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.
> Whoa. The Seattle Times dropped a bombshell on the city yesterday when it reported that our mayor’s being sued for allegedly sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy in the 1980s. Not only that, but two other men have come forward with similar accounts. Mayor Ed Murray is denying all of it, but that hardly ends what feels like it’s just beginning. “The story sets into motion what might be the most damning political scandal in recent Seattle history, if not ever,” says Crosscut. A lot’s getting shaken up while people process all this. The repercussions? TBD.
> Bertha Bertha Bertha. Seattle’s huge boring machine got pretty exciting as she finished her slow, rocky crawl through the last few feet of a 1.7-mile dig beneath our city this week. Now that she’s being dismantled in a pit in Queen Anne, there’s a big empty tunnel transit workers need to turn into a double deck highway. So when do we get to use our new Highway 99? It’s set to open in 2019, but Bertha’s dig went three years behind schedule. So. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
> Rock on. Seattle’s own Pearl Jam is getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame tonight in New York. That’s a big deal around here: When the band released its first album, “Ten,” in 1991, no one outside Seattle knew who they were. “Ten” sold more than 13 million copies, and if you now have “Jeremy” stuck in your head, we’re not sorry. Turning from Seattle’s music past to Seattle’s music future, Upstream Music Fest + Summit just announced the rest of the huge lineup for its debut festival next month. Another Seattle breakout hit? We’ll see.
> Is Amazon a good neighbor? That’s how the tech giant hopes you’ll think of it now that it’s formed several local and nonprofit partnerships that show it’s getting involved in the city — something that, a few years ago, it was known for not doing. Amazon also just hired a longtime nonprofit worker as its first-ever director of community engagement. Can a $430 billion company worth almost twice as much as Wal-Mart transform a major American city and stay “neighborly”? Stay tuned.