David Brewster, a founding member of Post Alley, has a long career in publishing, having founded Seattle Weekly, Sasquatch Books, and Crosscut.com. His civic ventures have been Town Hall Seattle and FolioSeattle.
I once asked one of the original founders of the coffee company how it could be economical to have so many folks occupying tables for hours while spending a pittance on a cup of coffee-flavored milk drinks.
If Act I of the rise of Movement Left in Seattle was the 2019 city council elections, these protest marches are Act II. They will have an enduring effect on participants.
All this puts protesters in a tricky situation, playing with matches. Their issues and grievances typically have a tough time breaking through to media attention.
One decision is to give up on the Republicans, rather than trying to woo them into some marginal concessions, since they have obviously been "bought." The effort now is to unify the Left, not seek a center.
Restaurants are reinventing themselves in this way, knowing that eating outdoors is healthier for resisting transmission of the coronavirus. Might Seattle reinvent itself broadly as an outdoors city, despite the mild and rainy winters?
Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum, a nonprofit membership library in the Pike Place Market, is launching a digital series of live discussions moderated by Mort Kondracke, a Post Alley writer....
"What troubled me about the whole convention center business/financial model was its self-feeding locomotion. Once a city begins to compete in the big leagues (not unlike sports) it has to buy into a whole multi-decade commitment. And the bar keeps getting raised."