Seattle is a smoky dive bar: Today So Far

• For two days, Seattle has had the worst air quality on the planet (thanks to wildfire smoke). It's made outdoor conditions a lot like indoor dive bar conditions from 20 years ago.
• A public meeting that almost wasn't so public.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for October 20, 2022.

Going outside right now is a lot like going inside a bar a couple decades ago, when cigarette smoke lingered through the air. When you woke up the next day, your head would be aching and that smoke had something to do with it (the loud music and beer didn't help, either). Western Washington is like a giant smoky bar right now, minus anything fun.

Without getting too sciencey about AQI numbers (which measure air quality), having an AQI of 150 is like smoking seven cigarettes a day. As I write this newsletter, Seattle has an AQI of 207. For anyone who turned 21 after 2005 (when Washington banned smoking indoors), and wants to take a time machine back a couple decades — turn on a playlist with Nelly, Evanescence, Nickelback, and Shaggy. Grab a Mike's Hard Lemonade and experience the wonderous days when Seattle still had smoky dive bars. Expect headaches, smelly clothes, and embarrassment about the music quality of the day.

For the second day in a row, Seattle has the worst air quality on the planet. The Northwest is strongly represented among the top five cities with the worst air quality across the globe: Seattle, Portland, Beijing, Wuhan, and Vancouver, B.C.

Just in case you haven't heard this across every local news outlet (or you're that one neighbor who says, "It's nothing, when I was a kid .... blah blah blah"), this is what you should know: Stay indoors, avoid outdoors, and if you can, crank your air filters up to "high." If you have to go outdoors, wear an N95 mask. Also, it's a good idea to keep your dogs and cats inside.

Nearby wildfires that continue to burn (which is becoming a new seasonal normal) have pushed our region's air quality into the red and purple. That means air quality ranges from unhealthy to hazardous for everyone. This is not just a concern for people with medical conditions. This affects everyone from average folks going to work, to people like my mom who can sit down in any restaurant, take a couple whiffs, and then ask for a new table because she can tell someone smoked there sometime around 1997.

This is all expected to end tomorrow afternoon when the wind starts to blow and fall rain finally arrives. Then we can move on to complaining about how everybody forgot how to drive in the rain.

And before anyone starts emailing me about how wildfire smoke and cigarette smoke is very different, chemically: You're thinking too much and your lungs don't care.

KUOW's Isolde Raftery went to a public meeting in the Greenwood neighborhood this week to find out that you, almost, weren't allowed to hear about it.

The meeting featured Seattle Councilmember Dan Strauss, state Rep. Noel Frame, Josh Castle with the Low Income Housing Institute, Seattle Police Officer Mike Cruzan, and Karen Lund of Taproot Theatre. The issue at hand was public safety amid concerns of drug trafficking in the neighborhood, and following the recent shooting of an apartment building security guard. On top of that, there is a tiny house village for unhoused people proposed for the area. There was a lot to discuss.

Despite a press release promoting the event, reporters showed up to find out they were banned from entry — no press allowed. Beyond that, no recording allowed. It didn't go over well, as Raftery explains, and media was eventually allowed inside. Rep. Frame and Councilmember Strauss followed up with KUOW and said they suggested the "no recording" rule to help foster an environment where people could speak candidly about the topics at hand. Strauss said he regretted the suggestion.

This wasn't a private comedy show, or a concert, where it can be appropriate to have audience members stick their phones in locked bags at the door. It was a public meeting with an elected official, discussing a public matter. Frankly, in a room with more than 200 people, the whole argument about privacy and speaking candidly goes out the window. If you aren't generally comfortable broadcasting your thoughts on an issue, then you likely aren't going to do the same in a the middle of a crowded room.

However, I get it. Sometimes information, intention, and nuance gets perverted in the media. I say that as someone who works in the news industry. News consumers (sadly) often treat a hard-hitting reporter, a talk radio blowhard, a news anchor, a columnist, and the local tweeter the same, making no distinctions. That, and the super charged atmosphere around town when it comes to just about any issue, would make anybody nervous when holding a public meeting about a hot topic.

OK, here it comes ... BUT ... too bad. You're an elected official and you don't have a choice in the matter. This is what comes with the gig. If this was a private event, with sold tickets, and elected officials as featured guests, then I might be saying something different. But despite being at a private theatre, it was a public meeting and it was advertised to the press.

Check out Raftery's full story here.

Finally, your weekly gas price check-in. Washington state's current average is $5.13 per gallon of regular gas, according to AAA. That's down a few cents from yesterday, and about 18 cents down from a week ago. In the Seattle/Bellevue/Everett area, the average is $5.56. In short, gas prices are still higher than they were a month ago, but they are slowly falling.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

The view of Puget Sound through a thick haze of wildfire smoke, from Seattle's Sunset Hill Park, Wednesday, October 19, 2022. (Megan Farmer / KUOW)

DID YOU KNOW

The most popular candy in Washington state is: Tootsie Pops.

That is according to candystore.com. One of my favorite annual treats is when this online supplier digs into its data and ranks candy state-by-state. This year, I have to pat Washington on the back. This is a solid candy choice. In the past, our state has leaned heavily into salt water taffy, which is shameful. According to the online candy store, Washington's top three candies are, in order: Tootsie Pops; saltwater taffy (seriously?!); and M&M's.

Halloween candy purchases took a dive amid the pandemic in 2020, but this year's candy numbers are expected to hit pre-pandemic highs. Perhaps that's partially because, as NPR reports, candy prices are 13% higher this year.

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

U.S. factories emerge as a strong point in a weakening economy

It's been a very good year for U.S. manufacturing. Factories added 467,000 jobs in the last 12 months. And factory production in September was the highest in 14 years, according to the Federal Reserve.

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