Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba is joining defensive lineman Leonard Williams as a Pro Bowl replacement.

Smith-Njigba was announced as a replacement for Washington Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin, who is injured. McLaurin’s injury has not been disclosed, per The Athletic’s Ben Standig, and appears to be basic “wear and tear” from the team’s run to the NFC Championship.

Williams, Smith-Njigba and cornerback Devon Witherspoon now make up Seattle’s trio of Pro Bowlers — the 14th straight season the team has had at least three players earn the honor, per Seahawks PR.

Smith-Njigba broke out in 2024 under offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who has since been fired and replaced by former New Orleans coordinator Klint Kubiak. In just his second NFL season, Smith-Njigba totaled 100 catches for 1,130 receiving yards and six touchdowns.

The catch total tied Tyler Lockett’s single-season franchise reception record, and no other receiver in the league was in the same ballpark as Smith-Njigba in production from the slot.

Smith-Njigba had 83 catches for 993 yards from the slot, per Pro Football Focus — the second-most receiving yards by one player from the slot in the last three seasons behind only Dallas Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb’s 2023 campaign (1,009 receiving yards).

It was a rapid rise after Smith-Njigba had 63 catches for 628 yards and four touchdowns as a rookie. Seattle has now had a receiver selected to the Pro Bowl in back-to-back seasons after DK Metcalf was selected last season.

Smith-Njigba will be a cornerstone of Seattle’s offense moving forward, and the first Pro Bowl nod of his career acknowledges he’s a rising star.

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The Seattle City Council has selected Mark Solomon to fill the District 2 vacancy created on the council by the resignation of Tammy Morales earlier this month. Solomon is a crime prevention coordinator at the Seattle Police Department who ran against Morales in 2019 and lost by a 21-point margin.

This year, Solomon was able to best the five other men vying for the seat as finalists — no women made Council’s cut for the final six.

District 2 includes all of Southeast Seattle, the International District, and parts of First Hill. Solomon will represent D2 until the results of this November’s election are ratified. In contrast with most of Council’s six other finalists for the opening, Solomon has said he will not file to run in that election (though former 37th Legislative District candidate Chukundi Salisbury also made the same pledge).

Seattle’s new District 2 councilmember is Mark Solomon, a crime prevention coordinator at the Seattle Police Department who lost to Tammy Morales by a 60-40 margin in 2019.

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— The Urbanist (@theurbanist.org) January 27, 2025 at 11:58 AM

Some of the other finalists may soon announce campaigns for the seat. Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) communications lead Adonis Ducksworth was the runner-up for the appointment and had pledged to run for the seat this fall. Among those who are rumored to be mulling a run for the permanent seat is Dionne Foster, a long-time progressive organizer and activist who is executive director of Progress Alliance of Washington.

D2 has a reputation for electing progressive councilmembers — though only two officeholders have represented the district since it was created in 2015: Bruce Harrell and Tammy Morales. Morales ended up composing Council’s leftmost flank following Kshama Sawant’s departure, while Harrell executed a centrist campaign to perfection in his 2021 mayoral bid. Harrell narrowly defeated Morales in 2015, but walked away rather than face a rematch in 2019.

New land use chair

Morales was chair of Council’s Land Use Committee, which is a position that Solomon will inherit. Under the broader auspices of the Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan chaired by Joy Hollingsworth (District 3), the city council will be tackling a once-a-decade update to the Seattle Comprehensive Plan, which will guide housing growth and infrastructure investments for the next 20 years. Solomon cited “bringing the Comprehensive Plan over the finish line” as his first priority in his application for the position, followed by reining in after-hours clubs and reducing crime and disorder in Little Saigon.

Solomon’s vote could be instrumental in finalizing and approving the package, with Councilmember Cathy Moore (District 5) and Maritza Rivera (District 4) expressing skepticism about the direction of the mayor’s plan and a desire take a more cautious and incremental approach. Beyond including the state mandate to replace single family zoning with residential zones that allow fourplexes at a minimum, Mayor Bruce Harrell’s “One Seattle Plan” designates 30 neighborhood centers that add some allowances for mid-rise apartments around existing business nodes. Moore objected to one such neighborhood center in Maple Leaf, where she resides.

Talking to media Monday, Solomon stood by the answer he gave during a candidate forum that he would not be seeking to pull neighborhood centers out of the plan, as Moore has pledged to do.

“I do [stand by that answer]. Because, again, when we have neighborhoods that are walkable, where people can get groceries, school, whatever amenities, libraries,” Solomon said. “That makes sense, right? So, as opposed to having to jump in the car, jump on the bus to get some place. If it’s right in your neighborhood, making neighborhoods walkable helping activate those neighborhoods. To me, that makes sense.”

Solomon suggested that the wealthier parts of Seattle shirking their responsibility to add housing increases pressure on District 2, which is the city’s most diverse area, facing considerable displacement pressure.

“There may be some folks who object to [neighborhood centers],” Solomon said. “There are some neighborhoods who don’t want change. They don’t want eight-story apartment buildings in their community. That’s understandable, but if we’re one Seattle, one Seattle needs to come together so that again, it’s not all concentrated on North Rainier here in D2. It’s spread out.”

Permit reform, further tree protections, and fighting displacement

Solomon shared a desire to advance permitting reform during his time as land use chair. He also hinted at a desire to write permitting changes into the Comprehensive Plan, which isn’t necessary. Unlike zoning changes, permitting reform can happen without first updating the Comprehensive Plan.

“I want to fix the permitting process, because it is so onerous right now that it’s actually inhibiting our ability to build in the city,” Solomon told reporters. “So as looking at the comprehensive plan, how can we leverage permitting changes into the comprehensive plan? I also want to look at, how can we ensure that we have those anti-displacement measures in place. How can we ensure that we keep people in their homes and have the opportunity to build generational wealth? I benefit from that, you know? I benefit from the fact that I live in the house my grandparents built. I want to see other phone other families have that opportunity to build generational wealth as well. So, the anti-displacement and making sure that the density that is coming is shared throughout the city.”

The Harrell Administration has been slowly advancing a Seattle process around permitting reform since 2021 — with housing advocates raising issues with Seattle’s notoriously slow housing approval process for longer than that.

Like several of his new colleagues, Solomon expressed interest in revisiting Seattle’s tree ordinance passed in 2023, which some tree advocacy groups have argued didn’t go far enough — despite the expanded tree protections in the legislation.

“I believe you can do housing and trees. No, I don’t think it’s either or. I think it’s both,” Solomon said. “How do we make that happen? How do we restrict it, or improve the tree ordinance so we actually have more tree canopy? How do we have more green space? So definitely, going to be looking at all those things and engage the community to make it happen.”

Solomon will have to hit the ground running. Seattle faces a July deadline to pass zoning reforms to phase out single family zoning or fall under the state model code that will supersede local zoning in jurisdiction that fail to meet the new statewide middle housing standard greenlit in 2023. Given the threat of appeal and predatory delay, Council made need to use an interim ordinance to get it done in time.

In her resignation remarks, Morales had warned that her fellow councilmembers efforts to ostracize her and undermine her work ultimately disenfranchised D2 residents. She cited her colleagues’ decision to appoint her 2023 opponent Tanya Woo to Council to replace outgoing Teresa Mosqueda (who now serves on King County Council) as undermining pledges of civility and mutual respect. Appointing her 2019 opponent may not be much better in Morales’ eyes, but Solomon now has a chance to see if he can better elevate the needs of D2 residents — which can tend to be overlooked in the machinations of city hall.

Lunar New Year is here. Also known as Chinese New Year, Tet Nguyen Dan, and Seollal, it’s a holiday celebrated by millions of people throughout Asia and the Asian diaspora. In Washington, Lunar New Year is now recognized as an official state holiday. Some Lunar New Year events have already taken place, but with the Year of the Wood Snake officially kicking off on January 29, there are a bevy of celebrations and food specials to look forward to.

Here’s a guide to some of notable restaurants, bars, and bakeries doing specials and events for Lunar New Year 2025 in the Seattle area:

• At the new Capitol Hill Vietnamese restaurant Ramie, Tet comes with an array of special menu items, including banh beo (rice cakes) with crab stew and chicharrones, a head cheese wrap, and che troi nuoc (rice balls filled with mung bean paste served in ginger syrup). On February 2, Ramie will host a Lion Dance, a traditional way of welcoming the Lunar New Year. Sibling restaurant Ba Sa on Bainbridge Island will be serving some of the same specials and also hosting a February 2 Lion Dance.
• Monsoon, one of Seattle’s most well-known Vietnamese restaurants, is also featuring a number of Tet specials, including the traditional banh tet (filled rice cakes boiled in banana leaves) and pork braised in a clay pot. These specials will run until February 2.
• The Asian American brewery Lucky Envelope always goes big for Lunar New Year and this year is no exception. The Ballard beer-maker will be releasing four new beers — including a sesame chili cream stout and an imperial stout brewed with tea — at a Lunar New Year party on February 1. There will be red envelope giveaways and food truck Panda Dim Sum will be on site from 3 to 8:30 p.m.

• Recently opened Peruvian restaurant La Mar Bellevue is serving a special Lunar New Year menu from January 29 to February 2. This may sound like an odd combination, but Peru is home to a large Chinese community and there is even a culinary style, called Chifa, that fuses Cantonese and Peruvian traditions. The La Mar menu will include items like aji relleno — crispy sweet peppers stuff with crab and glazed with a chili and condensed milk sauce.
• From January 29 to February 12, the Smith Tower’s Observatory Bar — home to some of the best views in all downtown — will be serving three Chinese-inspired cocktails, like the Empress’s Elixir, which has Szechuan-infused gin, lemon juice, honey. What’s the deal here? The Smith Tower has “deep ties to China,” according to a press release, and the Chinese Room (where the bar is located) has a bunch of furniture and decor gifted by Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi.
• Fremont dessert destination Paper Cake Shop — run by Joule’s Rachel Yang and pastry chef Gabby Park — is serving a special cake, the Good Fortune Cake, until the end of January. It has gluten-free chocolate sponge, mandarin orange caramel, walnut praline buttercream filling, walnut praline frosting, and slices of kumquat on top.
• Another sweet option can be found at the Central District doughnut shop Raised, which from January 30 to February 2 will be featuring red and gold mochi doughnuts and furikake (!) mochi doughnuts.

• Finally, the mega popular Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung is celebrating Lunar New Year by collaborating with Taiwanese American artist James Jean. While supplies last, guests to any DTF location (including the four in the Seattle metro area) get a gift card with Jean’s art on it that can be redeemed for a seaweed and bean curd salad appetizer. Anyone who spends more than $175 on a takeout order gets a limited edition James Jean tote.