Tag Archives: denny blaine

Council notes: Algorithmic grocery pricing ban, call for Pride flag over Denny Blaine, Bruce Lee Way, Wilson ‘recall’ legal costs

Posted on by
3

(Image: City of Seattle)

As Mayor Katie Wilson prepares to unveil her administration’s first budget proposal, the Seattle City Council will also be wrapping up some other legislative business Tuesday:

  • Grocery ‘surveillance pricing’ ban: The bill to to ban algorithmic-based pricing on groceries and essential items in the city is up for a final vote. Wilson has championed the grocery industry ban, calling for restrictions on surveillance pricing in Seattle. Under the bill co-sponsored by Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dionne Foster, a Seattle “Fair and Transparent Pricing” policy would prevent large grocery chains and delivery platforms from using personal consumer data to charge different prices to different shoppers. The ban would apply to businesses with 20 or more locations globally. Baseline prices must be posted and publicly available. The ordinance prohibits using electronic shelf labels to display prices dynamically modified through personal data algorithms. However, the bill permits standard business practices, including manufacturer coupons, storewide promotions, and group discounts for seniors, veterans, students, or employees. Grocers can also offer loyalty discounts based on purchase history if savings are organized into standardized customer tiers rather than individualized prices and are not merged with external behavioral data. The Department of Finance and Administrative Services will oversee rulemaking with a $175,000 budget, while the City Attorney receives subpoena authority to investigate and prosecute civil violations. The proposal also establishes a private right of action, allowing consumers to sue. Council members will consider a raft of amendments prior to Tuesday’s vote: Continue reading →

Seattle Parks shaping new rules for Denny Blaine nude beach

Posted on by
21

Seattle Parks and Recreation is opening public review on proposed Supplemental Use Guidelines for Denny Blaine Park following a recent court decision shaping the public shoreline at the historically recognized LGBTQ+ nude beach.

The community group formed to protect Denny Blaine says now is the time “for the people who actually use and love this park to make their voices heard.”

The public process includes a community meeting on Tuesday, September 15th at 6 PM at the Miller Community Center, located at 330 19th Ave E. Seattle Parks representatives will gather community feedback during the session before the guidelines are finalized.

A virtual public meeting will follow on September 17 at 6 PM and an online feedback period will remain open through October 5 to capture written public input.

While specific park configurations remain constrained by the court’s ruling, advocacy organization Friends of Denny Blaine say they have met with city officials to help ensure park users shape the final policy. Priority areas targeted for public input include improving physical accessibility, installing screening to protect visitors’ privacy from unwanted surveillance, and adding thoughtful landscaping, signage, and amenities. Community advocates are also urging the city to officially recognize Denny Blaine’s history as a queer and clothing-optional gathering place.

The guidelines also must comply to the court’s rulings, the city says: Continue reading →

Judge rules Denny Blaine Park can stay open — and nude — but with new limits

Posted on by
44

Defenders of the right to be nude in Denny Blaine Park are cautious in victory this week as a King County Superior Court judge has denied a bid by a group of neighbors and nearby property owners to close off the public shoreline at the historically recognized LGBTQ+ nude beach.

In his decision, Judge Samuel Chung sided with the City of Seattle and the Friends of Denny Blaine community group in keeping the two-acre park on the shores of Lake Washington open — and nude — calling Denny Blaine “a limited natural resource that must be shared by the residents of the neighborhood and the Park’s visitors.”

While it will keep the park open, the ruling will put new pressures on Denny Blaine as it has become a center in debates over public space, community use, and personal expression in Seattle.

The ruling also cements some key elements for neighbors: property values.

The judge cited the King County Assessor’s Office’s designation of “thirteen properties as being negatively affected by ‘nuisance’ from the Park and decreased the assessed land value of these homes by at least ten percent” as a key element in his ruling.

Chung’s decision comes with caveats after several findings that, he said, justified the neighbors’ claims around lewd acts and criminal activity at the park. In the ruling, the judge said the city must implement and manage a previously approved abatement plan, and “develop and implement a park specific user plan and code of conduct to address overcrowding, safety, and prohibited and acceptable behaviors.” Continue reading →

‘Keep Denny Blaine Nude’ trial begins

Posted on by
30

The trial to keep Denny Blaine nude begins today, marking the culmination of a Seattle neighborhood’s legal showdown over public space, community use, and personal expression.

In the case of Denny Blaine Park for All v. City of Seattle, a coalition of neighboring lakefront property owners is targeting the long-standing clothing-optional use of the public shoreline at the historically recognized LGBTQ+ nude beach, seeking a permanent court order to completely prohibit nudity or close the park entirely.

“In an attempt to erase that history and fundamentally change the long-standing
character of the Park, Plaintiff Denny Blaine Park for All distorts the public nuisance doctrine
beyond recognition,” the trial brief from the Friends of Denny Blaine community group defending the park begins. “Plaintiff’s claim is, at bottom, that lawful, non-sexual nudity at an
established public nude beach is a nuisance.”

The trial brief filed by the intervenor group represented by Perkins Coie promises an aggressive defense of the beach’s four-decade history as a sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ and naturist communities along with the city’s efforts to defend the public space.

Supporters argue that simple, non-sexual public nudity is entirely lawful. FDB outlines that “RCW 9A.88.010 prohibits only ‘open and obscene’ exposure with a ‘lascivious’ or sexual element,” directly invalidating the public nuisance framework pushed by the plaintiffs’ legal counsel, Foster Pepper.

How we got here
The case comes two and a half years after a ploy to add a children’s play area paid for by an “anonymous donor” to the popular nude beach park was stopped in its tracks by public outcry. Neighbors reported illegal drug use and sexual activity around the park as well as more mundane complaints around issues like parking and public urination. Continue reading →

Judge rules you can go topless this weekend in Denny Blaine Park

Posted on by
4

A crowd filled the park during a puppet show protest last August

It will be a little grey over Seattle this weekend but a King County judge has ruled you can go topless in Denny Blaine Park.

CHS reported here in April as the Friends of Denny Blaine group said it had filed a motion asking the court “to confirm that toplessness is allowed at the historically recognized LGBTQ+ nude beach.”

Last Friday, they got their answer. From the Friends:

On May 1, 2026, the King County Superior Court confirmed that toplessness is allowed throughout Denny Blaine Park, including the “Clothing Required” Zone. The Court made clear that neither its prior order nor the City’s abatement plan requires anyone to cover their torso, regardless of sex, gender, gender identity, or expression.

Friends of Denny Blaine said the ruling comes as private security workers have been an increasing presence around the park on the shores of Lake Washington. The group said the private security has been telling people to cover up and reporting nudity to police. Continue reading →

Friends of Denny Blaine calls for change at Seattle Office for Civil Rights

Posted on by
2

The Friends of Denny Blaine group is calling on Mayor Katie Wilson to remove the head of the Seattle Office for Civil Rights after a media report on allegations from staff that director Derrick Wheeler-Smith and and deputy director Fahima Mohamed have engaged in “discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and mismanagement” and downplayed queer issues in the city.

In February, Publicola reported on the allegations of anti-LGBTQ bias alleged by Office of Civil Rights staff as well as a litany of complaints leveled against the leadership of Wheeler-Smith and Mohamed. Continue reading →

‘Intervening party’ — Friends of Denny Blaine takes big step in legal fray over nude beach

Posted on by
2

A crowd filled the park during a puppet show protest last August

The Friends of Denny Blaine group that has grown as an advocate for community solutions around protecting the Seattle park as a queer-friendly nude beach is starting of 2026 with new legal powers.

FoDB is now on its way to becoming an intervening party and is being represented pro bono by law firm Perkins Coie.

The group announced it has organized as a nonprofit and filed to formally intervene in the lawsuit brought by a group of neighbors against the city over the park. The legal filing will give Friends of Denny Blaine stronger say in the beach’s future. Continue reading →

‘Reasonable efforts in abatement’ — Judge rules against immediate closure of Denny Blaine Park — UPDATE

Posted on by

A King County Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Seattle efforts to improve conditions around Denny Blaine Park including new fences and signs added late this summer are adequate to keep the space open to the public while a lawsuit from neighbors over the nude beach moves toward a spring trial.

Judge Samuel Chung heard an update Friday on the city’s “abatement” plan for Denny Blaine and ruled against lawyers representing a group of anonymous neighbors seeking to shut the park down. Continue reading →

Friends of Denny Blaine: Park and nude beach added to Washington Heritage Register

Posted on by

The park in 1903 (Image: Seattle Municipal Archives)

The Friends of Denny Blaine group is celebrating what they say was a symbolically important recognition this week of the lakeside park and nude beach:

Today, September 23, the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) voted unanimously to add Denny Blaine Park to the State’s Heritage Register of historic places. This decision marks two historic firsts: the first nude beach ever nominated in Washington, and the first nomination to explicitly include a direct connection to LGBTQ+ heritage.

The state register is intended to form an “official listing of historically significant sites and properties found throughout the state” but does not have an administrative component at this time to oversee preservation and protection of the sites. Continue reading →

On the CHS Calendar: 🍑Denny Blaine Labor Day Nude-In Protest🍑

Posted on by

You will have no trouble figuring out what to wear to this protest. Join “community members who just want to preserve our historically queer nude beach” and “your nudist neighbors” for the 🍑Denny Blaine Labor Day Nude-In Protest🍑 —

Protest to keep Denny-Blaine Park 100% clothing optional! Be nude in body or in spirit! There will be a potluck, art, music, and best of all, COMMUNITY!

The protest will be the latest actions in unclothed but civil disobedience as the Seattle Parks Department  responds to a court order by adding a restricted “nude zone” to the park popular with queer and nudist communities on the shores of Lake Washington east of Capitol Hill. The zone is hoped to address complaints of illegal sexual activity in the ongoing lawsuit brought by a group of neighbors and property owners over the popular nude beach.

CHS reported here on a weekend of nude puppet shows earlier in August as lovers of Denny Blaine have vowed to push back on the restrictions.

The Denny Blaine Labor Day Nude-In Protest will take place on Labor Day from 3 to 6 PM. Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 70s with partly cloudy skies.

 
🐦‍⬛ $5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE

Subscribe to CHS to help hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🐦‍⬛