Cascadia Report

Category: Seattle

  • Marking the anniversary — of Boeing’s departure

    Images_4Boeing’s decision to move its headquarters to Chicago five years ago was a huge blow to Seattle’s big-time pretensions. After the dot-com recession, an earthquake and a small downtown riot, Boeing said it had to leave because it wanted to be seen as a global business. Ouch. Mayor Paul Schell was quoted as saying, “I’m waiting for the locusts.”

    Today a package of Seattle Times stories makes a case that the move actually had a minor impact in terms of employment, Boeing’s charitable giving here and the local property market. In an interview, the executive who led the move, John Warner, gushes praise for the city and state. Another story cites a recent transplant from Portland saying that Amazon.com and other new tech employers better represent Seattle now.

    The package repeatedly mentions that Boeing moved just 150 headquarters jobs. But what about the impact of that elite group and the people who regularly came to Seattle to meet with them? These weren’t just hardworking machinists (and there are still more than 60,000 Boeing workers in the state). But their departure meant a drop in demand for nonstop flights, top-end restaurants and hotels, and other cultural assets. True, the sky didn’t fall. But every leading city needs a fully mixed economy and the loss still smarts.

  • Seattle needs a mid-income housing policy

    Downtown seattleLuxury condos are popping up around downtown and the city is trying to ensure housing for low-income residents by charging developers and funding new units. So far, so good. The problem is that the added fees, on top of rising construction costs, make building mid-priced rentals uneconomical.

    City councilmembers who enjoy challenging the mayor for his development-friendly agenda push for higher fees on developers as an expedient way to fund more infrastructure. But even they admit they didn’t see this unintended consequence on mid-income housing.

    Why not come up with a new system that looks at development wholistically instead of parcel by parcel? What if the city created a system that levied development fees based on the amenities they plan and the market they plan to serve? Either way, it’s clear that Seattle needs flexibility in its housing market if it is going to grow into a diverse community like its Cascadia neighbors Vancouver and Portland.

  • Rough homecoming for Cantwell

    Senator Maria Cantwell visited Seattle’s central Garfield High School with rising-star Senator Barack Obama on Saturday. This column skewers her for supporting the Iraq war and big business — undermining the people she met at the school. Green Party challenger Aaron Dixon (see this earlier post) grew up in the neighborhood and makes opposition to Cantwell’s support for the war and business record his centerpiece.

    With liberal friends like these, Cantwell may not need much from Republican challenger Mike McGavick.

  • burner gets break-out press

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    Darcy Burner began getting some press this week in her campaign against Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA, 8th), in the form of stenography by The Stranger.

    The piece tells the ex-Microsoft worker’s bio and makes the case that the 35-year-old can defeat Reichert by making the election about the Bush Administration. Another article needs to describe her specific plans and qualifications for the job.

  • Washington GOP loses a rep

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    A Republican legislator from the Seattle area said he’s defecting to the Democrats.

    Two-term Rep. Rodney Tom plans to challenge Republican senator Luke Esser this fall and apparently saw his party affiliation as a hindrance in his changing Bellevue district. “I realized the far right has complete control of the party and for me to be effective for my constituents I need to be a Democrat,” Tom told the Seattle Times. He faulted the GOP’s anti-tax policies, saying that as a businessman he knows the state needs to invest in its infrastructure.

    Tom’s surprise move hurts Debi Golden, a Bellevue College administrator who plans to challenge Esser with the backing of the national group Progressive Majority. Meanwhile, Washington GOP chair Diane Tebelius called on Tom to resign his seat.

    The defection is the latest setback to the local GOP. State Sen. Brian Finkbeiner (R-Kirkland) gave up his leadership post in the Republican caucus in order to focus on his district. The latest change boosts Democratic control of the Senate to 27-22. The conservative, pro-business results of the last legislative session should help bolster that share even more this November. The test will come next year with the temptation to increase spending to satisfy constituents.

  • Cascadia needs infrastructure and ideas

    California is exploring partnerships between the government and private industry as a way to meet its staggering need for roads, railways and other infrastructure. Why can’t parts of Cascadia aspire to the same thing? The new Narrows bridge in Tacoma will be the first highway in the Puget Sound area with tolls. Why not explore deeper use of the market to solve some of the transportation problems?Images_3

    The Seattle Times printed yesterday’s Neal Peirce column on the issue here. He concludes that public-private partnerships are the way to go. But here’s a final takeaway point:

    It sounds like a good deal, as long as the new partnerships with business are negotiated professionally, with an eye to long-term sustainability — a reminder that we do need quality people in government! Add in transparent terms, clear performance standards and protection of the public against unfair charges, and the tapping of pools of private investment capital could prove one of the best deals of the century.

  • Momentum builds to tear down the Viaduct

    With plans to replace Seattle’s damaged waterfront with a tunnel or bigger overhead freeway looking costlier than ever, momentum may be building for a simpler alternative. See a Seattle Times column today about the option of replacing the viaduct with surface-road improvements.

    This would be a smart move for the development of the city — and follow the example of Cascadia neighbors Portland and Vancouver. See a previous post here.

  • Tear down the Seattle Viaduct

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    Seattle should heed the waterfront examples of its Cascadia neighbors: replace its viaduct with a surface road.

    The need to replace the earthquake-damaged viaduct is clear. And the state already has $2.4 billion for the project, thanks to a gas-tax hike okayed by voters last year partly for this purpose. Priorities should be getting rid of the viaduct before it falls down, spending public money wisely and fixing the 1950s mistake that blocked off Seattle from its waterfront.

    The city wants to replace the 2.2-mile structure with a tunnel, which would lack exits to downtown or to Western Avenue. But the $4 billion plan doesn’t include important steps like lowering the Battery Street tunnel and Aurora Avenue, and reconnecting the city street grid near the Seattle Center.

    Since the money to do the job properly isn’t in hand, pressure is building to at least DO SOMETHING. The state and editorialists increasingly favor simply replacing the Viaduct, which would cost at least $2.5 billion and be wider and taller than the existing structure. The state transportation department is considering only the tunnel and rebuild options, which would take seven to 12 years.

    Seattle should instead follow the other Cascadia examples. Portland ripped out a freeway along the Willamette and now has Tom McCall Park. In Vancouver, a fully connected street grid carries traffic through downtown.

    Seattle could replace the viaduct with a six-lane surface road where Alaskan Way runs now. The city could rebuild the wall that holds up the shoreline (the first billion dollars of any project) and reconnect the city street grid from the stadiums to the Seattle Center. The project would cost less than rebuilding, even after throwing in $1 billion for a streetcar or rapid-bus system connecting downtown to Ballard via Interbay and to West Seattle.

    The surface-road alternative would be fast and provide plenty of capacity for traffic by reconnecting the street grid. The state’s study assumed today’s driving habits when it forecast that downtown would gridlock without a tunnel or replacement. But that would happen anyway when drivers try to avoid tunnel tolls.

    Getting this done will take leadership and imagination of what can be. If the city skimps on a tunnel project or simply rebuilds the region will remember the failure for generations.

  • Would Seattle vote for a Republican?

    Based on the 2000 results in the race for U.S. Senate, Maria Cantwell and Mike McGavick each have to build support in their weakest areas in order to win. Here’s a pair of Sunday Seattle Times pieces outlining the strategies.

  • Politicians select their voters

    Bio_jim_mcdermott Cascadia will see a few interesting political contests this year. But not every district will benefit from the challenge. "Voters used to select their member of Congress: Now the member of Congress selects the voters," Jim McDermott joked to the Seattle P-I.