On the heels of yesterday’s news that for the third month in a row, Seattle sits as the 10th most expensive city in the U.S. for renters–joining the ranks with San Francisco, New York and Boston–King 5 News reports that tenants’ rights groups have seen a “10 percent increase in people reporting rent increases.” These increases range “anywhere from 50 to 150 percent.” Fifty to 150 percent. Let that sink in. “I think what is really scary, is there is no way to really protect yourself,” Trish Abbate, a renters’ advocate with Solid Ground told King 5. “It is really affecting tenants in this city and outside of the city. There really isn’t any neighborhood this isn’t impacting.” 

Be on the lookout for a missing 60-year-old Bonsai tree, which was stolen from the Pacific Bonsai Museum in Federal Way on Monday. The tree is reportedly worth $2,000 and according to Kiro 7 News, no questions will be asked if it’s returned safely.

Think your argument that the #ShellNo protesters are hypocritcal, arriving via oil-guzzling cars to demostrate in kayaks made of petroleum, is rock solid? The Stranger‘s Ansel Herz begs to differ. He writes: “As Harvard historian Naomi Oreskes told The Nation when asked about the “but we all use fossil fuels” argument: “Of course we do, and people in the North wore clothes made of cotton picked by slaves. But that did not make them hypocrites when they joined the abolition movement. It just meant that they were also part of the slave economy, and they knew it. That is why they acted to change the system, not just their clothes.” Essentially, get over yourselves and join the movement.

Spotify + Starbucks: The streaming music service announced yesterday that it has partnered with the Seattle-based coffee chain to enable My Starbucks Rewards members to “use their Starbucks rewards points for a subscription” to Spotify, reports Geekwire. Loyalty customers will be able to redeem their rewards “stars” for an ad-free subscription. You’ll see the partnership take effect in U.S. locations starting this fall.

Are parklets completely worthless? The free mini public parks–which usurp one to two parking spaces–have been popping up in places around the city and we’ve covered the pros, cons, ins and outs here, here and here. In a city where parking is often hard to come by, parklets have some very vocal opponents. KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz is one of them. He recently visited the petite park that’s located outside the SIFF Cinema Uptown in Queen Anne and (of course, after circling the block multiple times looking for a parking space) he surmises that “they’re utterly useless.” Sure the parklet was nearly empty at the time of his visit, but is that enough of an argument to justify throwing in the towel on the project?  “I got a chance to sit down and just check it out and though this isn’t the fault of Seattle or SDOT, they’re just uncomfortable,” Rantz writes.

I walk past the Chromer Building Parklet downtown often and yes, sometimes it’s empty. Is it empty all the time? I don’t know. (Not all parks are full all the time.) But I see it as a step in the right direction for beautifying the streetscape and building community. Plus, it opened less than a year ago. Let’s give ’em a chance.