Bad news about tonight’s debate. It’s cancelled because one of our two candidates for Seattle City Council District 5 has a nasty cold that turned out to be COVID.

But the show goes on!

We’re still going to show up at the National Nordic Museum to tape a live episode of Seattle Nice. We’ll talk about the upcoming election and other spicy issues in Seattle politics.

Tonight, Wednesday, October 21, at the National Nordic Museum in Ballard.

Start time: 6 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

We hope to see you there!

Special Thanks to Our Patreon Donors

This podcast is a labor of love and a public service, and you help make it possible.

For this event, the National Nordic Museum generously donated the venue and its staff time. But our additional expenses for a board operator, editor, and other help add up to nearly $1,000 for just this one event.

So thanks to everyone who believes in democracy and local journalism for chipping in to make these live events, and serious discussions about the issues facing Seattle, possible.

Click the following link if you want to help: patreon.com/seattlenice

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Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

The big Seattle Nice City Council District 5 debate is right around the corner! Join us at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the National Nordic Museum, where we’ll be drawing out candidates Nilu Jenks and Julie Kang on their positions – and their differences. It’s free and will be an informative and illuminating debate. We hope to see you there!

In this episode of Seattle Nice, taped a couple of weeks ago while Erica was away, Sandeep and David invite Walter Hatch, a former Seattle Times journalist, retired professor of politics at Colby College, and frontline homelessness volunteer, to discuss why Walter, the co-author of two recent pieces on the topic at Post Alley, believes Seattle’s homelessness response is failing. Walter is a staunch progressive, and our conversation exposes disagreements over housing costs, addiction, encampment removals, and government spending, but also substantial agreement: Seattle needs more housing, more shelter, better services, and a system that people can actually navigate.

Walter contends that Seattle’s homelessness crisis reflects a community failure rather than simply a collection of individual failures, and he argues that Seattle’s primary obstacle to making progress on homelessness is a fragmented system organized around nonprofit providers rather than the needs of homeless individuals, along with an inhumane overreliance on sweeps. He argues that inconsistent data sharing, disconnected caseworkers, and weak coordination force people to repeat their stories and paperwork without making progress. Drawing on examples from other cities, he calls for stronger political leadership, shared information, and clear responsibility for getting each person appropriate help.

We don’t entirely agree with Walter’s diagnosis, with Sandeep and David defending both Katie Wilson’s continuation of the previous administration’s relatively fast pace of encampment removals and Sandeep arguing that the biggest problem with the current response is insufficient resources commensurate with the scale of Seattle’s homelessness problem.

“Our system here in Seattle can’t even be called a system,” Walter contends. “What we have in Seattle is just a shit show of failing both at the political, moral, economic level, and I think we’re all responsible, and I think we can fix it.”

Walter Hatch and Mark W. Garrett, "The Homelessness Blame Game: Let's Challenge That," Post Alley, May 6, 2026.

Walter Hatch and Mark W. Garrett, "Seattle Homelessness Is a Complex Problem: Here's How to Solve It," Post Alley, Sept. 10, 2026.

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

First, a quick invitation: Seattle Nice is hosting a live debate for City Council District 5 between Julie Kang and Nilu Jenks. Join us at the National Nordic Museum on October 21 at 6 p.m.

On this week's show: What happens when government agencies can't keep track of millions of dollars? And why aren't Seattle voters more upset about it?

First, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority says it's solved the mystery of the $8 million it previously claimed Seattle and King County owed it. Turns out, according to the agency, it was an accounting error. So how did the agency get something this big so wrong?

Then there's the city's roughly $13 million mistake in overpaying Seattle Police Department employees. How did the city manage to send out millions in extra paychecks? Why did it take so long for the mistake to come to light? And will taxpayers ever get that money back? The police union says it wants the city to sort out its ongoing Workday payroll problems before its members pay anything back.

Meanwhile, the King County Council has approved another well-meaning sales tax increase to help children and families, including those experiencing homelessness, but without a detailed spending plan yet.

Plus, at the top of the show, we talk with Transportation Choices Coalition Executive Director Kirk Hovenkotter about Proposition 1, which would double Seattle's transit sales tax to pay for more bus service.

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.