True, the way Seattle is hosting its portion of the World Cup is far from perfect. It’s riddled with social problems. But one also has to admit that the city is receiving a great deal of social media praise for aspects of the city that can be attributed to progressive urbanism and politics. Link, for example, broke its daily ridership record on Friday, June 19, the day of the match between US and Australia (US won). The system experienced an astonishing 280,000 riders (the daily average in May, an impressive month in itself, was 155,000). That’s not all. Walkability and the displacement of car infrastructure have played an important role in the success of our city’s World Cup presentation: Water Front Park and related bike and pedestrian infrastructure.  Not only was Link busy on the day the US beat Australia at Lumen Stadium (which is receiving the highest praises from World Cup fans), but also shared bikes and scooters. According to the Seattle Department of Transportation, these eco-friendly forms of transportation enjoyed over 83,000 trips. This is an incredible photograph.— Ryan Packer (@typewriteralley.bsky.social) 2026-06-23T21:14:54.089Z True, the ghost of Paul Allen is also in this positive mix. But he might be the last true City Prince the world has seen. Microsoft, admittedly, bred last civic minded aristocrats. But we surely are now in the anti-civic desert initiated by Howard Schutlz’s Sonics treachery. Yes, we’re still mad at that. No, we will never get over that.   A Jewish funeral home in Seward Park that’s operated by Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath synagogue was consumed by flames on Tuesday morning. The cause of the fire is, at this point, unknown; but there have been a number of suspicious fires in this area over the past two years, one of which destroyed the Columbia City Funeral Home and Crematory.  Late yesterday, I visited my favorite convenience store, The 3rd Little Pig, on Beacon Hill to buy cigarettes (yes, I smoke), and saw this impressive arrangement behind the counter: two portable air conditioners blowing cool air into a fan that blew the received cool air over cups filled with ice. I was told this was an efficient way to keep temperatures low in the small store during a day that experienced a high of 85. Because today will be as hot as its predecessor, expect to see this curious cooling system restored. It might, however, be dismantled tomorrow, which will, according to predictions, be cloudy with a high chance of rain. While walking around Georgetown on Sunday, I came across a notice plastered on the corner of a freestanding and crumbling wall. It concerned “a stolen public art piece.” It’s apparently popular: a human-sized rat trap with a can of Rainier beer (instead of cheese) as bait. It was stolen during the neighborhood’s annual carnival on June 13. Today, I learned on West Seattle Blog that the valued work of public art was returned. There is a God. There is somehow a sense of justice in this huge and empty universe.  We Are Now in the Mamdani Era: Fox News is now even calling him a “kingmaker,” and CNN called him the “new power broker.” Why? Because none of the candidates he backed in New York’s House primaries lost. In fact, one of the opponents for the seat he now holds, mayor of the greatest city on earth, progressive Brad Lander, is on course to beat incumbent and establishment Dem Dan Goldman by a whopping 30 points. State Assemblymember Claire Valdez, an official member of the Democratic Socialist of America, will beat Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso by 20 points.  But the real proof of Mamdani’s magic was expressed in the closest race of the set, that between DSA’s Darializa Avila Chevalier and 5-term Congressman Adriano Espaillat. Chevalier will win by about 5 points. None of these results are ambiguous. New Yorkers are clearly down with their mayor and are rewarding his celebrity and commitment to campaign promises. And, yes, the whole country is watching this cat, whose middle name, Kwane, honors the first African president in the world, Kwame Nkrumah. Hollywood Reporter: “[This] may even boost Nithya Raman in her bid to take down her own establishment Democrat in Los Angeles.” And now back to the current season of the dismal Trump Show, which just drags on and on despite low ratings.  So there’s a Get Smart episode where Agent 86, a lucky idiot played by Don Adams, visits a museum for a mission of the utmost national importance. He examines the art. Unbeknownst to him, however, one painting is connected to a BOMB wired by the key enemy of American freedom, KAOS (the KGB). But here is the thing. The bomb is connected to a crooked painting. More importantly, the bomb is activated if someone attempts to correct the crookedness of this particular painting. Meaning, when Special Agent 86 attempts to align the crooked painting with the other straight ones: KA-BOOM. But what happens instead? Stupid and lucky 86 makes the other paintings crooked instead. I want you to have this in mind when you read the next AM report. The American blue pool did not last for 50-100 years, as promised. It did not even live to see the end of this year. Indeed, it did even complete the present month, June, that declared the paint job done. No. It almost immediately turned into a mean green and the American blue paint began to peel. This level of incompetence is, as you can see, exceptional. But instead of straightening things, Trump first blamed the mess on Obama’s old pipes, then on vague vandals, then on leftist terrorists. Now, the Lincoln Memorial is doom-patrolled by soldiers and has been fenced. We have here, as you can see, an approximation of that Get Smart episode. Let’s end AM with a slamming house classic, Frankie Knuckles “Your Love,” The post Slog AM: World Cup Helps Soundtransit Break Single-Day Ridership Record, the Mamdani Era Begins, Georgetown Stolen Rat Trap Returned  appeared first on The Stranger. ...read more read less