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| What Seattle’s Talking About |
| | 🚆 West Seattle light rail delayed again: Sound Transit announced last week that the West Seattle Link Extension, which was promised for 2032, is now being delayed to 2035. In an email to the West Seattle Blog, Sound Transit said “The updated timeline reflects both the cost-saving work completed to make the project affordable and refinements to the construction schedule.” [West Seattle Blog] |  | Most affordable housing built in Seattle is a studio or a one-bedroom, making family rentals hard to come by. (Jay Heike / Unsplash) |
| 🏘️ Smallest amount of family-sized rentals: Fewer than half of available rentals in the Seattle area have two or more bedrooms. Compared to the major metro areas nationwide, Seattle has the smallest number to offer. Plus, for every 100 low-income renters in the state, there are just 43 available homes. Seattle’s largest apartment development finally opens this fall, but its 1,131 units do not seem to be affordable. [Seattle Times] | | 🚨 Detention facility might be sold to ICE: Tacoma’s immigrant detention center, which has been at the center of many human rights investigations and currently has 140 people on hunger strike, might be sold by its private owner to the federal government. GEO Group’s founder told investors they aim to wrap negotiations of any sales by late September. A federal purchase would shield the facility from local or state government oversight. [KUOW] |
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| |  | Grab a soft serve at the Pastry Project window and head to a POPS downtown. (Sam J. Leeds / City Cast Seattle) |
| Your Guide to Seattle’s Well-Hidden Public Spaces | The smoke has arrived and the hazy days of summer have set in. As we all try to squeeze every last drop out of the sunshine, here’s a guide to Seattle’s sort-of-secret waterfront access ‘street ends’ and Privately-Owned, Public Open Spaces (POPOS/POPS). [City Cast Seattle] | - What are ‘street ends’? Seattle is surrounded by fresh and salt water, which means that many of our city’s streets just kind of end when they hit the water and often result in a mini park! The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has a program called Shoreline Street Ends, which has made 142 of those street ends accessible to the public. And Friends of Street Ends member John Feit has written guides to some of them based on neighborhood for The Urbanist: South Lake Union, Portage Bay & Madison Park, South Ship Canal - North Queen Anne, West Seattle to South Park, Ballard to Fremont, Fremont, Portage Bay & East Lake Union, The Duwamish Waterway. Go check some of them out!
- What the heck is a POPOS? Zoning laws here allow developers to build more densely than the law would typically allow if they build Privately-Owned, Public Open Spaces. Also known as a POPS, they’re kind of like a park, but way more hidden and with slightly different rules. There are more than 40 POPS in the city that are open to everyone. My personal favorite is the Waterfall Garden Park in Pioneer Square, but it’s currently closed for construction. So grab a book from the library, choose a spot on this list, and take advantage of the public spaces that belong to all of us!
- Want to learn more? Today on the podcast, we say goodbye to our illustrious fill-in host Marcus Harrison Green with a discussion of these spaces. Thank you, Marcus, for being with us all week! Tune in to hear him discuss POPS and Street Ends with contributor Guy Oron and EP Ashley Smith
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Neighborhood-favorite Volunteer Park Cafe (in its newest form) turned 5 last week. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog has this lovely feature on the cafe’s history and the example it sets as a residential corner store. Go get yourself a treat to celebrate 🥳 |
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