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Space Needle Workers to Rally, $10 Toll Possibility & More

The top Seattle news stories you should be reading today

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Ten dollars can buy you a lot of things. This coffee, yogurt and banana (with tip) that I’m currently enjoying, for one. Ten dollars might also soon buy you a trip down I-405 express lanes. A bit steep, eh? According to King 5 News, The Washington State Transportation Commission will hold its final public meeting and vote tonight on what the toll rates and carpool rules should be. “During peak hours, the toll rates may be as high as $10 per trip. The transportation commission calls this a destination polling model where it would cost more the longer people drive on the interstate.” The lanes are expected to open in the fall.

Affordable housing news: A group of activists and low-cost housing advocates authored a report called “Solutions to Seattle’s Housing Emergency” in the hopes of bringing attention to the housing crisis our city currently faces. Among the ideas in the report, “a proposal calling on the city to issue $500 million in bonds to pay for new low-income housing, changes to zoning regulations to allow more affordable housing, tenant protections and limits on rents in Seattle,” reports MyNorthwest.com. Several councilmembers, including Kshama Sawant, are supporting the group’s suggestions.

After news surfaced recently about the new higher paid seasonal workers coming on board at the Space Needle, longtime employees who receive lower wages were up in arms. Now, along with labor activists, those employees have plans to protest for higher pay outside the Needle at 9:30 a.m. today. 

R.I.P IE: Microsoft announced it will abandon its Internet Explorer brand and instead use a “new name and brand” in Windows 10, reports Geekwire. There is still no word on what the new browser will be called.

 

Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards 

Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards 

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

YOUR VOTE MATTERS Everyone has a favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or local boutique. Call me old-school, but I will die on the hill that Caffe Vita has the best coffee in town. Disagree with me? Now’s your moment to speak up. Each year, we survey Seattle magazine readers, asking them to weigh in on everything…

Studio Sessions: Ling Chun

Studio Sessions: Ling Chun

The Seattle-based artist brings playful color to ceramics and neon while exploring memory, transformation, and life between cultures.

For Ling Chun, creating begins with something sensed before it can be named. Working with clay, glass, light, and sometimes synthetic hair, the Hong Kong-born artist gives physical form to things that words cannot always hold. “For me, the magnitude of making goes far beyond the object that is eventually produced,” Chun says. “The object…

The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever

The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever

PAX West draws more than 100,000 people to Seattle each year. Co-founder Jerry Holkins reflects on what the gaming convention set out to change, how its community has grown and why gathering face to face still matters.

Access to game news as it was happening was difficult back in the day. Even with the advent of the internet, communication between game publishers and journalists was still a very elite affair.  I used to fake credentials—via fax machine!—to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, mostly just known as E3. It was simultaneously as loud…

Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026

Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026

Navigate Seattle’s wildest end-of-summer weekend with 20 picks spanning Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Orange, wrestling, skateboarding and—obviously—movies made in 48 hours.

Four years after Bumbershoot returned with its quirkiness revivified, Seattleites broadly acknowledge the two-day multimedia extravaganza as a welcome finale to the summer festival season. Fests like Bumbershoot are designed around a choose-your-own-adventure model, but if you’re the kind of person who looked at this year’s sprawling lineup—featuring multiple bands, artists, and exhibits happening at…