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It's time to vote for Seattle City Council, a housing levy, and elected positions all over King County. The Urbanist has published its general election endorsements. Get out your ballots, use the endorsements to pick the best candidates, and make sure they're returned by November 7.

In this episode, co-hosts Natalie Argerious and Ray Dubicki break down the issues facing Seattle in this election and then review the endorsements. Gotta say that the Election Committee did a good job on some, but left us wanting on a couple of others. Also, lutefisk.

In other news, this will be Natalie and Ray's last episode as co-hosts of The Urbanist Podcast. We are moving on to a couple of new ventures, including some new podcasts that you may enjoy. You can find us at infiniteshoplimited.com or @popcitypod.  We appreciate your listening to us through three seasons of The Urbanist Podcast.

Editor's note: Apologies for the mispronunciation of Jorge Barón's name in this episode. Please note that the correction pronunciation is HOR-heh bah-RONE.

Primary election ballots are arriving in the mail and due by August 1st. In the run up The Urbanist Elections Committee has been hard at work prepping endorsements for what is shaping to be an exciting (and consequential) primary election. In this podcast episode, host and reporter Ray Dubicki chats with Election Committee members Rian Watt, Urbanist executive director, and Maya Ramakrishnan, eviction attorney, about the committee's endorsements. 
Want to know more about their process for scrutinizing dozens of candidates and figuring out who to endorse? Interested learn why some candidates were chosen and others cast aside? This podcast episode will take on all of this and more. 
Do you want to give props to our Election Committee for their hard work and rigorous process? Or maybe you feel they made the wrong call in an endorsement? In any case, we want to hear from you. Reach out to us with your comments, questions, and future episode ideas at podcast [at] theurbanist.org.  
As always, you can find The Urbanist podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other major platforms. And if you are enjoying the podcast, be sure to offer a “like” or “thumbs up” on your favorite platform. It’s a great way to spread the word to new listeners.

Summer is (finally) here for families with kids in Seattle Public Schools! In this mini episode, hosts Ray Dubicki and Natalie Argerious reflect on how we got to this late start to summer and look forward to what's ahead. A great companion piece to this episode is Ray's recent op-ed on Mayor Harrell's vision for Downtown Seattle. Be sure to check it out. 

This is the last episode of our third podcast season. Although we are taking a break from recording, we will be checking our email this summer, and we'd love to hear from you about your summer adventures and ideas for future episodes once return in September. Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org.  
As always, you can find The Urbanist podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other major platforms. And if you are enjoying the podcast, be sure to offer a “like” or “thumbs up” on your favorite platform. It’s a great way to spread the word to new listeners.

Summertime gets us thinking about whole bunch of stuff, including grass. In cities across North America, grass yards are often a symbol of wealth and success and in many areas have a cult status. But what are some of the pros and cons of covering land in a plant monoculture? What happens when deadly grasses like foxtail invade? And is it true that in the right conditions synthetic turf can melt?

We discuss all of these questions and more in this episode. While look forward to you listening, if you are a dog or outside cat owner and don't know yet about how dangerous foxtail is, please also take a moment to check out this article from WebMD. It's seriously scary stuff and the more pet owners know about how to keep their pets safe, the better. Let's keep the furry ones safe.

We would love to hear your plans for a yard without grass.  Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org.  
As always, you can find The Urbanist podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other major platforms. And if you are enjoying the podcast, be sure to offer a “like” or “thumbs up” on your favorite platform. It’s a great way to spread the word to new listeners.

Cascadia is uniquely set up as a region that would support high-speed rail. Between the linear arrangement of Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC, and the just-over-100 mile distance between each one, the super region could be tied together by a fast. It's an idea being pushed by a number of actors, including the Cascadia Innovation Corridor, Microsoft, and anyone who REALLY needs to get back north for the Michelin starred roast duck at iDen & Quanjude Beijing Duck House.
In this episode, co-hosts Natalie and Ray discuss a recent report on planning for high speed rail from the Urban Infrastructure Lab at the University of Washington's College of Built Environments. The report looks at a half dozen other high-speed rail projects around the world and draws lessons from their construction and operation. The biggest take away of all: plan to provide great high speed rail service. It's a little different than the infrastructure plans Cascadia normally undertakes.

Here's a link to the report: https://mic.comotion.uw.edu/our-work/ultra-high-speed-rail-project/

We would love to hear your plans for what to do in a neighboring city if it was only an hour train ride away.  Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org.  
As always, you can find The Urbanist podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other major platforms. And if you are enjoying the podcast, be sure to offer a “like” or “thumbs up” on your favorite platform. It’s a great way to spread the word to new listeners.

The Urbanist recently reported on Seattle snagging the 8th slot in the Trust for Public Land's 2023 national ParkScore index.

In this episode, Natalie Argerious speaks with the Trust for Public Land's (TPL) Linda Hwang, Senior Director, Strategy and Innovation of the Land and People Lab, and Ronda Lee Chapman, Equity Director, about their organization's work to create more quality public parks throughout the US.

Whether its research, advocacy, or community outreach, TPL is involved in a lot of interesting efforts. The pandemic showed us how important parks our to people's health and well-being, yet an estimated 100 million Americans lack easy access to one.

As mentioned in the episode TPL has also recently launched a podcast, People. Nature. Big Ideas, featuring conversations about how our connection with the natural environment helps build vibrant communities. Be sure to check it out. 

Do you want to give a shout out to your favorite park?  Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org.  
As always, you can find The Urbanist podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other major platforms. And if you are enjoying the podcast, be sure to offer a “like” or “thumbs up” on your favorite platform. It’s a great way to spread the word to new listeners.