Cascadia Report

Category: Business

  • Cascadia’s housing may be the “revenge of the small”

    BusinessWeek.com says Portland, Seattle and Vancouver are making such strong efforts to encourage urban housing that visiting them is like going to a different country.

    We won’t deny the similarities across Cascadia. But there’s a big gap among the cities when it comes to the transit and zoning that makes urban housing liveable.

    Still, the article highlights progress, including how small, well-designed houses are going onto lots formerly of large single houses with yards. Apparently this offers more liveable space than refitting existing buildings with mother-in-law apartments.

  • Port of Seattle names new CEO

    The Port of Seattle named a veteran of the real estate and port industries as its new leader. There’s reason to be cautiously optimistic about the choice.

    Seattle's struggling seaportInitial reports say Tay Yoshitani, a 60-year-old former Army captain and Harvard MBA, will be a big change in personality and management approach for the struggling port. The often-divided Seattle port commission unanimously picked Yoshitani, who had won praise for improving operations as the deputy director at the Port of Oakland.

    Already the Seattle P-I’s editorialists seem to be popping champagne because of Yoshitani’s reputation for openness.

    Annual compensation of $356,000 will make Yoshitani the country’s best-paid port CEO and he may even earn it as he tries to reverse declines at Sea-Tac airport and at Seattle’s harbor, while reducing the port’s tax on King County residents.

    Surely he will be a sharp contrast with current CEO Mic Dinsmore, who has controlled the port for 14 years. Yoshitani’s resume suggests a new approach, said Rich Berkowitz, local head of a maritime trade organization and a former candidate for Port commission.

    “Mic came from operations and had a lot of time on the docks, moving cargo. But he became a supernova and that made him an expert in things he shouldn’t have been,” Berkowitz said. “Just from his resume, Yoshitani is going to have a new approach.”

  • Canadian truckers want a tax write-off too

    Canadian truckers are organizing for a tax break that they say would put them on par with their U.S. rivals. Apparently drivers in the U.S. can deduct most of the cost of their meals. According to a Teamsters lobbyist:

    “When a U.S. and Canadian truck driver sit down side-by-side in the same truck stop, eating the same breakfast, it’s very hard to stomach the fact that one of them is getting an 80 percent write-off while the other gets only 50 percent; its not fair or reasonable.”

    The story doesn’t mention the other subsidies truckers receive that give them a leg up on other forms of transport.

  • Oregonian losing its statewide reach

    The Oregonian appears to be scaling back, threatening its status as one of the last truly statewide papers.

    According to its online subscription page, home delivery is now available in just five Portland-area counties and parts of two others. That’s a change from truly blanketing the state — though last I saw it was still available on newstands in far southern and eastern Oregon, as well as in large chunks of Washington. (This was first noticed by Randy Stapilus.)

    Papers across the region are losing circulation, of course. As apparently is the case with The O, that’s their choice.

  • Maybe Seattle doesn’t need to move so many cars

    Maybe Seattle doesn’t need a freeway along its downtown waterfront. Gov. Chris Gregoire punted on the decision of whether to rebuild the viaduct or replace it with a tunnel. She could’ve questioned the need for that much car-moving capacity:

    It’s hardly an unreasonable order. Legislators don’t rush in with cash when health departments, human service agencies or educators complain that demand for service is overtaxing facilities. First they ask if problems can be contained through innovation and better use of resources.

    Her lack of a decision is ironic because she truly seems to realize the challenge is transporting more people and freight, not more cars and trucks. And do it soon. She explains her vision in this conversation here.

  • Seattle’s port isn’t a monopoly

    The Port of Seattle may have a blank check locally but it isn’t a monopoly to shippers or airlines, notes Bill Virgin in today’s Seattle P-I.

    Taxpayers have a chance this year to vote out Bob Edwards, one of the five commissioners responsible for the port’s poor performance. (Commissioner Alec Fisken is also up, but at least he’s been consistently agitating for better management.)

  • Lumber deal will be just temporary fix

    Last year may be remembered for a deal between Canada and the U.S. that finally halted the long-running fight over the trade of lumber.

    The agreement had a major impact on industry by ending legal proceedings and freeing up funds that Canadian exporters had paid in duties to the U.S. But the deal itself will be remembered for what it didn’t address.

    Most important, it simply replaced one form of trade barrier (a duty) with another (an export tax). It didn’t bring regulation any closer in line with the market by addressing the ownership of forestland or the other factors that influence the price of materials. That means that when the market for wood recovers the trade spat is sure to rekindle.

  • Downtown projects may happen in Tacoma

    Tacoma may finally see development this year of several real estate projects that could transform the city’s downtown. On the boards are condos, office buildings and a new hotel — not to mention development along the light rail line.

    Meanwhile the downtown Sheraton is getting a remodel that will turn the hotel into something more distinctive.

  • Hurdles block more power from wind

    Wind is one of the keys to developing more renewable energy, but a series of hurdles stand in the way:

    washington wind farm; photo by usd.eduWind isn’t constant, the power can’t be easily stored in the current energy distribution network and it is often more expensive than sources such as coal or oil.

    Washington voters recently approved new mandates for energy from renewable sources but the law leaves many difficult issues for the future. Already a coal producer in southwest Washington has forecast more demand for power from traditional sources.

    For one thing, the law doesn’t seem to address siting complications. In places like the Columbia River Gorge there is resistance to allowing more wind farms that would generate the power in the first place.

    Another gap that hasn’t been much discussed is allowing utilities ways to control demand for power. In Australia, residential water heaters can be shut off remotely to save energy. How could this be used to change the power equation in Cascadia?

  • Economic growth shifts power in Canada to the west

    The balance of power in Canada shifted westward in 2006, with the population of British Columbia and Alberta surpassing Quebec for the first time.

    The booming oil and construction industries, as well as robust trade and the lead-up to the 2010 Olympics pushed people westward. B.C. and Alberta had 7.69 million people compared to Quebec’s 7.65 million.

    The booming oil business pushed Alberta’s economic growth to the highest-ever level for a province, according to Statistics Canada, and is forecast to continue pushing unemployment down to 2.9 percent by 2008.