Seattle's All-Star busker fest: Today So Far

• There's a busker fest in downtown Seattle ... and also All-Star Week.
• Metropolitan Market is expanding its footprint in Seattle with a new location slated for Crown Hill.
• Reminder: Don't forget to sign your kids up for kindergarten.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 11, 2023.

Quick hits

• Inside Seattle Schools' budget: Staff cuts, but no teacher layoffs or school closures
• UW, other hospitals in Washington state relax masking policies
• Pregnant people, babies prioritized for syphilis antibiotics as Tacoma faces shortage

Reminder: Don't forget to sign your kids up for kindergarten. KUOW's Isolde Raftery did, so she wrote up a reminder and a few tips for parents out there. Check that out here.

There has been a lot of talk about MLB's All-Star Week, but a side effect of all the baseball events is a bit of a busker fest across downtown Seattle.

“The Seattle music scene is so much more diverse than just a guy with a guitar,” Kate Olson told KUOW, between performances on her alto saxophone. Now, speaking as one of those guys with a guitar ... OK, Olson has a good point.

The city lined up a total of 28 busking events across all days of All-Star w]Week. They're scattered near T-Mobile Park, but also around the Chinatown-International District, Pioneer Square, and Westlake. KUOW's Casey Martin took a stroll through the busking scene so far. Check that out here.

Metropolitan Market is expanding its footprint in Seattle with a new location slated for Crown Hill. According to a statement from the market's CEO, they're coming to the area because of relationships, bringing people together, and building long-lasting memories. If we're being completely honest, the fact that Crown Hill has a median income of $146,887 doesn't hurt either ($180,000 for families, $194,783 for married couples, and $88,510 for nonfamilies). There are about 35,600 people living in the zip code for Crown Hill, 98117.

Those numbers seem to be right in Metropolitan Market's sweet spot, like Queen Anne ($111,059 median income), West Seattle ($124,795), Kirkland ($149,131), and Magnolia ($148,878). Though, it's a bit under the demographics for the market's other locations, like Mercer Island and Sammamish, but I mean, come on, that's a bit obvious. Do I really have to produce numbers for those? ($170,000 and $207,341 respectively) I initially figured numbers like those might help paint a picture of where such luxury, high-end markets go. But it turns out, these days, Seattle has a lot of money stuffed into just about every corner of the city.

Isolde Raftery also has this story here.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Ken Griffey Jr. watches the first ever HBCU Swingman Classic on Friday, July 7, 2023, at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Check out scenes from the event here. (Megan Farmer / KUOW)

DID YOU KNOW?

Nina and I killed some time in Georgetown last Friday, waiting out All-Star traffic. We hopped from shop to restaurant, to bar (mostly the places with pinball machines). Along the way, the question around how Georgetown got its name came up. I didn't know. Turns out, Georgetown got its name because a dad was really proud of his son.

Luther Collins brought his party to the area in 1851 and started a farm, set up a homestead, began a ferry service across the Duwamish River, and then got into a war with local tribes who weren't happy that someone just showed up and started plowing. Across the Collins party area, in those early years, hospitals showed up, and a race track, and the origins of Rainier Beer were planted, and the D'wamish Post Office was established. Julius Horton, a developer, bought a bunch of land from the Collins family in 1871 and started developing a community. His son, George, recently graduated from medical school, and Horton opted to name the community after him — Georgetown. That name became well established and the local post office changed its name to Georgetown.

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

It's hot. For farmworkers without federal heat protections, it could be life or death

The blazing hot temperatures, which led to the deaths of farmworkers and others across the Pacific Northwest the summer of 2021, led the Biden administration to move forward on one of the president's campaign promises: creating heat protections for workers. But the rulemaking process is slow and two years later — as another heat dome causes deaths among farmworkers and others — it is still not done.

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