We acquired to the top of 2024! I’m not saying 2025 is gonna be any simpler, however I’m happy with us all for getting via this 12 months. Pour your self some champagne, seize some eggnog if you will discover it, or the bougie seltzer of your alternative, and cheers to a different one within the books.
It’s a vacation, so we’ll make it fast.
The standard: We will count on a comparatively dry day at this time, however the probability of rain creeps up as we get nearer to midnight. Should you’re planning on going to the Area Needle tonight, convey a raincoat.
Talking of Mild Exhibits: For the third time this 12 months, we would possibly be capable of see the Northern Lights right here in Washington tonight.
Put Down These Automobile Keys: Don’t neglect that King County Metro, South Transit, Group Transit, Everett Transit, Pierce Transit, the King County Water Taxi and the Seattle Streetcar are all free at this time, so you don’t have any excuse to drink and drive after your midnight toast tonight. Catch a prepare, name a automobile, or keep the place you might be.
Talking of the top of the 12 months: We’ve been feeling sentimental, so we’ve acquired a couple of year-end spherical ups for you. Stranger contributor Conor Kelley ran down all the main employee victories this 12 months. (Shock, even in end-stage capitalism, there have been loads!) Metropolis Corridor reporter Hannah Krieg gave us the roses, thorns, and buds of metropolis council. Contributor Katie Lee Ellison shared her favourite PNW ebook releases this 12 months (and recommended pairings for every). And we’ve acquired extra coming: greatest bites, greatest reside music, greatest document releases. Pop again via the vacation to mosey down reminiscence lane with us.
The cookies have been counted: At the moment marks the final day of The Stranger’s cookie countdown, and we ended it with a crowd favourite: The Cookie. Should you haven’t been following alongside, you possibly can try the total listing right here. Discover your new favourite deal with in 2025.
Joyful Wildrose Day: The Metropolis formally declared December 31 Wildrose Day this week, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Seattle’s final remaining lesbian bar. They threw a fully packed anniversary social gathering final evening to have a good time, however should you missed it, we acquired you. Wildrose allow us to dig via their previous images, and we discovered some gems from a long time previous to carry you over.
The Harvard Exit: Artwork Bernstein, the co-founder of Capitol Hill’s Harvard Exit, died on December 20 at 95 years previous. The Seattle Occasions known as him “an inveterate party-thrower and innate group builder.” Bernstein co-founded the Exit in 1969, and helped form Seattle’s art-house movie scene. The theater was well-known for its free espresso and tea and its foyer, which regularly had a crackling fire and reside piano. His son informed the Seattle Occasions: “He at all times stated {that a} film isn’t a film with out an viewers.”
14 Hours to a New Minimal Wage: At midnight tonight, Seattle’s minimal wage will rise to $20.76, one of many highest within the nation. Simply to do some back-of-the-napkin math for you, if somebody works 40 hours per week, each week of the 12 months, that also solely comes out to about $43k a 12 months—properly beneath the “low earnings” line of $77k. This additionally marks the top of the tip credit score, which allowed a two-tiered minimal wage for the final decade.
Smiling Faces: The brand new 12 months additionally marks the Metropolis’s ramped-up meals security mission. Beginning in January, Seattle will increase its meals security score system—the little inexperienced signal with the smiley faces—to cell distributors like meals vehicles. In idea, that sounds high-quality, however in observe, I can’t assist however fear that it’s giving “NYPD handcuffing churro vendor within the subway” vibes.
No New 12 months’s Eve Sparkle in PR: A sweeping blackout knocked out energy for 87 p.c of Puerto Rico final evening, leaving greater than one million folks at the hours of darkness. Luma Power, who provides energy to the island, expects it to take a minimum of 24 hours, seemingly days, to revive energy.
Much less Pleasant Skies: After two aircraft crashes in as many weeks, 2024 is formally the deadliest 12 months within the skies since 2018, when two Boeing 737 MAX crashes killed greater than 500 folks. As we head into the brand new 12 months, South Korea has declared seven days of nationwide mourning, and Boeing inventory is down (once more). To be clear, aviation deaths are nonetheless very uncommon, so one crash can shortly tip the scales towards this superlative. However I’d like to go a 12 months with out studying the phrase “ball of fireside” in relation to an airplane.
Guantanamo Launch: Yesterday, the Pentagon launched Ridah Bin Saleh al Yazidi from the Guantanamo Bay jail. He was despatched to the wartime jail the day it opened, Jan. 11, 2002, and has been there for nearly 23 years with out fees. He was accredited for switch again to his residence nation, Tunisia, greater than a decade in the past.
Who wants uncooked milk when you may get your very personal “uncooked water.” Should you want a bizarre deep dive at this time, the New York Occasions reported on the “spring water aficionados” which can be a part of the “well being freedom motion.” One of many topics stated the water feels “extra alive.” Which, properly, I imagine.
Some tunes to your New 12 months’s: I have been working my means via Derrick Gee’s playlists, that are all killer, however this one has been my daytime vibe. Take heed to it whilst you’re doing all of your New 12 months cleansing or making breakfast for whoever’s nonetheless hungover at your home tomorrow morning.
