Vancouver’s airport wants to double the size of its freight-handling operation to meet growing demand for shipments between Asia and North America.
The airport has been expanding its passenger facilities and now has the most flights from Cascadia to Asia and Europe. The latest expansion plan would provide the same boost for the cargo business.
A defeat of the chief justice of Washington’s supreme court in tomorrow’s election would be another victory for well-financed special interests. Preventing such an outcome should top the state’s election reform to-do list.
Anyone who watches cable TV has likely seen the personal-attack ads in support of Redmond property-rights lawyer John Groen. Most of the $1.6 million spent on his campaign comes from the Building Industry Association of Washington, an essentially Republican organization whose purpose is to gut regulations, no matter the level of public support. Rather than attack the court’s decisions, the ads malign the personality of Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, a 12-year court veteran who has the endorsements of most of the state’s newspapers but far less money.
Groen gained financial advantage by taking large campaign donations after a law limiting those contributions was passed but before it went into effect. He is reportedly the only supreme court candidate this year who didn’t uphold the intent of that money-limit law. The building association has run “independent” efforts to support the campaign since.
Washington shouldn’t allow any single interest to buy an election, regardless of ideology. Money can’t be eliminated from politics but a public system to maintain balance might help. An organization pushing the idea is Washington Public Campaigns, which cites successful examples of such a system in other states. Publicly financing just supreme court races would reportedly cost $4 million.
But reform shouldn’t stop there. The state needs to set higher standards for elections in each of the 39 counties, guaranteeing equal implementation. It also needs to raise the hurdles for passage of citizen initiatives, which are often financed by special-interest groups that hire paid signature gatherers to put them on the ballot.
Washington isn’t generating enough computer scientists and other technology workers to meet growing demand from industry here, according to this long Seattle Times story.
The state estimates that there will be 30,000 openings for computer specialists in the next decade, yet only a few hundred students graduate here each year with the necessary training, the story says. To meet the demand, tech companies want a series of educational reforms, including more funding for the the main research universities, creation of a new one to serve more students, and improved science K-12 education.
On the other hand, the head of WashTech, the state’s largest union of tech workers, seems to dispute the need. He’s quoted as saying that Microsoft and other powerful companies are trying to create an oversupply of workers to force down wages, and want to justify hiring foreign workers and outsourcing of jobs.
A major operator of Alaska cruises will move from Seattle to Vancouver next year, reversing a trend toward more cruises from the U.S. city.
The Celebrity Cruises ship will be based in Vancouver because it’s closer to Alaska. As a result, Vancouver will gain another 35,000 passengers passing through its airport, hotels and businesses.
In 2007, Seattle expects about 750,000 cruise passengers and Vancouver expects more than 900,000.
King County is about to have another test of its troubled voting system. Meanwhile the elections department is without a leader and the county council is still debating whether the post should be appointed or elected.
The county should appoint a qualified leader for the elections department who takes the job seriously. But my recent experience with absentee ballots suggests that, thankfully, there’s been some improvement since the rollercoaster recount in the race for governor two years ago.
When I moved back to Seattle earlier this year, I notified the county and mailed a notorized cancellation to the elections department in New York. I recently got an absentee ballot addressed to me at home in Seattle and another at my mother’s house in the suburbs. The one at my home was clearly labeled as correct and included explanation — in English and Chinese — specifying that only that second ballot would be counted.
I expected a mix-up and there’s still a possibility of trouble when the vote-counting starts. There’s at least one report of an erroneoulsy mailed ballot from King County. But my experience makes me feel more confident that at least the ballots are getting out. That’s a step in the right direction.
Amtrak trains in Pennsylvania will begin traveling at up to 110 miles an hour next month, the fastest American run outside the Washington, D.C.-Boston corridor.
The new service cuts travel times between Philadelphia and Harrisburg to 90 minutes from about two hours — considerably faster than driving. The $145 million project includes new rails, which allow a smoother ride, and cleaner electric trains. Amtrak plans to add trains to meet the bump in ridership that’s likely with the improved service.
In Cascadia, the governments of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia need to move faster to meet growing demand for an efficient way to move around the region. Train ridership between Vancouver, Seattle and Portland has soared along with improved service in recent years. But going by train is still slower and less convenient than driving.
Plans call for gradually improving infrastructure along the route in order to add frequency and speed the trips. By about 2013, eight trains a day would run between Seattle and Portland in three hours, and three trains would run between Seattle and Vancouver in 3:30. Currently there are no plans to add trains or cut travel-times between Seattle and Vancouver before the 2010 Olympics.
The unemployment rates in Washington and Oregon dipped a tenth of a percentage point in August, another sign of Cascadia’s robust economy.
In Washington the unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent and in Oregon to 5.5 percent. Last week British Columbia reported that its rate fell to 4.7 percent — near a 30-year low.
The job market, which is stronger here than in the whole of either country, is likely one reason for tight real estate markets across the region. Yet the picture varied depending on location. In Washington, the Seattle area’s rate fell to 3.9 percent, down from 4.2 percent in July. But Ferry county’s rate was 8.8 percent.
Senator Maria Cantwell widened her lead over Republican challenger Mike McGavick to 17 percentage points, according to a new poll. Yet it’s too soon for Democrats to count on victory.
The Rasmussen poll conducted on Sept. 6 showed her lead widened from 6 points three weeks earlier. During that time she ramped up her TV advertising and McGavick suffered a self-inflicted wound over his botched confessional. That 11-point change shows there’s still ample time for another wide swing before election day.
Remember that at this time two years ago now-Gov. Gregoire held a small lead over Republican Dino Rossi, after a competitive primary race. That gap closed, of course, and Gregoire won by 129 votes only after a lengthy hand recount and court challenge.
The U.S. and Canada are set to sign an agreement today to end the long-running dispute over softwood lumber. A negotiated settlement beats wasting more money on lawyers’ fees, but it won’t be the end of the issue.
Under the deal, legal proceedings would be dropped and the U.S. would repay about 80 percent of the duties it has collected on Canadian lumber imported into the U.S. Instead, Canadian exporters would have a quota that is linked to their market share in the U.S.
A move to alleviate a key source of trade friction between the U.S. and Canada is big news. Unfortunately the agreement won’t solve the underlying problem because Canada has abundant low-cost government-owned trees and U.S. consumers demand inexpensive wood.
There is still significant opposition to the deal, which would be open for renegotiation within a couple of years. Canada has won a string of judgements under the NAFTA and WTO tribunals and many Canadians resent caving in to the U.S. It also still needs to be ratified by parliament, where it’s part of a larger political-power struggle.
Tacoma may set an example for the region if it decides to go ahead with redevelopment of a historical building into a for-profit hotel rather than low-income housing.
The city council is set to decide on Tuesday if a private developer can proceed with plans to turn the 80-year-old Winthrop Hotel building into a new four-star hotel. The project would anchor other development in the north end of downtown, much like several museum projects did in the south end.
Of course, more affordable housing is needed throughout Cascadia. But the best way to get it is by increasing overall supply, not by sacrificing historical opportunities.
In Tacoma, the Winthrop was transformed into low-income housing as an urban renewal project in the 1960s but that obviously didn’t solve the housing crunch. If it’s returned to its previous stature, creating more pedestrian traffic and all-hours business activity, other residential development is sure to follow.