Damn, if only the Sounder North train ran more than twice a day every AM rush, having I5 back up would be less of an issue. Take note Shohomish County and WSDOT!
Make coming into the office worth it. Period, end of sentence.
Here, I have my own quiet, private office, a ginormous monitor, a comfortable chair, and zero commute. I can make my own lattes, eat on the cheap, and take care of what I need to take care of while listening to a meeting.
My experience coming into the office is an open, noisy floorplan, a monitor designed for ants, a nice-enough but ancient chair, and 75 minutes each way gone from my life—to say nothing of the $20 gone from my wallet for the privilege. The free coffee is dogshit, the food is expensive, and I can barely get a bathroom break as I’m locked into so many meetings.
I’d happily work from the office if it had literally anything to recommend it over WFH.
How many people die on those roads who would live if they didn’t have to commute? How many pounds of tire end up in the sound killing salmon and orcas? How many pedestrians are those commuters going to kill? How many cyclists? How many kids get asthma from the exhaust? How much could we delay the most catastrophic impacts of climate change if we didn’t try to force people artificially in to the office?
If you want tax dollars you don’t need to force people in to cars. You need to make your city more accessible by bikes and mass transit. Those numbers are never coming back, and they absolutely shouldn’t. Adapt or die.
My sister is visiting the state for the first time, so I’m taking her to do some of the touristy stuff (Pike Place, Starbucks reserve, mopop, etc), but I’m trying to think of some great places to take her outside of that scene! We’ll spend a day or two in Fremont, but she’s not 21 yet so bars are off the table. Any suggestions? Maybe an orca tour? I don’t really get out much, so I’m not sure where all the fun non-bar things are!
If you’re ok with small spaces, the Seattle underground tours are really really fun.
I live in West Seattle so I’m biased, but I think the best park in the city is Lincoln park over on the west side of West Seattle. Grab some sandwiches (or ice cream) from Husky Deli in Alaska Junction then head down to Lincoln Park, get a bench down by the waterfront, and just hang out. The southern most part of Lincoln Park is the easiest way to get to the water. You can go thru the park too (which is a big beautiful urban forest) but the walk down to the water thru the park is a little steep, especially for people not used to hiking.
If dorky Americana type stuff is fun for you, there are lots of semi-pro sports happening around then. Our family likes going to the Dub Sea Fish Sticks games here in West Seattle, but there’s teams all over Seattle. The Fish Sticks play low level baseball and it’s much more people having a good time outside and screwing around than actual serious baseball. There’s also Ballard FC for soccer, with the same vibe.
Dorky American sports actually sound like a lot of fun! I’ll have to look into that, we haven’t seen goofy fun baseball since we were kids. I’ll have to add Lincoln park to my list too, I have a bunch but I didn’t know about that one! She’s never seen a forest or a mountain so I’m excited to share all the urban forests with her.
The alarm(s!) were going off for 14 hours! They were reset at least 4 times. How did no one think, “Oh, there might be a CO leak! I better investigate”?
The only correct thing to do when you hear a CO alarm is to evacuate and get someone with the tools to deal with the problem to help (usually the fire department).
Maintenance claimed they thought it was a false alarm. If you do not investigate it and just keep turning it off, there is no way you can legitimately claim that you thought it was a false alarm. The only way you can do that is if you actually test and find it was a false alarm.
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