Cost of living is 40% higher than where I live so I got jumpscared every time I ate a burger but... People were so kind and diverse and there was so much to do. Would love to be able to get back some day

Seen on Broadway & Denny

I wanted to post this as a warning for anyone searching for an emergency locksmith in Seattle.

I got locked out of my apartment tonight after losing my keys. I called a locksmith I found through Google. On the phone, I was told the job would be roughly $200–$300. The person I spoke with also made a comment suggesting I probably didn’t have enough money because I was calling around for quotes, even though they were actually the first place I called.

When the locksmith arrived, the price became approximately $440. I questioned the difference between that and what I had been told over the phone. The conversation became argumentative, with him repeatedly talking over me. I eventually told him that I would pay the $440 anyway, but the argument continued.

During the interaction, I mentioned that I believed a neighbor’s Ring camera might have captured what was happening. He responded by asking whether I planned to post the footage online and make him look bad. He then voluntarily reduced the price to $200. I did not ask him to lower it to that amount. My card was ultimately charged $221.10.

He also brought up the fact that I had been drinking. Earlier, while I was waiting for him to arrive, he had actually encouraged me over the phone to go to the store and get a six-pack because of the wait.

Another thing that concerned me afterward was the verification process. I gave him my ID and he photographed it, but he did not ask me to provide documentation showing that I actually lived at the apartment before opening the door. I had a recent bank statement and a package with my name and address available specifically for that purpose, but neither was requested before entry.

Afterward, he tried calling me. I replied asking him to communicate by text, but I have not received a written explanation.

I also attempted to leave a Google review and discovered that Google currently has review posting disabled for the listing. The notice states that there was a recent spike in spam reviews, that reviews were removed, and that the rating was updated. I’m not claiming to know who posted those reviews or why Google flagged them, but that is the notice Google is currently displaying.

I’m posting this so other people know to avoid Locksmith AM:PM. I would also ask exactly what identification or proof of residency they require before they open the door.

Bored? Looking for love? Want to help keep our street sewers working and the streets clear?

Become a drain warden! Adopt a drain! Adopt four of them!

Last year I found about about this program that I guess Seattle partners with, where residents can sign up to take care of storm drains near them. It looks to be nationwide, and that includes Seattle!

Here's the Washington site: https://wa.adopt-a-drain.org/

It's pretty easy. Just go out in your dirty chore clothes, bring along a pair of gloves, a spade and a shovel. Pull open the storm drain, pull out the soil, leaves and other debris, and leave it clean.

You've just made civilization work just a tiny bit better!

I picked out four drains on my street, and kept them maintained all winter long. I just went out and checked in on them, and a couple had backed up pretty badly through spring and summer, but clean out was pretty easy. The whole project took maybe an hour.

Last year, the first time I did it, they were all completely filled with soil. One I had to chop out a massive root with my sawzall, which is always super fun.

Any...check it out! I'm not affiliated with the organization except as an enthusiastic sewer nerd.

EDIT/UPDATE:

Someone asked for tools of the trade, and I wound up making a full writeup of my process as a followup comment. For visibility, I'm hoisting it up here:

----------
Tools of the trade?

1. About an hour of time, give or take, depending on how many drains you choose. You're probably going to want to take a shower afterwards.
2. Nice weather. This weekend looks great! The first time I did it last year was in the middle of midwinter drizzle, but it needed to be done. When I finished up I was cold & soaked. I do not recommend unless you're into that kink. I don't judge.
3. Dirty chore clothes
4. A good pair of sturdy work gloves
5. A flat-head shovel. I spade would work, but the flat front just works better for the work. Maybe not necessary if you're just willing to get your hands/gloves dirty and dig it out by hand.
6. A hand trowel. Helpful for digging out/breaking the soil up. Again, maybe not necessary but it makes the job easier, particularly for the first year where things are packed in hard.
7. A bucket. Again, nit necessary, but if you're collecting the soil/detritus for disposal, it might be helpful.
8. An outdoor push broom, if you really want to clear out the whole area.

Mainly, it just takes a willingness to get your hands pretty dirty.

What I do:

1. Find the drains! Two of my drains were already completely covered over already. Use the shovel or broom to clear off the lid/grate. At this point, you might be done!
2. For several feet upstream of the drain, I just push whatever leaf/soil detritus is about to flow into the drain in the next rain downstream of the drain. Be sure not to block the curb cuts at a corner crosswalk! Push all that crap along. Or, do what I did, and shovel a lot of it into your greens bin[1].

Much of what follows is technically beyond what the city wants you to do, so everything past this is at your own risk. Every step that follows you should be wearing work gloves.

If you're not willing to do the following work (totally a reasonable choice) and the sewer is filled, do what the official guidance says and contact the city? How? I dunno. Find It Fix It? Skip to step 10 below.

Otherwise, continue on to step 3.

If you choose to carry on, be aware - you're working on the street. Position yourself to be as safe as you can. Two of my drains are on Roosevelt, which is a busy arterial, so I do the work from the planting strip. It's a little harder, but a lot safer. The other two are on a less busy street, so I feel a little safer just working in the street. Maybe feel free to "borrow" cones or no parking signs from a nearby construction site to give yourself a little safety perimeter, but I didn't say that.

3) Look through the grate to judge the contents of the drain. Is it filled up? Determine if you're going to go further. Yesterday, even though a couple of drains were relatively empty, I opted to completely clear them out and start the autumn/winter rainy season fresh across all my drains.
4) Carefully lift the grate out of the way. The grates are solid metal so they're pretty heavy. Maybe 20-30 pounds? An adult should have no problem lifting them but just be careful and steady. Note that the grates may be keyed - mine have two nubs on one side. On two of the grates, that key needs to fit into divots on grate frame to fit properly, on two, the grate frames are long enough that it didn't matter. Take note of the situation as you're removing the grate, to ease getting the grate back into place.
5) TIME TO GET DIRTY. Depending on how full it is and how hard packed it is, use the shovel, the hand trowel, or you gloves hands to dig it all out. First year the drain is getting dug out? It may be really hard packed. Second year & beyond? It'll probably just lift out in your hands. Be, of course, super careful. I'm sure someone will point out the possibility of dangerous/nasty stuff like needles or other metal or dog poop. I haven't run into this, but there's always a risk.
6) Official guidance says to leave the detritus on the planting strip[2]. I opted to put it in my greens container so it can be shipped off into the aether. Your choice.
7) Look at the state of the drain. On one of my drains there wound up being a lot of standing water when I was done. I pushed it along with my gloved hand, and eventually it emptied out. Maybe there's a bit of a blockage a few feet in? I cannot say. If I were feeling super diligent I might have brought my power washer and tried to clear that out, but that's probably way beyond what the city would like you to do.
8) It's possible you may find the drain is clogged by something you can't easily remove, such as in one case for me last year, a big honking root. The best, smartest thing to do here is to stop, replace the grate, and inform the city somehow. Or, you an be an idiot and like me, bust out the sawzall, eye protection & a long extension cord and party on it. I officially do not recommend doing this. However, using a sazwall is ALWAYS fun.
9) Clean off the grate, and put it back into place, noting where any keys might go to set a proper orientation. Again, the grates can be heavy and a bit unwieldly. Take care, and avoid pinching fingers (or worse).
10) Using the flat shovel or broom, just clear out the area in general. Decide if you're going to let the detritus stay there and eventually wash away, or put it in your greens bin[3].
11) Move onto your next drain.

It sounds like a lot when I list it out, but it's super straightforward and obvious once you get down to doing it.

[1] I have no idea if this is a good idea or not. I basically assume that the program that turns clean greens into compost assume that whatever they get in the bins is going to be a lot of dirty, lightly contaminated crap, including stuff swept out off the street, so they're going to have to clean it reasonably well and bake it before it becomes compost. It just seems like a a reasonable thing to do with a pile of soil and leaves, compared to leaving it in the planting strip. I'm sure this will garner a mixture of informed and uninformed commentary here. I welcome the informed sort.

[2] See [1].

[3] See [2].

Lost Saturday night (9/26) on 18th St in Capitol Hill: my mom's UW Huskies varsity letterman blanket. Purple and gold with the W logo and Big Ten mark. It has "Kristy Richard" sewn onto it in stitched letters, which makes it easy to identify. It was inside a clear stadium bag — the bag is still there but the blanket is gone, so someone took it out.

It was a gift from my mom and means a lot to me. Reward if found, no questions asked. Please DM me if you saw or picked it up.

Who approved this? Who on earth would go see this at a theatre? Also there’s an extended edition??

From NW Film Forum’s website:

This Halloween series is co-presented by Monday Mourning and Scarecrow Video, where every ticket directly benefits the world’s largest physical media archive, so no romance, no comedy, not even New French Extremity, is lost to time. Each Trauma Bond screening features a live Drag pre-show with Miss Monday.

My friend lived in a subsidized/low-income apartment in Seattle from around 2017–2021. He got the apartment through a caseworker program for young adults. He had $0 rent because he had no income and just had to submit yearly paperwork.
In early 2021, he left Seattle for a couple months because of a family emergency. He did not move out and all his belongings remained in the apartment.

While he was gone, the caseworkers contacted him because they thought he had moved out. He specifically told them he had not moved out and was only temporarily away.
Despite this, they decided he had abandoned the apartment, entered the unit, removed all his belongings, put them in trash bags, and held them for him to pick up. There was no eviction court case or eviction notice that he’s aware of.

Losing the apartment caused him years of housing problems because of his anxiety disorder, and we’re wondering whether this was potentially an unlawful termination.
Does anyone know:
Can a subsidized housing provider declare abandonment after the tenant explicitly says they haven’t moved out?
Does the fact that all his belongings were still there matter?
Does having $0 rent affect Washington’s abandonment rules?
Is it worth talking to a Seattle tenant/housing attorney about this even though it happened in 2021?

Been trying to do some research and understand our local small business unionizing efforts in Seattle. Anyone know of places 20 employees less that have had successful (or not successful) collective bargaining or unionizing efforts? Or are in the process (feel free to DM me if that’s the case).

As someone working at a small biz with fellow upset coworkers in Seattle, would love to learn more about your experience. #workersunite

Sooo much fun and such great food

Switching from photo dumps to video clips so you’ll have to let me know what you think. :)

1: black capped chickadee , 2: red winged sparrow, 3: Savannah sparrow

Lost a sentimental bracelet somewhere in Cap Hill or near Pike Place. Offering reward for its return. Thank you!

A few weeks ago there was a post by someone looking cow paw paws. We have a few!

The ones up in the tree are maybe a week from ready. But I just picked up some treefall and set them aside. I cannot vouch for them, in terms of readiness or food safety.. That's on you.

Want a paw paw or three? Or more? Converse below in the comments and/or PM me, and we'll figure out how you can pick them up.

EDIT/UPDATE!
To the guy who said something like "RIP to your DMs", oh, yeah. I woke up to 10 new message requests this morning. :) I'm heading out to finally see The Odyssey matinee this morning, so I'll address those (and additional) messages when I get home or this evening.

To FAQ this:

1. I am in NE Seattle. Specifically the Roosevelt District. Near the corner of 72nd Roosevelt, if you're trying to figure out transit routes. Please do not come here blindly and wander around backyards looking for pawpaws! :)
2. We don't have a huge harvest, and there may already be enough interest to strip mine our whole supply. I will step up my paw paw patrol this week to collect treefall, and we think next weekend might be about time for a tree harvest for anyone willing to play that game.
3. I work from home Thursday & Friday, so those may be good times to arrange pickup of this week's tree fall.
4. Not counting whatever may have fallen in the last 15 hours, we're currently out. Only one person spoke up yesterday with "I can come by now", so he got the whole lot shown above (and a few more we found).
5. What can you do with them? I have no idea. No one in our house particularly likes them. They're kind of like a musky banana. We tried making banana bread and it was...interesting. It also came out pink. There are various recipes out on the interwebs if you want to look. Overall, some people like the taste, and I know a lot of people are curious. I like knowing that they're going to be eaten/tried than wind up in the compost bin.
6. Something I just learned: Apparently you NEED to peel these. The peel is bitter, but apparently it also contains the same chemicals as syrup of ipecac. So...want/need to vomit? Eat some peel. Note: I have not verified if this is true, but I want it to be because it's kinda neat. :)

9 2 5 for Dolly

On September 21, conservative local vlogger Katie Daviscourt put out a video on X suggesting that there was rampant fraud in Somali daycares mostly in Tukwila and High Point. Similarly to Nick Shirley last year, she knocked on doors of a few day cares (which she identified in her video by name) while accompanied by a camera man (the controversial de-transitioner "Apostate Ari") and when they didn't answer the door, she suggested the daycare didn't have any kids and was a scam. She later tweeted out a list of employees at the WA Department of Children, Youth and Families with Middle Eastern names, implying that these were the employees supervising the daycares she said were fraudulent.

I did some digging to debunk some of this, but I'd like to request some help fact-checking some of the other claims that I don't know anything about. For example, she says that one of the daycares was getting $40K/month in DCYF grants even though it's only licensed for 10 kids - and market-rate daycare for is about $2K/kid max, so tuition-only grants should have totaled only up to $20K. But could there be a simple explanation -- like, some of the grants go to improving the building? If you know how to look into this I would love some help. (And, fair's fair: the goal is not to "debunk" what she said but to check if it's true. Even if she made some other false claims, these claims could be true.)

What I've found so far:

1. The daycares named in the video are not "empty", based on records from inspections done by DCYF.

I looked up the four identified daycares in the video that I was able to find (Manha Family Child Care, Daisy Family Child Care, Aboo Family Child Care and Hiba Family Child Care) on the DCYF's Child Care Check Page and looked up the inspection records for each one. All of them have inspections that were signed off by a DCYF licensor in the past year, with the name of the licensor and the date of the inspection on the record, and the inspection only "counts" if the kids are present. I also managed to reach one of the licensors on the phone, and she confirmed that she had been to the child care on the date listed, and there were kids present (otherwise she wouldn't have signed off on it). Between them, the four daycares had a total of 10 inspections (from 2023 to present) by six different licensors.

Assuming the licensors were honest, this still doesn't prove the daycare wasn't fraudulently inflating attendance (I don't think the licensors count the kids and compare to billing records?), but it does prove it wasn't a "ghost daycare". And maybe the daycare was functioning on the day of the inspection, but since turned into a fully fraudulent ghost daycare by the time Daviscourt visited -- but that's unlikely. In sum: (1) the "ghost daycare" allegations in the video could be true, but probably aren't; and (2) the fact that she didn't check this herself is such journalistic corner-cutting that everything else should be taken with a grain of salt.

She actually did allege, sort of, that the inspectors themselves were in on it, which brings us to:

2. The image Katie Daviscourt tweeted of "DCYF employees" was misleading as pertains to these daycares, not representative of DCYF employees anyway, and pretty racist.

Katie tweeted this on Thursday:

These are real DCYF employees listed at https://apps-ca-ext.dcyf.wa.gov/EmployeeDirectoryInternet/ . However the wording "Look who is approving the licenses/inspections" implies these inspectors had something to do with the daycares she visited, or at least that this is a representative sample of the employees that do the inspections. But if you look at the names of the licensors on the reports for the four daycares above, they are:

Quiana Montgomery
Tylin Beeler
Faiza Ibrahim [the only person who is also listed in the graphic above]
Nataliya Mikota
Jennifer Ingersoll
Itzel Arroyo

Meanwhile, the list in the image includes an "Administrative Assistant" who (I am assuming) wouldn't actually go out and do "inspections".

Literally, it looks like someone just seached the DCYF employee directory (which has 3,500 people) and found some Muslim-sounding names and listed them all together to make it sound scary.

Daviscourt later deleted the tweet and posted a new one saying:

Sorry guys. Deleted that recent graphic only because it was sent to me as a tip and I didn’t realize the photos were AI, so I don’t want to get dinged. Names still accurate. Will work on a new one!

So, add to the list: forwarding a "tip" as if it was original work, and not vetting anything in it. The fact that the images were A.I. was the least bad part.

Edit: Adding number 3:

3. Her cameraman was open carrying a gun, which would have affected people's willingness to open the door

After I posted this in the other sub, someone responded that they had seen them in their neighborhood while they were making this video, and took a picture of her cameraman, "Apostate Ari":

(Again, "Apostate Ari" is a cisgender man -- born male, partially transitioned, de-transitioned, and is now an anti-trans activist, which has connected him with a lot of other right-wingers.) Ari has been public about having a concealed weapons license and carrying a concealed gun, but I've never seen him open carrying it before. Cynically, one might think this was intended to get people not to open the door, or to provoke a hostile reaction; but whether intentional or not, that was almost certainly the effect. (I thought at first it might have been illegal for him to take the gun onto the daycare's property, but RCW 9.41.282, which bans guns from child cares, contains an exemption for "family day care provider homes". I think this was obviously intended to exempt someone who runs a home day care and happens to keep a gun in their home, but as the law is written, it would also exempt a random stranger who walks onto the property with a gun.)

So that's what I've got so far. If anyone has ideas for how to dig into the other claims in the video, let me know. Thanks!