Local News

Between approving a $15 minimum wage plan and electing a socialist to our City Council, Seattle has been hogging the national spotlight when it comes to progressive issues lately. How could there be anywhere more liberal than Seattle? It turns out Seattle’s most liberal ZIP code doesn’t even crack the top 300 in the nation, according to a new ranking of U.S. ZIP codes…

In our famously introverted city — home of the notorious “Seattle freeze” — the following statistic may not come as much of a shock: The majority of Seattle apartments — 51 percent according to the most recent census data — are occupied by a person living alone. This is unusual. Among the 100 largest U.S. cities, only Atlanta has…

Seattle enjoys a reputation as one of the most welcoming cities for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people – so this statistic may come as an unpleasant surprise: Seattle had the third-highest rate of hate crimes against LGBT people among large U.S. cities in 2012, according to FBI data. For every 100,000 Seattle residents, there were three hate crimes based on…

June is Pride Month, and here’s some great news to kick off the celebration. A new report names Seattle the friendliest city in the nation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. To honor this year’s Pride, personal finance website NerdWallet compiled a list of the top-20 LGBT-friendly cities. They considered three factors for their rankings: 1.    Presence of gay community,…

We’ve come a long way from the “Will the last person leaving Seattle –Turn out the lights” era of the 1970s. Last year, Seattle grew faster than any other major American city, according to population estimates released Thursday by the Census Bureau. From July 1, 2012 to July 1, 2013, Seattle grew by 2.8 percent — the highest rate…

Is Amazon making it tough for Seattle guys to find a date? Local technology consultant Jeff Reifman published a blog post on Monday contending just that. Reifman posits that male-dominated tech companies like Amazon are drawing a lot more young men than young women to Seattle, thereby screwing up the local dating…

In big East Coast cities, the sound of blaring car horns is part of daily life.  But around here, it takes a lot to get a driver to honk — and new data confirm it. According to the 2014 In The Driver’s Seat Road Rage Survey, released Monday by AutoVantage, Seattle drivers are the second least-likely…

Restaurant employees and high-tech workers may not seem to have a lot in common, but in recent months, each has become linked to a headline-grabbing issue in Seattle. Food-service workers played a key role in bringing early attention to the $15 minimum-wage issue last year when they participated in a series of strikes….

The income-inequality committee led by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray failed to submit a proposal for raising the city’s minimum-wage to $15 an hour. But as reported Thursday in The Seattle Times, the committee did agree on a number of points, including that the minimum-wage hike should be phased in gradually for small…

Considering the amount of behind-the-wheel texting and mobile phone calling we see every day in this city, the following may come as a surprise: Among large U.S. cities, Seattle has the second-lowest fatality rate for pedestrians and cyclists, according to a new report. The 2014 Benchmarking Report, released this week by the…