iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 29/09/2026

Data sniff check: do we think the average 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 is walking nearly two miles a day in Orlando and over a mile per day in Anaheim? Here's a hint 🐁🏰 I think this chart reveals more about the quality of Streetlight's pedestrian data than it does about American walking habits...

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 21/09/2026

Sara Nelson's new websites are a grim example of what happens when an organization replaces human artistic/design judgment with AI. Let an LLM set the visual defaults for your website, and the results will look like ClaudeSlop™️ guaranteed!

Screenshot from https://civictide.org/. It looks like every other LLM-generated website, right down to the pseudo-artistic sepia header image.

Screenshot from https://seafor.live/. If you've ever seen an LLM-generated dashboard before, you know what this site looks like.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 30/07/2026

Really grim to hear that some Bite of Seattle booths got looted in the aftermath of the mass shooting. Go support PaPa Kitchen in Roosevelt: papakitchen25.com

Long quote from a Seattle Times article today:

Last year, Nguyen and another family pooled their money to open Papa Kitchen near the Roosevelt light rail station. He said they make enough to pay the rent.

In a city flooded with banh mi counters and pho shops seemingly around every corner, Nguyen figured he had to branch out beyond the neighborhood to generate more revenue.

The couple paid the $3,000 Bite of Seattle registration fees to set up a booth across from the beer garden. Festival sales for the banh mis and vermicelli noodle bowls were going well, Nguyen said, until the gunfight started.

How well, he may never know.

The day after the shooting, Nguyen returned to pack up his kitchen supplies and noticed missing were the cash register and a new air fryer that was still in the box that he brought as backup. At least $1,000 worth of meat and seafood were left unattended and spoiled, he said.

Restaurants are a risky venture, so Nguyen braced for the reality that he could lose money at this festival. But not like this, he said.

The family has not tallied all the missing items and stolen money yet. He’s still holding out hope that festival organizer FoodieLand will offer reimbursement; if not part of the registration fee, then perhaps a stipend to cover some loss. He, like many food vendors, said he has not heard from event organizers.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 29/07/2026

I'm all for better bus service, but ours is pretty good all things considered: 7 in 10 Seattleites are less than a 10 minute walk from an all-week frequent bus route, roughly the same as Boston and way ahead of most US cities

Walk time to a frequent bus line in Seattle, from https://close.city/. Just over 70% of Seattleites can walk to a frequent bus line within 10 minutes

Walk time to a frequent bus line in Boston, from https://close.city/. Just over 70% of Bostonians can walk to a frequent bus line within 10 minutes

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 24/07/2026

Want to coordinate a highway lidding study around U District? Now's your chance! udistrictpartnership.org/about/career...

JOB POSTING:

Project Coordinator, Lid I-5 Feasibility Study
Reports to: Urban Vitality Manager
Position Type: 3-year Temporary Term-Limited (TLT), full-time, hourly
Location: In-person: at UDP’s office in the U District or on-site in the neighborhood at events
Timing Typically 40 hours per week, with occasional evenings and weekends
Duration: Sep 2026 – Sep 2029
Compensation: $32.50 – $41.50 Hourly

The U District Partnership is seeking an organized, proactive and collaborative Project Coordinator to support the Lid I-5 North Feasibility Study—a federally funded planning initiative exploring opportunities to reconnect neighborhoods divided by Interstate 5 between NE 45th Street and NE 50th Street.

This is a unique opportunity to be a part of one of Seattle’s most significant long-term planning efforts, working alongside community leaders, public agencies, and technical experts to explore how Interstate 5 could be transformed from a barrier into a connector between neighborhoods.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 24/07/2026

Meanwhile, on LinkedIn...

A LinkedIn AI slop ad from SCANTRON of all companies

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 24/07/2026

@annehelen.bsky.social saying "no one would call Seattle a public transportation city" in this week's Culture Study... 🤔🙋‍♂️

Seattle Times headline from June 6, 2026: "Seattle's daily light rail rideship jumps to No. 1 in US", by Mike Lindblom. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/seattles-daily-light-rail-ridership-jumps-to-no-1-in-u-s/

Graph: "Major US City Commute Patterns 2023" based on ACS data. Seattle roughly ties with Philadelphia for "Percent of Commuters Commuting by Public Transit," ranking below NYC, DC, Boston, SF, and Chicago, and above all other major US cities.

Post from former SDOT director Greg Spotts (@spottnik.bsky.social) on LinkedIn from mid-June. Begins with:
"⚽️ Seattle is setting new records for active transportation during the World Cup!
Friday June 19 Match Day Ridership:
🚌 286K boardings KCM buses
🚆 280K boardings Sound Transit
🛴 83K Lime scooter/bike rides
⛴️ 9K Water Taxi
🚃 7K Streetcar
Plus thousands of fans walking along the Waterfront and thru pedestrianized Pioneer Square (photo shows the “March to the Match”)"

World Cup game days later in the month repeatedly broke this record

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 21/07/2026

Close now features a subscription for power users! One new feature solves the 2-body problem: "what neighborhoods are walkable AND commutable for both of us?" This is about two years in the making and I'm pretty proud of it. Check it out: close.city

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 15/07/2026

Every job in America, mapped: jobs.close.city

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 14/07/2026

Not enough room to describe all the new features that just released on Close today—go check them out! close.city Three more major updates coming this week 👀

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 02/07/2026

Everyone is rightfully mad about the Kavanaugh letter, but I'm equally amazed by the gall to call yourself a "former public school teacher" based on what looks like one year of TFA

Will Dreher's campaign About page, describing him as a "former [...] public school teacher"

Will's early career trajectory: bachelor's in Foreign Service at Georgetown, what *looks like* one year of Teach for America in a majority-black Maryland school district, then straight to Harvard Law

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 28/06/2026

Love the Roosevelt and 12th bike lanes @seattledot.bsky.social , but they need hardening. This Tesla driver in the black sweatshirt had them confused for a delivery lane!

White Tesla parked in bike lane, delivery driver in black sweatshirt clearly confused by meaning of flex posts

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 26/06/2026

Delighted to learn about @kingcountymetro.bsky.social's World Cup shuttles by running into them in pixel form ⚽

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 16/06/2026

At our meeting tomorrow, Northeast Safe Streets will be hosting Alex Hudson to present on the upcoming Seattle Transit Measure! Everyone is welcome: the meeting is at 6:30 in the U District Partnership building.

A picture of Alex Hudson, taken in winter near the Stimson-Green Mansion.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 11/06/2026

My Chicago-Madison connecting flight got cancelled because of wind, and American tried to rebook me on a redeye through Dallas (😱) but real ones know it's only a 2h bus ride. See you soon #SOTMUS!

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 08/06/2026

I'm headed to @osmus.bsky.social State of the Map in Madison this week—who else is going? Let's hang out!

Names of my two talks at OSM US State of the Map this week:

Friday - "OpenPOIs: a superset of open place data"
Saturday - "What is real? Estimating the fidelity of OSM data using changesets"

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 08/06/2026

Shout-out to fellow cugos.org member Aaron Schechter (transitmapping.net) for his great op-ed in the Urbanist today! It comes with a brilliant interactive map, of course

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 01/06/2026

We're gonna make it 🙏 Pic from Reddit

Light rail direction signs now have a "via Seattle" subheader

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 22/05/2026

I redid my website with a new splash page - come hang out and enjoy some transit for a bit. nathenry.com

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 15/05/2026

Good stuff. I just subscribed 👍

Excerpt from the article:

There is a phrase that does a lot of work in arguments like this one, even when it is not said out loud. "Our way of life." "Neighborhood character." "What makes Seattle Seattle."

Those phrases are not nothing. People love their neighborhoods. They love the maple on the corner that turns orange in October. The view of the Olympics from the porch. The coffee shop they walk to on Saturday mornings. The school their kids can get to on foot. The forests up Highway 2, the farms in the Skagit, the orca whales in the Salish Sea. These are real things, and they are worth preserving.

We are trying to preserve them.

A walkable neighborhood with a corner store and a bus that comes every 10 minutes is not a threat to a way of life. It is one. The kid who can bike to school instead of being driven, the grandmother who can age in her home because the pharmacy is three blocks away, the family that can afford to stay in the city where their parents grew up: those are ways of life too, and the current rules in our region have made them harder, not easier, to live.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 27/04/2026

Today I'm releasing 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗣𝗢𝗜𝘀, a project to unify points of interest from @openstreetmap.bsky.social and @overturemaps.bsky.social across the U.S! Check it out: openpois.org Full data on @source.coop: source.coop/henryspatial... Replication code: github.com/henryspatial...

OpenPOIs web explorer showing confidence-scored points of interest (POIs) across downtown Chicago. The confidence scores show an interesting spatial pattern: POIs near the lakefront and Chicago River tend to have higher scores than inland POIs.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 25/04/2026

I was getting strong "stop doing math" energy from this article, and wouldn't you know it.. 🤪

STOP DOING MATH meme

NUMBERS WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE GIVEN NAMES

YEARS OF COUNTING yet NO REAL-WORLD USE FOUND for going higher than your FINGERS

(Etc etc)

THEY HAVE PLAYED US FOR ABSOLUTE FOOLS

Guest star: gamma function on the complex plane

Gamma function on the complex plane, straight from the Wikipedia article. Starting to feel like they played us for absolute fools

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 04/04/2026

Yesterday we took the 2 Line to Bellevue for dinner—Bellevue! For dinner! What a delight

The mountain is out, and because I'm not driving I can actually take a proper look!

Selfie at the #BVUE sign by Bellevue City Hall

Downtown views west of Judkins Park station

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 20/03/2026

It's 🌸TIIIIIIIIME🌸

Mariah Carey enjoying the second most wonderful time of the year: Seattle in mid-March 🌸

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 17/03/2026

TONIGHT: Join us to discuss pedestrian and bike safety during Revive I-5! We're meeting at U District Partnership, two blocks from light rail. Details and RSVP here: www.eventbrite.com/e/ne-safe-st...

Revive I-5: a community conversation with WSDOT + SDOT. March 17, 6:30-7:30 PM at U District Partnership (2 blocks from U District light rail station)

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 11/03/2026

Pioneer Square once hosted "the world's most luxurious underground toilets," so I'd expect the preservation district to be excited about the return of this historic public amenity! www.historylink.org/File/2950

On September 23, 1909, an underground comfort station opens in Pioneer Place, a small park located downtown in Seattle's Pioneer Square (corner of 1st Avenue and Yesler Way). The public toilets are built underground below an ornate iron and glass pergola. The comfort station is ventilated through nonstructural pillars in the pergola, which are hollow. The restrooms have marble stalls, brass fixtures, oak chairs, white-tiled walls, and terrazzo floors. These are believed to be the world's most luxurious underground toilets. After opening, they are flushed approximately 5,000 times a day; 8,000 times on Sundays when saloons are closed.

The Eighth Wonder of the World?

A 1910 article in the Seattle weekly, Pacific Builder and Engineer, described the facilities as follows:

"The man of travels will find nowhere in the Eastern hemisphere a sub-surface public comfort station equal in character to that which has recently been completed in the downtown district of Seattle; and in the United States there are very few that will be found to equal it. ... Roland W. Cotterill, secretary of the Park Board, states that the comfort station has been one of Seattle's best advertisements. He has expressed himself as surprised at both the character and geographical distribution of the inquiries he has received about it."

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 10/03/2026

Join Northeast Safe Streets next Tuesday for a community discussion with @wsdot.wa.gov and @seattledot.bsky.social about Revive I-5! I look forward to discussing how we can keep pedestrians safe when car traffic goes up on city streets. Registration here: www.eventbrite.com/e/ne-safe-st...

Graphic for "Revive I-5: a community conversation with WSDOT + SDOT" on March 17th at 6:30 PM.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 12/02/2026

Cool kids take the bus 😎

Seahawks players celebrating from the top of a double-decker bus, surrounded by adoring fans

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 11/02/2026

This is such a neat viz. I'm in the geospatial cluster, but my follows span software devs + social scientists + PNW + urbanists—sounds about right to me!

Screenshot from https://bluesky-map.theo.io/ showing my followers mapped across the Bluesky ecosystem

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 14/01/2026

This is my favorite plot from this post, showing life expectancy at three spatial scales: - Countries of the world (range: 51 to 85 yrs) - Counties of the US (66 to 90 yrs) - Census tracts in King County, WA (71 to 87 yrs) At each scale, averages hide dramatic spatial heterogeneity in health

Life expectancy around the world at three spatial scales, all for the year 2014. Top panel: for countries of the world. Middle panel: for counties of the US. Bottom panel: for census tracts in King County, WA. All panels use the same color scheme. Dot sizes within each panel are proportional to relative population.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 02/01/2026

Mayor Katie Wilson! She kicked off her term with an impressive display of stamina—I was near the back of a looong reception line.

Me and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson in City Hall

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 01/01/2026

They have some really official-looking signs up at the airport!

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 09/12/2025

In my testimony, I argued that the City of Burien's camping ban was spatially illegible: the prohibition zone was defined in a complicated way that invited mistakes from city mapmakers and the general public. Take a look at the maps and decide for yourself: henryspatialanalysis.com/news/public-...

Map showing a detail of Burien's spatial camping prohibition, Ordinance 832, at Southwest 132nd St and 8th Pl SW. Orange parcels (and presumably the rights-of-way in front of them) were included in the camping prohibition zone, while green parcels were not.

This map demonstrates how even a resident with an internet-enabled device using an interactive map of the prohibition zone could draw an incorrect conclusion about a right-of-way's prohibition status due to GPS errors.

Note that this spatial camping ban is no longer in effect: as of January 2025, the City of Burien banned all camping within city boundaries.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 03/12/2025

In my defense, the WA Bikes board is appointed by, and entirely composed of, the Cascade board. I think it's reasonable to ask Cascade board candidates about their positions on WA Bikes issues!

Washington Bikes board:
Roxana Gomez, Chair
Luke Distelhorst, Vice Chair
Demi Allen, Secretary
Matt Latimer, Treasurer
Mary Hoshizaki
Brice Maryman
Marlene Druker
Mark Mercado

Cascade Bicycle Club board:
Gina Kavesh (Co-President)
Allison Handy (Co-President)
Matthew Latimer (Treasurer)
Demi Allen (Secretary)
Eugene Cho
Luke Distelhorst
James Dorsey
Marlene Druker
Roxana Gomez
Stephen J Hall Jr.
Mary Hoshizaki
Eric Jensen
Brice Maryman
Mark Mercado
Michael Payne
Kai Shih
Hanoch Yeung

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 03/12/2025

When @cascade.org announced its board elections, I followed up to ask if the candidates had public stances on this year's WA Bikes endorsements. Unfortunately I didn't hear back until today (voting closed yesterday), but I'm sharing the response for anyone interested in how these endorsements work.

Initial email from Cascade Bicycle Club on November 17th, 2025, inviting me to vote for the Board of Directors.

On November 17th, 2025, I responded to Cascade Bicycle Club and asked if the board candidates had taken public positions on the WA Bikes endorsements.

Response to my email from Vicky Clarke on December 2, 2025. Contents:

"Hi Nat,
Individual board members don't take a position on WA Bikes endorsements, and the WA Bikes board is separate from the Cascade board. The WA Bikes board collectively approves or seeks modifications of the endorsements proposed by staff, and the board acts by majority vote."

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 13/11/2025

@wilsonkatieb.bsky.social wins and Reanimated Music opens — I'd call that a pretty good day!

Excerpt from Katie Wilson's victory speech: "People of Seattle, this is your city." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6KJoYKESZk

Reanimated Music, successor to the Trading Musician, is now open at 1217 NE Ravenna Blvd. Their hours are 11 AM to 7 PM, seven days a week.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 13/09/2025

Come out to Rooted in Roosevelt next weekend! It's free, a short walk from the Link, geared towards all ages, and guaranteed to be a lot of fun. I'll be emceeing! rooseveltseattle.org/rooted/

Event poster for Rooted in Roosevelt, happening on Saturday, September 20th, 2025. Musical performances by The Ari Joshua Band, Small Yards, Whozyamama, Kelp Wanted, Modern Faults, and Jet Lag. There will also be free fun for all ages, classes by local businesses, a clothes swap, food trucks, and more! Address is 6801 Roosevelt Way NE. Website: https://rooseveltseattle.org/rooted/

Rooted in Roosevelt event schedule:
1-1:10 PM: Roosevelt High School Drumline
1:10-1:50 PM: Small Yards (band)
1:50-2:10 PM: Jiu-jitsu lesson
2:10-2:50: Whozyamama (band)
2:50-2:55: Remarks from Seattle Department of Neighborhoods
2:55-3:25: Salsa lesson
3:25-4:05: Kelp Wanted (band)
4:05-4:35: Group dance by Community Fitness
4:35-4:40: Remarks by our sponsor Dartmoor School
4:40-5:20: Modern Faults (band)
5:20-5:50: Roosevelt High School Orchestra Ensemble
5:50-6:30: Jet Lag (band)
6:30-7:00: Remarks by the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association
7 to end: The Ari Joshua Band

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 14/08/2025

TONIGHT: join @sngreenways.bsky.social's Northeast Greenways chapter for a social ride and happy hour at Burke-Gilman Brewing! Everyone who bikes in gets $1 off their first drink 🍻

Northeast Greenways Happy Hour, happening TONIGHT (August 14th).

The group ride starts at 5:30 PM from Roosevelt Station Plaza, at the intersection of 12th Ave NE and NE 66th St in Seattle. The ride ends at Burke-Gilman Brewing, leading into a happy hour from 6 to 7 PM.

Non-alcoholic options are available, kids and dogs are welcome, meet us at the start or at the brewery!

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 27/07/2025

Four coauthors, but no one bothered to add links or a bibliography for the whopping two studies they reference? I wouldn't be so quick to throw stones about improperly citing the literature! @tkemeny.bsky.social @maxbuchholz.bsky.social

Excerpt from Storper et al 2025 (https://www.planningreport.com/2025/07/25/storper-et-al-yes-yimby-ism-profoundly-conservative-and-wrong-housing-policy) critique of Davis 2025 (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/07/housing-abundance-antitrust/683504/). The authors criticize Davis for not properly referencing the literature; later in the same paragraph, they cite two studies without linking to the original papers or including a bibliography below. By comparison, Davis properly cites 11 sources in his original op-ed.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 17/07/2025

- Saint Ouen flea market (weekends)—it's huge and could easily fill a day - Bastille farmers market (Th/Su) - Musee Carnavalet - Parisian Statue of Liberty - Museum of Relief Maps at Invalides - The original meter, pictured

Me standing next to the last remaining "standard meter" created during the French Revolution

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 10/07/2025

"And Ryan is over there..."

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 18/06/2025

Not enough people know about this chart, showing one of humanity's greatest achievements and one of our largest unfinished challenges — made much worse by the dismantling of USAID. ourworldindata.org/child-mortal...

Child mortality rate by country income group from 1990 through 2023. The share of children who died before age 5 in low-income countries declined from nearly 20% in 1990 to 6% in 2023.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 13/06/2025

Spotted in the park this evening:

A pair of coyotes standing at the edge of the woods

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 06/06/2025

Mark your calendars for the 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘁 neighborhood celebration on September 20, 2025! We're looking for local bands to play at the event as well as an artist to design our poster — both calls are open until June 28th. rooseveltseattle.org/rooted/

Announcement poster for Rooted in Roosevelt, a neighborhood celebration happening in Seattle's Roosevelt neighborhood on September 20th. We are seeking a local artist to help us come up with a poster and other graphics for the event!

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 05/06/2025

Hyperlocal post: Human People Beer soft launched in Roosevelt tonight, and it is excellent 🍻

People congregating near the bar of Human People Beer

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 11/05/2025

Seeing Pike Place chock-full of people this afternoon, it's hard to believe that most of the outdoor market space used to be reserved for cars!

People walking on Pike Place on a sunny day. The street still has a barrier up due to construction: about two-thirds of this street section used to be reserved for vehicles. People are walking on both sides of the barrier, and sone people on the left side of the street are buying flowers from market stalls.

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 19/04/2025

I made an interactive map comparing five minute walks to transit stops (green) with Seattle's plans to allow more housing (brown/orange). You can explore the map and read my op-ed in @theurbanist.org: www.theurbanist.org/2025/04/19/m...

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Nat Henry @nathenry.com · 11/03/2025

Mini win: CRAN accepted my package update on the first try 😌 cran.r-project.org/package=vers...

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