By Jadenne Radoc Cabahug, CHS reporting intern

Shops Close Too Early is Josh Feit’s new book of poetry inspired by urban jungles around the world, including Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood — and a manifesto to better public transportation and affordable housing in Seattle.

Former editor of The Stranger and and co-founder of Seattle’s news site PubliCola, Feit published what he calls a “transit-oriented poetry” book. Feit uses his two decades of experience as a Seattle city hall reporter covering city planning, housing and transportation policy as inspiration for his poems.

“I realized as I was writing about it, I just wanted to say more and more iIn ways that went beyond news stories, and that just felt more magical and a little philosophical,” Feit said.

Originally from the suburbs of Washington D.C., Feit says Capitol Hill is one of more urban parts of Seattle, since he feels the city as a whole is largely suburban in comparison to other cities around the world.

Feit continues to stay in the city and urban planning loop as a Sound Transit speechwriter and hopes to further promote equitable affordable housing and developing better modes of public transportation in Seattle through his book.

He considers himself part of the YIMBY movement, which stands for Yes In My Backyard, which calls for more housing density through affordable housing and creating transit and pedestrian friendly buildings.

In 2021, Seattle eliminated the term “single family” zoning after housing issues like homelessness and affordability prompted the Mandatory Housing Affordability plan. This plan was meant to alter city zones to allow more development in parts of the city like Capitol Hill.

Feit said he is proud to say he wrote one of the first feature stories on Seattle’s exclusive single family zoning landscape back in 2004. At that time, 65% of the city was said to be single-family zoned, but a changing understanding of where housing is legal in the city has pushed that number near 80%. UPDATE: We’ve updated this paragraph to better explain how the understanding of the percentage has changed over time. Sorry for the confusion.

“As a reporter, editorial writer and now through my poetry, I am 100% into changing how the city is zoned to make it more urban, more dense, and more mixed. More pedestrian and transit friendly,” Feit said.

Throughout high school and college, Feit casually wrote poetry, but only started taking it seriously five years ago. In 2019 he was a finalist for the Lily Poetry Prize, won an Honorable Mention in Vallum’s Award for Poetry and a finalist for the 2021 Wolfson Chapbook Poetry Prize.

His poems were also published in journals like Spillway, the Halycone Literary Review and Circleshow.

After publishing one of his poems at Cathexis Northwest Press, the magazine reached out with the intention to publish his manuscript.

“I think I found a pretty unique and exciting niche for the book which is urbanist poetry,” Feit said.

“Shops Close Too Early” is available from Cathexis Northwest Press. Learn more at cathexisnorthwestpress.com.

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