Pike Place Market: Keep car-free pilot program
I was shocked to hear that the Seattle Department of Transportation has proposed the return of cars to Pike Place Market Mondays through Thursdays during fall and winter this year.
The car-free pilot project has been a delight. I’ve visited the Market year-round, and my only complaint has been that the outdoor seating was removed at the end of summer. Walking through the Market with food in hand, looking for a place to sit and eat, I noticed that the open-air seating behind the Market remained open and well-used all year round.
Having the Market car-free only on weekends adds a layer of unnecessary confusion for locals and visitors alike, while also making it impractical to fix the one problem I observed last winter — the lack of outdoor seating for market customers.
The car-free pilot has been overwhelmingly popular and successful. Let’s maintain it.
Merlin Rainwater, Seattle
Transportation: Community-based ferries
Bravo for the wonderful piece on small ferries (“Tiny ferries,” Aug. 23, Pacific NW Magazine).
As a part-time Hat Islander, the Harbor Hopper is the trifecta — a win for Islanders with new ferry revenue; a win for the Port of Everett and its ever growing activity center; and a win for Langley with new tourism opportunities.
The governor and Legislature can assist community-based ferries by expanding multicounty marine transit incentives and dedicating state climate funds to acquiring future electric fast passenger ferries. This is a cost-effective opportunity to accelerate state marine goals to reduce air pollution and noise impacts on whales.
Communities may want to consider adding a couple of dollars on each ticket dedicated to tribal partnerships for fisheries restoration to keep the Salish Sea healthy.
Bruce Agnew, Beaux Arts Village
Taxpayers: Who is protecting us?
Re: “Supreme Court chief allows Trump to continue building $400M White House ballroom for now” (Aug. 22, A1):
Who is protecting the taxpayers?
Not the judicial branch, since U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts allows the ballroom construction to continue on taxpayers’ dollars.
Not the legislative branch, since an unwanted war with Iran continues, and unapproved construction continues, again on taxpayers’ dollars.
The executive branch is out of control since our national debt is now $40 trillion and taxpayers’ cost of living has increased.
Healthcare and education costs are a joke. The U.S. is a rich country and is squandering taxpayers’ money for a few selfish egos and self-serving benefits.
Frances Whitehill, Shoreline
Capitalism and socialism: Find middle ground
I’ve been thinking about the differences between capitalism and socialism. Capitalism is touted as a level playing field for everybody. Who wouldn’t want that? Work harder and smarter, and you’ll get ahead. But it seems like the level playing field only works at the very beginning of things. Because it’s obvious that the more money and power one has, the easier it is to obtain more. Without any money or power, it often doesn’t matter how hard one tries or how long one works.
Of course we don’t want to reward laziness, apathy and inertia. But it’s becoming increasingly apparent that we need to find some middle ground between capitalism and socialism.
If we can send men to the moon, can we not make some progress on increasing fairness and equality here on Planet Earth?
Cindy M. Black, Seattle
President Trump: ‘Overdrive’
Re: “The commander in chief of revenge” (Aug. 23, Opinion):
Columnist Jamelle Bouie tells us that President Donald Trump’s lust for vengeance against his perceived enemies also includes “revenge against the American people, for rejecting him in 2020 and dealing a grievous blow to his ego.”
I say it started after his win in 2016 when he was elected president with 304 electoral college votes, but he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes. That meant millions of citizens preferred Hillary Clinton over him. That meant Trump was a loser, a fate worse than death, an existential threat for him.
So when Trump was elected the second time, his hatred for his enemies and hatred for the American people and all our traditions was shifted into overdrive.
So far, there hasn’t been much to stop his worst predations, certainly not the Supreme Court.
These are the most consequential midterm elections in our nation’s history.
Richard B. Ellenberger, Normandy Park
USS Abraham Lincoln: Some perspective
Re: “I remember life in the Navy. USS Abraham Lincoln is overdue home” (Aug. 26, Opinion):
OK, the sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln faced significant hardships compared to many civilian occupations, but I can’t express much sympathy. Let’s put those sailors’ situations in perspective.
As a young Infantry Lieutenant, I would have given anything to have my 365-day deployment to Vietnam reduced to 275 days (and another 365 days three years later on my second tour). Compare our living conditions. I deployed with the advanced party of the 1st Airborne Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, in August 1965 (Executive Officer of Company C, 2nd of the 8th).
We lost people also but not from jumping off ships. Any food we got was welcome. We had no showers, slept on bare ground if we could, with enemy everywhere, and whatever we had we carried. We didn’t have eight hours off every day.
Perhaps recruiters should be required to screen more carefully. Those passing judgment on the Lincoln deployment should be familiar with enough military history to gauge current hazards against those far more significant in the past.
John Bordenet, Redmond, LTC, U.S. Army (retired)
Roadless Rule: Shared public forests
Re: “Lift Roadless Rule, give Forest Service flexibility in fire prevention” (Aug. 27, Opinion):
I worked on the public response to a prior National Forest Plan for the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest years ago.
I think readers might value an interpretation of a few concepts noted in the American Forest Resource Council op-ed written by Nick Smith.
First: “Fuels treatments” refers to massive dumping of toxic glyphosate weed herbicide onto the forest floor and water table.
Glyphosate harms butterfly populations and is the last thing we want getting into our source of clean water. There are other nontoxic alternatives Smith might have mentioned.
Second: “Fire prevention” for the American Forest Resource Council is also called clear cutting.
Readers might recall the spotted owl habitat controversy. If trees are all traded in for dollars, how beneficial is that to our shared public forest natural resource?
Thor Thompson, Seattle
Animal welfare: ‘A win’
It is generally not hard for me to find examples of humans failing animals in one way or another, the story “In policy shift, protected wild horses taken from West for slaughter” (Aug. 21, A1) being a prime example.
But the story “Gorrilla’s unique birth marks first for zoo” (Aug. 22, A1) was not one of them. I can hear the folks who object to the idea of zoos, of animals living in zoos, and I understand that. It would be wonderful if we lived in a world where there was enough healthy, safe living space for all of us. But here in our own Woodland Park Zoo, animals are cared for and treated well. They will never be rounded up and sold for $25 a head and then end up in a slaughter house because the government simply doesn’t want to deal with them.
I will take the birth of baby Kadre as a win. Thank you to everyone who made that possible.
Kara Pomeroy, Shoreline
Roadless Rule: Don’t ease access
Re: “Keep Roadless Rule that protects U.S. forests from humans” (Aug. 24, Opinion):
Hurrah to U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell for her repeated attempts to codify the Roadless Rule, first created in 2001, which protects some 45 million acres of federal forests. And boo to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who would rescind the rule under the guise of “better” forest management. Funny how those forests thrived for millennia before mankind started mucking about.
It has been well-documented that most forest fires are initiated by humans. And how do most of those humans access the forest? Mostly through roads. It is a false argument that roads help save our forests. More roads, more people, create more fires, especially when the climate gets hotter and drier.
Our forests help to provide most of our clean drinking water, especially here in the West. Sedimentation and contamination from forest roads degrades water quality, even if we haven’t managed to also set them on fire. We can’t even afford to maintain the roads we have, much less fight the increased fires they allow. Why in the world should we even be thinking about building more?
What’s the old song lyric? “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”
Harry Romberg, Seattle
Housing: A partnership for affordability
Re: “Seattle area doesn’t have ‘enough family-sized units to go around’ ” (Aug. 14, Business):
Recent Seattle Times reporting highlighted a reality families across our communities are facing: There is a shrinking pool of affordable, larger-sized homes. Development of these projects historically faces barriers due to higher costs per unit (compared to studios and one-bedrooms) and a difficult to fill financing gap of 10%-12%.
With this in mind, Seattle Foundation launched the Evergreen Impact Housing Fund as a catalyst to overcome these barriers. EIHF incentivizes development of affordable family housing by providing low-interest capital that fills gaps left by traditional and public financing. EIHF is a strong public-private collaboration including the Washington State Housing Finance Commission for housing tax credits and tax-exempt bond capacity, and a wide range of credit union and corporate investment partners. By bringing private, philanthropic and public capital together, EIHF unlocks investment in large-scale, family-sized affordable housing across Washington state.
To date, EIHF has invested over $56 million in six projects that have created more than 1,300 affordable housing units, most of which are family-sized units. The need is clear, and so is the opportunity to do more. Seattle Foundation is looking to recapitalize EIHF so we can continue helping working families find a place to call home.
Ken Takahashi, director of social impact investing, Seattle Foundation
Clean energy: Dependence on fossil fuels is not the answer
Re: “Here’s the elephant in the room when it comes to energy reliability” (July 27, Opinion):
I appreciate the statement made by KC Golden that most power failures are caused not by electricity shortages but by damage to the grid itself. My research evaluating power outage burden in Washington state found that wind and precipitation increase both power outage frequency and duration.
As fossil fuel-driven climate change intensifies atmospheric rivers, flooding, heat and wildfire conditions, the threats to grid reliability are growing. In December 2025, historic flooding caused widespread power outages and inflicted hundreds of millions of dollars in damage across Washington. Increasing wildfire risk has also led to Public Safety Power Shutoffs and disruptions to both electric and gas service.
These realities raise an important question: If climate change is making our energy system more vulnerable, does expanding long-term dependence on fossil fuels truly improve reliability? Claims that fossil fuel infrastructure is necessary for reliability deserve careful scrutiny, particularly when the fuels themselves contribute to the climate risks driving many outages.
The Washington Department of Ecology has extended the public comment period on the TransAlta coal-to-gas proposal to Sept. 15. An online public hearing will be held Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. Please participate and make your voice heard.
Claire Richards, Ph.D., RN, Bainbridge Island
Clean energy: An idea for independence
I agree with the op-ed “It’s up to local governments to lead on clean energy” (Aug. 24, Opinion). However, a missing part of this clean energy discussion is user battery systems. Every new building (and any existing one), whether residential, commercial or industrial, could include a safer (low fire hazard) battery bank connected through a charger/inverter. When necessary, such a system could be equipped with a load isolation switch to disconnect the system from the utility.
Individual battery systems are currently mostly associated with solar panels to recharge the batteries. Solar panels are a good companion to batteries but not necessary since the batteries can be, and often are, recharged by utility power during low usage times.
Such battery systems allow for some independence (utility power out; refrigerator still works) and a good feeling of directly contributing to our collective clean energy future. I know because we have one.
Bill Badgeley, Seattle
Affordability: ‘Single most important issue’
Recently I went to a nearby gas station in Vancouver. As always, I was aghast by the exorbitant cost of fuel. It took more than $50 to fill my tank, which was not completely empty. While I am fortunate to have the resources to pay, I am deeply worried about all those Americans for whom the rising cost of gasoline and food creates real hardship; each day they must make difficult decisions about what they have the money to buy.
This is but one of many examples why affordability is the single most important issue in the November elections. Every day the news media spotlight some ridiculous, often incoherent and unexplainable thing President Donald Trump does or says. However, those should not distract our focus. I hope, therefore, people will translate their outrage and hardship about affordability into voting. That’s the only viable pathway to change and to voting out Republican candidates who have stood idly by their president, whose war of choice and tariffs are responsible for this painful and unacceptable situation.
For that reason, I donate to Democratic candidates in various states, especially in Texas, where I lived from 1978-2024, many of those years under Republican rule.
Richard Cherwitz, Camas
