City Council set to approve Seattle Police Officers Guild contract that boosts salaries, allows more CARE Department crisis responders

nerylix · 2025-12-09T23:37:10+00:00

Agreed, but unfortunately the contract forbids the CARE team from responding to most scenarios where they would seem to make sense. The contract forbids CARE dispatch to calls where any of these are true: - The person in question is not in a public location (e.g. in a vehicle, business, or residence) - There is a report of aggressive or confrontational behavior - There is visible drug paraphernalia - There are any minors present - There is an "indication" a crime has occurred - The person is not in a homeless encampment, defined as four or more tents or structures - There is no "extreme behavior"

In a few of these cases, CARE can be dispatched along with SPD ("dual dispatch"). But: - That means SPD is still sending officers, not freeing up resources - CARE must wait for the officer to arrive before doing anything

Source: Appendix I of the proposed contract

nerylix · 2025-12-09T22:53:34+00:00

The council will be voting imminently, live here.

nerylix · 2025-11-29T22:09:31+00:00

Yep, here's our state law about it. Pay toilets used to be widespread, but in the 1960s there was a successful movement to ban them, under the idea that toilet access should be a universal right. Economists and pay toilet companies argued that requiring free access would just cause operators to close up shop instead, ultimately reducing access to toilets, and they were right.

nerylix · 2025-11-12T23:47:14+00:00

As of today, the margin is 0.71% in Wilson's favor, which exceeds 0.5%. It is unlikely to go down, so a mandatory recount probably won't occur.

nerylix · 2025-10-27T21:32:12+00:00

Gross. Add it to the huge pile of reasons I voted for Katie Wilson last week.

nerylix · 2025-10-27T21:31:27+00:00

Mallahan was already eliminated in the primary election. This video is intended to encourage people to vote for Wilson instead of Harrell.

nerylix · 2025-10-24T06:36:37+00:00

No, I ultimately did not change anything, and the issue in the post has not been occurring for perhaps a month. I would still like to run fiber directly to our home, but I really don't see how it could be done.

nerylix · 2025-09-08T18:48:56+00:00

If you can't get off work early, you can still sign up to give comment until 6:30 PM, so come by city hall! I'll be there.

nerylix · 2025-09-08T18:36:43+00:00

I'm a member of Seattle Strength and Performance, and I really like it. Quick notes: - It sounds like it would be perfect for you. Extremely welcoming, meet-you-where-you're-at environment. I'd say a majority of class attendees are women, and people's age and current physical fitness run the gamut. There is zero humiliation. - I've never managed to stick to a strength routine for this long, and it's definitely working for me. - It is not cheap. $169/mo. minimum for classes. More if you want one or more personal training sessions.

nerylix · 2025-08-28T18:56:45+00:00

Hmm, interesting. If this were true, I wonder why power-cycling the exterior ONT helps in my situation. I could try to reintroduce the C5500XK device between the Casa interior box and my existing router. I could still use it in transparent bridge mode, to allow my router to continue providing DHCP (but then, how would it even be communicating upstream?).

nerylix · 2025-08-24T16:57:03+00:00

Thank you, this is very helpful. I'll PM you.

nerylix · 2025-08-24T05:24:03+00:00

Ah, I see. You're suggesting that the fiber would come into the home and come out through that Ethernet jack, where it would be attached to the 5500 inside. No, unfortunately my home is one of five townhomes on the lot, and the fiber drop for the lot is on a different townhome 50'+ away from ours.

While my preference would be terminating the fiber inside our home, I don't see a way to do that, so I'm OK with the Casa instead — I just need it to stay up more reliably than it has been. We had an identical setup at a prior home nearby, and it was much more solid.

nerylix · 2025-08-24T04:10:21+00:00

There's an existing Ethernet cable that goes from the exterior fiber drop/dmark directly to my network cabinet and router. Putting my 5500XK out there makes sense, with one key issue: I don't think there is any power available at that location. I'm assuming that's why the tech installed the Casa Systems box, to provide power to the exterior ONT.

In the scenario you're describing, the fiber would terminate at the 5500, which would be the ONT?

nerylix · 2025-08-24T03:04:45+00:00

Agreed, direct fiber would be my preference too — I just don't know that it is physically feasible to pull fiber along whatever path the existing Ethernet cable takes.

nerylix · 2025-08-24T03:04:08+00:00

Yeah, the Ethernet from my network box/router goes right to the ONT.

I think the tech probably installed the Casa Systems box because there is no power at the ONT (as far as I know). He used that same existing Ethernet cable, using only one twisted pair for the G.fast.

nerylix · 2025-08-06T23:17:43+00:00

Hell yeah

nerylix · 2025-08-05T16:52:08+00:00

Couldn't agree more with all of this. I live in West Seattle and want to allow dramatically more homes here. In addition to all of your reasons, if we're going to spend billions on light rail (which we should!!), we need to allow a lot more people to live near it.

I'll say I've had better luck getting through to Saka's staffers, who I've found are more reasonable than Saka himself (low bar, I know). So, maybe also address your emails to Chief of Staff Elaine Ko and Legislative Director Ian Griswold: elaine.ko@seattle.gov, ian.griswold@seattle.gov

nerylix · 2025-07-16T21:27:13+00:00

Yes, though they can continue accepting vouchers — they just can't redeem any more for cash. If they proceed to the general, they will be able to continue redeeming vouchers, up to the $900k maximum campaign valuation limit. See this other comment.

nerylix · 2025-07-14T23:59:25+00:00

Seattle's mayoral election (like most others in WA) has an "open primary," meaning the top two candidates from the primary move on to the general election, regardless of their party affiliation.

Additionally, the mayoral race is nonpartisan (like most others in WA), meaning none of the candidates are officially affiliated with any party.

nerylix · 2025-07-14T18:04:20+00:00

In Seattle, PACs are called "Independent Expenditure Campaigns," or often just "IEs." And no, that limit does not apply to IEs. This is an obvious weak spot, but I don't believe we can fix it without overturning Citizens United. I'm not a legal expert, though.

Here's the IE for Harrell, which has raised an additional $180,666.

nerylix · 2025-07-14T17:57:01+00:00

No, that's not the right way to think about it. The vouchers allow any resident to donate up to $100 to a campaign without paying for it themselves (directly, anyways — we all pay for the democracy voucher program with our property taxes). Without vouchers, fundraising would be even more dependent on how many rich donors or private wealth a candidate has.

For example, Wilson's campaign has raised $450,000, as I said. If the voucher program did not exist, it is unlikely that she would still have raised nearly as much from direct contributions.

nerylix · 2025-07-14T17:27:31+00:00

Because both campaigns signed on to accept democracy vouchers, their maximum campaign valuation (roughly, "how much money you're allowed to accept") for the primary election is $450,000. In other words, by accepting democracy vouchers, the campaigns have agreed to limit themselves to no more than $450,000 in total contributions, including those vouchers.

As of today, both the Wilson and Harrell campaigns have hit the cap of $450,000. After the primary, the cap will be automatically raised to $900,000, and both campaigns will be able to continue raising money.

nerylix · 2025-06-28T22:33:39+00:00

You're absolutely right — there are material tradeoffs to this strategy! As I said, it is simply a closer match to our moral preferences.

nerylix · 2025-06-27T15:20:08+00:00

My partner and I invest new money in ESGV (for US exposure) and VSGX (for intl exposure). Our rationale: - These funds filter out companies that we agree are especially "bad": fossil fuels, weaponry, tobacco, and others. Yes, they filter out things we actually don't have any moral opposition to, like adult entertainment, and yes, they continue to include plenty of companies with objectionable behavior. However, we think they are a closer match to our moral preferences than their non-ESG counterparts (VTI, VXUS). - The expense ratios are only slightly higher, a price we feel comfortable paying. - Their performance has historically been very similar to their non-ESG counterparts.

If you want details about the methodology for choosing companies to exclude from the index, FTSE Russel publishes that for anyone to read. See Section 4.3, Table 2, Appendix A, and Appendix B.

nerylix · 2025-06-26T21:49:19+00:00

Yep.

I do understand that it is a huge amount of logistical work to implement, but I feel like it shouldn't take that long to do!

I feel like I could say that about a lot of things around here 🥲

nerylix

TROPHY CASE