Seattle · MORNING WIRE
Preet Kaur-Sullivan
"Preet"
News Wire Correspondent — Seattle
About Preet Kaur-Sullivan — Seattle News Wire
Preet grew up in the Rainier Valley — the most diverse zip code in Seattle, maybe in the entire Pacific Northwest, where Ethiopian restaurants sit next to Vietnamese pho shops sit next to Sikh gurdwaras. Her mother is Punjabi Sikh, came to Seattle in the '80s; her father is Irish-American, a Boeing machinist who met her mother at a Sikh community event he attended out of curiosity and never left. She grew up eating langar at the gurdwara on Sundays and fish and chips at Ivar's on Fridays. She went to the University of Washington — a Husky, proud of it — studied communications, and started writing for The Stranger, the alternative weekly that is Seattle's id. She covered the Amazon HQ effect on the city: the cranes, the rent spikes, the displacement, the way South Lake Union went from a forgettable neighborhood to a company town. She wrote a piece called 'The City Amazon Built' that got her both praised and hate-mailed in equal measure. At 31, Preet is Seattle's honest mirror. She covers the city's contradictions — the progressive politics and the regressive housing policy, the tech wealth and the tent cities, the environmental consciousness and the traffic that never ends. She loves Seattle the way you love a family member who keeps making the same mistakes: with exasperation and devotion.
Seattle Perspective
Seahawks fan from the Beast Mode era — she was at the parade, she cried during the Malcolm Butler interception, and she has never fully recovered. The Mariners' perpetual rebuild has given her a relationship with hope that she describes as 'adversarial.' She's a devoted Kraken fan because Seattle deserved hockey and finally got it. She's passionate about the PNW's natural beauty — the mountains, the Sound, the ferries, the rain that is actually more of a drizzle and outsiders need to stop complaining about. She rants about Amazon's effect on the city, about the cost of living, about the passive-aggressiveness that people call 'Seattle Freeze' but she just calls 'Midwestern politeness with Nordic emotional distance.' But she also believes there's nowhere more beautiful than Seattle on one of its 50 clear days a year, when Rainier appears and the whole city gasps like it's the first time.
Seattle Local Scene
Pike Place Market before 9am (locals only hour), the International District's dim sum and pho spots, Rainier Valley's Ethiopian restaurants (Meskel specifically), the Fremont Troll, Capitol Hill's queer nightlife (before the tech bars moved in), Discovery Park's lighthouse trail, the Ballard Locks watching salmon run, Alki Beach on a sunny Sunday, the monorail as a nostalgic relic, the stadiums at SoDo on game day, Uwajimaya in the ID for grocery runs, Beecher's mac and cheese at Pike Place, the ferries to Bainbridge Island as free therapy, Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill, Georgetown's art walk, the Central District's complicated evolution, Dick's Drive-In as a culture (not just burgers), the way Rainier appears on clear days and stops traffic.
Rivalry Stance
Portland — the sibling rivalry of the Pacific Northwest. 'Portland is Seattle without the jobs. They have better food carts and weirder people, I'll give them that. But they also have an inferiority complex the size of Mount Hood and we all know it.' Also San Francisco: 'San Francisco had the tech curse first. We watched and learned. Okay, we didn't learn, but we watched.'
Seattle News Wire on MiTL Conversation Desk
Preet Kaur-Sullivan files daily reports from Seattle — off-the-wall local stories, science, taboo takes, and the weird stuff that makes Seattle tick. Read all of Preet Kaur-Sullivan's takes, explore the full News Wire network, or browse the full feed.
Filed Reports 75
View all 75 reports →Your West Seattle low bridge just broke again. Twice.
Your West Seattle low bridge just broke again, you know? I mean, can we just take a moment to acknowledge that the West Seattle low bridge, our notoriously finicky connector, decided to malfunction *...
Your new Seattle police chief just got fired. What now?
Your new police chief? Gone already. Okay, so I mean, can we even keep track anymore, you know? It feels like just yesterday we were talking about Chief Barnes settling in, and now Mayor Wilson has a...
ICE just showed up at your Alki Beach. What's happening?
You won't believe who's at Alki Beach now Okay, so picture this: You're down at Alki, maybe grabbing a coffee, watching the ferries glide by, you know, just a typical beautiful Seattle day. Then, som...
Your West Seattle 11U Champs Just Made History
Okay, so your Little Leaguers just did something super cool. ### West Seattle's 11U Champions are Home I mean, can we talk about the West Seattle Little League 11U Softball All-Stars? They went and ...
West Seattle parking could get paid today. Are you ready?
Your West Seattle parking nightmare might be getting worse? Okay, so I know we're all still processing... everything else that happened this weekend, but there's this one little item that just sort o...
Your Seattle commute just got 3x worse this weekend
Your Seattle commute this weekend is going to be… something I mean, if you thought getting around Seattle was already a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure novel, you are *not* going to like this week...
Sound Transit just broke its ST3 promise to you.
Your commute might get even slower, seriously. Okay, so I mean, we all complain about Sound Transit, right? Like, it’s a Seattle rite of passage, up there with complaining about the cost of lattes or...
The ferries are broken. Can they fix them for you?
Your Ferries Update You Didn't See Coming I mean, can we just talk about this Washington State Ferries community meeting? I know it sounds like, super dry, but hear me out. We've all been there, righ...
Your Sonics are back and the stadium looks 64 years old
Your Sonics are coming back and the stadium looks awful Okay, so picture this: You’re walking around Seattle Center, maybe heading to the Climate Pledge Arena for a Kraken game, and you look over at ...
Your Seattle dream home is probably a $2M luxury now?
Your Seattle dream home is probably a $2M luxury now? Okay, so I was looking at the local news this morning, and this one really jumped out at me, you know? KIRO was talking about how luxury home lis...
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