It’s tough to keep up with everything moving and shaking in your city. Luckily, you’ve got us. Here are a few things to know from the week.
> Seattle unsettled. This week we learned that young people in Seattle change homes more often than any place else in the country. That a Seattle family of four making less than $72,000 — aka more than the average household income in 46 states — is “low income.” And that there’s a state senator who’s proposing a bill that would let Seattle be its own county, because “Seattle has gone so far off the left cliff that the rest of [King County] is paying for Seattle’s craziness.” Add to that this all-time record-breaking rain, and there’s a sense that things in our region are shaky and a little restless. But summer’s coming. We hope.
> Cars are hard. More people in Seattle means more cars in Seattle, and a lot of debate over exactly how we make room for them. As the new 520 bridge marks one year of carrying 77,000 cars per day across the longest floating span of highway in the world, people are wondering what to do about the cars packing Seattle’s core. “There is only one direction for [South Lake Union] to go if it is to continue being a model for a 21st century tech hub,” writes Ryan Packer in The Urbanist: Stop trying to accommodate the cars. Meanwhile, those of us who drive are having a harder time finding parking. The city is extending paid parking in Capitol Hill to 11 p.m. this fall in hopes of taming the demand. And people are spotting fake “no parking” signs around the city, presumably put up by people who want to save their spot.
> Listen up, bookworms. Tomorrow is Seattle Bookstore Day (part of Independent Bookstore Day), and it’s also kind of a treasure hunt: Go to all 19 of the Seattle indie bookshops participating in the event, and you’ll get 25 percent off books at all those stores for an entire year. Want to know what kind of places you’re dealing with? The Stranger asked staff at eight independent bookshops to name the craziest thing that’s ever happened at their stores. Like that time Wendy Ceballos, event manager of Third Place Books, posed for a picture with author John Irving and former wrestler Hulk Hogan. That’s quite the trio.