Judith Lonnquist is steadfast. She’s angry. Her tone is clipped and impatient. “It’s like 50 years of my life has been wasted,” she says. And yet, Lonnquist is hopeful.   Lonnquist, a prominent Seattle labor and employment attorney who specializes in sex discrimination and harassment, has been fighting for civil rights and women’s rights since the mid-1960s. She calls the recent Supreme Court action overturning a woman’s right to an abortion “horrible” and “depressing,” but considers it another chapter in an ongoing battle. “I am very hopeful that the scope of these laws will generat ..read more

At first, the crowd of more than 22,000 thought they were hearing firecrackers. Then the second round began, and many realized they were gunshots. In an instant, Emily Cantrell’s life changed forever. Fifty-nine people were killed and more than 700 wounded that night almost four years ago at an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.  Cantrell, a Seattle resident employed as COO at Provail, a nonprofit that works with persons with disabilities, never much cared for guns. She’s now a staunch gun control and mental heal ..read more

Courtesy of Jade D’Addario, Special Collections, The Seattle Public Library Back in 1970, almost three years prior to Roe v. Wade, Washington voters became the first in the country to vote to legalize abortion. This “Seattle” magazine cover, from 1969, reflects the debate raging across the state at the time. According to Cassandra Tate on Historylink.org, 15 other states had “liberalized” abortion laws by that time, but Washington was the first to do so via popular vote. Referendum 20, which passed with more than 56% of the vote, still required the consent of a married woman’s husband or a gir ..read more

In early October 1968, a Seattle police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old Black boy after he threatened them with a rifle. According to David Wilma, writing on Historylink.org, the very next day two Seattle police officers were ambushed and wounded in retaliation. Welton Armstead’s death was eventually ruled “justifiable,” but a headline in a Black Panther Pamphlet read, “Murdered by Seattle Pigs.” As former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best recounts in this month’s cover feature, many of the racially tinged issues that defined the past still exist today. “Over time we are improving, and we ..read more

“If there’s one thing I believe in, it is that there’s ‘one’ Seattle. in ‘one’ Seattle, we put in the work and we lead with humility, urgency and compassion.” New Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell wasted little time in tackling one of the city’s thorniest issues. Just 40 days after his swearing-in, Harrell signed an executive order announcing an end to the moratorium on residential and commercial evictions. At the same time, he extended protections for at least six months to vulnerable tenants. The announcement came after Harrell solicited opinions from tenant advocates and small landlords, a move ..read more

Retired Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best was thrust into the national spotlight in the summer of 2020 when the city erupted in protests. Many devolved into violence, and resulted in the subsequent months-long occupation of six downtown blocks. Protestors called for the city to defund or abolish the police. The Seattle City Council threatened to slash the beleaguered department’s funding by 50% before eventually settling on 20%. Meanwhile, six people were shot and two were killed in the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone. Businesses were smashed and looted. The Seattle Police Department was for ..read more

This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue. Click here to subscribe. Editor’s Note: Council member Teresa Mosqueda gave birth on October 9, 2019. Here is something that shouldn’t be blazing trails but is: By January, two members of the Seattle City Council, Lorena González and Teresa Mosqueda, will be new mothers. It will be the first time in Seattle’s history that any council member—much less two—has given birth while in office. It might seem unfair to single out González and Mosqueda as extraordinary—after all, plenty of men have served on the council (and as m ..read more

On Friday, the Seattle City Council got its first look at legislation from Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office taking aim at so-called “RV ranchers” who charge people rent to live in derelict and unsafe recreational vehicles. Durkan’s legislation would impose a fine of $250 a day on anyone who “allows” another person to live in a derelict vehicle, a definition that includes both cars and RVs and encompasses deficiencies ranging from mold to cracked windows to leaking fluids. It would also require the owner of such vehicles to pay up to $2,000 in restitution to the person or people living in the vehicl ..read more

Last month, the Washington state legislature passed a sweeping eviction reform bill that gives tenants more time to pay rent before they can be evicted; gives judges new discretion when deciding whether to give tenants more time to pay or how much to penalize evicted tenants financially; and creates new financial incentives for landlords to rent to tenants using financial subsidies. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Nicole Macri, was a response to the problems outlined in a report by the Seattle Women’s Commission, “Losing Home,” earlier this year. That report revealed that tenants in Seattle are fr ..read more

This article appears in print in the July 2019 issue. Click here to subscribe. This year’s Seattle City Council races have produced a bumper crop of candidates—56 people running for seven council seats. Of those, more than 40 have signed up to participate in the city’s audacious experiment in campaign funding: democracy vouchers, a unique form of public campaign financing in which voters determine who gets public funds. The goals of the program are twofold: to increase the number and diversity of candidates running in local races; and to make it possible for more ordinary resi ..read more