When we asked you what keeps you in Seattle, lots of you mentioned our good friend Mother Nature:

• “I’m as native as that Douglas fir in your backyard” — Larry Sarchin
• “The water has a hold on me and won’t let go” — Cathy Williams
• “The natural beauty blows me away every day” — Shelley B.

And no wonder: We’ve got mountain ranges to the west (the Olympics) and east (the Cascades). The nation’s largest and arguably most dazzling ferry system takes us to all kinds of breathtaking islands (the San Juans). We figure out what kind of day it’s gonna be by asking “Is the mountain out?” And one of our favorite sights on an east-west commute is the bald eagles that chill out by the 520 bridge.

To readers Julie Wessel and Charles Morrison, it’s what’s outside that counts:

🐬  “I moved here from Portland 20 years ago, and the moment I knew I wanted to live here was when I was on a ferry, in awe of the snowy peaks in every direction, and I looked out and saw a pod of porpoises swimming alongside of us. Recently, I was on the Edmonds/Kingston ferry, and we stopped in the middle of the sound for a pod of orcas. Ferry rides are a chance to step out of the high rents and traffic, and are an opportunity for me to reflect on the beauty of our region.”
— Julie Wessel

🌞  “My home is five minutes from the bluff at Richmond Beach overlooking Puget Sound, about as spectacular a view as exists anywhere. I go there all times of day and night and am always inspired. I’m basically a ‘cool weather’ kind of guy, so weather in the 40s and 50s is great by me. I love warm, soft scarfs and heavy sport jackets. In the summer I sit outside about sunset time and play my recorder or read poetry aloud — the evening light is magical, gives everything a magical aurora. I raised my children here. Today I had lunch at Las Margaritas at 45th and Aurora where my family has eaten for 25 years… The Japanese Garden near the Arboretum is one of the most peaceful places I’ve been on this earth; its beauty has fed my soul for forty years. There’s more… I have LIVED in so many ways in Seattle. It is in my blood. The environment in Seattle loves back.”
— Charles Morrison

Thanks to everyone who’s been sharing what keeps you in Seattle over the past week. Stay tuned for more of your answers tomorrow.

What’s Seattle buying, anyway? There’s been a lot of talk about money in our city lately: how much of it we have, how much of it we need, and where, ultimately, we’re spending it all. KUOW dug through our city’s budgets the past eight years and learned some interesting things. Some highlights:

• The city’s got $1.1 billion in its general fund — “where the big decisions are made” — 30 percent more than it had five years ago
• Three kinds of construction-related taxes contributed the most to that general fund growth: business taxes, sales taxes, and new property taxes
• We’ve set aside $63 million to address our homelessness crisis this year — and that’s 60 percent more than we spent on the issue four years ago

Parking spot for rent. Up to 40 percent of parking spots in Seattle apartment and condo garages sit empty a lot of the time. What’s a creative Seattleite to do? Make an app, of course. Seattleite Helene Costa created the GarageHop app four years ago to connect people who own parking spots to people who want to rent ’em. And now that the city’s letting people in more neighborhoods rent out their unused spots, GarageHop is finding more happy customers. (The Seattle Times)

Party at Mary’s Place. We have a lot of work to do to help the thousands of people experiencing homelessness in King County. One bright spot in that story? Mary’s Place. It’s a local nonprofit that runs emergency shelters for women and children, it’s gotten a lot of support over the last few years — including from Amazon and Starbucks — and this summer it’s got something to celebrate: It’s going to open its first permanent family shelter in Burien. ❤ (The Seattle Times)

An Incredible listing. Good luck actually moving into the house that’s getting all the clicks on Zillow lately. The Seattle-based real estate co. put the 19,000-square-foot family home from the new Incredibles 2 movie on its site — just for fun — and it’s hard not to really really wish it were real. And, you know, that we were superheroes. 😉 (GeekWire)

Best not best? Seattle’s looking for its next police chief, and a bunch of people are not OK with how the search is going. To back up: An official search committee ended up with five finalists for our top police gig, and one of them was our acting police chief, Carmen Best. But when Mayor Jenny Durkan announced the finalists in a news conference on Friday, she only mentioned three — and Best wasn’t among ‘em. Why? Apparently, another group of advisors brought the list of five down to three without running the process by the main search committee. So what happens now? Stay tuned. This one’s still brewing. (Crosscut)

FEEL LONELY SOMETIMES? 🌧

Hey — who doesn’t? And also: look up! A group of local artists made five billboards for everyone who feels isolated in a growing city. Here’s a map of where you’ll find them and some other aids for the urban heart.

We’ll see ya tomorrow. — The Evergrey