BURNHAM CIVIC

Each project below is an active operation. Headlines tell you what we found, tags tell you the domain, descriptions tell you what we're doing about it. MEMBERS items are live operations visible only to intelligence subscribers. This page updates as we move.

• ⚔ MEMBERS High Ross ENERGY OID-007 Energy sovereignty, treaty leverage, dam operations.
• ⚔ MEMBERS Federal Levers FEDERAL OID-013 Consent decree and federal infrastructure control.
• ⚔ MEMBERS Washington State Packaging Fab Project MANUFACTURING OID-008
• ⚔ MEMBERS 47 Shifts OPERATIONS OID-001 Seattle Unsheltered Response. 4 crew chiefs, 47 shifts, live operations map. Data from Seattle APIs.
• ⚔ A Committee of Correspondence for Washington NETWORK OID-014 In 1772 Sam Adams started a network of town committees that became the working government of the thirteen colonies in sixteen months. Washington's 39 counties answer to the same state housing mandates, the same Department of Revenue, and the same Olympia agencies, and they answer alone. They should not.

• ⚒ 87 Times a Year CSO OID-012 Seattle dumps raw sewage into Puget Sound 87 times a year. The feds already control the fix through a consent decree and $706M in WIFIA loans. We mapped every outfall.
• ⚒ The Standard Seattle Forgot CONSTRUCTION There used to be rules about what public buildings had to look like, and then the rules went away and nobody noticed for 30 years.
• ⚒ The Year Seattle Built a City in a Forest 1909 Seattle hosted a world's fair the same year Burnham published the Plan of Chicago. One city got a century-long plan. The other got 138 days.
• ⚒ The Bogue Plan HISTORY In 1911 Seattle had a master plan for transit, parks, and a civic center. Voters killed it. The city has been improvising ever since.
• ⚒ Wacker's Manual for Seattle PLANNING Chicago gave every 8th grader a book about how their city worked and why it mattered. Seattle has never had anything like it.
• ⚒ Who's Building What DATA OID-011 Every active building permit in Seattle, who filed it, what it costs, and where it stands. Updated continuously.

• ⚖ Economic Taking Tracker LEDGER Every policy failure has a cost. Business closures, 911 property damage, graffiti, encampment violations, and foreclosures quantified as a running liability the city owes its residents. Five categories sourced from public APIs, updated continuously.
• ⚖ The Permit Machine SDCI It takes 18 months to get a building permit in Seattle. Inspectors don't show up. Contractors leave. We pulled the data on how SDCI broke the building pipeline.
• ⚖ SDOT Accountability Package SDOT Six deliverables holding SDOT accountable on budget, bike lane usage, business impact, parking removal, advocacy influence, and emergency access.
• ⚖ MEMBERS Seattle Police and the World's Fair Standard SPD OPORD-S2 Washington State ranks dead last in police staffing for the 15th year. Here is what Tokyo, Singapore, and Dubai do differently, and what it would take to get there.
• ⚖ MEMBERS Seattle Public Utilities SPU OPORD-E2 Combined sewer overflows, infrastructure neglect.
• ⚖ MEMBERS Seattle City Council COUNCIL OPORD-C1 Budget oversight and legislative accountability.

• ⚖ MEMBERS Pierce County Prosecutorial Accountability PIERCE A framework for grand jury petitions and sheriff-led accountability coalitions in Washington State.

• ⚖ MEMBERS Department of Ecology ECOLOGY OPORD-E1 Fines Seattle $402 per sewage overflow, lost track of 7.4 million tons of carbon reductions, and distributing $2.1B with rules it hasn't finished writing.

• ✺ MEMBERS King County Regional Homelessness Authority KCRHA OPORD-K1 $230M budget, three CEOs in three years, a $10M initiative that produced nothing, and the pass-through that funds every organization we've investigated.
• ✺ MEMBERS Homelessness Authority De-Designation FEDERAL OID-002 They spent the money. We have the receipts.
• ✺ MEMBERS Housing Power Play POLICY OID-002 Authority de-designation and service delivery reform.
• ✺ MEMBERS Seattle Housing Authority SHA OPORD-S1 Public housing operations and oversight.
• ✺ MEMBERS Housing Development Consortium LOBBY OPORD-K6 A $1.6M trade group that lobbied $350M in public housing funds toward its own 215 members. Nobody asked whether any of it worked.
• ✺ Catholic Community Services CCS OPORD-K5 $332M in revenue. Largest KCRHA recipient. Governed entirely by the Archdiocese of Seattle. Almost nobody has looked at the numbers.
• ✺ People's Harm Reduction Alliance PHRA OPORD-K6 $3M in revenue, 99.9% grant-funded. The first US organization to distribute meth pipes openly. One direct federal award in 18 years - a $7K SBA COVID grant. The other $3M comes through pass-throughs. Books are kept by a small private bookkeeper.
• ✺ Low Income Housing Institute LIHI OPORD-K4 $108M in revenue, $490M in assets, a 33-year executive director earning $338K, and tiny house villages where people die and the reports don't get filed on time.
• ✺ Plymouth Housing HOUSING OPORD-K2 $69.5M in revenue, a $22.4M deficit, and a Bellevue facility that went from 5 police calls to 148 in one year.
• ✺ Downtown Emergency Service Center DESC OPORD-K3 $103M organization whose deputy director sits on the state Appropriations Committee that funds her own employer. Plus 600 police calls at one shelter.

• ✑ MEMBERS Seahawks Civic Integration FRANCHISE OID-005 The franchise is for sale. The next owner inherits a city that needs 250 hours of work before the World Cup. TBC has the playbook and 600+ decision makers ready to execute.
• ✑ MEMBERS Lake City Corridor MIXED-USE OID-004 Mixed-use development along NE 125th. 10 phases.
• ✑ MEMBERS Capitol Hill Expansion Zone URBAN VILLAGE OID-003

• ☩ MEMBERS Century Gate Design Standard DESIGN OID-006 What Seattle's public buildings should look like.
• ☩ MEMBERS TBC Parcel Map INTEL An evaluation of Seattle's building owners, the quality of what they've built, and their responsibility for the long-term viability of the city.
• ☩ MEMBERS Bloedel Reserve LANDSCAPE 150-acre estate on Bainbridge Island. One of the finest public gardens in the Pacific Northwest. TBC is developing a preservation and programming strategy.

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood."

Daniel H. Burnham, 1907