Seattle, WA
Can the Punk Rock flea market save the soul of Seattle?
Strolling the commercial corridor atop Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood on a recent Friday afternoon, I catch a cappella voices booming down the block: Every woman, every man, join the caravan of love …
It’s the unlikely siren song flowing from the open doors of the Punk Rock flea market. This offbeat, itinerant bazaar has been popping up here, inside a former supermarket, four times a year since 2024, filling the 20,000-sq-ft space left vacant when a Kroger-owned QFC suddenly ceased operations and moved out.
The $1 entry fee hasn’t increased since 2006, when the first Punk Rock flea market was held in an abandoned basement bar across town. After occupying 13 other locations around the city, including a former post office, a former drugstore and a former strip club, it’s now settled in its current home in Seattle’s historically queer arts epicenter.
I pay my way in with pocket change and step into a parking lot given over to dozens of booths, tables and a food-truck court. People of every age and shape mill about in the spring sunshine. Inside the building, DJ Port-a-Party slides from the Housemartins to Kermit the Frog singing The Rainbow Connection. Hundreds of shoppers and more vendors – 204 in all – engage in a bustling economy entirely of their own making. According to organizers, more than 8,000 people will pour through this weekend – a modest tally, which during December installments typically reaches into five figures.
Even a limited litany of items for sale would be too long for this article; suffice to say, the Punk Rock flea market is part renegade art gallery, part unfathomable yard sale and part curated vintage mall, overflowing with treasures and trash. Where the QFC’s produce section used to be, a woman shows artwork made from dried seaweed next to an anarchist bookseller next to a guy hawking carved wooden daggers. In the old storeroom, hundreds of Hot Wheels and action figures hang in a display reminiscent of a 1980s Toys R Us. Behind a bar that was once the deli section, volunteers serve beer and hot dogs. Every square inch of every vertical surface – and much of the floor and ceiling – has been painted, wheat-pasted, stickered and graffitied, the evolving contributions of hundreds of local artists, some commissioned, others extemporaneous. The crowd is equally spectacular, a parade of eye-boggling fashion and personal expression.
“I’m an ageing punk. I’m a weirdo,” says Ray Myzelle Bones, a regular Punk Rock flea market vendor selling lavender salts and sprays she makes on her farm outside the city. “This is a place that’s safe for neuro-spicy people. It’s also this current of community that people say we’ve lost, but we haven’t. It just lives somewhere else.”
The last 20 years have not been kind to the punks of Seattle. In that time, the US Pacific north-west’s largest metropolis morphed from low-stakes, overachieving cultural incubator to the US’s hub of neoliberal corporate capitalism. The cost of living has blown up by 78%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The city’s present status as the 12th most expensive in the world – unimaginable during Seattle’s grunge heyday – doesn’t leave much room for artists and freaks to live in the place they made famous.
The Punk Rock flea market has not only hung on for 20 years, it’s more popular than ever, seemingly galvanized by Seattleites’ acute desire for some kind of alternative economic reality. DJ Port-a-Party, aka Rob Zverina, cites the Punk Rock flea market as an example of Czech philosopher Václav Benda’s “parallel polis”, a self-contained society existing for and by itself as a mirror to the status quo.
What began as an anti-establishment endeavor has itself become the establishment, in the process deepening its community-minded values. The Punk Rock flea market operates as a non-profit that donates proceeds to Seattle’s Low Income Housing Institute and includes as employees former unhoused people. It maintains a low bar to entry to allow for maximum accessibility. Attribute this ethos of community caretaking to Josh Okrent, the Punk Rock flea market’s founding punk.
“Punk stems from a musical style, but there’s an entire worldview that transcends the music,” Okrent, a 57-year-old father of two and longtime professional non-profit fund developer, tells me. “We are punk in that we are defining our own identity. We’re not political in terms of actively resisting anything, but we are organizing to trade among ourselves in a way that refuses to recognize any other order and makes no concession.”
An anti-capitalist marketplace?
“Trading is a natural human thing,” Okrent says. “It’s been going on since way before capitalism and will continue long after capitalism is dead. All the money is being kept in the community, and that’s the objective.”
Okrent’s affable guidance has seen the Punk Rock flea market through challenging times. After the market outgrew its original location, Okrent spent years moving it to a series of spaces left vacant by previous tenants before new development turned them into sprawling condos or expensive commercial real estate, resilient like a cockroach surviving repeated disasters. During the pandemic, it took over an abandoned Bartell Drugs, at 15,000 sq ft its largest footprint at that point, thanks to a boost from the city of Seattle’s Storefronts program, which paid the market’s rent. This location was ground zero for the collision of Seattle’s homelessness and fentanyl crises, in a downtown core hollowed by Covid.
“We had these people not only living on our doorstep, but dying on our doorstep,” Okrent says.
Ruby Tuesday Romero, who attended the inaugural Punk Rock flea market as a teenager and later joined the staff, led community outreach efforts. She responded to an electrical fire started by squatters and administered Narcan to people who had overdosed.
“As someone who’d recently exited homelessness, it was a really big deal for me to be a part of that community and try to help others in that situation,” she says.
Okrent credits lessons learned and credibility gained from the Punk Rock flea market’s 18 months downtown for leading to the market’s Shangri-la on Capitol Hill. Today, the Punk Rock flea market receives funding from 4Culture, an arts granting organization of the county, and is partnered with powerful real estate development firm Hunters Capital on the lease of the old QFC.
“The building was broken into several times and was in really rough shape,” says Jill Cronauer, chief operating officer of Hunters Capital. “So one of our biggest questions was, how is anyone going to take this space and make it work?” Okrent’s business pitch to Hunters included upgrading and securing the property as well as improving public safety by bringing life and culture into the neighborhood. Cronauer and her colleagues at Hunters were persuaded enough to take on the risk of a temporary tenant. “These guys are just so talented and creative and have such an amazing volunteer team behind them that they made the space what it is today,” she says.
In a city suffering from chronic vacancies and exorbitant rents, Okrent sees Hunters as an outlier, a real estate developer genuinely aligned with community needs.
“It’s rare that I have nice things to say about landlords,” he says, “but these guys have been fantastic.”
Okrent owns the Punk Rock flea market name as a business license in Washington state, but beyond that he takes no ownership of the concept; he says a Punk Rock flea market opened in Philadelphia in 2006, concurrent but unrelated. Over the last 20 years, he’s connected with organizers in London and Berlin and hosted exchanges with folks from Reno, all of whom now operate their own versions; more unaffiliated Punk Rock flea markets have opened in Toronto, Winnipeg, New Jersey, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and elsewhere. His paid staff of 11 meets weekly to plan events year-round, such as all-ages concerts, fashion shows and raves. In the Punk Rock flea market’s anarchistic form of governance, consensus happens through argument and compromise, decisions made collectively among staff, volunteers and vendors. They’re leasing from Hunters on a six-month-by-six-month basis, with plans to stay put through next year – or whenever it makes financial sense to begin construction on the six-story mixed-use development taking the place of the old building.
“There’s no amount of money that could replace the culture that we’ve created for ourselves,” Okrent says. “At the end of the day, it’s about the people who make it happen. We like each other and we like working together, and there’s something wonderful about coming together in the challenge of this abandoned building and turning it into something beautiful – beautiful by our standards.”
Seattle, WA
VIDEO: Mayor Wilson proposes renewing, expanding Seattle Transit Measure by doubling the sales-tax percentage that funds it.
Through the end of this year, 0.15% of the sales tax you pay funds the voter-approved Seattle Transit Measure. That would double to 0.30% if the City Council and Seattle voters approve the renewal/expansion that Mayor Katie Wilson officially introduced this afternoon. She said it’ll make living in Seattle more affordable by enabling more people to “live car-free or car-light.” She acknowledged that raising the sales tax isn’t ideal but noted that it’s one of the few revenue-raising tools available under state law. Besides paying for more transit – 280,000 additional Metro bus trips a year, 100,000 more than the current measure funds – it also would pay for 22,000 free ORCA transit passes, more than double what the city provides now, said acting SDOT director Angela Brady during the announcement event at City Hall. The passes are now available to Seattle Promise scholars, low-income Seattle Preschool Program families, and Seattle Housing Authority residents. The measure’s renewal/expansion would also make those passes available to Housing Choice Voucher participants.
The mayor’s announcement says the Transit Measure isn’t just about buses: It also would “support the design and delivery of Sound Transit’s West Seattle Link Extension, Ballard Link Extension, and Graham Street Station.” The 0.30% sales tax would generate an estimated $138 million average per year for the 10 years of this measure, which is proposed to go to voters in November. Council review starts this Thursday and will be led by District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka, who chairs the council committee that oversees transportation. We’ll add the specific text of the proposal when we get it; the slide deck for Thursday’s council meeting is now available, and we’ll add some highlights from that soon.
SEATTLE — With less than two weeks before Seattle hosts matches during the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee Chair Bob Kettle is escalating his criticism of Mayor Katie Wilson’s decision not to activate newly installed CCTV cameras in the Stadium District and suggesting she is violating established law.
In a sharply worded letter sent Monday, Kettle argues that the mayor’s decision to pause activation of the city’s Technology-Assisted Public Safety Pilot Program is inconsistent with city law and the ordinances approved by the Seattle City Council.
RELATED | Mayor Wilson hosts discussion on surveillance and security, takes questions from public
“I believe that she is not operating according to the ordinances, the law with respect to the stadium ordinances, and her duties under the charter,” Kettle said in an interview on Tuesday.
The dispute centers on 22 CCTV cameras that have already been installed in and around Seattle’s Stadium District but remain inactive as city leaders debate privacy concerns and the circumstances under which the system should be used.
Kettle said the approaching World Cup is what prompted him to send the letter.
“Basically, we’re less than two weeks out from the World Cup, and we’re not ready,” Kettle said. “We have capacity with these stadium cameras, they’re up, they’re installed, but they’re not turned on.”
In his letter, Kettle argues that the council already approved the surveillance technology through council-approved ordinances, specifically outlining the limited circumstances under which the program can be paused.
According to Kettle, those conditions include situations where the city is compelled to release camera data for civil immigration enforcement, gender-affirming care investigations, or reproductive healthcare matters, or when city leaders determine the technology is being used for those purposes.
RELATED | City leaders say Seattle ready for World Cup, despite concerns with surveillance, drones
“Neither condition has occurred that would merit a temporary program pause,” Kettle wrote.
The councilmember contends that the Seattle Municipal Code and the approved surveillance impact report provide no authority for the mayor to indefinitely delay the program’s implementation beyond those specified exceptions.
The mayor’s office has defended its position, saying activation decisions will be guided by public safety experts and intelligence assessments ahead of the World Cup.
“Mayor Wilson continues to consult public safety officials regarding circumstances that might warrant use of the expanded set of cameras during the FIFA World Cup,” the mayor’s office said in a previous statement. “We appreciate councilmembers’ perspectives, and those will be part of ongoing discussions.”
The previous statement continued:
“With regard to credible threats: Identifying a credible threat involves multiple experts from federal, state, and local agencies monitoring and assessing various streams of information. In collaboration with one another, they weigh incoming intelligence and jointly recommend whether to elevate security operations. Mayor Wilson’s decision whether to activate the Stadium District cameras will be informed by this group’s recommendation.”
The mayor’s office has been asked if there is a change in perspective given Kettle’s letter. In a new statement obtained by KOMO News on Tuesday, the mayor’s office said Wilson’s position remains “unchanged.”
“Per our legal review, we believe council has the authority to pause the use of adopted surveillance technology but cannot require its use,” the mayor’s office said in Tuesday’s statement. “The Mayor is ensuring that our use of surveillance technology is protective of civil rights, liberties, and privacy and provides sufficient data privacy safeguards. The Mayor has a duty to make sure our use of these technologies is responsible.”
Kettle argues that waiting for a specific threat before activating the cameras misunderstands modern security planning.
SEE ALSO | Seattle mayor’s verbal missteps prompt national and viral attention, leadership questions
“There are credible concerns,” Kettle said, citing worries about drones and other security issues surrounding a major international event.
He pointed to examples, including the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, arguing that public officials often do not receive advance warning before attacks occur.
“This idea that you’re going to get a credible threat warning is not right. It’s not the professional standard,” Kettle said. “The 22 cameras are installed, they’re ready to go, they just need to be turned on.”
Opponents of the camera expansion have raised concerns that footage could potentially be sought by federal immigration authorities or used in ways that conflict with Seattle’s sanctuary city policies.
Kettle dismissed those concerns, arguing that the council built extensive safeguards into the legislation governing the cameras.
“We don’t have facial recognition,” Kettle said, noting the city established restrictions and oversight measures as part of the technology program.
He also argued that federal agencies have their own surveillance capabilities and do not need Seattle’s camera network to conduct enforcement operations.
Kettle said he sought legal guidance before sending the letter and believes the mayor’s decision is inconsistent with the ordinances governing the program.
“I asked the question, if Mayor Harrell had to do all this in terms of ordinances, why is it that Mayor Wilson does not?” Kettle said. He said attorneys reviewing the issue identified concerns centered on the language governing when the program may be “paused.”
While Kettle stopped short of calling for legal action against the mayor, he said he wanted to publicly highlight what he views as a conflict between the administration’s actions and council-approved law.
“Her move related to the pause is not right, and essentially a violation,” Kettle said.
Kettle said Seattle is the only one of the 11 World Cup host cities that does not have its full camera system operational and warned that the city is running out of time.
“We have to take action now to get ourselves ready for the World Cup,” he said. “That is ensuring that we have all the pieces in place, and that we’re using the capacities that we have to their full ability.”
Kettle said he was scheduled to meet with members of the mayor’s team on Tuesday and hopes a resolution can be reached before the first World Cup matches arrive in Seattle.
Seattle, WA
Melinda French Gates is done ‘cheering on Seattle from the sidelines’ — she’s buying into the bet to bring the Sonics back | Fortune
Melinda French Gates, a billionaire philanthropist and businesswoman, will join the Seattle Kraken as a minority investor, pending NHL approval.
French Gates, 61, is the ex-wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. She and her $30 billion net worth, according to Forbes, join an ownership group headlined by majority owner and managing partner Samantha Holloway, as well as investors David Wright, Andy Jassy and longtime Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
“As a longtime Seattle resident, it means a lot to me to have the chance to make this investment in our city and its future,” French Gates said in a statement. “I’m a big believer in the power of sports, and after many years of cheering on Seattle from the sidelines, I’m excited to have an even deeper connection to the Seattle sports community.”
French Gates has never previously had an ownership stake in a major professional sports franchise. She will do so at a time when the Kraken ownership group is positioning itself to own an NBA franchise should the NBA return to the Emerald City for the first time since the SuperSonics were relocated to Oklahoma City nearly 20 years ago.
In March, the Kraken ownership group announced the creation of One Roof Sports and Entertainment, which serves as the umbrella brand of the organization to “oversee a growing portfolio of properties and fuel new opportunities.” At the time, Holloway announced that One Roof would pursue an NBA team in Seattle, should the league move forward with expansion.
Holloway also announced in March that the group had entered an agreement to purchase additional equity in Climate Pledge Arena from Oak View Group, and would make the organization the majority owner of the building. OVG has retained a minority stake.
French Gates, who grew up in Dallas and received a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics, as well as an MBA from Duke, currently heads Pivotal, a group of organizations she founded to accelerate the pace of social progress for women and young people in the United States and around the world.
French Gates previously founded and co-chaired the Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropy.
“I am excited to welcome Melinda to our ownership group,” Holloway said in a statement. “Melinda is an impressive business leader, philanthropist and importantly, a Seattle sports fan. We share many of the same values, including a deep commitment to Seattle and a belief in building organizations that create lasting impact.”
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