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mdlbearToday I am thankful for...
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This past weekend, my friend hosted a bridal shower for our friend who’s getting married soon, and I offered to make up some decorative bouquets for the party. I think I did an okay job, so I wanted to show y’all what I made up! She was hosting the party at her home, so thankfully I was just able to use some vases she had on hand.
For the flowers, I knew I wanted to do something springy and full of pinks and yellows because the theme was “garden party.” I also wanted to include white flowers because, well, it’s for the bride to be!
I went to my local Kroger for all my flowers, and just ended up buying a ton of discounted grower bunches. If you haven’t heard of grower bunches before, think of bouquets as a cake, and the grower bunches are the ingredients. You can buy the cake itself from the store already made, or you can buy all the ingredients for the cake and make it yourself.
So, I bought bunches of roses, lilies, anemone, bells of Ireland, baby’s breath, and some tulips. It took me about 45 minutes to de-leaf, de-thorn, trim and arrange the flowers. I mainly just did a couple small bouquets and then little bud vase arrangements to enhance the main focus bouquets.
This first one is my favorite out of all of them!
I never knew the name for the anemone before now, but I think they are so unique and pretty. I wish for this one I had trimmed the green thingy (someone please tell me the name of it) to be shorter than the anemone.
I tried to keep the bells of Ireland taller than everything in order to bring some dimension to my bouquets, which is definitely an aspect of floral arranging I struggle with.
This stunning white rose was one I decided to let speak for itself in a simple bud vase.
Same for this anemone! It was so big and beautiful.
Since I had a dozen yellow tulips, I decided to just do four little bud vases each with three in them. I think they accented the tables well!
Here they all are on the tables!
And my friend had the amazing idea to put all the flowers I didn’t use in bouquets in a lovely basket she has, and they ended up being a great decoration for the patio just chilling in the corner all ornately:
These were all untrimmed and not de-leafed so it has much more of a wild look to it, but I really love how it turned out. That pink lily is totes gorg.
Anyways, this was my first time doing floral arrangements for a party, and it only cost me seventy dollars for all the flowers, which I think was such a steal. I think they turned out pretty okay, but definitely practice will hopefully make perfect eventually. I am considering buying a floral arrangement book to really up my game.
Let me know your thoughts or tell me some of your favorite flowers in the comments. And have a great day!
-AMS
scalziwhatever_feed
Keep science fiction weird! New York Times Bestselling and Newbery Medalist author Donna Barba Higuera is a big believer in letting literature be weird and out there and most of all, inspiring to those whose hands her books happen to fall into. Come along in the Big Idea for her newest book, Firesnake and see how a little sticker can have a big impact.
DONNA BARBA HIGUERA:
So, what influence has the Newbery Medal had on contemporary Sci-Fi?
If you ask adults which book was that “magical” book for them, the one that sent them on a quest for more of that feeling, turned them into a reader, most will answer with something they read as a child. Often, it’s a book with that gold sticker on it. Not necessarily because it’s absolutely the best book, but because it was the one someone put in their hands. Still, odds are, it’s gonna click for someone out there.
It’s no secret that Sci-fi books don’t often get on the radar of the Newbery Committee.
So what a bizarre close-the-loop moment for me when that “magic” book that launched me into a lifelong love of Sci-Fi, A Wrinkle in Time, was a Newbery Medalist over fifty years ago. A gap-toothed, freckly kid, bored out of her mind in a dusty Central California town traveled with Meg Murray to another universe. And that book lured me into becoming a contemporary Sci-Fi reader, and later, writer.
What else did that magic book do? It let that bored kid from a small agricultural town dare to imagine she could write herself across the universe too. Mexican tales can be weird. I could make it weirder! In The Last Cuentista, I blended those magical stories my grandmother told with my love of science fiction. I never dreamed this peculiar and very personal book would be published, let alone win an award like the Newbery Medal. (further proof I’m in a simulation)
People mention all the time how The Last Cuentista was the first Sci-Fi to win the Newbery Medal since Madeline L’Engle’s book over fifty years ago. Wrooong! The thing is, most unfamiliar with Sci-Fi think if a book doesn’t have a spaceship or involve space travel, it’s not Sci-Fi. Other Newbery Medal winners fall into the Sci-Fi category. At Last She Stood (2025 Newbery Medal) by Erin Entrada Kelly was inspired by Erin’s love of the 2010 Newbery winner, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (both books involve time travel). The Giver by Lois Lowry (1994 Newbery Medalist). Turns out, there are a few of us weirdos reeling young readers in to Sci-Fi.
And that’s just sci fi! What about Newbery Medal fantasy writers like: Lloyd Alexander and The High King, Susan Cooper and The Grey King, Robin McKinley and The Hero and the Crown, Kelly Barnhill and The Girl Who Drank the Moon; Ursula K. LeGuin also received a Newbery Honor for The Tombs of Atuan.
Most of us have a specific book that turned us into a mainstream Sci-Fi reader or writer. Maybe it’s a book that didn’t get it right, and we are on the search for the book to repair that wrong. Or maybe it was a book that did get it right, and we need to write a love letter to that book like Erin Entrada Kelly did.
The Last Cuentista was based off a short story writing prompt. “Take a traditional fairy tale and make it sci-fi.” I chose a story that as a kid, I thought was the stupidest tale ever told. The Princess and the Pea. Hear me out. Why would you want some delicate princess to marry your son? Perhaps instead, someone of strong mind and body?
So, as an adult I addressed my repressed childhood fury in a short story about a badass girl who was implanted with the “P.E.A.” (Pellet of Extended Animation. I know…I know…) for a four hundred-year-journey across space. But her “P.E.A.” fails due to her strong mind. She never sleeps and when removed from her pod is beyond bonkers. Society has changed along with what humans value. Well, that revenge-write idea haunted me. Year slater, I started writing The Last Cuentista.
But to write for adults or children? I found adult Sci-Fi was often too “sciency” for me. I mean, I was a biochem major. I love science. But I have my limits. Physics can kiss my— (and that was how Higuera’s essay in Scalzi’s The Big Idea got her children’s books banned.)
So, back to the topic: What influence has the Newbery Medal had on contemporary Sci-Fi?
Well, first you have to consider how those of us who write for children ended up here.
Long ago, I attended Norwescon in Seattle, and sat in a lecture by Fonda Lee who writes for both adults and children. Fonda said (more or less), “In adult sci-fi fiction, I need to research and include how a ship travels. Kids just need to know the ship got from A to B.”
I might have gasped in that room. That was it! Quite frankly, (oh, I’m gonna get some hate on this) I still don’t care how the ship got from one planet to another. I just want to know about the people and what kind of mess they were in. I’d found where I belonged. I could write for kids, and introduce them to sci-fi without having a doctorate in astronautics!
I was off and running. The first book led to a second. Darker and grittier, Alebrijes is set four hundred years after the comet strike, about what happened to those who survived on Earth. You know, just a little hopeful apocalypse for the kids. The third and final book in the series, Firesnake, is about a girl born and raised on the terraformed planet, Sagan, who is now returning to a very changed planet Earth.
Maybe my books are a bit of a soft launch, (depends on who’s reading them) but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “I don’t read sci-fi, but I read your book and it wasn’t horrible.”
I smile and say, “Welcome to weird with the rest of us.” I then tell those people of some of the contemporary Sci-Fi I think they may like. That’s how it begins.
Just to be clear, writing for kids is hard! I double dog dare you to try it. Children have the ability to suspend disbelief and imagine the impossible. But they will also call BS and proclaim you the worst author on Earth if you don’t get something right.
My hope is that there’s a young reader out there who’ll read my books and imagine themselves as a writer. Great! Or maybe, they’ll think my books are the stupidest books ever written. Well, not good, but okay. Whatever you need to rage-write, imagine, wonder and create.
It’s a cycle that should repeat. Not every book is for every reader. Writers shouldn’t take it personally if a reader doesn’t like our books.
But with that gold sticker that somehow found its way to the cover of my book, I’m now in the lucky position to get to speak to kids all over the world. I get to encourage young readers and writers to embrace the “weird” parts of themselves; the parts that make your palms sweat and heart race when you think of sharing them with others.
Maybe if a kid picks up The Last Cuentista and reads it because they see that gold medal (or heaven forbid they are forced to read it in school) for either love or hate, it may turn them on to reading more contemporary Sci-Fi. Don’t mind me. I’m just going to be over here writing the strange and weird, hoping that a book I write might be that magical one; that gives them a lifelong love of contemporary Sci-Fi; like a Newbery book by Madeleine L’Engle gave me a half century ago.
Firesnake: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s
scalziwhatever_feed
An interesting jurisprudential development someplace not in the US:
A German court has ruled that Google is directly liable for what its AI search overviews say. Previous case law shielding search engine operators from liability doesn’t apply to AI overviews.
The Regional Court of Munich hit Google with a temporary injunction barring the company from spreading false claims about two Munich-based publishers through its AI-generated search overviews (case no. 26 O 869/26). The court classified Google as a direct infringer because the “AI overview” is its own content, not just a list of search results.
The crux of the issue is whether the “AI Overview” Google now provides — and which is often erroneous because LLMs can’t read or exercise judgement, they can only spit out statistically likely words — counts as a presentation of information provided elsewhere, as a normal search query might be, or is a new creation with its own set of liabilities. The court, for various reasons, decided it is the latter (go ahead and click through to see a fuller explanation of the court’s decision).
I’m not well enough versed with the German legal system to determine whether this sort of ruling is going to succeed on appeal (and it is absolutely going to be appealed) but as a matter of personal understanding, this ruling seems pretty legit to me. The “AI Overview” isn’t a search listing — Google has gone through the trouble of passing it through its LLM and letting the thing make a document about it, and these documents, both by tone and by their position at the top of a Google search page, sound authoritative and present as factual. These documents may not be copyrightable, but that doesn’t mean Google didn’t create them and are thus responsible for them.
This isn’t the first time Google has found itself in legal hot water over its “AI Overview” function — a musician in Canada is currently suing the company after its overview identified him as a sex offender and he lost work because of it. But as far as I know this is the first court ruling that says Google is liable for what its “overviews” say. I suspect it will be very closely scrutinized by others in other places who have, ahem, run into similar issues with the overview.
I’m curious whether such a legal ruling would be possible in the United States, which has famously liberal (in the classical sense) free speech laws and has an extremely high bar for defamation, especially for public individuals, under the NYT v Sullivan Supreme Court ruling. Perhaps in the US the best avenue to pursue this would not be on the grounds of free speech but of product liability: A product that fails a significant amount of the time but is still presented to consumers as reliable feels like a class action suit waiting to happen.
No matter what, however, this is a big moment for “AI” and the information that it presents. Whether this spurs tech companies to make better products, or just spend more money on legal, will be the open question. One is, admittedly, easier than the other.
— JS
seattletransitblog_feedReminder: The FIFA World Cup starts tomorrow and the first match in Seattle is Monday, June 15, at noon. Plan for busy buses, trains, roadways, and lots of tourists. SDOT has travel tips. Metro has an SEA26 transit guide. Community Transit offers ways to Ride to Summer Fun. Pierce Transit is running a “Fan Zone Express” shuttle to Puyallup Tribe events.
This is an Open Thread. Uncivil comments will be moderated.
elisemmdlbearIn my sunlit bedroom on the fourth of June, I held Ticia in my arms as she fell asleep for the last time and slipped away across the Rainbow Bridge. Our little old lady cat was nineteen years old, and dying from kidney failure. I sang to her, but it's hard to sing when you're crying.
My biggest fear had been that she would crawl off under the bed while I was somewhere else, and die alone with no-one to hold her and soothe her. I was especially worried about the week-long vacation we have planned for August. We were able to save her from that, and give her comfort and love in her last moments.
She found us at the Cat City shelter, in Seattle, on the Third of November, 2015. Or maybe I should say that we found each other -- I coaxed her out of the box on the floor that she was hiding in, gave her some skritches and pets, picked her up, and cuddled her in my lap. The shelter staff told us that she'd never allowed that from anyone else. I thought I was mostly over the untimely loss of Curio back in July, but she must have sensed that we needed each other.
They told us that her name was Morticia (though it was soon shortened for daily use), and gave us the Rudolph-the-Red-Nosed-Reindeer dog toy that had arrived with her at the shelter. From that and her affectionate personality, we could tell that her previous Person must have loved her very much. We never found out what happened to them.
In addition to petting and cuddles, I found out on the way home from the shelter that she also loved music. She had been meowing and restless, but settled right down when I put on a Heather Dale CD. She was also very fond of cellophane "crinkle balls" -- she would often carry one into whichever room I was in and set it down where I could see what a good huntress she'd been, while making a peculiar bark/growl that I called her "hunting call". In her younger days she would chase after them -- it was a reliable way of getting her into a room when we needed to.
She took over the spot on the bed that Curio had occupied. I sleep on my side, with my arm up beside my head, and that's where she loved to sit, while I scritched her tummy and waited for sleep to come. In the daytime, she spent a lot of time on Colleen's lap, getting treats and attention.
She did not get along with m's cat, Cricket. Actually that's an understatement. We never found out why. (Cricket, when asked, would only say that it was from a previous life and none of our business. A cat thing.) We had to keep them in separate rooms. But both of them were fine as long as they had their people.
She was timid with strangers, and would hide under the bed the first couple of times a new person came into her room.
I had been singing to her, and N and I both took pictures. When Stefan, the vet, came back from giving Cricket her Solensia shot I picked Ticia up and carried her to the white chair in the corner of the room -- her favorite chair -- and talked softly to her as she fell asleep, her head resting comfortably on my arm.
She slips silently through the Veil between the worlds, and onto the Rainbow Bridge. She looks back, a little concerned about the family she left behind, but there is only the pale shimmer of the Veil. Well, they'll just have to take care of one another without her.
She's made this trip before.
As she climbs the rainbow-carpeted stairs her age and her illness fall away, and once again she is a queen in the prime of life, as she was on the day eleven years ago when she met her latest Person. Back then she had been frightened and unhappy, still grieving her recent loss. But a man with a soft voice and gentle hands had coaxed her out of hiding, petted her, and picked her up, and she'd settled into his lap with a contented purr. He had been grieving, too. A cat can tell these things.
A pair of sleek black cats -- Desti and Bast -- meet her near the top of the stairs, and lead her to where Colleen and her previous Person are sitting, sipping tea and getting acquainted. Curio is there too, Colleen's previous Cat. They all have a lot of catching up to do.
The Goddess briefly re-manifests: a slim woman with the head of a cat, before dashing off to her next appointment. A psychopomp's work is never done.
scalziwhatever_feed
There are a lot of bad movies in the world. There are, of course, good movies and bad movies, but there’s also a special third category of “good bad” movies. I had a feeling going into the theater to see Masters of the Universe which category it would fall into.
Despite never having actually watched any He-Man content before, I was surprisingly really excited for this movie. Not because I thought it would be absolutely amazing, but because I thought it would be fun. And boy oh boy, I was right.
Masters of the Universe is wildly entertaining, extremely colorful, and certainly not the worst way I’ve spent two hours and seven bucks (matinee shows rock). I know it’s not very good, but I still think you should go see it on the big screen if you can. Besides the film being an excuse to eat popcorn and have an Icee, what makes it worth watching?
(SPOILER WARNING MOVING FORWARD!)
For starters, I love the fact that Adam holds firm on the existence of Eternia, and never stops believing in the world he comes from. I love that he tells everyone his truth, even if it costs him his social life and dating prospects. He doesn’t hide his truth even if it makes him sound crazy, and I really like that he’s not willing to deny Eternia’s existence just to fit in or seem more normal. He knows it’s real, and that’s all that matters. He never gives up hope on finding the sword and returning to a home he knows exists and is waiting for him to come back. (I am glad he at least got to prove everything to his roommate, who definitely thought he was delusional, but finding good roommates is hard.)
I love that Teela just wants to be friends, and that’s actually completely respected and not questioned at all! He-Man is a real man and knows there is no such thing as the friendzone and that he is lucky to have Teela as his good friend and comrade in battle. And that’s enough. He took the rejection of his kiss well and moved on from it quickly instead of being a huge baby about it. And they didn’t end up together in the end! They really are just friends, and I love that for them. Not that I don’t love a good “childhood friends reunited” love story, but He-Man should focus on saving the universe or whatever, not smooching.
I love Skeletor’s goofy ass evil witch. I mean her name is literally Evil-Lyn. How excellently corny. It just one of the many ways this movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. They know He-Man is a silly concept and heavily memed franchise, and they lean into the silliness in a delightful way. Alison Brie was amazing to watch as the dark sorceress, her facial expressions really made the performance.
Speaking of Skeletor, oh my lord did I love Skeletor. I love a villain that is bad for badness sake, a villain that relishes being evil and has no tragic backstory to inspire such dastardly deeds, he just is the villain. And he loves it. Skeletor’s incredibly homoerotic comments about He-Man might have genuinely been the hardest I laughed at the movie. Yes, Skeletor, tell me more about He-Man’s giant sword and glorious thighs. I did think Skeletor’s body looked kind of goofy, like he was too shredded and looked too much like an anatomical model in a science textbook, and I wish they had kept his supremely iconic voice instead of the generic “bad guy deep voice,” but all in all I liked Skeletor.
(I also did not know until the moment the credits rolled that Jared Leto plays him, so that was unfortunate to find out. I’m trying not to let it impact my view of Skeletor’s character but dang I really wish they had cast someone else.)
As Orko says at the end, muscles don’t make the man. In this house, we LOVE an empathetic, kind, slightly ditzy He-Man. Portrayals of positive masculinity will always be a win in my book, and Masters of the Universe makes it very well known throughout the movie that brute strength and violence do not make a hero by themselves. How you use your strength and what you use it for are the real questions I wish people with power in real life would reflect on. Knowing when and how to implement your strength is the real power.
Masters of the Universe is good bad, just as I knew it would be. I thoroughly enjoyed my time watching it, and honestly the “I have the powerrrr!” scenes were pretty damn awesome. I really don’t have many complaints about the movie, as this is one of the few goofy, shut-up-and-eat-your-popcorn movies that I actually had fun with. Usually I’m a hater of movies that are just Mid-Tier Nothing Burgers, but Masters of the Universe really feels like it has a lot of heart in it, and I like it.
Have you seen Masters of the Universe yet? Did you watch He-Man when you were younger? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
scalziwhatever_feed
The value of a good friendship cannot be overstated. But friendships aren’t always smooth sailing, they can be just as challenging as romantic relationship, and just as fulfilling. In today’s Big Idea, author Laura Lekkos takes a deep dive into the beautiful world of female friendships, the very thing that was the base for her newest novel, All the Little Ways.
LAURA LEKKOS:
As a screenwriter, I traffic in big ideas, sometimes insufferably so. The high-concept hook. The four-quadrant crowd-pleaser. The event-driven film that a studio exec can’t say no to. For every writer in Hollywood adding a space element or time travel trope to elevate an idea in the hopes of securing a sale, you will hear another bemoaning the lack of original ideas and quieter, character-driven stories.
It was in the latter headspace that I set out to write my first novel. The big idea was that…it would be small. How edgy! How daring! How subversive!
I wanted to write a novel centered around a deep, meaningful friendship.
On earth.
No body swapping. No murders. No vampires in sight.
I have often been struck by the layered quality and impact of my female friendships. The women in my world have inspired me, filled my cup, guided me, and in some instances, quite literally changed the trajectory of my life. Romance often steals the spotlight, for obvious reasons, but the enduring effect of a platonic bond can be equally powerful.
This is the kind of relationship that the main characters, Victoria and Liz, find in each other. As I outlined their story, I worked backwards and found that the beats weren’t dissimilar from a rom com. In order to end up together, in a matter of speaking, they would need a meet cute. Then, a first date gone awry, a second chance, a coming together, a shocking revelation, an estrangement and lastly, a reconciliation.
While their characters began to find form on the page, I thought about all the friendship moments – both the small and the milestone – that have defined my life. Several years before I decided to take a stab at writing a book – a lifelong dream, given my early and persistent love of reading – I realized another one: becoming a mother. It was everything I imagined and nothing like I expected. It was heady, challenging, invigorating, mind-bending and often, surreal.
My journey was bathed in luck for many reasons. I had close friends who had taken on the mantle of motherhood in the years before me who dished out advice and hand-me-downs. I had friends who were pregnant at the same time who I traded notes with. We breathlessly spoke of our hopes and expectations; the group chat was full of jokes, memes, and recommendations. I had a loving, supportive husband and parents who were overjoyed, nearly to the point of fainting, about becoming grandparents. I have always been close with my mom and as I anticipated this great leap into the unknown, I looked to her as an example in how to mother.
But what if a woman was expecting a child without such a scaffolding? What if she didn’t have a village, a support system, a mom of her own to turn to, or even a friend to confide in and lean on? All the uncertainty of impending motherhood would be exponentially multiplied. She would be adrift and in need of the kind of female connection I have been fortunate to enjoy and have always held so dear.
Both the cast of characters and the story itself had been rattling around in my brain for some time before I put pen to page and while it unfurled without too much difficulty, it was the end of writing that gave me pause. I worried that the conceit wasn’t big enough and was concerned whether the marketplace would have an appetite for my book.
I toyed with adding more mystery, considered a pirate’s trove of secrets to complicate things, and even wrote in a nefarious sublot before re-centering myself. I deleted the storyline. I stuck with my original vision of a character-driven narrative. I remembered early advice I had received about not trying to write to a marketplace with an ever-changing goalpost but rather, with passion and conviction about a story that spoke to me. Sound wisdom for screenwriters, novelists, or any creatives.
All the Little Ways is an ode to female friendship. It shines a light on the ways we care for each other and show our love, the declarations that are often found not in a grand gesture or a splashy movie moment, but in the little kindnesses that become woven into the fabric of our lives.
I set out to write a book about a small idea, but along the way, I discovered that it was actually pretty substantial. Because what’s bigger than the transformative power of love?
All The Little Ways: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop
seattletransitblog_feed
On June 3, 2026, the Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS) Coalition delivered a letter to the Seattle City Council supporting Mayor Wilson’s proposal for the 2026 Seattle Transit Measure. Seattle Transit Blog, a proud member of the MASS Coalition, is reprinting the letter to broaden the Coalition’s message for better transit service. The original letter is available here.
To the Seattle City Council,
The Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS) Coalition is an alliance of 14 organizations working toward a safer, more accessible, and climate-aligned transportation system in Seattle. We support Mayor Wilson’s proposed Seattle Transit Measure (STM) and want to share what we believe must be at the heart of it. This measure represents a unique collaboration between the City of Seattle and King County Metro, with a continued commitment to funding additional service for Seattleites beyond what the county can provide on its own. That partnership is worth investing in, and we want to see it done right.
The track record of the current Seattle Transit Measure, passed by voters in 2020 with 80% approval, gives us confidence that this increased measure works for Seattle’s transit riders. Since 2020, the STM has funded over 141,000 annual service hours, completed more than 30 capital projects to improve travel times and rider safety, and delivered meaningful fare relief through the Transportation Access Program (TAP). In 2024 alone, TAP generated 1.7 million rides and saved participants over $4 million in fares. The new measure is an opportunity to build on that foundation and go further.
The most important thing this measure can do is put more buses on the road. The proposed measure would add 100,000 annual service hours to a system that currently funds over 141,000, bringing Seattle to 89% completion of the Frequent Transit Network, with every funded route connecting to at least one light rail stop. That is a meaningful expansion from the 2020 measure.
A significant share of those hours are targeted at evenings and weekends, which matters enormously to hourly workers, service industry employees, caregivers, and anyone who tries to navigate our city after 5pm. Reliable off-peak service makes transit useful for how Seattleites live and work. We also believe that maintaining current service levels must be a guaranteed floor, not something subject to erosion as operator and maintenance costs rise. With Light Rail expansions still missing key parts of our city, this is an opportunity to restore connectivity and service that was lost immediately after the pandemic.
Expanding access to transit through fare subsidies is just as important as expanding service. The most regressive thing we can do is force Seattleites to own a car. At an average cost of nearly $12,000 per year in Washington, car ownership is a financial burden that falls hardest on the people who can least afford it. An efficient transit system enables residents to save money by not needing to own a car, or not needing to use one as often. The proposed measure would extend the Transit Access Pass to 22,000 people, including 12,000 beyond currently funded levels, making all Seattle Housing Authority housing choice voucher holders eligible. A subsidized ORCA card saves roughly $1,200 per year. That kind of direct relief matters.
On the capital side, we believe funding should go toward targeted spot improvements that make bus service faster, more reliable, and more frequent. This includes signal priority, bus lanes, and stop upgrades that add up to meaningful time savings for riders trying to get somewhere on time. The 2024 Seattle Transportation Levy, approved by voters last November, already dedicates $189 million over eight years to pedestrian safety, including sidewalk construction and repair. STM capital funds should stay focused on what moves riders faster and gets them to their stop safely.
Finally, the $25 million per year proposed for Seattle Streetcar operations and maintenance represents more than a quarter of the STM’s transit service budget. We believe the City needs to present a concrete plan for how that investment will make the Streetcar a more useful part of the network. That level of funding requires a clear strategy.
We recognize that a sales tax is a regressive funding mechanism, and we do not take that lightly. We support the Mayor’s proposed measure because the alternative, a city where more people are forced into car ownership, is even more regressive. We see this measure as a foundation to build from. We are committed to future work for additional and more equitable revenue tools that keep people moving outside of cars.
Seattle deserves a transit measure that moves people where they need to go, conveniently, safely, affordably, and sustainably.
Sincerely,
Transit Riders Union, Build Ballard Light Rail, Fix the L8, The Urbanist, Sierra Club Washington, Seattle Subway, Cascade Bicycle Club, Nondrivers Alliance, Transportation Choices, Seattle Transit Blog, and 350 Seattle.
scalziwhatever_feedHello, it’s Monday, let’s see what’s been going on over the weekend:
Spencer Pratt misses LA Mayoral runoff: I’ve not lived in California for decades now, and even when I did never lived in the city of Los Angeles proper. Nevertheless as a native son of Southern California, I’ve been keeping up with LA’s mayoral race, mostly because people I know were exasperated by the presence of Pratt, a fellow who as I understand it was best known for dating someone more famous than he and then extending that into an indifferent career in the reality TV genre, the sort where he and his spouse at one point announced an impending divorce for the publicity boost. Pratt is a Republican, and so perhaps unsurprisingly his entire platform seems to have been based on “backing the blue” and harassing homeless people.
The California primary election was nearly a week ago, and the vote tallying has been slow and for most of it Pratt was in second place behind the current, somewhat embattled, LA mayor Karen Bass. But as the mail-in votes have been counted over the last week, Pratt slipped into third behind Nithya Raman, and seems likely to stay there. Naturally, this has started the absolutely predictable GOP whining and foot-stomping about “election integrity,” to which the only rational response is, shut the fuck up, you reprehensible children, and take the “L” like grown-ups. They won’t, of course. But one can dream.
Earlier in the campaign Pratt said that if he lost the election he would leave Los Angeles; I understand there may be a GoFundMe to hire him a U-Haul. I will believe that he’s going to leave LA when I see it. He has not other real skills than being a celebrity of a certain low-wattage sort. He needs to be where the work is. And of course, this was all this doomed mayoral run was — an attempt to keep his name in the spotlight a little longer, to keep the work flowing. I hope it does this task… poorly.
Rush comes back: In rather more exciting news from Los Angeles, Rush opened up their new tour there last night, their first in a decade and since drummer/lyricist Neil Peart passed away in 2020. Apparently things went extremely well, with tour drummer Anika Nilles getting her critical flowers for her work on the throne. For me the moment of particular interest is that Aimee Mann (who I am friendly with thanks to our mutual participation on the JoCo Cruise) popped up for a cameo on “Time Stand Still,” which is arguably my own favorite Rush tune:
I have friends who are over the moon that Rush is back on tour, especially since it seemed unlikely, with the passing of Peart, that they would ever do so again; he was (and is) absolutely the beating heart of that band. No one could or did fault the Geddy Lee or Alex Lifeson, the other two members of Rush, for choosing to call it a career. But the way Rush are doing this particular tour, with a drummer with her own considerable skills, not designed to replace Peart but to support his friends as they take a sweet, valedictory lap, seems to be something everyone is getting behind. I hope they have a good tour, and I hope all my friends who love Rush get a chance to see them.
House-sized American flag causes a power failure: Sometimes the real-world metaphors are just a little on the nose, aren’t they? But wait, the metaphor gets even nose-ier: The New York Times reporting on the event seems to suggest the massive, 3,000 square foot flag that cut off power to 40,000 may have been the property of the WWE wrestling organization, based in Stamford, where the outage happened. A preview, possibly, of the event (UFC, not WWE) scheduled for the White House lawn this weekend? We shall see.
I am, for the record, somewhat less outraged than some other people of my political leanings about the MMA event at the White House. I think it’s tacky as fuck, but that’s Trump for you. I don’t support it and am sure it’s going to be corrupt people doing corrupt things, corruptly, but on my list of things to seethe about regarding this administration, it’s low-ish on the list. Other people are taking up my slack, to be sure. I wish them joy in the work.
— JS
seattletransitblog_feed
Last week, Mayor Wilson has unveiled her proposal for the next Seattle Transit Measure (STM) that will replace the current measure when it expires in 2027. The STM is an additional tax in Seattle that is used to fund more bus service and various transit programs. Wilson is proposing a 0.3% sales tax for the next 10 years that is expected to generate $138M every year.
The vast majority of this funding, $96.1 million each year, will be used to support better bus service in Seattle. The current STM funds 5% of all bus trips in Seattle. This includes extra trips and improved frequencies on Metro routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 21, 24, 33, 28, 36, 40, 44, 48, 50, 60, 70, 106, 107, 124, 125, C Line, D Line, E Line, G Line, and H Line. Wilson’s proposal increases funding for addition bus service by nearly 60%, so more routes will be supported to help Seattle meet its Frequent Transit Measure goal.
Another $23.4M will cover the operational costs of Seattle’s two streetcar lines. These two lines are operated by King County Metro, but are funded by Seattle via the STM. Ridership on both the South Lake Union Line and the First Hill Line has increased over the past few years.
About $9M per year will be allocated for Transit Access Programs. These programs include subsidized ORCA cards for 22,000 people, transit education programs, and the Easy Loop shuttle.
The STM proposal will also provide about $6.1M per year for supporting Seattle’s projects in Sound Transit 3. This including paying additional staff for project management, planning, engineering, permitting, and environmental review. The City will also use these funds to plan and design projects adjacent to the Link extensions, including sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting, bus stops, and bike lanes.
The final bucket of STM funded projects is transit infrastructure ($3.5M each year). This funding, along with the funds from the Seattle Transportation Levy, will help support spot projects to improve bus reliability, access, equity, and safety. Examples of these projects include bus lanes, signal changes, and bus stop shelters and lighting.
Cities in Washington have limited options for how to fund additional transit service. The primary methods are sales taxes and car tab fees. While more regressive, Wilson’s choice to use a 0.3% sales tax avoids the political push back from raising car tabs. The increased sales tax will fund more transit service that will allow more people in Seattle drive less or live car-free. As the cost of car maintenance, insurance, and gas continues to rise, “required” car ownership is extremely regressive. A higher sales tax to reduce car ownership in Seattle is better than the alternative.
Wilson’s proposal was shared with the Seattle City Council on June 4, 2026. Over the next six weeks, the City Council will discuss, amend, and finalize the legislation. Seattle residents will vote on the revised STM in November. The public is encouraged to provide feedback to the City Council at the following meetings.
mdlbearBad week. I mean, really not a good week. It had its bright points -- most bad weeks do -- a common thread of love, friendship, and care. And grief is lessened by being shared. It was still a bad week.
Thursday our dear old-lady-cat Ticia crossed the Rainbow Bridge. There will be
a full post in a day or three. Meanwhile if you're triggered by such
things you'll want to skip over 0611Th. And maybe Wednesday
and Friday.
Not a totally lost week, though; I got in five walks (missing Wednesday and Thursday -- see above), and wrote a Songs for Saturday post, along with my usual Thankful Thursday.
Linkies: Ukraine and Moldova on course to start formal EU membership talks in JuneSailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum - Standard Ebooks Disordered, Deficient, Dehumanized: How the Language of Aphantasia Research Shapes What We Think About It (more on Friday),
‘Happiness is not just about GDP’: ambitious plan or utopia? (More, including the whole report, on Saturday. Up to you to decide how it compares as Utopian fiction to The World As it Ought To Be, by Naomi Rivkis, which is the subject of a Goodreads ebook giveaway, and also on sale for $2.99 until the end of this month.)
Rage-inducing: DOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military's Recognized Religion List
See you later this week.
marthawellsmdlbear - Thankful Thursdaythe_devils_panties_feed - 06/11/2026xkcd_feed - Beam Pipescalziwhatever_feed - Trying My Hand At Some Floral Arrangementsscalziwhatever_feed - The Big Idea: Donna Barba Higuerascalziwhatever_feed - Today in “Words Mean Things”seattletransitblog_feed - Midweek Roundup: Why, Robotelisem - a quick sketch of an update postthe_devils_panties_feed - 06/10/2026mdlbear - River: RIP Ticia: 2007--2026scalziwhatever_feed - Some Thoughts On “Masters of the Universe”scalziwhatever_feed - The Big Idea: Laura Lekkosseattletransitblog_feed - MASS Coalition’s priorities for the 2026 STMthe_devils_panties_feed - 06/09/2026xkcd_feed - Nostalgia Contentscalziwhatever_feed - Various & Sundry, 6/8/26seattletransitblog_feed - Seattle Transit Measure Renewal 2026the_devils_panties_feed - 06/08/2026mdlbear - Done Since 2026-05-31marthawells - News!timeasmymeasure
