This is a special preview of an episode of a new podcast, Blue City Blues. Click this link to hear the entire episode wherever you get your podcasts.

Keith Humphreys: Why Drug Reform Failed In West Coast Blue Cities

The wave of bold new decriminalization-centered approaches to drug policy reform that swept West Coast cities from San Francisco to Vancouver, B.C. starting around 2020 has failed, according to one the nation’s leading drug policy experts, former Obama White House drug policy advisor and Stanford psychiatry professor Keith Humphreys. On this week’s Blue City Blues, we invited Professor Humpreys on to explore why.

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

About Blue City Blues

Twenty years ago, Dan Savage encouraged progressives to move to blue cities to escape the reactionary politics of red places. And he got his wish. Over the last two decades, rural places have gotten redder and urban areas much bluer.

America’s bluest cities developed their own distinctive culture, politics and governance. They became the leading edge of a cultural transformation that reshaped progressivism, redefined urbanism and remade the Democratic Party.

But as blue cities went their own way, as they thrived as economically and culturally vibrant trend-setters, these urban cosmopolitan islands also developed their own distinctive set of problems. Inequality soared, and affordability tanked. And the conversation about those problems stagnated, relegated to the narrowly provincial local section of regional newspapers or local NPR programming.

The Blue City Blues podcast aims to pick up where Savage’s Urban Archipelago idea left off, with a national perspective on the present and the future of urban America. We will consider blue cities as a collective whole. What unites them? What troubles them? What defines them?

Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

Breaking: Council President Sara Nelson tells Seattle Nice she’s open to considering new progressive taxes to fund drug treatment and that she supports involuntary commitment for people who are “severely impaired through years of addiction.”

We also dive deep into the epic battle over Sara’s plan for affordable “workforce” housing near the stadiums. Why were some urbanists opposed? Did billionaire Chris Hansen pull the strings? What really went down at the marathon city council meeting before the vote?

Quinn Waller is our editor.

About Seattle Nice

It’s getting harder and harder to talk about politics, especially if you disagree. Well, screw that. Seattle Nice aims to be the most opinionated and smartest analysis of what’s really happening in Seattle politics available in any medium.

Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

Check out a preview of the latest episode of Are You Mad at Me?, the podcast about the movie Shattered Glass hosted by PubliCola co-founders Erica Barnett and Josh Feit. Shattered Glass, starting Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny, and Steve Zahn (among many other names you'll recognize), is about a journalism scandal in the late 1990s in which a reporter, Stephen Glass, was found to have fabricated dozens of stories for The New Republic, Harpers, and many other traditional media outlets.

Our guest for this month's show, Adam Penenberg (portrayed by Zahn in the film), was working for an early online outlet called Forbes Digital Tool when his editor, Kambiz Foroohar, demanded to know why he'd been scooped by Stephen Glass on a story about teenage hackers.

As we now know, the story was completely fabricated—and Penenberg was the one who unraveled the fraud. In our interview, Penenberg tells us what it was like to uncover the story and reflects on what it was like to be a reporter for a digital startup going up against a venerable institution like The New Republic. He also offers his thoughts on why Glass decided to fabricate stories instead of just reporting them, and tells us what it was like talking to Steve Zahn as he was developing his character for the movie.

Listen, like, and subscribe to Are You Mad at Me? on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

Sandeep says Dow Constantine will be the next CEO of Sound Transit. Is Dow the best pick? Was the process a flawed example of cronyism? And why is the transit agency's CEO pay so high?

We also discuss progressive activist Katie Wilson entering the Seattle mayor's race against Bruce Harrell. Does she have a shot against Harrell's record and "One Seattle" leadership style? Don't miss our in-depth interview with Katie Wilson where she self-criticized the left on the politics of homelessness in recent years.

Plus, former assistant US Attorney Erika Evans is running against Republican City Attorney Ann Davison. Will Davison survive the challenge?

Also, is council candidate Tanya Woo finally calling it quits?

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

About Seattle Nice

It’s getting harder and harder to talk about politics, especially if you disagree. Well, screw that. Seattle Nice aims to be the most opinionated and smartest analysis of what’s really happening in Seattle politics available in any medium.

Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

The latest explosive headline about Bruce Harrell's 1996 arrest isn't great news for a mayor who is up for re-election later this year. We discuss the fallout and the fact that a mystery challenger is expected to join that race next week.

Speaking of politics, we also discuss Erica's interview with Dionne Foster, who is challenging City Council President Sara Nelson. Foster is challenging Nelson from the left, but some of her positions don’t sound that progressive. Is that smart politics?

Also, Republican City Attorney Ann Davison is standing up to the Trump Administration. We debate the merits of that move.

Finally, the U.S. Small Business Administration is closing its Seattle office to “support President Trump’s agenda to secure our borders.” The move implicitly punishes Seattle for calling itself a "sanctuary city." What will it mean for small businesses, and what will the Trump Administration do coming next?

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

What do you call it when Mayor Bruce Harrell raises eyebrows with alleged praise for Trump advisors, a totem pole stands in the way of a park opening, and a tree divides a neighborhood? Just another week in Seattle!

In this episode, we dive into Mayor Harrell's comments at a downtown business event, where he appeared to praise tech advisors to Donald J. Trump like Elon Musk. Was it an off-script gaffe, a calculated appeal to the business community, simply a fact about tech innovation leaders, or something else entirely? We discuss the comments, the context and what it might mean for Seattle politics.

Then, we explore the battle between historic preservationists and the city over totem poles that has kept the newly renovated Victor Steinbrueck Park shuttered. What should happen to the contested poles? It's a classic Seattle story of process, history, identity, and bureaucracy.

Finally, we look at the heated debate over "Grandma Brooks' Cedar" in Ravenna. When is it right to save a tree, and when is it time to let go? We debate the story of conflict between neighbors, activists, and the family of the woman who lived alongside the tree for decades.

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

Joy Hollingsworth was elected to the Seattle City Council in 2023 to replace Kshama Sawant in District 3. Her victory was part of a centrist wave. But Hollingsworth sometimes finds herself on the losing, more progressive side of council legislation. Does she see herself as a swing vote? We also talk about Hollingsworth's priorities and Seattle's racial politics.

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

In this members-only episode we take a closer look at the style, the substance and the politics of Tuesday's State of the City Address by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell.

This episode is a free preview. To hear the full episode just sign up at any level that's right for you at patreon.com/seattlenice.

If you are already a member, here's how to access your member-only episodes automatically: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041347732-How-to-use-your-audio-RSS

Thanks everyone for your support for this podcast.

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.