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Katherine Mitchell

@katherinemitchell

Ballard-based public employee (opinions here are my own) in the fight for housing for all. Proud union member. Birder. Organizer.

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25.02.2024
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Latest posts by Katherine Mitchell @katherinemitchell

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WA Senate majority leader draws challenger from the left • Washington State Standard Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, who has served in the Legislature for two decades, faces the prospect of a fellow Democrat challenging him in this year’s election. Hannah Sabio-Howell, a progre...

Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, who has served in the Legislature for two decades, faces the prospect of a fellow Democrat challenging him in this year’s election. washingtonstatestandard.com/briefs/wa-se...

07.03.2026 18:26 👍 28 🔁 6 💬 3 📌 7
🎯MapTap Daily Geography Game Play MapTap - the daily geography game! Find 5 world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories. Free browser-based daily game for geography lovers.

www.maptap.gg March 7
90👑 100🎯 93🏆 100🎯 97🔥
Final score: 967

07.03.2026 19:04 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Edward Teller (Benny Safdie) in 'Oppenheimer'

Edward Teller (Benny Safdie) in 'Oppenheimer'

until someone builds a 14-minute city

06.03.2026 17:37 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

anyway, i don't really want to go to the mat for a random very flawed democratic candidate, but i always find it upsetting when people talk about this race and treat the other two major candidates supporting a genocide as something that doesn't carry deeply important moral weight too 🤷‍♀️

05.03.2026 05:17 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

i object to the assertion that john fetterman is well meaning

05.03.2026 05:04 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Finishing up Day 3 in the Paralympic Village, great to see my mixed doubles teammates starting off with a big W against a very good Latvian team! 🇺🇸🥌

04.03.2026 20:56 👍 1385 🔁 81 💬 36 📌 4

The Do-nothing Governor. What crisis?

04.03.2026 04:43 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

thanks jon

04.03.2026 04:40 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

it ought to be interesting to see how the midterms shake out. lots of candidates out there. make sure you read up on them between now and november or else you’ll be looking pretty silly in the voting booth

04.03.2026 04:28 👍 1076 🔁 65 💬 30 📌 0
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Neighborhood Cafe and Corner Store Bill Fails for Third Straight Year » The Urbanist # The failure of HB 1175 to make it to the state Senate floor mirrors a similar fate two years ago. Bill sponsor Mark Klicker placed the decision to let the neighborhood cafe bill die squarely on Loca...

NEW STORY // Neighborhood Cafe and Corner Store Bill Fails for Third Straight Year

By Ryan Packer via @theurbanist.org.

www.theurbanist.org/2026/03/02/n...

02.03.2026 15:16 👍 57 🔁 12 💬 2 📌 7

@ricoque-opcd.bsky.social Q2: at the comp plan info session on Apr 3 2024, Michael Hubner stated that “transitions” between “different types of zones” should be “gradual”.

Which residents does this serve? The aesthetic preferences of wealthy homeowners, or people desperately looking for housing?

01.03.2026 06:20 👍 38 🔁 5 💬 2 📌 3
City Inside/Out: Can Seattle's growth roadmap tackle affordable housing challenge?
City Inside/Out: Can Seattle's growth roadmap tackle affordable housing challenge? YouTube video by Seattle Channel

@ricoque-opcd.bsky.social Q1: In Mar 2024 you said "one of the goals... is to provide density... and to do that surgically". youtu.be/f1G3Yr5A0FM?...

Your plan has crammed renters & dense housing solely onto polluted streets. Is this the outcome you intended when you said "surgically"? If so, why?

28.02.2026 06:40 👍 35 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0

Oh fun! Rico Quirindongo, the director of @seattleopcd.bsky.social followed me!

Director @ricoque-opcd.bsky.social: I don't know if you'll reply, but I will ask you ONE QUESTION A DAY until YOUR planning dept stops putting affordable & social housing ONLY on hazardous, polluted, and noisy roads.

28.02.2026 06:40 👍 52 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 2

truly inconceivable that we are supposed to host the world cup and olympics in the next two years

01.03.2026 20:06 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Seattle Budget Tweaks Would Add Transit Security Czar, Rescue Waterfront Streetcars » The Urbanist # Focused on transit and street upgrades, budget amendments this week will be the subject of behind-the-scenes wrangling as Budget Committee Chair Dan Strauss assembles an initial balancing package fo...

Really excited for the pilot shuttle direct to the beach this summer www.theurbanist.org/2025/10/31/s...

01.03.2026 00:30 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Sand Point: 🚏, 61ft; 🚗🅿️, 43ft; 🛝 42ft
Discovery: 🚏, 180ft; 🚗🅿️, 219ft; 🛝 215ft

In every case, the car park is at roughly the same elevation as the nearest playfield while the bus is many tens of feet of elevation change different.

That's not "access" that's "technically available." 2/

01.03.2026 00:02 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0

I am allegedly able-bodied and I have done this... once. Here are some elevation comparisons from parking lot and bus stop to playfield:

Seward: 🚏, 66 feet; 🚗🅿️, 28 ft; 🛝 33 ft
Carkeek: 🚏, 250ft; 🚗🅿️, 41ft; 🛝 60ft
Golden Gardens: 🚏, 268ft; 🚗🅿️, 18ft; 🛝 12ft

1/

01.03.2026 00:02 👍 12 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

Here's one for the housing nerds! @houseourneighbors.bsky.social and @mayorofseattle.bsky.social hard work to pass HB 1687 paid off -- the Senate approved the bill and including Social Housing Developers in the Housing Cooperation law is off to the Governor's desk!!! #waleg

28.02.2026 20:35 👍 51 🔁 11 💬 3 📌 3

We're trying to be one of the great world cities here. No more country-club enclaves.

28.02.2026 18:37 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I just don't understand why there's single-family zoning in Seattle at all.

28.02.2026 18:27 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 3 📌 0

So is someone suing Kansas or what

26.02.2026 15:23 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Notably, Americans tend to *overperform* at curling when putting on the national team uniform.

25.02.2026 22:51 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

People that don't golf dramatically overestimate the cost of being a golfer who plays public courses. It's among the most affordable sports and also one of the most accessible to different abilities and levels of athleticism.

Attack private courses all you want, but public golf is for the people!

24.02.2026 18:33 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

i think everyone is allowed to have slightly crank urbanism opinions and mine is that there should be some sort of subsidy or tax break for operating a nice looking storefront. like, if you're a florist or something. i don't buy flowers much but i love to look at a florist shop on my street.

24.02.2026 15:54 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I thought they were going to close a part of Ballard Ave, too. Is that not happening? Or is it not an "official" Fan Zone?

24.02.2026 15:37 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

17 years of expanded free lunch for schools

24.02.2026 15:37 👍 30 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

The reason I’ll be proposing an amendment to remove the $550M corporate giveaway in the income tax bill is simple:

To avoid these cuts to K12 and other crucial services.

Washington’s working families can’t afford to hand half a billion dollars to businesses that already got a tax break via HR 1.

24.02.2026 04:15 👍 90 🔁 25 💬 3 📌 0

I wasn’t expecting her to seriously challenge the police and she was clearly noncommittal on sweeps. But to lean so hard into VALIDATING right-wing narratives on crime and surveillance while AMR and Lin are bravely standing up for what’s right is just awful

24.02.2026 04:21 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I’m actually impressed with how disappointed I’ve been with Mayor Wilson’s first few months, as I really wasn’t expecting much besides “not fucking up all the exact same things Harrell was”

24.02.2026 04:18 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0