dog-loving Seattle, finding an open space to let your pooch run free requires a car or a very long walk.
There are currently just 14 off-leash dog spots around town for the tens of thousands of pets who live here. In West Seattle, for example, the closest dog park is in Delridge at Westcrest Park.
But that could change — soonish.
This week, Seattle Parks and Recreation said it will study 30 parks around the city to possibly add two new areas for dogs to be off-leash.
The study will take a few months and examine all kinds of criteria, said the department’s off-leash area liaison, Danyal Lotfi.
“We do not want to put off-leash areas in areas that are environmentally critical areas that obviously would disturb the environment,” Lotfi said.
The department’s landscape architects and designers will assess the 30 locations’ drainage, size, and vegetation.
Lotfi said there are lessons to be learned from the current dog park setup and the department will “focus on neighborhoods that have the least amount of access to an off-leash area, in terms of walking distance.”
Parks and Recreation will share their two recommended spots with the public when the study finishes in late spring or early summer, Lotfi said.
Public feedback to those proposed areas will be part of the planning process, he added.
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