Live from Town Hall (yes, actually live), it's the Year in Review 2021!

Bill Radke reviews a roller-coaster year with Crosscut Science and Environment Reporter Hannah Weinberger; South Seattle Emerald reporter and co-host of Clap Back Culture on Converge Media, Mike Davis; and KUOW's new midday host, Libby Denkmann.

The year started with COVID news, and with the Omicron variant it’s certainly ending with it. Let’s look back at the year in COVID -- we started in January with vaccines becoming available for first responders and high risk patients, and the highest number of COVID deaths nationally so far during the pandemic. As the spring arrived vaccinations became more readily available and questions began popping up around requirements -- would vaccine passports be a thing? What about vaccine requirements? We looked forward to the hot girl summer we deserve, only to have it fizzle out. We saw employees tasked with policing mask wearing and vaccine status, work walkouts and protests over mandates, a return to in-office work, many, many reopening (and re-closing) plans, and now vaccines for young kids and boosters for everyone that got their vaccination back in March. That’s a lot. So what stood out through all of it?

Drag returns!

The pandemic isn’t over. But some activities have returned as vaccinations became widely available, and that includes drag shows. Local drag queen Betty Wetter joined us on stage to talk about what her year has been like and the transition from in person events to streaming and then back to in person.

It’s getting hotter (and colder) here in the PNW

It’s been the wettest early fall on record here in Seattle. We’ve seen the impact of multiple atmospheric rivers across Western Washington -- with major flooding and landslides hitting Whatcom and Skagit Counties, the Olympic Peninsula, and neighboring Vancouver, BC. And we can expect those conditions to continue, the NOAA predicted Washington would be colder and wetter than normal this winter. And it’s not just historic rainfall -- we also saw record breaking heat waves in the summer. June 28th was our hottest day ever at 108 degrees. And there were, of course, wildfires. Commissioner of Public Lands Hillary Franz recently told Wenatchee World, “I think the fire season itself was a win, even though we had 650,000 acres burn. Given the conditions on the landscape, it could’ve been a lot worse.” But a win still involved a recorded 1,811 fires. Most were kept relatively small, despite the heatwave and dry conditions. Should we expect to see more in 2022? What does this mean for the future of Washington?

Sports!

This was the year the Kraken officially launched their first season, the Mariners almost made us Believe, and the Huskies… didn’t. This was also the year WSU coach Nick Rolovich was fired for refusing to get vaccinated, and every major sports team around the state had to figure how to safely get fans back to in person games. Seahawks writer for the Athletic Michael-Shawn Dugar will join us to talk about the year in local sports, and what it says about the year as a whole.

Politics

This year began with an insurrection, and ended with an election. On January 6, a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Here in Washington, we saw protests at the Governor’s mansion, where a crowd broke through the gates. We saw Washington politicians navigate national policies with Canada’s border closure, and an influx of Afghan refugees. The state also dealt with shortages in just about every industry, including workers.

On a local level, Mayor Jenny Durkan had her last year in office, and we saw some incredibly divisive races in the off-year election. Seattle city attorney Pete Holmes had a surprise loss in the primary, leaving Republican Anne Davison and abolitionist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy to battle it out. Mayoral candidates Bruce Harrell and Lorena Gonzalez each pushed an “outsider” narrative, despite both having been city council president. The general theme for that election was a swing towards more centrist or conservative candidates, with Dow Constantine, Bruce Harrell and Anne Davison winning over more liberal competitors. And by the time this show roles around we’ll know if socialist council member Kshama Sawant has been recalled. What does this year say about the direction Seattle, and Washington in general, are heading in?

We also took some time to speak to Mayor elect Bruce Harrell about his big year -- his take on the election, how the city is doing, and what the next year will look like.

What’s made you smile this year?

Finally, we’re ending this show like we do every show, just on a bigger level. This year wasn’t easy for anyone -- what kept you smiling during it?