I am leaving The Stranger. Before the keyboard warriors get too excited, there’s no palace intrigue here. I’m not ragequitting, fleeing, or resigning in protest. I even sat on the hiring committee for a new Editor in Chief, who I expect to be announced soon. I’m not even leaving the company. I’m transferring to The Chicago Reader, and moving back to the city I love the most, where my entire family lives, where I spent a large portion of every childhood summer, where I attended college, and where I started my career. And if I can be honest, I missed the mild winters. I’ll save my sappy thoughts for the end.
[Editor’s Note: IS VIVIAN MAKING A MISTAKE?? The Oxford Economics’ 2026 Global Cities Index ranked Seattle the fourth best city to live and visit. The cities were ranked on “governance, economics, human capital, environment, and quality of life.” Hm. Chicago isn’t even in the top 10. It’s 47th on the list.]
Editor, you fail to consider the dying planet. Chicago is ranked the best city in the world for climate preparedness.
What the fuck is happening to 15th Avenue? We lost Ada’s Cafe, Michelangelo could’ve painted half a Sistine Chapel in the time Coastal Kitchen’s replacement, Fire Tacos and Cantina, has been in the works, the best part of the street, the Punk Rock Flea Market, has limited time on this earth, and now three restaurants have gone dark at once. Cedar mentioned this yesterday, but it bears repeating because, well, this is my street, it’s personal to me, and there’s a tad more information.
First reported by Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, Rione XIII, Rubinstein Bagels are permanently closed, and Bar Vacilando is closing up shop on Saturday. After years of leaks, unstable brickwork, “and trouble reliably controlling the temperature in the spaces,” the restaurant group that owns Rubinstein Bagels and Rione XIII, One House Hospitality, told The Seattle Times it wasn’t “comfortable” continuing to operate with the rainy season ahead.
On Monday, a judge will reexamine whether Christopher Leahy, charged with murder for allegedly stabbing 19-year-old University of Washington student Juniper Blessing more than 40 times this May, is competent to stand trial. According to a June psychological evaluation, Leahy had a well-documented history of psychosis and schizophrenia, and determined he was not competent to stand trial at that time.
Blessing was transgender, but the King County Prosecutor’s office said there was no evidence her murder was motivated by hate. If such evidence is found, prosecutors can consider additional charges, KUOW reports.
Two kids from Redmond who went missing in December 2023 were found in Washington DC last week. As is usually the case, the kidnapper was a parent. The children’s father reported them missing in May 2024, months after he’d last seen them. A temporary parenting plan had expired and the children’s mother had not returned the children after losing custody. The mother fled with her kids and concealed their names to avoid the cops and the feds.
ICYMI: The wickedly talented Adele Dazeem Amanda Manitach interviewed painter Kelly Bjork, whose show, Lunacy, will be at the J. Rinehart Gallery tomorrow through October 28. Check it out.
Christmas came early for Sound Transit CEO and former County Executive Dow Constantine, who was awarded a $30,000 bonus, a near $16,000 salary bump, and a new three-year contract (he’ll also get a 4 percent inflation boost in April). It’s been a big time for the transit agency. During the World Cup, the light rail saw its highest-ever ridership numbers, and Sound Transit just opened up the cross-lake connection, which, dead fish aside, has been a success. Constantine’s salary starting January 1 will be $490,086. Happy New Year to you, Dow, hope that’s enough.
What the hell? A 700-pound sea lion was found dead near the mouth of the Duwamish River in West Seattle. X-rays revealed numerous “projectiles” in its body. “What made this case particularly unusual was the number of projectiles found in the animal,” writes KING 5. “This is the most projectiles I have seen in one body. Probably in my entire career of doing this,” said a representative of the marine mammal response and rehabilitation organization. The “projectiles” were bullets, and this was not a legal hunting situation. I know just the detective for the case. Fuck with animals in this town, and you release the wolf.
Two authoritarians wrapped up their state visit with a peek at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Associated Press reports. Chinese President Xi Jinping heads home after his three-day trip to hang with US President Donald Trump, his first visit to DC in a decade. They made no breakthroughs on trade or the safety of artificial intelligence.
A third global asshole, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was in New York to “rage against” his critics, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, at the UN General Assembly. More than 100 people, including actors Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder, were detained for protesting outside. He said that allegations of genocide in Gaza were the “biggest lie of the century” and defending attacking Iran with the US as one of the “easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make.”
The Government Accountability Office said the Trump administration wasted millions of dollars on his evil immigration detention crusade. One could argue the whole thing was a waste of money, but the Office found $3 million dollars spent on unused tents to house migrants at Guantanamo Bay, $20.5 million on administrative costs and utilities in seven warehouses the government bought and sold, and $7.1 million in food “it did not need” for detention camps in Texas. The New York Times has more.
Nathalie here cutting in with some quick breaking news.
The Supreme Court will let Trump use federal data system for citizenship checks: The Trump administration can now use its expanded federal data system to check the citizenship of voter rolls, ruled the Supreme Court. The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements data system, SAVE, will allow the administration to continue its search for noncitizens and its quest for compiling a master database of US adult citizens in each state. Critics worry that SAVE violates privacy rights and that it is inaccurate and has flagged citizens as noncitizens.
Back to me, with news that a vicious nor’easter will pound the northeast coast with rain, wind, and waves through the weekend. “Waves up to 19 feet have been recorded already along North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Waves up to 12 feet are possible from the Outer Banks to the New Jersey shore through Saturday, and along the New England coast through Sunday,” reports ABC News.
Iran suggested a deal to resume nuclear talks and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in seven days if, and only if, the US lifts its naval blockade, waives sanctions on Iranian oil, and agrees to a ceasefire in Iran and Lebanon. With the midterms approaching, they see an opportunity, though Trump says he is in no rush to make a deal.
So, this is it, huh? Seattle has been good to me, and so has The Stranger. I’m proud of the work I’ve done here, particularly of my beat coverage on trans people. I came to The Stranger because I saw an opportunity to report accurately on one of the minority groups that has become a target of fascist violence and propaganda. My background was not in LGBTQ journalism—I entered the field reporting on science and medicine—but I had a hard time watching the mainstream media screw up trans stories on the regular. I’ve seen bungled science, omitted context around extremist politics and policy, and a basic failure to grasp the trans struggle in America. Our primary concerns are not misgendering and a lack of validation. Most of us are poor, we want healthcare just like everybody else, and some people—the real freaks—want to hurt us.
We’re not the overly sensitive bunch that assholes say we are. We’re tough and a lot of us are funny as fuck. Shameless plug: This zine I worked on with my hilarious friends, Cosmo t-girl. Issue 2 is on the way and I am way behind on my obligations to you all, sorry. (Another shameless plug: I make music as Pansy. Our Instagram handle is @pansysucks but I do not think we suck.)
I don’t put much stock in awards when it comes to my own work—they are not in the top 20 reasons I am in this profession—but the judge’s comments on my first-place Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) award for beat reporting perfectly summed up what I’d been trying to do for years: “Though the topic is often grim, the writer doesn’t shy away from being irreverent, or even funny, where appropriate. Any alt weekly that wants to start a trans beat (which I would argue is vital today) should use these stories to show the way forward.” Damn, thanks, whoever that was.
To my coworkers, I really will miss you. You’re all very funny, smart, and you give a shit. I could hardly ask for more. Oh, and Shon Barnes? I can’t wait to go to the Bean with you in Chicago.
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