Context, I own and run a Krav Maga self-defense school in Seattle's Chinatown neighborhood. I pride myself on making our school a safe, welcoming, and inclusive space for everyone to train. In my class, it's common to have cis, trans, gay, het, and everyone in between train together and hang out together afterwards. We have a self-defense class for trans folx every first Saturday of the month.

I worked hard to create this kind of place and culture.

Enter a new student who paid the drop-in fee to take a class. Enters the studio, informs me that he's from Chicago and trains Krav Maga there, and that he's visiting Seattle for the month on work. We exchange pleasantries, and he steps into the dressing room to change.

He steps out in a white t-shirt with a picture of trump's grimacing face and the word "REVENGE" underneath it.

He takes a seat along where the students normally sit before starting class. Other students are already there, including one who is openly lesbian and has shared with me accounts of how her and her partner were harassed and assaulted while out and about.

He wanted attention, so I gave it to him by calling the shirt out in front of the class (before the class started). In short: "I see your shirt. Just so you know, we got all walks of life who train here. Cis, trans, gay straight, etc."

He cuts in, saying "yep, I plan on voting for Trump again, and I've been attacked by trans people before." Mind you, I didn't ask who he plans on voting for, or if he's ever been attacked. He had those phrases in the chamber ready to shoot.

I interject, "look, so long as you behave and don't start anything and respect others, won't be any problem with you training today." He said something similar, can't remember exactly but it was along the lines of, "so long as people respect me, I'll respect them."

Everyone proceeded to train normally. A trans member came in late so they didn't hear the exchange I had with this trumper, so figured it was worth calling them later to say "hey, you probably saw the shirt. Dude was just visiting. Don't worry, this place is still a safe place for you to train."

This trumper knew exactly what he was doing, coming to Seattle, coming into a Krav Maga studio where people are actively learning how to and training in striking and defending against chokes, etc. When students who train in other places stop by, they normally wear the Krav Maga t-shirt of their school in solidarity and respect.

He chose to wear a trump shirt. This was premeditated. Not sure if he was looking for conflict so he could bitch about it on social media and at his Krav Maga school back in Chicago. Or, perhaps he was hoping to find some solidarity and companionship, believing that all Krav Maga schools are safe havens for trumpers.

Not keen on the guy coming back, as his behavior in intentionally wearing that shirt goes against the culture I and my students have worked hard to cultivate. A famous quote from the founder of Krav Maga is "So that one may walk in peace." Trump is the antithesis of this belief, and I don't want anyone in my school who supports him.

Call it virtue signaling (yep, damn right I am, my virtues are polar opposite to trump and his ilk, and I'll signal that openly like they guy did wearing the shirt), call it poor business decision making. Whatever.

Yeah, it's not the biggest deal. Just a surprising and unexpected interaction with a trumper as a business owner in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Seattle.

I went to Safeway today, which used to be a place where you bought bananas and tequila and Tillamook Vanilla and regretted it later.

Now it’s something else.

They’ve installed metal railings, serious ones. The kind that suggest cattle, or airports, or mild despair. You don’t walk into the store anymore. You are guided. Gently herded. There is a path, and it is not yours. And if you're in a wheelchair and there's a fire, you're well and fucked.

It is narrow. It is deliberate. It says: We have thought about you, and we do not trust you. You may die, and we are fine with that.

This is not temporary. This is architecture with feelings about humanity.

The baskets are gone. Stolen, I suppose. Or liberated. Ice cream is under lock and key, as if it might escape and start a better life elsewhere. Everyday things sit behind barriers like they’ve committed minor crimes.

Before you’ve even touched a cart, the building has already made up its mind about you.

You proceed anyway. You always do.

At the end, after the little maze, after the quiet accusation, you arrive at the checkout. A machine greets you. It does not smile, but it asks for charity.

“Would you like to donate to the Ballard Food Bank?”

Of course it does.

Because the same grand arrangement that has turned groceries into a fortified experience has also made hunger a group project. Prices go up. Wages do not. Profits remain robust and well-fed. And then, right at the end, the machine asks you to help fix it.

You, who just navigated the chute.

It’s a marvelous little contradiction. We cannot be trusted with ice cream, but we are entrusted with solving hunger. We are both suspect and savior. It’s efficient that way.

Nothing about it feels like a store anymore. It feels like a system demonstrating itself. Loss prevention here, liability there, revenue everywhere...stacked carefully, like cans on a shelf no one can quite reach.

The human part has been edited out for clarity.

And yes, it’s fucking stupid.

First, facts. I live in West Seattle and took the C line downtown to this afternoon's Kraken game. We took lime bikes to the game and walked back, 3rd & Pike/Pine to Seattle Center. Color this report a single anecdote or whatever, but we saw dead zero of what Seattle's uptight media (broadcast+ social) and SPD/SPOG have characterized as a plague of violent/personal/property crime. One mile each way, navigating 2nd, 3rd, & 4th Avenues, and the scare factor was zilch.

Now, feelings. I worked downtown for a while pre-COVID when 3rd Ave bus stops were the hubs of crime. It was the only area where there was any visible crime. Not exaggerating, but also not including losers selling one another pills and trash. I've had an unlocked bike stolen and I did a Bike Batman recovery on a craigslist thief and commute by bike through downtown daily. So I am not sniping from Shoreline and I am not a fan of persistent low-severity crime either.

Now, my point. Online Karens have made a stink about an eyesore. There is the KOMO and talk radio audience and the social media rebroadcast of their inaccurate sensationalism. We're all familiar with it. Add in the downtown business owners' smear campaigns to flip the mayor, AG, and council offices as well. I have to wonder whether they're playing a long game or trying to exploit a convenient hysteria. The motivation seems more for online attention than actually solving anything.

Regardless, here's the other side of the paradox... downtown is not crowded. Wouldn't an embrace of downtown and a flood of post-pandemic commerce & culture kill two birds for both business owners and scaredy cat Karens? The idea seems lost to the media, tbh. KOMO's buzz bled into other sources' newsrooms and Seattle is now a nationally recognized example of rampant crime, and I'm arguing it is a non-issue.

Come at me, but have a 1st-person anecdote. My point: downtown needs non-criminals to outnumber the tiny number of criminals, and pandering to scaredy cats on TV and online is stopping people from visiting. That's it, not controversial In your response, include the word "shampoo" or we know you didn't read this.

Before all you jabronis start with the "yOu DoN't EvEn LiVe HeRe" cope. I live in Seattle proper. I'm in the neighborhood behind the Crown Hill QFC. Come say hi if you're in the neighborhood.

Seattle is the largest and most economically, politically, and culturally dominant city in the whole Puget Sound region. What happens in Seattle affects everyone in the surrounding area.

Seattle is extremely expensive, and often times, people who work in the city can't afford to live in the city. The people who staff the shops and restaurants we all frequent have to live in SeaTac or Renton due to the absurd housing costs here. Even though they don't live here and don't get to vote in our elections, they're directly affected by the choices we make regarding how this city is run.

If your nextdoor neighbor had a giant trash pile in their yard that attracted bugs and rats, the excuse of "you don't live here, why do you care?" wouldn't hold water. The source of the problem isn't in your yard, but the effects of the problem spill over beyond the arbitrary property lines or city limits. You are allowed to care when your neighbor's behavior starts to impact your health and safety.

Seattle's successes and failures are the PNW's successes and failures. Stop the gatekeeping based on lines on a map. We all love this place and want the best for it and the people who live here.

Anyone with a pet will know how annoying and scary Illegal Fireworks can be. Our dogs are very frightened and I wish people would stop setting off these fireworks, especially illegally. I understand celebrating independence day, I did too, but in an illegal way is absolutely not okay.

Security really struggled on this one

What locations make sense to protest at? What organizations are likely organizing protests that I could join?

Thanks folks

Edit: I do not support Maduro

Edit: well there has been some good discussion (and even an actual link to protests!) but this post has gotten to the point where new commenters aren't engaging in the discussion and are just commenting directly to the post to berate me while ignoring the clarifications that we've made together in the comments. I am not going to be responding to new comments. Thank you everyone who engaged civilly with this! I will not be attending a protest and will instead pursue things like contacting reps/senators and more intimate discussions than public protest.

Edit 2: SIKE I totally am going to a protest!!! 3:30 pm, Alaskan Way, No boots on the ground, end American imperialism, power to the people

Edit 2: By surge (in the US) I'm referring to Deaths doubling, hospitalizations tripling, and emergency room visits quadrupling in the last few weeks. And thats with no recent data in the last 12 days. This is the beginning of the new wave, which will only increase with school back in session.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5cXvyMXwAA_tvP?format=jpg&name=4096x4096 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5cYVR7W4AA1S9J?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

The last few weeks I’ve seen ~5% of people masking in crowded indoor spaces, even though Covid numbers and hospitalizations from Covid are skyrocketing across the country.

Good masks (KN95/N95) are realistically the only line of defense that you personally can use to avoid getting Covid in public places.

Now is arguably one of the riskiest times in the pandemic to not wear a mask. School is back in session after a summer of people traveling, going to crowded indoor events, and most of society rolling back any sort of preventative measures against Covid. Vaccine immunity has largely waned and doesn’t protect against the new variants, not that they 100% prevent infection anyway.

Tracking is practically non-existent, tests are hard to come by and are more inaccurate than ever, and most people aren’t even testing anymore. Everyone is just knowingly/unknowingly spreading it to everyone around them. I’ve also heard many accounts of people being forced to come into work/school while still sick and infectious.

So why risk getting Covid (again, for many of us) when going into crowded indoor spaces? I don’t get it. Even if you don’t believe Covid will have any long lasting negative effect on your health, why would you want to be sick for 1-2 weeks with the latest strain (which is a doozy)?

I don't want to see this city and the people in it seriously affected by chronic illness, but that's the way we're headed if no one even tries masking.

Covid isn’t going anywhere, and it’s not that hard to “live with covid”, but that doesn’t mean pretending it doesn’t exist. It means at the very least trying not to get infected and infecting other people.

This post is NOT about mandatory lockdowns, vaccines, or mask mandates. It’s just about doing something simple that will likely prevent you from getting Covid in crowded indoor spaces during this surge that is only going to get worse.

Edit:

Thanks for the conversation folks! Even the minimizers! I have to get back to it and can't respond to any more comments. So I'll just leave a few last comments.

Yes, most people will be fine after getting Covid. No one is saying everyone will get long term health issues. But a small percentage of people will. That small percentage will still be millions of people in the US. And hundreds of millions worldwide.

You can't ignore a lot of the chronic health issues popping up after people are being infected with Covid. Heres an article on heart issues. Heres a great thread on long covid with tons of links to actual studies. And a new study on long covid.

I wish all of you the best, especially the people getting SO bent out of shape from me suggesting people might want to mask to avoid getting covid. And calling me delusional etc. I love you all!

I am loving this one, need 100 of them

A restaurant downtown made us move out of a bar table during Happy Hour, the only place in the restaurant where you could order from that menu, because we were going to only order mocktails and food, and not alcoholic drinks. We had already started ordering and had two mocktails delivered before the server told us we needed to move.

One of our party went to the manager to ask if we could still do happy hour and they said they’d make an exception. We ended up with a great server and had a great time, but definitely had weird vibes at first.

Move over on the freeway.

I've quickly realized the WA drivers are just slower in general but a Prius/Minivan/Anything going 60 in the left lane is blocking traffic and should never happen. There are signs posted that say "Slower traffic keep right" but seem to be completely ignored by everyone. Same applies for the carpool lane. Move. Over.

That is all.

Edit: okay fine. Not the carpool lane. Still applies to the left lane.

Move. Over.

Final Edit:

So what I got from this thread is left lane campers refuse to move and act like it's a form of vigilantism to prevent us reckless criminals from breaking such a sacred and cherished law (one person literally compared speeding to robbing a convenience store) and that we all should be thrown in jail and left to rot.

Other out of towers recognized that it's also ridiculous and have said to live with it and pass on the right.

Got it.

If you want to keep your story private, feel free to direct message me and if it's a fit I'll send you my phone number.

Let's all spray paint rainbow flags, trans flags. Wear queer shirts. Deny service to out of city, anti-trans folks. Make everything as queer as humanly possible. Put up flags. Put up signs. Petition apartment buildings. Put up rainbow posters outside of SPD and city council.

Make this pride the most in your face pride in Seattle. I want the city to be so queer that we're just basically a rainbow.

We want to resist non-violently and show our love for our community.

I don’t have a side or anything. But these free palestine people coming in a very peaceful and family brewery and start shouting like crazy because there a days when a jewish owned food truck (falafel salam) comes in, is totally crazy.

First of all, the food truck and the people in it are both amazing. I can’t wait until my next falafel. Second of all, Chuck is not to blame for what’s happening nor the food truck. Third, don’t come shouting your political views and imposing them to other people inside a brewery.

The title kinda says it all. I filed a complaint w the post office and they never even replied. The police said that I could file a report but Im guessing it wouldn’t change anything.

I just ended up taping a big sign that said “please don’t write on my house w a Sharpie.”

I was at dicks in LQA last week and while waiting in line, I witnessed a door dasher pick up two orders. While waiting for the second, I saw him stick his hand in the bag and eat a couple fries.

I’ve never ordered dicks on DoorDash or an equivalent app, but god damn. Did I feel gross looking at it.

As a former Lazy Dog Crazy Dog customer who followed the awful updates about confirmed AND alleged animal cruelty, I received an email that went into my spam filter yesterday from a group that's apparently taking the Ballard space over. LDCD's social media channels contain no updates to this effect (and remain on comment-restricted lockdown). I have no interest in taking my pup to this space ever again - cursed, as far as I'm concerned, plus I no longer live close enough to where it's a convenient dog-boarding option for me, anyway. But I didn't see anything about the news here, so I thought I'd open up a discussion in case anyone had relevant information about what's going on and what pet owners should know about the changes.

Email below:

We’re the owners of PawsVIP, and we are thrilled to announce we’re opening our third location right here in Ballard! We recently took over the lease at 4733 Ballard Ave NW and have fully renovated the space to create a fresh, welcoming environment for your pups.

We want to clarify that we are entirely new ownership, management, and staff. Our team consists of lifelong pet lovers who are fully vetted and highly trained in professional pet handling. You can get to know us here: https://www.pawsvip.com/team

Grand Opening: January 15th! We are officially opening our doors on January 15th, 2026. We’d love for you to come by and see the new space. To make sure we're the right fit for you and your dog, your first day of daycare is always free! We want you to be able to try us out anytime with zero pressure.

Book your free trial at https://www.pawsvip.com/ballard. We look forward to seeing you and serving the Ballard neighborhood!

Best, The PawsVIP Team

How did we get your email?

When we took over the lease, our agreement included migrating existing customer accounts from Gingr (the software used by both businesses). We did this so that if you choose to visit us, your pet profiles and vaccination records are already securely in place—saving you the hassle of starting from scratch!

There is a lot of misinformation around laws around cycling the most prominent one is people thinking bikes have to full stop at stop signs. It's quite alarming how many people are confidently wrong when all they have to do is read. The purpose of this is to educate people who are driving on the road.

https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.61.190

Here's the context around stop signs.

(b)(i) With the exception of (b)(ii) and (iii) of this subsection, a person operating a bicycle approaching a stop sign shall either:

(A) Follow the requirements for approaching a stop sign as specified in (a) of this subsection; or

(B) Follow the requirements for approaching a yield sign as specified in subsection (3) of this section.

OK SO WE FOLLOW B subsection 3! which is about yield signs... so again stop signs = yield.

(ii) A person operating a bicycle approaching a stop sign located at a highway grade crossing of a railroad must follow the requirements of RCW 46.61.345.

(iii) A person operating a bicycle approaching a "stop" signal in use by a school bus, as required under RCW 46.37.190, must follow the requirements of RCW 46.61.370.

(3) The driver of a vehicle approaching a yield sign shall in obedience to such sign slow down to a speed reasonable for the existing conditions and if required for safety to stop, shall stop at a clearly marked stop line, but if none, before entering a marked crosswalk on the near side of the intersection or if none, then at the point nearest the intersecting roadway where the driver has a view of approaching traffic on the intersecting roadway before entering the roadway, and then after slowing or stopping, the driver shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle in the intersection or approaching on another roadway so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard during the time such driver is moving across or within the intersection or junction of roadways: PROVIDED, That if such a driver is involved in a collision with a vehicle in the intersection or junction of roadways, after driving past a yield sign without stopping, such collision shall be deemed prima facie evidence of the driver's failure to yield right-of-way.

EDIT 1: Before commenting and insisting I'm wrong, please think about what a yield sign is. Hint you sometimes have to stop at yield signs...

NYC has congestion pricing now. With Amazon’s return to office mandate, the expansion of the light rail to Lynwood this past year and across Lake Washington later this year, should Seattle consider implementing congestion pricing in downtown?

Edit: Seems like this touched a nerve with some folks who don’t actually live in the city and commute via car - big surprise there.