The Seattle area needs a single transit agency to prioritize projects and recommend funding and land use policies, according to a new state study.
The recommendation, expected after a preliminary report last fall, would make the area’s transit and development planning apparatus more similar to those in Vancouver and Portland — where transit projects are more than plans. The Seattle area has six major transit agencies and 128 governments involved in transit planning, the study found.
Here’s part of the answer to meeting Cascadia’s energy needs without building lots of new power plants: real-time metering of electricity so consumers can choose when to flip the switch.
Electricity costs vary by time of day but power companies typically roll charges into a monthly bill because it’s more profitable. Imagine how demand would change if companies had to give conumers more choice. The article cites a study that consumers would save nearly $23 billion a year if they shifted just 7 percent of their peak consumption to less-costly times.
Just as cellphone customers delay personal calls until they become free at night and on weekends, and just as millions of people fly at less popular times because air fares are lower, people who know the price of electricity at any given moment can cut back when prices are high and use more when prices are low.
Metering is just one of the hurdles in the way of more renewable energy without building more traditional power plants.
Canadian developers are turning to Chinese investors to buy high-end homes in Whistler.
New projects will continue this year to dramatically boost the port capacity in British Columbia, with new facilities in Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Kitimat.
Legislatures across the region go into session today with long to-do lists.
The Oregonian says this year’s session will answer the question “Is Oregon governable?”
Lawmakers have spent record amounts of time accomplishing less and less. They have made no progress on the state’s most vexing issues: an especially volatile tax system, chronically underfunded schools and universities, a health care crisis and a steadily shrinking state police patrol. All the while, the Capitol has degenerated into a meaner, more partisan, more ethically challenged and more secretive place.
Washington’s legislature faces a series of issues, starting with a two-year budget. Democrats have a strong majority so the outcome will set the stage for next year’s campaigns for governor and other offices statewide.
The Gates Foundation has investments in companies that undermine the goals of the foundation’s philanthropy, according to a long investigation pubished in the Los Angeles Times Sunday.
Using the most recent data available, a Times tally showed that hundreds of Gates Foundation investments totaling at least $8.7 billion, or 41% of its assets, not including U.S. and foreign government securities have been in companies that countered the foundation’s charitable goals or socially concerned philosophy.
The report is generating lots of comments, ranging from suspicion of the foundation’s goals to surprise that the Seattle Times hasn’t covered such a story in its own backyard. Never mind that similar charges could be made against most large pools of money that aim primarily at generating a return on investment.
The article hardly addresses the issue of how the foundation could better invest its $65 billion or so in practice. With such a huge account, at some point the foundation would have to choose between getting a the best possible return or short-changing its charity programs.
A compromise appears to be in the works to replace Seattle’s dangerous viaduct without asking voters to decide between a tunnel or new elevated freeway.
Yesterday Gov. Chris Gregoire stepped up pressure to force a solution by threatening to rebuild the viaduct unless the city takes action by spring. She previously punted instead of deciding the fate of the state highway.
Politicians are paid to reach compromises like this rather than pass the tough decisions to voters. A ballot on replacing the freeway would mean a sound bite-filled campaign and inconclusive result (monorail, anyone?) because all the options and financial conditions couldn’t possibly be presented. Instead of a lengthy debate, the city should move ahead with the fastest, least-costly option to replace the aging viaduct: a package of transit and street improvements.
Improving health care coverage was the surprising theme of a major business conference in Oregon yesterday.
The issue was part of a larger push to make the state’s economy more competitive despite the ups and downs of business cycles. One encouraging sign: the governor appointed a high-profile tech CEO as his top economic advisor.
Companies on the move are about to get a sales pitch highlighting the economic virtues of the Vancouver-Portland metro area rather than individual cities.
The new Four County Economic Development Corp., mimicing similar organizations across the country, aims to recruit companies, keep businesses from leaving the area and increase the role of the private sector in the area.
Seattle’s sense of itself could get a healthy challenge next week when Portland author Matthew Stadler talks about how suburbs increasingly have more diversity and vitality than cities.
It’s an obvious point to anyone who’s visited Bellevue or Burnaby, which are more diverse and affordable than much of their nearby cities. We can quibble with some of the details of his argument, but it’s clear that the major cities are now just part of a metropolis rather than its only center. That’s a reason why transportation and development issues need to be region-wide rather than just within city boundaries.
Here’s how The Stranger describes Stadler’s idea:
He wants to reorient the way we read the city, the way we experience it, the way we code it. He also wants a City Beautiful movement—not a movement where beautiful buildings are forced on the public for the improvement of our ugly souls, but, in a Kantian reversal, a movement where the public projects beauty onto buildings.
