Ice Cream, Cookies, and More

by EverOut Staff

Rhubarb, also known as the “pie plant,” is a quintessentially Northwest ingredient and a harbinger of spring. It also holds a special place in my heart—it grew wild near my childhood home, and I love it so much I even named my cat after it. Here’s where to get your fill of the blush-pink, sweet-tart stalks this season, from streusel-topped cookies to ice cream.

Note: Availability may vary. We recommend calling ahead to check to ensure specials are still available—or just take your chances and accept the fact that you may end up with an equally delicious, non-rhubarb option.

Coyle’s Bakeshop
Pastry wizard Rachael Coyle’s charming Greenwood bakery sources forced rhubarb, so they’ve been churning out treats with the seasonal ingredient for a few months now. Keep an eye out for their rhubarb olive oil Bundt cake, rhubarb croissants, rhubarb galettes, and other perennial favorites.
Greenwood

The Stranger

Ice Cream, Cookies, and More

by EverOut Staff

Rhubarb, also known as the “pie plant,” is a quintessentially Northwest ingredient and a harbinger of spring. It also holds a special place in my heart—it grew wild near my childhood home, and I love it so much I even named my cat after it. Here’s where to get your fill of the blush-pink, sweet-tart stalks this season, from streusel-topped cookies to ice cream.

Note: Availability may vary. We recommend calling ahead to check to ensure specials are still available—or just take your chances and accept the fact that you may end up with an equally delicious, non-rhubarb option.

Coyle’s Bakeshop
Pastry wizard Rachael Coyle’s charming Greenwood bakery sources forced rhubarb, so they’ve been churning out treats with the seasonal ingredient for a few months now. Keep an eye out for their rhubarb olive oil Bundt cake, rhubarb croissants, rhubarb galettes, and other perennial favorites.
Greenwood

The Stranger

Slovakia And Cannabis

A tourist hotspot with great outdoors and historic castle, what about Slovakia and cannabis?

The post Slovakia And Cannabis appeared first on The Fresh Toast.

The Fresh Toast

Slovakia And Cannabis

A tourist hotspot with great outdoors and historic castle, what about Slovakia and cannabis?

The post Slovakia And Cannabis appeared first on The Fresh Toast.

The Fresh Toast

The Stranger’s morning news roundup.

by Hannah Krieg

Weather: Today won’t be quite as summer-y as yesterday, according to the National Weather Service. Expect highs in the mid 60s, mostly cloudy skies, and even some showers. Friday will dry up, but it might be a while before it gets back to full sunshine and 70s in Seattle. At least Charles Mudede will be happy!

For visual learners:

It’s a tale of two patterns next 24 hours! One more sunny and near/above average temperature day for today. A cold front tomorrow brings in cooler temperatures and the chance of showers.#wawx pic.twitter.com/RiSMWlu40u

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) May 15, 2024

Money is power: Remember last fall when all those gay people got super mad about the City wanting to put a children’s playground next to historically queer, nude beach Denny Blaine? Well, KUOW reports that the anonymous donor who tried to fund the playground was a rich dude named Stuart Sloan, who complained about the beach next to his home in texts to the Mayor’s personal cell phone. Sloan’s people–yeah, he’s that rich—told KUOW that it wasn’t his idea to displace the gays and that he would not have been the only one to donate had the City gone through with the plan.

There’s more: But it’s impossible to deny that Sloan was a key player. Our very own Vivian McCall found that Harrell had met with Sloan twice, including one time the day after the Seattle Parks Department killed the playground proposal. Harrell’s office is playing dumb, but this whole mess just goes to show who the City is responsive to. If you have a fortune, a beautiful waterfront home, and a bone to pick with a marginalized community, then you can complain directly to the Mayor. The rest of us get two minutes at public comment if we’re lucky and willing to risk arrest.

Update: Vivian already wrote that UAW Local 4121 reached a tentative agreement with the University of Washington Tuesday night, but we got a little more information yesterday. The contract includes a 36% raise over the course of the three-year contract, increased reimbursement for child care, summer UPass coverage, and more. Workers have until Friday at 7 pm to vote. It doesn’t look like the union will come to an unanimous decision, as I’ve received comments that at least some workers are organizing against the agreement to keep the strike going and to fight for an even better deal. We shall see!

Point in time: The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) counted, and it turns out that on any given night about 16,385 people are experiencing homelessness in King County. That’s 23% higher than the count KCRHA conducted in 2022. You can find more information here. 

Delinquent: The Seattle Municipal Court sent a delinquent notice to Officer Kevin Dave, saying he’s late to pay the $5,000 fine he incurred when he struck and killed a 23-year-old as he barreled through a crosswalk at high speeds. The letter said that if he doesn’t pay the fine plus a $52 late fee by May 29, he could lose his license. Here’s to hoping! 

She absolutely would: Celebrities can hardly manage to say the word “ceasefire” out loud, but yesterday singer Ethel Cain posted that “we need to bring back assassinations” in response to President Joe Biden sending $1 billion in new arms to Israel. She probably just landed herself on 10 unique FBI watch lists.

Ethel Cain addresses Joe Biden’s support for the Israeli military:

“we need to bring back assassinations” pic.twitter.com/4bCv9S4qPc

— Pop Base (@PopBase) May 15, 2024

Speaking of assassinations: It appears someone tried to assassinate Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. A now-detained suspect allegedly shot Fico six times in the small town of Handlova. For a while, authorities said he was “fighting for his life,” but it seems like he’s doing a lot better and is no longer in critical condition. What a tank!

Mark your calendars: Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed to two debates, one on June 27 and another on September 10. The American people were truly robbed of some iconic zingers since Trump refused to debate the GOP chumps who were after his job. But for as goofy as that guy is in a debate, Biden holds his own, too. I went to his fundraiser last week and he literally suggested Trump should have treated his COVID with bleach. Jokes aside, I truly loathe these fuckers, and no amount soyjack millennial humor will absolve them of their sins.

Louisiana: The US Supreme Court temporarily approved a new congressional map that creates two majority-Black districts in Louisiana, which could potentially help Democrats in the 2024 election. Read Axios for more. 

Disinterested in divesting: The students camping out in the Quad in solidarity with Gaza hit a breaking point Wednesday and exposed just how uncompromising the UW administration has been in their negotiations to (1) divest from Israel, (2) cut ties with Boeing, and (3) stop the repression of the pro-Palestinian voices on campus. In an Instagram post, UW United Front for Palestinian Liberation (UF) showed the stark difference between their demands and the offer UW made after five sessions of negotiations. They sent receipts in an email, too, don’t worry.

NEW: After keeping quiet about negotiations, UW United Front For Palestinian Liberations reveals the university admins offers vs. their specific demands 1/? pic.twitter.com/tfZqjNhBeA

— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) May 16, 2024

Why now? It is pretty clear that UW is over trying to appease the protesters, even though their student body government voted overwhelmingly in support of the demands. UF’s new transparency comes after President Ana Mari Cauce allegedly skipped the bargaining session Wednesday, but she found time to accuse the protesters of spray-painting anti-semitic phrases on buildings. Cauce did not provide examples, but UF assumes she’s talking about the phrase “from the river to the sea,” which some see as a call for genocide. UF argued the phrase “asserts Palestinians’ right to return to their homeland and does not call for any ethnic or religious restrictions.” 

What’s next: I don’t think the admin’s strategy will get the campers to leave the quad voluntarily. UW admin told them that they would negotiate only if UF promised not to escalate, but now UW has made it clear that they will not bend, and the encampment won’t convince them to do so either. So—and I’m just reading the tea leaves here—if the student protesters are as committed as they say they are, then we may see new, more intense tactics in the near future.

Speaking of encampments: Cops detained at least a dozen pro-Palestine protesters yesterday as they cleared the encampment at University of California – Irvine. 

Oil spill: On Wednesday, a barge hit a bridge in Galveston, Texas, shutting down 6.5 miles of the waterway. No one died, no one got injured, but the water definitely took an L. An unknown amount of oil spilled from the barge, which has a 30,000-gallon capacity.

Some guy told me to listen to it: I did not. But now you can!

The Stranger

Harrell’s meetings raise questions about just how anonymous this anonymous donor really was, and they underscore whose voices the mayor privileges in initial conversations about public spaces.

by Vivian McCall

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office maintains that the mayor did not know the identity of the donor who offered to fund a children’s playground at Seattle’s gay nude beach, Denny Blaine Park, during his two meetings with that donor, including one meeting that happened on the day after the Seattle Parks Department announced the death of the playground proposal. Harrell’s meetings raise questions about just how anonymous this anonymous donor really was, and they underscore whose voices the mayor privileges in initial conversations about public spaces. 

Additionally, The Stranger found that the parks department didn’t really highlight the full cost of the project in its public communications. 

The Mayor’s Meetings 

On Wednesday, KUOW identified the donor as Stuart Sloan, a wealthy, 80-year-old businessman and philanthropist who lives next to the park and who owns University Village. 

Strategic communications firm The Keller Group told the station that the idea to put a kid’s playground in a queer, nudist sun temple during a time of surging anti-LGBTQ groomer rhetoric came from the City, not from Sloan. “Had it happened, Stuart would not have been the anonymous donor alone,” The Keller Group told the radio station. “Several were willing to give.” 

Harrell first discussed Denny Blaine in person with Sloan at the mayor’s downtown office on November 8, 2022, before the City announced the proposal. The second meeting occurred on Sloan’s turf at University Village on Saturday, December 9, 2023, the day after the City announced it planned to kill the playground project. 

In a statement sent to The Stranger in March, Housen said the Mayor did not discuss the donation for the playground at either meeting. During the first meeting they discussed parking, trash, and graffiti at the park, and during the second meeting Harrell aimed to “update progress being made on these issues” after the park had received media attention, Housen said.

In a follow-up email Wednesday, Housen maintained that the Mayor didn’t know Sloan was the anonymous donor, despite the fact that Harrell personally saw to it to keep Sloan abreast on the status of the playground proposal. Sloan donated $550 to Harrell’s campaign in 2021, and KUOW reported Sloan had texted Harrell’s personal cell phone to complain about the beach before there was a playground plan.

KUOW reported that the mayor’s office met with Sloan several times and presented him with playground mockups and ballpark numbers at his house before making the proposals public. Housen said he was not aware of anyone else requesting a meeting or a visit to their home regarding Denny Blaine.

The City Wasn’t Exactly Clear about the Price Tag

When this story blew up in November, the City said the Denny Blaine playground would cost $550,000. Every outlet, including The Stranger, ran with that number. 

However, the City knew the proposal could cost twice as much. A Sept 25, 2023 budget breakdown document shows Sloan committed $1 million in “private funds” for a construction project that the Seattle Parks Foundation, the nonprofit that acted as the project’s manager and fiscal agent, projected to cost a little more than $1 million. 

Why cite “construction costs” instead of total costs in communications with the public? In an email, Seattle Parks Foundation President and CEO Rebecca Bear said the $550,000 related to hard costs, and the rest were “soft costs” such as the expense of project management, design, and consultants “necessary to complete a project from start to finish.”

Seattle Parks and Recreation spokesperson Rachel Schulkin said the department “…Made the judgment call to communicate the cost we knew of at the time. There was no desire to obfuscate anything from the public—the budget was still in flux.”

Who Is Stuart Sloan?

According to KUOW, Sloan arrived in Seattle from SoCal in the 1960s, and he got a degree in business from the University of Washington. In 1999, Seattle Times reported he started making the big bucks on business deals in the 1980s. One of those deals involved selling QFC to Kroger when he served as chairman of the grocery chain. 

He made the news in 2022 when he and his wife, Molly Sloan, gave $78 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Oh, and he doesn’t like his picture taken, according to a 2013 story from the Seattle Times.

The Seattle Parks Department plans to hold a meeting about Denny Blaine tomorrow, inviting park users to comment on a proposed policy that would codify the right to be naked at the park. They’ve been working out the details with neighbors and activists with the group Friends of Denny Blaine for months, and we’ll have more on those developments this week.

The Stranger

Harrell’s meetings raise questions about just how anonymous this anonymous donor really was, and they underscore whose voices the mayor privileges in initial conversations about public spaces.

by Vivian McCall

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office maintains that the mayor did not know the identity of the donor who offered to fund a children’s playground at Seattle’s gay nude beach, Denny Blaine Park, during his two meetings with that donor, including one meeting that happened on the day after the Seattle Parks Department announced the death of the playground proposal. Harrell’s meetings raise questions about just how anonymous this anonymous donor really was, and they underscore whose voices the mayor privileges in initial conversations about public spaces. 

Additionally, The Stranger found that the parks department didn’t really highlight the full cost of the project in its public communications. 

The Mayor’s Meetings 

On Wednesday, KUOW identified the donor as Stuart Sloan, a wealthy, 80-year-old businessman and philanthropist who lives next to the park and who owns University Village. 

Strategic communications firm The Keller Group told the station that the idea to put a kid’s playground in a queer, nudist sun temple during a time of surging anti-LGBTQ groomer rhetoric came from the City, not from Sloan. “Had it happened, Stuart would not have been the anonymous donor alone,” The Keller Group told the radio station. “Several were willing to give.” 

Harrell first discussed Denny Blaine in person with Sloan at the mayor’s downtown office on November 8, 2022, before the City announced the proposal. The second meeting occurred on Sloan’s turf at University Village on Saturday, December 9, 2023, the day after the City announced it planned to kill the playground project. 

In a statement sent to The Stranger in March, Housen said the Mayor did not discuss the donation for the playground at either meeting. During the first meeting they discussed parking, trash, and graffiti at the park, and during the second meeting Harrell aimed to “update progress being made on these issues” after the park had received media attention, Housen said.

In a follow-up email Wednesday, Housen maintained that the Mayor didn’t know Sloan was the anonymous donor, despite the fact that Harrell personally saw to it to keep Sloan abreast on the status of the playground proposal. Sloan donated $550 to Harrell’s campaign in 2021, and KUOW reported Sloan had texted Harrell’s personal cell phone to complain about the beach before there was a playground plan.

KUOW reported that the mayor’s office met with Sloan several times and presented him with playground mockups and ballpark numbers at his house before making the proposals public. Housen said he was not aware of anyone else requesting a meeting or a visit to their home regarding Denny Blaine.

The City Wasn’t Exactly Clear about the Price Tag

When this story blew up in November, the City said the Denny Blaine playground would cost $550,000. Every outlet, including The Stranger, ran with that number. 

However, the City knew the proposal could cost twice as much. A Sept 25, 2023 budget breakdown document shows Sloan committed $1 million in “private funds” for a construction project that the Seattle Parks Foundation, the nonprofit that acted as the project’s manager and fiscal agent, projected to cost a little more than $1 million. 

Why cite “construction costs” instead of total costs in communications with the public? In an email, Seattle Parks Foundation President and CEO Rebecca Bear said the $550,000 related to hard costs, and the rest were “soft costs” such as the expense of project management, design, and consultants “necessary to complete a project from start to finish.”

Seattle Parks and Recreation spokesperson Rachel Schulkin said the department “…Made the judgment call to communicate the cost we knew of at the time. There was no desire to obfuscate anything from the public—the budget was still in flux.”

Who Is Stuart Sloan?

According to KUOW, Sloan arrived in Seattle from SoCal in the 1960s, and he got a degree in business from the University of Washington. In 1999, Seattle Times reported he started making the big bucks on business deals in the 1980s. One of those deals involved selling QFC to Kroger when he served as chairman of the grocery chain. 

He made the news in 2022 when he and his wife, Molly Sloan, gave $78 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Oh, and he doesn’t like his picture taken, according to a 2013 story from the Seattle Times.

The Seattle Parks Department plans to hold a meeting about Denny Blaine tomorrow, inviting park users to comment on a proposed policy that would codify the right to be naked at the park. They’ve been working out the details with neighbors and activists with the group Friends of Denny Blaine for months, and we’ll have more on those developments this week.

The Stranger

Harrell’s meetings raise questions about just how anonymous this anonymous donor really was, and they underscore whose voices the mayor privileges in initial conversations about public spaces.

by Vivian McCall

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office maintains that the mayor did not know the identity of the donor who offered to fund a children’s playground at Seattle’s gay nude beach, Denny Blaine Park, during his two meetings with that donor, including one meeting that happened on the day after the Seattle Parks Department announced the death of the playground proposal. Harrell’s meetings raise questions about just how anonymous this anonymous donor really was, and they underscore whose voices the mayor privileges in initial conversations about public spaces. 

Additionally, The Stranger found that the parks department didn’t really highlight the full cost of the project in its public communications. 

The Mayor’s Meetings 

On Wednesday, KUOW identified the donor as Stuart Sloan, a wealthy, 80-year-old businessman and philanthropist who lives next to the park and who owns University Village. 

Strategic communications firm The Keller Group told the station that the idea to put a kid’s playground in a queer, nudist sun temple during a time of surging anti-LGBTQ groomer rhetoric came from the City, not from Sloan. “Had it happened, Stuart would not have been the anonymous donor alone,” The Keller Group told the radio station. “Several were willing to give.” 

Harrell first discussed Denny Blaine in person with Sloan at the mayor’s downtown office on November 8, 2022, before the City announced the proposal. The second meeting occurred on Sloan’s turf at University Village on Saturday, December 9, 2023, the day after the City announced it planned to kill the playground project. 

In a statement sent to The Stranger in March, Housen said the Mayor did not discuss the donation for the playground at either meeting. During the first meeting they discussed parking, trash, and graffiti at the park, and during the second meeting Harrell aimed to “update progress being made on these issues” after the park had received media attention, Housen said.

In a follow-up email Wednesday, Housen maintained that the Mayor didn’t know Sloan was the anonymous donor, despite the fact that Harrell personally saw to it to keep Sloan abreast on the status of the playground proposal. Sloan donated $550 to Harrell’s campaign in 2021, and KUOW reported Sloan had texted Harrell’s personal cell phone to complain about the beach before there was a playground plan.

KUOW reported that the mayor’s office met with Sloan several times and presented him with playground mockups and ballpark numbers at his house before making the proposals public. Housen said he was not aware of anyone else requesting a meeting or a visit to their home regarding Denny Blaine.

The City Wasn’t Exactly Clear about the Price Tag

When this story blew up in November, the City said the Denny Blaine playground would cost $550,000. Every outlet, including The Stranger, ran with that number. 

However, the City knew the proposal could cost twice as much. A Sept 25, 2023 budget breakdown document shows Sloan committed $1 million in “private funds” for a construction project that the Seattle Parks Foundation, the nonprofit that acted as the project’s manager and fiscal agent, projected to cost a little more than $1 million. 

Why cite “construction costs” instead of total costs in communications with the public? In an email, Seattle Parks Foundation President and CEO Rebecca Bear said the $550,000 related to hard costs, and the rest were “soft costs” such as the expense of project management, design, and consultants “necessary to complete a project from start to finish.”

Seattle Parks and Recreation spokesperson Rachel Schulkin said the department “…Made the judgment call to communicate the cost we knew of at the time. There was no desire to obfuscate anything from the public—the budget was still in flux.”

Who Is Stuart Sloan?

According to KUOW, Sloan arrived in Seattle from SoCal in the 1960s, and he got a degree in business from the University of Washington. In 1999, Seattle Times reported he started making the big bucks on business deals in the 1980s. One of those deals involved selling QFC to Kroger when he served as chairman of the grocery chain. 

He made the news in 2022 when he and his wife, Molly Sloan, gave $78 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Oh, and he doesn’t like his picture taken, according to a 2013 story from the Seattle Times.

The Seattle Parks Department plans to hold a meeting about Denny Blaine tomorrow, inviting park users to comment on a proposed policy that would codify the right to be naked at the park. They’ve been working out the details with neighbors and activists with the group Friends of Denny Blaine for months, and we’ll have more on those developments this week.

The Stranger

Harrell’s meetings raise questions about just how anonymous this anonymous donor really was, and they underscore whose voices the mayor privileges in initial conversations about public spaces.

by Vivian McCall

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office maintains that the mayor did not know the identity of the donor who offered to fund a children’s playground at Seattle’s gay nude beach, Denny Blaine Park, during his two meetings with that donor, including one meeting that happened on the day after the Seattle Parks Department announced the death of the playground proposal. Harrell’s meetings raise questions about just how anonymous this anonymous donor really was, and they underscore whose voices the mayor privileges in initial conversations about public spaces. 

Additionally, The Stranger found that the parks department didn’t really highlight the full cost of the project in its public communications. 

The Mayor’s Meetings 

On Wednesday, KUOW identified the donor as Stuart Sloan, a wealthy, 80-year-old businessman and philanthropist who lives next to the park and who owns University Village. 

Strategic communications firm The Keller Group told the station that the idea to put a kid’s playground in a queer, nudist sun temple during a time of surging anti-LGBTQ groomer rhetoric came from the City, not from Sloan. “Had it happened, Stuart would not have been the anonymous donor alone,” The Keller Group told the radio station. “Several were willing to give.” 

Harrell first discussed Denny Blaine in person with Sloan at the mayor’s downtown office on November 8, 2022, before the City announced the proposal. The second meeting occurred on Sloan’s turf at University Village on Saturday, December 9, 2023, the day after the City announced it planned to kill the playground project. 

In a statement sent to The Stranger in March, Housen said the Mayor did not discuss the donation for the playground at either meeting. During the first meeting they discussed parking, trash, and graffiti at the park, and during the second meeting Harrell aimed to “update progress being made on these issues” after the park had received media attention, Housen said.

In a follow-up email Wednesday, Housen maintained that the Mayor didn’t know Sloan was the anonymous donor, despite the fact that Harrell personally saw to it to keep Sloan abreast on the status of the playground proposal. Sloan donated $550 to Harrell’s campaign in 2021, and KUOW reported Sloan had texted Harrell’s personal cell phone to complain about the beach before there was a playground plan.

KUOW reported that the mayor’s office met with Sloan several times and presented him with playground mockups and ballpark numbers at his house before making the proposals public. Housen said he was not aware of anyone else requesting a meeting or a visit to their home regarding Denny Blaine.

The City Wasn’t Exactly Clear about the Price Tag

When this story blew up in November, the City said the Denny Blaine playground would cost $550,000. Every outlet, including The Stranger, ran with that number. 

However, the City knew the proposal could cost twice as much. A Sept 25, 2023 budget breakdown document shows Sloan committed $1 million in “private funds” for a construction project that the Seattle Parks Foundation, the nonprofit that acted as the project’s manager and fiscal agent, projected to cost a little more than $1 million. 

Why cite “construction costs” instead of total costs in communications with the public? In an email, Seattle Parks Foundation President and CEO Rebecca Bear said the $550,000 related to hard costs, and the rest were “soft costs” such as the expense of project management, design, and consultants “necessary to complete a project from start to finish.”

Seattle Parks and Recreation spokesperson Rachel Schulkin said the department “…Made the judgment call to communicate the cost we knew of at the time. There was no desire to obfuscate anything from the public—the budget was still in flux.”

Who Is Stuart Sloan?

According to KUOW, Sloan arrived in Seattle from SoCal in the 1960s, and he got a degree in business from the University of Washington. In 1999, Seattle Times reported he started making the big bucks on business deals in the 1980s. One of those deals involved selling QFC to Kroger when he served as chairman of the grocery chain. 

He made the news in 2022 when he and his wife, Molly Sloan, gave $78 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Oh, and he doesn’t like his picture taken, according to a 2013 story from the Seattle Times.

The Seattle Parks Department plans to hold a meeting about Denny Blaine tomorrow, inviting park users to comment on a proposed policy that would codify the right to be naked at the park. They’ve been working out the details with neighbors and activists with the group Friends of Denny Blaine for months, and we’ll have more on those developments this week.

The Stranger

Harrell’s meetings raise questions about just how anonymous this anonymous donor really was, and they underscore whose voices the mayor privileges in initial conversations about public spaces.

by Vivian McCall

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office maintains that the mayor did not know the identity of the donor who offered to fund a children’s playground at Seattle’s gay nude beach, Denny Blaine Park, during his two meetings with that donor, including one meeting that happened on the day after the Seattle Parks Department announced the death of the playground proposal. Harrell’s meetings raise questions about just how anonymous this anonymous donor really was, and they underscore whose voices the mayor privileges in initial conversations about public spaces. 

Additionally, The Stranger found that the parks department didn’t really highlight the full cost of the project in its public communications. 

The Mayor’s Meetings 

On Wednesday, KUOW identified the donor as Stuart Sloan, a wealthy, 80-year-old businessman and philanthropist who lives next to the park and who owns University Village. 

Strategic communications firm The Keller Group told the station that the idea to put a kid’s playground in a queer, nudist sun temple during a time of surging anti-LGBTQ groomer rhetoric came from the City, not from Sloan. “Had it happened, Stuart would not have been the anonymous donor alone,” The Keller Group told the radio station. “Several were willing to give.” 

Harrell first discussed Denny Blaine in person with Sloan at the mayor’s downtown office on November 8, 2022, before the City announced the proposal. The second meeting occurred on Sloan’s turf at University Village on Saturday, December 9, 2023, the day after the City announced it planned to kill the playground project. 

In a statement sent to The Stranger in March, Housen said the Mayor did not discuss the donation for the playground at either meeting. During the first meeting they discussed parking, trash, and graffiti at the park, and during the second meeting Harrell aimed to “update progress being made on these issues” after the park had received media attention, Housen said.

In a follow-up email Wednesday, Housen maintained that the Mayor didn’t know Sloan was the anonymous donor, despite the fact that Harrell personally saw to it to keep Sloan abreast on the status of the playground proposal. Sloan donated $550 to Harrell’s campaign in 2021, and KUOW reported Sloan had texted Harrell’s personal cell phone to complain about the beach before there was a playground plan.

KUOW reported that the mayor’s office met with Sloan several times and presented him with playground mockups and ballpark numbers at his house before making the proposals public. Housen said he was not aware of anyone else requesting a meeting or a visit to their home regarding Denny Blaine.

The City Wasn’t Exactly Clear about the Price Tag

When this story blew up in November, the City said the Denny Blaine playground would cost $550,000. Every outlet, including The Stranger, ran with that number. 

However, the City knew the proposal could cost twice as much. A Sept 25, 2023 budget breakdown document shows Sloan committed $1 million in “private funds” for a construction project that the Seattle Parks Foundation, the nonprofit that acted as the project’s manager and fiscal agent, projected to cost a little more than $1 million. 

Why cite “construction costs” instead of total costs in communications with the public? In an email, Seattle Parks Foundation President and CEO Rebecca Bear said the $550,000 related to hard costs, and the rest were “soft costs” such as the expense of project management, design, and consultants “necessary to complete a project from start to finish.”

Seattle Parks and Recreation spokesperson Rachel Schulkin said the department “…Made the judgment call to communicate the cost we knew of at the time. There was no desire to obfuscate anything from the public—the budget was still in flux.”

Who Is Stuart Sloan?

According to KUOW, Sloan arrived in Seattle from SoCal in the 1960s, and he got a degree in business from the University of Washington. In 1999, Seattle Times reported he started making the big bucks on business deals in the 1980s. One of those deals involved selling QFC to Kroger when he served as chairman of the grocery chain. 

He made the news in 2022 when he and his wife, Molly Sloan, gave $78 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Oh, and he doesn’t like his picture taken, according to a 2013 story from the Seattle Times.

The Seattle Parks Department plans to hold a meeting about Denny Blaine tomorrow, inviting park users to comment on a proposed policy that would codify the right to be naked at the park. They’ve been working out the details with neighbors and activists with the group Friends of Denny Blaine for months, and we’ll have more on those developments this week.

The Stranger