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Madison Park Times editor After 20 years in the industry, James Crossley knows what it takes to run an independent bookstore like his own, Madison Books — hard work and a lot of flexibility and willingness to change. As his store approaches its two-year anniversary in April, which coincides with Indie Bookstore Day, Crossley said he has no regrets about opening his business the year before a pandemic, and he probably would have done it anyway had he known one was coming. “I would be a terrible salesperson, I think, for anything but books,” Crossley said. Although running a neighborhood bookstore like Madison Books is never easy, and has become even tougher during the pandemic, independent bookstores have actually experienced a renaissance in the past 10 years, Crossley said. Their numbers have even grown in cities across the country, although nowhere near the numbers they used to have. Crossley attributes this to bookstore owners successfully learning how to navigate a new retail world filled with big box stores and the internet. “We are a hardy bunch,” he said. Another reason for the growth of independent bookstores, Crossley said, is a renewed interest from residents in having a place to bring them together, where the owners and staff knew books, and could remember readers’ preferences and make recommendations based on their interests. Those things were not guaranteed at the big chain bookstores. Another factor, Crossley said, is the internet, which became the great equalizer between independent bookstores and big box stores, because the smaller neighborhood bookstores can carry all the same books the big stores do, even if they’re not onsite. Crossley said he can place an order for a book he doesn’t have in his shop, and it will arrive within a couple of days. Crossley said people can also order books through the store’s website, as well, although many still choose to come to the shop to find out what is knew and what they might like. When the pandemic hit, Crossley said independent bookstores had to adjust again, which posed an interesting dilemma. After years of work and time independent bookstore owners dedicated to reinforcing the importance and benefits of neighborhood bookstores, suddenly they had to
Madrona fundraiser Page 3
Photo by Jessica Keller James Crossley, left, owner of Madison Books in Madison Park, and Brittany Lentz review book orders at the shop recently. Despite a pandemic, Madison Books is doing well as residents have supported the store, even as Crossley has adjusted practices to meet restrictions. Some changes Crossley made, such as author appearances through Zoom, have been well received. emphasize to people how the bookstores could still serve them through the internet while they could not be together or not
in the ways they wanted. For many, in the
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February 2021
Revisiting the Park: Business as usual By Richard Carl Lehman
T
he business district in Madison Park, compared with 75 years ago, has been reworked with the many shops and restaurants closed. It is odd dining outside in the elements but helpful in keeping socialization somewhat steady and restaurant workers working. Takeout is a wonderful invention to thwart the “I am sick of cooking” refrain. Madison Park started with a few small businesses with only a few restrictions. Many trucks roamed our area in the mid-’40s. One truck sold fresh fruit and vegetables from the farms in Kirkland and surrounding areas. Another sharpened cutlery, even hand-push lawn mowers. Jolly John was an ice cream vendor that cruised our streets with a welcoming bell. John sold many delights and had a way with the ladies. Other trucks offered samples like shiny Bing cherries as big as golf balls — it was hard to say no. My grandmother and Mom’s snack bar at the south end of Madison beach was on Johnson’s
boathouse property and was a favorite for Madison beach and the neighborhood. Everyone made a buck. I personally miss a car repair garage: Someone like Oly from Bill Turner’s Richfield where Starbucks is today really knew his stuff. “Oly, my car battery is dead,” and in a few minutes your ride was up and running. In the ’50s, there was quite the assortment of restaurants and cafes downtown — a kind of hodgepodge society. Pioneer Square was then called Skid Row and had an art environment rivaling what we see in the art galleries today. There were rentals that some termed “cold water flats.” Some who were down and out due to unemployment, divorce or family hardship found cheap rentals. Many slept in the alleys and doorways but looked quite different from our present homeless situation. As a bakery salesman at Wonderbread, I served Skid Row and Chinatown, which left memories hard to forget. A notable gentleman I ran into in Skid Row was Lenny Peterson. He had been a
bus driver when I met him years ago at the King Fish Café, where my mom worked. He had become a policeman and was a good guy to have nearby. One early morning, two large dudes were waiting in front of my truck. “Mind if we grab a couple of samples?” There was little I could say when I heard, “Shall I call the paddy truck?” It was Lenny. Later we stopped at a nearby coffee shop and noticed a man at the counter. He had ordered oatmeal, but when the waiter set the bowl down, it slid onto the man’s lap. The diner quickly grabbed the bowl and scooped the remaining mush back into the bowl. The waiter added a bit more and handed him a rag to clean his peacoat. Lenny commented, “Don’t happen at Canlis!” Most of the stores in the area were “mom and pops,” but there was a Safeway, and one day I walked in to introduce myself to the manager, but he was busy telling a man, “I caught you stealing a pint of wine. You have a choice: Give me your shoes and clean out the boiler on Sunday, then you
“In the ’50s, there was quite the assortment of restaurants and cafes downtown — a kind of hodge-podge society.” get your shoes back, or I’ll call the cops!” I couldn’t believe the ne’er-dowell gave him his shoes! The manager took me to the back room and showed me row after row of shoes! He was one of the more easy-going store managers. When I started in the early morning, some of the after-hours clubs were closing and female impersonators were milling about. The streets of Skid Row were full of merriment. While serving a grocer near a public steam bath on First, I was witness to a raid and a crowd of steaming people wrapped in big white towels shivering on the sidewalk before being loaded into a police wagon. A favorite store was near Tai Tungs, and one early day, after
running back into the truck, I smelled perfume. There in the corner was a young lady begging me to let her stay. It was good she was smoking as it covered the awful perfume she was wearing. A rather large fellow stood just outside. I was counting the order standing on steps a few feet high when I turned and damned near looked straight into his eye. This very big dude says, “You see a tall, thin white girl?” I walked past him, and he left, thankfully. The woman of the night rode along on my route, and at lower Capitol Hill she thanked me as she disembarked with her black eye and bruises. I gave her the name of a restaurant manager, and weeks later there was a card above my visor with $10 enclosed. Madison Park has remained in a sort of bubble, away from much of other world goings on, and we are thankful to have our friends nearby with places to walk, eat and shop. We may not have Hart, Schaffner and Marx suits to buy here, but where are we going to go anyway?
Architect, Capitol Hill resident announces candidacy for Seattle mayor Local architect and advocate Andrew Grant Houston has declared his candidacy for the mayor of Seattle. Mayor Jenny A. Durkan announced in the fall that she would not be running for reelection. Houston, a Capitol Hill resident, is a member of AIA Seattle, a board member of Futurewise and a member of Share The Cities, The Pike/Pine Urban Neighborhood Council, The Sunrise Movement and the 43rd Demo-
crats. He also currently serves as the interim policy manager for City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda. According to a press release, Houston decided to run for mayor after years advocating for more housing at all income levels and following a lack of response to the climate crisis this past September, when the Puget Sound registered the worst Air Quality Index score the region has ever
Andrew Houston
seen. According to the release, Houston is a queer Black and Latino architect, a small business
owner and activist “with a vision of transforming Seattle into one of the most vibrant, sustainable cities in the world: a city where no one has to sleep outside, where local businesses and culture thrive, and where orcas start to visit once again.” According to his release, Houston believes the economy needs to transform with climate change uncertainty in mind. “Andrew knows that means fair wages, worker ownership and
a mass investment in sustainable infrastructure as well as the enhanced support of local farmers, support of Seattle’s arts, increased funding for community-led public safety, cleaning up the Duwamish and Elliott Bay and ensuring the existing housing demand is met while increasing the stock of publicly-owned housing and community land trusts,” according to the release. For more information, visit his website, www.agh4sea.com.
February 2021
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Photo by Jessica Keller Madison Books owner James Crossley looks for the proper place to puts away a children’s book at his store in Madison Park. The small size of the bookstore in Madison Park has benefited Crossley during the pandemic because meeting restrictions has been easier than at other businesses, and his customers have supported Madison Books throughout. BOOKSTORE, PAGE 1
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early pandemic days, the internet was the only medium through which any bookstore could operate, and even now, it still plays an important role, Crossley said. “It’s not as much fun, but we did it, and people supported us,” he said. During the pandemic, Crossley said his bookstore has encountered fewer challenges than others, particularly larger ones. In his case, Madison Book’s size has helped it out. “The smaller the store, the better able we were to make these changes,” Crossley said. To meet Gov. Jay Inslee’s most recent pandemic restrictions, the bookstore is only allowing one shopping party at a time and limiting visits to 25 minutes. Considering the store’s pocket book size, Madison Books can’t host a large number of people at one time anyway, Crossley said, adding people looking through the shop’s front window can get a good idea about half of the inventory featured. Plus, visi-
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tors have been good about using hand sanitizer, wearing masks and standing 6 feet apart, nor do they mind waiting outside for five or so minutes before coming in. “You’re not missing out on too much of the experience,” Crossley said. Madison Books even grew in 2020, despite the shutdowns and restrictions. Crossley said, when the store could not be open, he communicated with people through email and phone call, and he turned to mailing and even delivering books to customers before expanding to curbside pickup and now small shopping parties. “I wasn’t sure, during the busy holiday season, if you could do enough business with those restrictions in place, but it turns out you can,” Crossley said. One area that has hurt larger bookstores is the loss of author appearances and readings, Crossley said. Madison Books has never hosted too many to begin with because of the store’s size, but Crossley said, with Zoom and a little ingenuity, he has actually hosted a number of successful virtual events and with well-known authors, too. While John Grisham wouldn’t make an appearance at Madison Books in person, the author participated virtually in one of the store’s summer series. “Out in the virtual world, we are just as big as anybody,” Crossley said. He also said the format of the events changed. Pre-pandemic, authors would come in, sign copies of books, read an excerpt from their books and answer a questions. Crossley said, when he was mulling the idea of how to bring back author appearances through Zoom, he realized he not only could bring them back, he could improve on the format. Crossley said, through his career, he has built a good network of independent bookstore owners,
and he reached out to them to see if they wanted to partner up to host these events. He said, by drawing from his customer base and having the other bookstore owners draw from theirs, they could attract more authors and audiences to the events, resulting in more sales and a continued interest in the bookstores. The second idea was to partner authors together at these appearances. One popular author event included Iona Whishaw, a historical mystery author from British Columbia who has a large fan base at Madison Books, and Elizabeth George, a Seattle author who writes psychological suspense thrillers. Another virtual author event featured an author who had written a history on the Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, Washington. He was paired with another author who wrote a fictional book that featured someone who worked at the Hanford site. The arrangement was a winner for everyone: More authors got to promote their books, more audiences were reached and perhaps introduced to new authors and the format and conversations generated were more engaging for everyone, Crossley said. Looking ahead, Crossley said he will keep some of the practices he started during the pandemic in place, such as the Zoom author events. And, just as he had to do this past year, Crossley will continue to adjust as necessary to stay in business, just as he’s always done. “It’s been 20 years of figuring out new ways to do things as the retail environment has changed moment by moment,” he said. Madison Books, 4118 E. Madison St., is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. For information, call 206-325-3160, or visit www. madisonbks.com.
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February 2021
Photo by Jessica Keller Cafe Soleil on 34th Avenue in Madrona was one of the restaurants in the neighborhood that resident Kevin O’Doherty wanted to benefit from a GoFundMe campaign he started to raise money for rent. O’Doherty was worried the restaurants, which he described as the core of the neighborhood, would not survive without extra help from the community.
Madrona GoFundMe campaign to benefit restaurants in village By Jessica Keller
Madison Park Times editor A Madrona man concerned about whether restaurants in his village are going to survive through the pandemic has spearheaded a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help them survive the pandemic. Kevin O’Doherty, a 22-year resident of Madrona and real estate broker for Windemere Madison Park, said he was spurred to act by Gov. Jay Inslee’s shutdown of indoor dining in November. At that time, it was evident to him the situation wasn’t going to improve by January, and O’Doherty wanted to do something for the restaurants, which he said make up the core of Madrona’s village. “The first thing that occurred to me is that we’re going to lose all the restaurants in Madrona if somebody doesn’t do something,” O’Doherty said. The restaurants included in his campaign are Bistro Turkuaz, The Bottlehouse, Café Soleil, The Hi Spot, Madrona Arms, Naam Thai Cuisine, Red Cow and Vendemmia. While he has no personal ties to any of the restaurants, O’Doherty said he has eaten at each of the restaurants and wanted to help. “My reaction was kind of driven by a steady diet of grim stats and stories of how dire the situation is for small businesses and restaurants in particular,” O’Doherty said.
“The first thing that occurred to me is that we’re going to lose all the restaurants in Madrona if somebody doesn’t do something.” — Kevin O’Doherty Madrona resident
Most of the restaurants are family-run businesses, and between cost of supplies and overhead, they make a small profit to begin with. “There’s only so long you can hold on,” he said. O’Doherty first approached a few of the owners and asked them what they needed. After speaking with them, he concluded the best way to help was with money. Since then, he has spoken to all of the owners about his plan, and he and a small team of people printed and handed out flyers to every household in Madrona and inside the windows of businesses and at some points of sale. He said staff at W Creative, an ad agency, donated their time for the creative aspect of the campaign design, and Girlie Press — a neighborhood print shop — printed all the flyers for free. “It was very grassroots, old school,” O’Doherty said of the effort. He launched the campaign in
December, and the effort gained a lot of traction in the following months. As of the last week of January, it has raised close to $30,000. While O’Doherty is going to leave the GoFundMe account open, he will not be waiting for the campaign to hit its target goal of $60,000 — the equivalent of about two months’ rent for each of the restaurants, before he distributes the money. O’Doherty also intends to begin a new phase of his campaign by turning his attention to all the businesses in Madrona. This plan doesn’t include a fundraiser but will include marketing and public relations efforts to increase awareness about what Madrona has to offer and, hopefully, generate more foot traffic on 34th Avenue. “I mean, we’ve got to pump it up,” he said. O’Doherty said Madrona is off the beaten path and not really a destination point, but it is a charming village and deserves the attention. He also hopes that residents start their own campaigns to benefit businesses in other neighborhoods of Seattle because help is needed everywhere. “This is one of those moments in time where everybody needs to act,” O’Doherty said. “You can’t sit back and hope that everybody else is going to do it.” To learn about the fundraising effort, or to donate, go to https:// www.gofundme.com/f/supportmadrona-restaurants.
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February 2021
A Valentine for your garden By Steve Lorton Tree Talk
R
ed berries: What would the holidays be without them? Engineered by nature to attract attention through the darkest months, they enliven the dormant garden, carrying the seeds inside them, along with our spirits, through winter. From Thanksgiving, through Hanukkah, the Winter solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, into the new year, they embellish our dining tables and greeting cards. But wait! Don’t leave out Valentine’s Day. Given our warmer winters, which appear likely to continue, red berries have stayed on many of the trees and shrubs that bear them. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a hard freeze followed by a sunny day, fermenting the fruits, making for tipsy birds. Stroll the sidewalks of Madison Park and you’ll see red berries popping out of every landscape. Dozens of plants sport red berries at this time of year. Three in particular are suited to city gardens, small enough or trainable enough, to tuck into most any urban landscape for season-long merriment: Pyracantha, Nandina and Cotoneaster. All sport their colorful fruits from a background
Photo courtesy Mary Henry Red berries, such as these seen here, can brighten up a garden even during the darkest days of winter and can make a thoughtful present for Valentine’s Day. of evergreen leaves. Pyracantha is a handsome, somewhat sprawling plant with stems that arch 6 to 10 feet. Various named varieties produce clusters of pea-sized berries, ranging in color from orange to cherry red and a deeply saturated Chinese red. Fountaining out in a
far corner of the garden or pruned into a hedge or espaliered against a wall, this is a showy plant … but take care. This plant has vicious thorns. Stage it in a place where you can enjoy it, untouched, until you are ready to don long sleeves and strong gloves at pruning time.
Nandina (Nandina domestica) is commonly called Heaven Bamboo. It is not a true bamboo, but has acquired this moniker for its lightly branched, cane-like stems and lacy foliage. Often seen in large pots, Nandina grows 6 to 8 feet tall with a 3- to 4-foot spread. Nurseries offer multiple cultivated varieties for leaf and berry color. Nandina is tolerant of our dry summers and grows happily in shade or full sun, making it highly prized to fill in dark spots in the garden. Given generous light, however, its leaves can color-up vividly and its fruit set far more generously. Several plants, in a sweep, where they get full south- or west-facing light, properly watered through the summer and fertilized, will give you a mass of delicate foliage topped with spectacular 6- to 12inch conical fruit clusters. Contoneaster is known for its ease of cultivation and variety, from Cotoneaster horizontals, which crawls over rocks with its herringbone branching pattern to the graceful Cotoneaster lacteus (seen in the photograph), which arches up and out to 10 feet. Easy to grow, once established, nurture the natural form of the species you choose and allow it to perform with minimal pruning. Like Nandina, but on a more
robust scale, Cotoneaster can fill a bare spot with handsome foliage with the bonus of delicate spring bloom and winter fruit. Often eclipsed by the scene stealers of rhododendron and camellia, this stalwart evergreen has worked diligently in Northwest gardens since it was introduced from China and northern India. Well planned for timely foliage, fruit and even the earliest blossom, the garden can turn the stretch of holidays from Thanksgiving until Valentine’s Day into a winter festival. That period where the sun slips up just above the Cascades, late in the morning, then crawls along the horizon only to retreat in the late afternoon, can be a period when the garden seems to have dozed into full slumber still wearing the jewels or the bow tie. Should you be searching for a thoughtful gift for your Valentine, stop in any nursery and ask for one of these red-berried plants. Unlike a box of chocolates, calorie free, and less expensive than lacy undergarments, a red-berried plant will be a growing testament to love for years to come. So think red berries for Valentine’s Day, lest the goddess Flora team up with Cupid and, in a petulant moment, get him to shoot his arrow at the wrong target.
February 2021
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Advocate Colleen Echohawk running for mayor of Seattle
Arboretum Foundation hosting annual gala
One of the Seattle’s oldest non-profits, the Arboretum Foundation, will be hosting its annual gala, “Spring Forward!” and auction online on March 4. The event will help raise important funds for Washington Park Arboretum. The one-hour livestream event is free, and all are welcome to register and participate. The event will include a guided tour of the arboretum’s spring-blooming plant collections, a performance by Native American violinist Swil Kanim, special guests and surprises. Participants can bid on nature-themed adventures, items and getaways. All funds raised will support horticulture, environmental education and volunteer programs at the Arboretum. Online registration is required to participate in auction bidding and to make a donation to the Arboretum. To sign up, visit the event page, www.arboretumfoundation.org. Registration is free. For assistance with sign-up, call 206325-4510, or email info@arboretumfoundation.org. The online auction will open three days before the livestream event, on March 1. Event sponsors are Northwest Flower & Garden Festival, Marshall & Sullivan, Seattle Lives, Arboretum Foundation Myrtle DeFriel Unit 16 and Noriko and Doug Palmer.
Colleen Echohawk, head of Chief Seattle Club and a member of the Kithehaki Band of the Pawnee Nation and the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Lake, announced she is running for Seattle mayor on a people-first platform to achieve an equitable renewal from the COVID-19 pandemic. In a press release, Echohawk said she is running because she loves the city and because residents have a “once-ina-generation chance to rethink how it works, and who it works for.” According to the press release, Echohawk is committed to solutions that co-create equitable development and rapid rehousing with community members, and which share the prosperity of the city more equitably, particularly with people of color. Central to her people-first platform is an investment in community-based organizations and businesses. Echohawk also intends to address policing and proposes the establishment of a Public Safety Department, with community-based mental health workers and neighborhood liaisons. As the head of Chief Seattle Club, a non-profit dedicated to the rapid re-housing of urban Natives, Echohawk successfully fought to create nearly $100 million in new affordable housing in Seattle, growing their budget from $450,000 to $11 million. Under her leadership, Chief Seattle Club has received recognition from the Puget Sound Sage Visionary for Justice Award, Seattle Community Law Center’s Equity Award, the Neighborhood Builder Award and Municipal League of King County’s Organization of the Year For more information, visit her website at www.echohawkforseattle.com or email at info@echohawkforseattle. com. Follow her on Facebook, www.facebook.com/echohawkforseattle/, or Twitter, https://twitter.com/EchohawkForSea, or Instagram, www.instagram.com/echohawkforseattle/
Students invited to participate in scholarship opportunity Three student essayists will split $10,000 this spring for the Stim Bullitt Civic Courage Scholarship, sponsored by The Seattle Public Library Foundation.
Submissions are now being accepted for the contest until March 15. The scholarship is hosted by The Seattle Public Library Foundation and funded by the family of the late Stimson Bullitt, a Seattle attorney, civil rights activist and environmentalist. The contest challenges local college-bound high school students and current college students to write about a Washington state figure or group of people who created change in their communities by demonstrating civic courage. The winner earns $5,000 for college tuition aid, while two runners-up win $2,500. The top three essayists will also have their submissions catalogued in The Seattle Public Library’s Special Collections. More details, including the rules, eligibility requirements and resources for research, are available at the Foundation’s Stim Bullitt scholarship page, https://supportspl.org/whatwe-do/scholarship/.
King County Law Library offers remote access to Nolo, the leading DIY legal database
The King County Law Library is now offering free remote access to the Nolo Press database for all King County residents via their website, www.kcll.org. Nolo Press has long been a leader in the consumerfriendly legal information market, offering legal self-help books and forms geared to the most common legal tasks. With resources like “The Quick & Legal Will Book,” “Beat Your Ticket,” “Neighbor Law,” and “Credit Repair,” the Nolo books present complex legal information in a plain English, user-friendly format. “Prior to the physical closure of the law library due to the pandemic, a large percentage of our walk-in patrons were doing their own legal work and we could point them to relevant print books and forms they could use in the library,” King County Law Library Executive Director Barbara Engstrom said. “Now that we have acquired the Nolo database, our staff can show resources specifically geared to folks doing DIY legal work without having to come into the library.” The King County Law Library is presenting a series of free webinars to introduce the Nolo database resources. The first in the series, “Credit & Financial Wellbeing,” is scheduled for 6 p.m. Feb. 11. Registration information can be found at www.kcll.org/classes-at-the-law-library/ classes/.
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ENFORCING 6-FT. PERSONAL SPACE WHILE SHOPPING IN-STORE 2413 E Union St. Seattle 10 AM - 11:45 PM Daily (206) 420-2180 ponderseattle.com This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. For use only by adults twenty-one and older. Keep out of the reach of children.
What to know about your local laws
In the past few years, a lot of changes have taken place in Washington State, and Seattle specifically, about what is or isn’t legal to do with cannabis. It went from a controlled substance that potentially carried jail or prison time, to a legal pastime in just over a decade. Let’s look at the current cannabis laws you should know in Seattle. 1. You can buy pot (assuming you’re 21 and have a valid ID). Ok, this one is sort of obvious. But to be more specific, you can buy up to one ounce of usable cannabis flower, seven grams of concentrates (dabs), sixteen ounces of edibles, and seventy-two ounces of liquid cannabis products. And there’s no limit to how often you can restock. Basically, it’s not hard to get your hands on some weed in Seattle, but what you can do with it afterward is a little more complicated. 2. You can’t legally consume it in public, which includes public parks, on sidewalks, or basically anywhere (including dispensaries). The only place you’re technically legally allowed to consume cannabis is on your own property. This can be pretty restrictive for a lot of people, especially tourists who aren’t
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staying in pot-friendly hotels. Unfortunately, Washington State hasn’t enabled cannabis cafes or lounges of any kind. That said, if you are caught consuming cannabis somewhere that it isn’t legal, the fines can be relatively low. In Seattle, the penalty for open consumption of cannabis is a $27 ticket. 3. You can’t grow weed either. Growing cannabis carries stiffer legal penalties than most other cannabis law violations. The only way you’re allowed to grow cannabis is if you have a medical cannabis card issued by Washington State. In which case, you’re allowed to grow up to six plants. 4. You can’t sell cannabis. You also can’t purchase it from anywhere that isn’t a licensed dispensary. Cannabis transactions must be legal, meaning the seller (dispensary) must have the appropriate licenses, and the consumer must pay state taxes and present a valid ID. 5. You can’t take cannabis out of the state, or ship it. This can be considered trafficking and carry serious legal repercussions. You also can’t bring cannabis products from other states into Washington, even if those states legally
allow the possession and sale of cannabis. 6. If you have a stateissued medical cannabis card, you’re allowed to purchase 3x the legal amount for each category of product: flower, concentrate, edible, liquid. 7. Driving under the influence of pot is extremely illegal, and you can get a DUI. Generally, you shouldn’t even have opened cannabis products anywhere within reach while driving. If your blood content shows more than 5 nanograms of THC (a very low threshold to begin with) you can be arrested and charged with a DUI, similar to driving while drunk. 8. Lastly, you can’t take cannabis onto federal lands, like the Olympic and Cascade National Parks. Knowing the laws around town is important to avoid unknowingly committing a crime and having to deal with law enforcement. Luckily, Seattle’s laws around cannabis are pretty loose, there’s just a few important things to know before you consume cannabis safely and legally. Cody Funderburk
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February 2021
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