August 2025

Sound Transit is embarking on a comprehensive agency-wide initiative to tackle significant financial challenges, a move that will inherently impact the financing and timing of major projects like the West Seattle Link Extension (WSLE). This new, broader strategy, outlined in Motion M2025-36, effectively supersedes an earlier, more narrowly focused effort for WSLE.

Initial Alarm Over West Seattle Link Extension Costs

The Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA), encompassing the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, has released its Weekly Volumes & Metrics Report for the week ending July 25, 2025, revealing significant dips in international imports and vessel lifts. These decreases are largely attributed to vessel delays and voids.

According to the report, international imports and vessel lifts saw substantial declines both week-over-week and when compared to the July 2024 weekly average.

Key figures for the week ending July 25 include:

• International Imports: Down 24.5% from the previous week and 25.9% compared with the July 2024 weekly average. A total of 10,386 containers were imported. This is also 19.2% lower than the 2025 year-to-date average and 23.6% lower than the 2024 weekly average.

Unofficial election results for King County's August 5, 2025, primary election show a voter turnout of 18.92%, with 271,720 ballots counted out of 1,435,977 registered voters as of Election Day. Key races for King County Executive, Metropolitan King County Council, and City of Burien Council positions have seen leading candidates emerge, though these results are still unofficial.

You can see the full election results here.

King County Executive Race Highlights Girmay Zahilay's Lead In the county-wide race for King County Executive, Girmay Zahilay is currently leading with 40.39% of the vote, having garnered 103,471 ballots.

The race also includes a diverse field of candidates:

• Claudia Balducci received 77,590 votes, or 30.28%.

• Derek Chartrand is at 12.52% with 32,085 votes.

Seattle community members have a unique opportunity to engage directly with police personnel on issues of crime and public safety through the Seattle Police Department's (SPD) Micro-Community Policing Plans (MCPP) Community-Police Dialogues. These virtual sessions, a collaborative effort between the SPD and the Seattle University Crime & Justice Research Center, are running weekly via Zoom from May through August 2025.

#2025-221014/Southwest Precinct/Third Watch/F3:

At 9:30pm on Saturday, a man called police after having exited his parking garage in the 3400 block of Harbor Av Sw, and gotten involved in a road rage incident.

According to the victim, he may have mistakenly cut off two occupants of a black BMW, who exited their vehicle, with the passenger punching him in the face multiple times, and the driver brandishing a handgun.

The victim said that before he could put his vehicle in drive, he heard his vehicle being struck by gunfire. While on the phone with 911, who told him multiple times to pull over, the victim said he was following the suspect vehicle across the West Seattle bridge in an attempt to get the suspect vehicle license plate.

By Jennifer Carrasco

I recently sold my home, and the developer plans to bulldoze it and  build a two story house with an ADU in back. Seattle doesn't have much room to expand, so the city must resort to density. I've come to terms with it.

Before anyone commiserates with me, I have to tell you that I've moved a lot, and I've gotten pretty thick skinned about the whole process. It does seem like a waste––my cottage was in very good shape and my studio would  have been a terrific workshop for someone, but I needed to go to senior living at St.Vincent's, and the developer gave the highest bid.  I didn't want to end up living in some broom closet smelling of pee.

Of course when a house is leveled, so goeth the garden. But I sent the word out to all my gardener friends and they arrived with pitchforks to root up my plants to plant in their gardens. Better than my previous moves....

Information from BAT Theatre

Don’t miss a free family-friendly outdoor show in South King County parks! Burien Actors Theatre (BAT) brings Rachel Rene’s clever adaptation of Ferenc Molnar’s comedy The Guardsman to a South King County park near you through Aug. 17.

Support your local eateries by making this a dinner and a show event. Bring takeout to the performance, or dine out before or after.

In BAT’s totally tubular adaptation of The Guardsman to the early 1980s Pacific Northwest, a popular actor suspects his new actress wife is getting restless. So he takes on his most daring role yet—disguising himself as a dashing guardsman—to test his wife and win her love. The actor sweeps his wife off her feet, creates romance and drama, and nearly torpedoes their marriage in the process. The Guardsman ultimately asks the question: “Where does the acting end and true emotion begin?”