Cascadia Report

Category: Seattle

  • Two reasons why Burner lost Democratic landslide

    Democrat Darcy Burner publicly conceded today to Rep. Dave Reichert after the latest round of ballots showed that he won narrow reelection.

    There are at least two explanations for Burner’s loss. Some voters likely were turned off by the way she turned almost every public pronouncement into a party-line critique of the Bush Administration’s policies. Voters want to trust candidates — especially in moderate district like Washington’s 8th — so personality trumps well-rehearsed talking points.

    Burner was the only Democrat to challenge Reichert, a former sheriff, well before the anti-Republican wave began to swell. But her lack of political experience was Reichert’s best asset. Jim Brunner has an account of Burner’s press conference today on a Seattle Times blog.

  • Seattle’s Sonics snub isn’t the last word

    One of the 10 most-emailed stories on nytimes.com Monday told how Seattle voters gladly chased away the Sonics by refusing to pay for a new arena. In the photo, the head of the group that sponsored the vote, Citizens for More Important Things, stands in the rain in front of a billboard adverizing a Death Cab for Cutie show.

    Clearly Seattleites are tired of subsidizing millionaire owners who won’t even invest in winning teams. In an era when the city can’t properly fund its schools, clinics or roads, there’s no reason to spend another $200 million to rebuild an arena. (Here’s a summary of events so far.)

    But it’s also true that the vote missed the importance of major-league sports to the Seattle area.

    “I’m not saying it’s the most important thing or the only thing, but I think professional sports are an important component to the overall economy and quality of life in any marketplace,” the new Sonics owner told the New York Times. “It’s about flying the flag of the city nationally and globally.”

    Maybe the best outcome would be a privately funded stadium (that could also house a pro hockey team) in Bellevue, right next to the future light rail lines. The state legislature will be under pressure in January to help at least with area infrastructure. That seems reasonable if the funding also covers arts groups and other entertainment that make the area attractive.

  • Blocking a better bridge won’t make the region green

    A Seattle neighborhood group wants to block an expansion of the 520 floating bridge freeway because it would supposedly cause visual blight and add to global warming by encouraging cars in the city.

    The new plan would replace the existing earthquake-damaged bridge with one of essentially the same four-lane size. Unfortunately current limits on road capacity — without viable alternate forms of transportation — don’t discourage cars, they just make cars sit in traffic longer. Plans for a new bridge with two extra lanes for transit and a dedicated bike lane would encourage transit use, especially as the time to drive in a car grows longer.

    Proponents of the so-called “green alternative” have cost on their side, since supposedly it would be $1.8 billion less a six-lane project, according to The Seattle Times. But residents of the region are unlikely to pony up even the remaining $3.5 billion or so without gaining increased mobility.

  • Vancouver wants room for more whales

    A recent poll found that 85 percent of Vancouver-area residents support expansion of the city’s aquarium in Stanley Park, a project that would boost a major tourist magnet in time for the 2010 Olympics.

    The poll, which was sponsored by the aquarium, paints a sharp contrast with Seattle, where activists are hamstringing the Woodland Park Zoo’s plans to build a 700-car parking garage to accommodate current visitors. A planned expansion of Seattle’s aquarium — also a tourist attraction — is years away, pending rebuilding of the waterfront viaduct freeway.

    Vancouver Aquarium plans a 50 percent expansion that would include adding more whales or dolphins. Construction is supposed to start next spring and would cost 32 trees.

  • A call for long-range transit planning

    Here’s the first article in a daily paper explaining why the rail line running through Seattle’s Eastside suburbs needs to be preserved instead of turned into a bike trail.

    The critical point: elected representatives need to plan for the long-term needs of this region — an area likely to double in population — rather than dote on interest groups. This means using the rail corridor to supplement I-405, which is currently the key priority of the highway-loving Department of Transportation. It also means preserving the rail corridor for mass transit even if the current owner wants to sell it.

  • Democrats face challenges after big wins

    Sure, Democrats padded their majority in the Washington legislature and Senator Maria Cantwell won a surprisingly easy reelection. But there were hints of challenges to come.

    Cantwell dispatched Republican Mike McGavick by about 17 percentage points, as of early today. McGavick had run a strong campaign until the final months, when it veered into wedge issues like promoting drug testing for welfare mothers and clamping down on the Mexican border. Challengers from third parties had a negligible impact. At her victory rally at the Seattle Sheraton, the most cheritable thing Cantwell could say was “thank you to my opponent for putting his name on the ballot.”

    Now it’s clear that the Democratic majority needs to translate its gains — especially on the state level — into visible improvements on issues like transportation and education financing, while still improving the climate for job-creating businesses. State party chair Dwight Pelz noted that the reelection campaign begins today for Gov. Chris Gregoire, who faces another challenge from Republican Dino Rossi.

    There were a few other signs of obstacles ahead. Congressman Dave Reichert held a narrow lead over Democratic challenger Darcy Burner, suggesting that voters want to vote for opposition candidates rather than against incumbents. Meanwhile the Democratic base isn’t entirely united. Cantwell’s victory speech was interrupted by a group of supporters who loudly chanted “Stop the war!” until the dozens of supporters on stage drowned them out with a rehearsed “Six more years!”

    Before the polls had even closed, disgraced former U.S. House leader Tom Delay told TV interviewers that the Democrats will likely face a “lame-duck majority” when they take office. National Republican strategy may be to obstruct any policies by Democrats. But without substantial accomplishments Democrats won’t be celebrating in 2008.

  • Shrinking newspapers are still good business

    Cascadia’s newspapers are reporting sharp drops in circulation and the Seattle papers claim they can’t survive unless one disappears. But maybe the newspaper business isn’t so bad after all.

    The circulation of Vancouver’s two dailies fell to below the level they had in 1957, when they began a profit-sharing partnership, despite at least tripling of the area’s population, according to The Tyee. But the company that owns both papers — and TV stations and newspapers in Victoria and across the Canadian west — generates profit margins of more than 30 percent on some of its papers.

    Meanwhile circulation at The Seattle Times and Post-Intelligencer is dropping, partly by choice. The idea is to put the papers in front of readers who advertisers want to reach; once statewide papers are now mostly found in three counties. Still, each claims it can’t go on with the competition. On Monday an independent group asked a court to let it in on negotiations that would probably close one of the papers.

  • Plan to fix Seattle freeway threatens … birds

    Add a new wrinkle to the saga of how to replace Seattle’s 520 floating bridge freeway: naturalists from overseas object to the leading design option.

    The new bridge would cover more of the University of Washington’s arboretum and encroach on habitat for great blue herons, according to an article in The Seattle Times. Naturalists from overseas have written to object, the director of the gardens told the paper. “This is not a local issue.”

    The article also mentions that the design would include dedicated lanes for transit for the first time and coordinate with light rail in Seattle, a critical step to managing growth in the region. The city council is expected to consider approving the design next week and the governor is supposed to sign off on how to pay for the $5 billion project this month.

  • Maybe Seattle should ban junk food

    Seattle voters will decide Tuesday whether to effectively ban strip clubs from the city. Following a nanny-state trend that’s already curbed cigarettes, voters might as well adopt a ban on junk food in the workplace, columnist Bruce Ramsey suggests in a column.

    It turns out that moralistic arguments against the vice du jour echo Washington’s past. After all, it wasn’t long ago that the state arrested people who drank alcohol.

  • If Portland can handle strip clubs…

    Seattle’s voters are about to decide whether to overturn new draconian rules that essentially shut down the city’s tame strip clubs. Meanwhile Portland has at least 12 times as many clubs and looser rules than Seattle ever has, according to an excellent story by Jim Brunner in The Seattle Times.

    “Would anybody say Seattle is a superior place to Portland because it has fewer adult bookstores or strip clubs? I think that’s such a bizarre notion,” said Charles Hinkle, a Portland attorney who specializes in free-speech cases and has argued against strip-club regulations in Oregon. “I don’t think anybody in Seattle would list that in the top 100 factors as to why they chose Seattle to live.”

    Somehow Portland still manages to be rated one of the most livable cities in the country. Ditto for Vancouver. Any idea how many clubs they have?