> Chris Cornell’s Seattle. We worry a lot about the city’s future. How fast we’re growing. How much we’re changing. Who can afford to stay. Then we learned that Chris Cornell took his own life Wednesday night after a concert in Detroit. He was the lead singer of Soundgarden, a band that was born here in 1984 and kept the city at its heart. And it’s like we’re all pulled back to the 1990s: both the locals who were here, and can remember it, and the locals who weren’t, and have to imagine. What was it like then, when the city flew under the radar and this new sound, grunge, connected with people in a way nothing else did? “It was actually super important to us that we’d stay home and do what we do there and make Seattle the place for our creativity no matter what happened,” Chris told writer Sean Nelson in 2015. So the next Seattle creative geniuses who change the world from this booming corner of it — is that how they’ll feel about this place? Chris Cornell’s Seattle is gone. Where are we now?
> Who’s it going to be? Today’s the filing deadline, so it’s just about official: 14 people are running for Seattle mayor. It’s a lot, and that’s fitting: Our political energy has electrified everything in the city, and, it seems, everyone. Neighbors are creating living room political action groups. Nonprofits are swelling with donations and volunteers. And every week, it seems, someone’s putting on a workshop to help you decide how best to invest in the causes you believe in. It’s not normal, but it’s exciting. And this energy — combined with the ways the city’s issues feel extra personal lately (can you buy a house? Feel at home? Get around?) — means this mayor’s race could hit pretty close to home. The first step to deciding who should lead the city? Know the kind of city you want. Here’s the wish list several of you helped put together. Onward to November.
> Someone to think about today. With so many things to do around here, it’s easy to forget that people have to put them together. If you’ve read our events roundups, you know that Town Hall Seattle is the place where Seattle’s most consistently interesting, accessible, and inspiring events happen. Wier Harman, executive director of Town Hall, is a big reason that’s the case. And he’s just told Town Hall members he’s stepping back from his duties to deal with a cancer diagnosis. “I remember talking to Harman when he was hired in 2005 and being able to tell — from the look in his eyes — that amazing things were coming,” Christopher Frizzelle wrote in The Stranger. We’ve seen that look, too.