Yesterday hit 78. By Friday afternoon we'll be back to 60 and clouds. That is the entire bandwidth of Seattle in May... a perfect summer day, a long sunset, and then the gray pulls back in like nothing happened.

The weekend held just about everything. Opening Day on the Cut, the Big Unit's #51 going up at T-Mobile, 5,000 marchers leaving Cal Anderson on May Day, the largest Cinco de Mayo block party Capitol Hill has ever thrown, and roughly four million sunburned forearms. And it followed a week that was something else entirely... a press conference at the Yesler Community Center where bullets struck the building 50 yards from the mayor. No one was hurt. Wilson was rushed out by security. The windows are boarded over now.

This is the city we live in. A sunny weekend and a shooting in the same week, and the shooting has not left the news cycle. The Mariners are home tonight for the first time in a week. The new phone ban at Seattle Public Schools starts this morning.

GiveBIG is on. Get to it.

Bullets struck Yesler Community Center 50 yards from Mayor Wilson's press conference
Tuesday afternoon, just after Wilson finished a presser about her Families, Education, Preschool and Promise levy plan, gunshots from a passing sedan hit the building. A glass door was shattered. Bullet holes are now boarded over. Three to four suspects fled in the vehicle. No descriptions, no arrests yet. Wilson was rushed out by security. By Friday she was being asked, on camera, whether the shooting changed her stance against more downtown surveillance cameras. She started to answer. Her staff cut the interview. The clip is now national. Wilson said this week she is preparing a "comprehensive strategy" on gun violence. We'll see what comes back.

Wilson's "bye" to wealthy Seattleites resurfaces at May Day march
Friday, an estimated 5,000 marchers stepped off from Cal Anderson Park behind the biggest May Day rally Seattle has hosted in years. The demands... "Communities, Not ICE. Workers, Not Billionaires. Services, Not War." Peaceful, but not quiet. Wilson's earlier remark waving "bye" at high-net-worth Seattleites who threatened to leave if the city pursued a millionaire tax is now a national talking point. The state-level millionaire tax signed last month is on track regardless. Whatever you think of it, the conversation about money in this city is louder than it has been in a decade.

City Council debates Tiny House "mega-village" amendments Wednesday morning
Council president Joy Hollingsworth has introduced an amendment that would block placement of the new larger Tiny House Villages near parks and schools. That is a real friction point with the mayor's plan to scale up to one 250-resident "interim use" village in each council district. The Land Use committee meets Wednesday at 9:30 AM. Wilson promised 1,000 new shelter units in 2026 and 500 by June 1, before the first World Cup match. Council research already says the June 1 deadline is unrealistic and that the first sites probably will not open until mid-July.

Cal Raleigh's sore right side throws shade on Mariners home opener vs. Braves
Big Dumper sat Saturday and Sunday after tweaking his side late Friday. He had an MRI Saturday and was still waiting on results late Sunday. Manager Dan Wilson is calling it day-to-day, but obliques are slow and the Mariners are playing it cautious. Atlanta is in town tonight at 6:40 PM for the first of three. Logan Gilbert (1-3, 4.03) is on the bump against Bainbridge native JR Ritchie. Seattle just got swept by Kansas City at home. The next 48 hours will say a lot about the next two weeks.

Seattle Storm valued at $1 billion, fifth in WNBA per CNBC
Released this morning. The Storm clock in fifth on CNBC's 2026 WNBA valuations, behind only New York, Las Vegas, Indiana, and Phoenix. $28 million in 2025 revenue. Four championships. Climate Pledge is selling out. The franchise the Sonics' departure left behind is now a billion-dollar business owned by three women. Worth sitting with for a second.

Seattle Public Schools' district-wide phone ban starts today
Effective Monday, May 4. Superintendent Ben Schuldiner is implementing one consistent phone policy across every school instead of the patchwork solution that had been in place. Most parents and most teachers wanted this. Now the test is whether 50,000 students and their phones cooperate before Memorial Day.

GiveBIG kicked off this morning, runs through Friday
Washington's largest online giving event is in motion. Hundreds of local nonprofits in the funnel... the Seattle Aquarium, food banks, encampment outreach, parks foundation, the Burke, and roughly fifty other places you have been meaning to support. If you needed an excuse, here it is. The week of May 4 was set up for exactly this.

Cal Anderson playfield turf replacement project planning underway for summer 2027
Seattle Parks just kicked off the design phase to rip out and replace the playfield turf in the summer of 2027. The field will close for months. Cal Anderson hosts youth soccer, adult kickball, sunbathers, May Day rallies, the city's pickleball wars, and just about every other reason to come to Capitol Hill on a sunny afternoon. Mark the calendar. Mapping out a 2027 summer without it is going to take a minute.

Barnes & Noble's downtown flagship opens Wednesday, May 6.
After a six-year absence, the new store debuts at 520 Pike St inside the Tishman Speyer building, part of a national rollout adding 60 locations in 2026. Whether you read this as downtown recovery or just another thing Elliott Bay should be doing, it's something. Try not to judge the line that will be there opening day.

Bolani Place is popping up inside LoveCityLove on Capitol Hill.
Chef Najia Popalzai moved her Afghan flatbread operation in last week, building dough from scratch and stuffing it with potato and spinach. Fridays and Sundays she adds Afghan palau, the aromatic rice dish. There is also an Afghan burger that is, by her own description, made out of fries. "We make burger out of fries," she told CHS. She is correct, and you should go.

Ballard Bridge fully closes the weekend of May 9 to 12
SDOT confirmed last week. Lane closures begin Friday May 9 at 7 PM, full closure at 10 PM, reopens Monday morning. Maintenance and preservation work. Detours via the Locks or the 15th Ave Bridge. Plan it, or just give up and stay in Ballard.

Spokane Street Swing Bridge closes to drivers May 16 and 17
The West Seattle "low bridge" goes down two weekends from now. Crews will replace the tail lock cylinder, motor, and hydraulic pump. Bikes and walkers can still cross during scheduled boat-passage windows. Drivers will need to use the high bridge or detour around it.

Revive I-5 Ship Canal Bridge work pauses for World Cup from June 8 through July 10
The two-lane northbound reduction across the Ship Canal Bridge has been the defining traffic story of 2026. WSDOT has confirmed it will pull the work zone the weekend of June 5 to 8 to fully reopen all lanes for World Cup matches, and put it back July 10 to 13. Translation... if you have a long drive you can move, the back half of June is your only window all year where I-5 is not actively being chewed up.

Olukai Ohana Sandals — The Hawaiian-made slip-on every PNW dad eventually buys. Wet-friendly, comfortable from minute one, the sole has actual grip... critical for that May day where it's 75 in the morning and 50 and pouring by four. About $80. They last roughly ten years. Math is good.

ENO DoubleNest Hammock — Stuffs into a bag the size of a softball and holds 400 pounds. The single greatest reason to know two trees that grow exactly ten feet apart at Volunteer, Cal Anderson, Madison Park, or Magnuson. About $70. Buy the straps separately for another $25, or you will be the person attempting a marine knot around a small evergreen at 2 PM on a Sunday, eventually explaining yourself to a parks ranger.

A weekend like this past one is the reason people put up with February in this city. Boating Opening Day did its thing. Number 51 went up at T-Mobile to a sold-out crowd. Fogón shut down half a block of Capitol Hill for two days of margaritas and Tamborazo. Marchers filled Cal Anderson on May Day. Half of the city sunburned its forearms because it has not seen the sun since October. And the clouds return in a few days. The cycle continues as it should.

This week is going to feel different. The mayor is going to spend Monday explaining her surveillance position again. The Council is going to argue about whether the biggest shelter expansion in years has guardrails strong enough to actually work. Cal Raleigh is going to test his side and we're all going to hold our breath. The Mariners are going to host the Braves under a roof. GiveBIG is going to ping you eight times before Friday. Somebody is going to forget the new phone policy started today and have a Tuesday they didn't ask for.

That's the rhythm. A few good days, then the work. The trick of living here is recognizing both for what they are and not asking either to do something it can't.

We'll be back Thursday with somewhere to be this weekend... the Sounders are home Saturday vs San Diego FC, the M's are still in town vs Atlanta through Wednesday before heading to Chicago, and the post-Cinco-de-Mayo glow on Capitol Hill is going to last most of the week if you let it.

If The Drizzle made your Monday slightly easier to start, do us a favor and forward this to the friend who already texted you "did you hear about the shooting near Wilson's press conference??" twice this morning. Save them the doom scroll.

- The Drizzle