Happy Friday open thread

5/13/26 City Council meeting open thread

 Please use the comments to record your observations.

Seattle negligence looks suspiciously like Santa Fe Drive bike lane fiasco

 Facebook:

The city of Seattle will pay $9.25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a bicyclist who slammed into a car and suffered a traumatic brain injury while riding in a “protected bike lane” near Green Lake, according to attorneys for the injured man.

The settlement came after King County Superior Court Judge Kent Liu found the city was negligent, violated its own standard of care and breached its duty to the bicycle-riding public in designing the bicycle lane, according to court documents.

 

Supervisors try to extend their own term limits under the guise of “ethics”

 Encinitas Votes:

It is a bundled power grab.

On April 21, the Board of Supervisors pushed it forward on a 3–2 vote. On May 19, they decide whether to send it to voters as a single take-it-or-leave-it package. #UnBundle

Here’s what’s buried inside:

– Extending supervisor term limits from 8 to 12 years
– A so-called ethics commission controlled by the same supervisors, with no subpoena power and no enforcement
– New authority for supervisors to control senior county officials

4/22/26 City Council meeting open thread

 Please use the comments to record your observations.

4/15/26 City Council meeting open thread

 Please use the comments to record your observations.

Don Hansen passes away

Surfer Magazine:

Sad news washed over the worldwide surf community today, as news that legendary surfer and shaper Don Hansen has passed away. He was 88 years old.

Hansen was a lifelong surfer, and the mind behind Hansen Surfboards, an iconic surfboard brand born in the sixties and enduring throughout decades. Out of the shaping room, Hansen was also a notable wave-rider, landing on the cover of this very magazine in 1962.