This Week on PubliCola: July 19, 2025
Elections, graffiti, police surveillance, and more.
By Erica C. Barnett
Tuesday, July 15
PubliCola Questions: Mayoral Candidate Ry Armstrong
Ry Armstrong, one of seven candidates seeking to unseat incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell, says that if elected, they’d stop sweeps of homeless encampments and pass progressive revenue to pay for shelters around the city. Armstrong also wants to make it easier to build child care centers and help people purchase their first homes.
Seattle Nice: Seattle Solved All the Crime, So We’re Talking About Graffiti
Our main topic on Seattle Nice this week was one of the mayor and council’s top current priorities: Cracking down on graffiti—which is already a crime—with a new fine of up to $1,500 for each individual “tag.” We also discussed a new pro- Harrell message testing poll pushing the idea that mayoral candidate Katie Wilson is the second coming of socialist firebrand Kshama Sawant.
Wednesday, July 16
The City Council passed two bills cracking down on “disorder” this week. The first empowers the City Attorney to pursue civil actions for graffiti and fine individuals $1,500 per tag, and the second expands the city’s nuisance property law to allow police to penalize property owners and shut down businesses for off-premises activities, such as drug use or other illegal activities in the vicinity of a nightlife venue.
At a press event, police chief Shon Barnes and the mayor touted new cameras that allow police to keep a watchful eye on dozens of locations around the city. Officials have promoted the cameras as a way to prevent and respond to major crimes like human trafficking and gun violence. But not everyone who’s now under 24/7 police surveillance considers the cameras a benign crime-fighting tool.
Thursday, July 17
Professional and Technical Employees Local 17 (PROTEC17), made up of thousands of city workers, endorsed their boss’s opponent Katie Wilson Thursday after years of fighting Harrell for better wages and working conditions. Plus, Harrell’s campaign blamed his opponent “Wilson’s Defund movement” for an “exodus from SPD and a dramatic rise in violent crime,” and more election news from the final weeks before the August 5 deadline for voters to send in their primary ballots.
Friday, July 18
Seattle Nice: Is the Progressive Left Back?
We recorded the latest episode of the Seattle Nice podcast at the 43rd District Democrats’ meeting, where we discussed the primary election, offered some unsolicited advice to a local candidate who happened to be in the audience, and discussed the latest battle over nudity at a longtime LGBTQ+-friendly nude beach.