Cascadia Report

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  • Cascadia envy?

    Seattle broke ground today on a new 1.3-mile streetcar line that could one day link a series of dense, livable in-city neighborhoods. But let’s not forget how incremental this step is.

    Take a look at this thoughtful story that the Seattle Times resurfaced online today. Writer Bill Dietrich shows in painful (for a Seattleite, anyway) detail how the Vancouver and Portland have become models for development while the Seattle area has dithered.

    It’s all here: the historical differences between the cities, the different mentalities about growth and the prospects for the future. Dietrich describes what I’ve sensed over and over during trips north and south — Seattle has wasted its opportunity. And he includes a challenge:

    IF ALL THIS seems a little harsh, go visit downtown Portland and Vancouver. If you haven’t been there for awhile you’ll be astounded by their urban atmosphere. Ask yourself why our downtown parks are so few and uninviting, in comparison. Why our waterfront access pales. Why our transportation choices are so much more limited. Why our sidewalks are plainer, our street trees fewer, our housing choices narrower, our towers uglier, our choices so nonsensical.

    Cascadia has grown more integrated since this article appeared. But I wonder how much we’ve learned?

  • McGavick can win

    Democrats seem to think that Republican Mike McGavick’s campaign for Senate against Maria Cantwell is a lost cause. They should reconsider.

    McGavick’s strategy is to gradually build a likable image with a thorough campaign and avoid fleshing out most policy details as long as possible. That way he avoids discussing issues that divide Republicans and that could alienate the average moderate voter (things like abortion, Iraq, gay rights, etc.). The strategy almost worked for Dino Rossi’s campaign for governor in 2004 — a campaign that McGavick advised.

    Senate_large_sealMcGavick rolled out the personality offensive again Monday with another kickoff for a statewide bus tour. He’s already made headlines by calling off attack dogs. “We’re going to change politics and start by changing the way of the campaign,” he told a crowd of about 50 volunteers and supporters at the campaign headquarters in Seattle.

    So far the feel-good campaign seems to be working, closing McGavick’s gap with Cantwell. His campaign website provides details about his statewide organization, a full calendar of events and exactly how to get involved. It’s easy to tell who to call in Okanogan County, for example, if want to volunteer there.

    Cantwell is already having trouble generating volunteers, according to the state Democratic leadership, yet her website still fails to provide any information on her campaign. Even if someone WANTED to get involved it’s extremely difficult to find out how.

    Liberal bloggers seem to think that McGavick’s campaign is a long shot because of President Bush’s unpopularity. Others have told me they’re surprised at how poorly McGavick’s campaign is being run, with its emphasis on civility. But McGavick doesn’t need a majority to win. A Green Party candidate may take 2 percentage points from Cantwell, while a Libertarian candidate may take one point from Cantwell and two from McGavick.

    Judging from its silence so far, Cantwell seems to be banking that voters aren’t thinking about November yet. But it looks like McGavick’s campaign is ready.

  • Can Democrats win with gas?

    Washington state Democrats won’t let Republicans go unchallenged this year, according to new Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz.

    The party recently added a full-time PR person and plans to add another, he said. It unveiled a revamped website and plans to field candidates in most districts statewide.

    It also plans to go for gut issues: “Last time, Republicans got us with guns, gays and God. Now we have a ‘G’ — gas,” Pelz told a group of about 40 party organizers at a recent meeting in Renton.

    But will it be enough? Gas costs have fallen slightly in the last month to an average of $3.04 a gallon statewide, according to AAA. While that’s still almost 70 cents more than a year ago, the change suggests that gas could be a short-lived issue.

    Meanwhile, to many, “guns, gays and God” remain a constant threat. And it seems that Democrats who are close to those issues may be in the party’s crosshairs.

  • U.S.-Canada deal not a fix

    The U.S. and Canada signed an agreement to finally cool the long-running dispute over the trade of lumber. But the landmark deal likely isn’t the end of the story.

    Negotiators in Geneva signed the pact late Saturday — Canada Day. The main feature seems to be that both sides agree to drop existing lawsuits and agree to abide by the terms of the new agreement for three years.

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    Canadian lumber producers will get a partial refund of the billions of dollars paid to the U.S. in the form of tariffs on shipments over the last several years. But otherwise the deal seems similar to the status quo. It calls for a new surcharge on Canadian wood shipped into the U.S. if the price falls much below the current level, which is in a historically high range. And Canada gets to keep its current 34 percent share of the U.S. wood market.

    Eliminating lawsuits is an accomplishment. But unfortunately the deal doesn’t solve the market imbalances that cause the trade friction in the first place. The dispute will return as long as Canada has a massive supply of government-owned trees and U.S. consumers demand cheap wood.

    The biggest reason that the deal isn’t a fix? The Canadians didn’t get all they wanted and will finger the U.S. every time a Canadian mill closes and puts workers out of jobs.

    Canada’s parliament still has to okay the deal. You can be sure that the proposal will get lots of scrutiny, at least in Canada. On Sunday the deal was front-page news for the Victoria Times-Colonist. The Seattle Times put a wire story on A6.

  • Remember the ties that bind

    Most of Alaska isn’t part of Cascadia but the huge state still affects this region. Alaskans have a love-hate relationship with Seattle. That’s why it’s good to see a column in a Seattle paper celebrating the connection between the U.S. Northwest and the 49th state.

    The columnist visits the Chamber-of-Commerce types in Anchorage with a delegation from Seattle and reaches some obvious, yet useful, conclusions:

    For many people in Anchorage, Seattle is so familiar it blends into a single business card. Seattle’s strength and size influence Alaska every day. Without Alaska, the Puget Sound region would not be the megalopolis it has become.

    Our history is intertwined and we remain connected by business and politics. We can agree on that and still vehemently oppose logging in Alaska’s national forests and oil drilling in the Arctic wildlife refuge.

  • Cascadia gains a few hundred thousand

    The increasing traffic around Cascadia isn’t an illusion. The region added a few hundred thousand people in the last year, bringing the total to nearly 14 million.

    Washington added 120,000 people, the largest gain since the early 1990s, thanks to rapid job growth. The total was about 6,375,600 on April 1, according to the state. About one-third of the influx came from California.

    British Columbia jumped by 53,807 to 4,292,166. International immigration accounted for 80% of the province’s gain, according to Statistics Canada. The province has added 265,536 since the beginning of 2000.

    The latest figures for Oregon put the state’s population at 3.6 million as of July 2005.

  • How to transform a historic area?

    PioneersquareseattleA walk through Seattle’s Pioneer Square on a warm weekend afternoon reveals at least as many boarded up buildings, vacant store fronts and homeless people as ever. Seattle’s current development boom seems to be leaving the historic core behind. Will it catch up?

    There are plans to fill the stadium’s huge parking lot with new housing and other deals would provide a counterbalance to the area’s street population. But the going is slow.

    This week a deal to finally put retail/housing on the eyesore parking lot on Main and Occidental fell through this week. Developer Greg Smith wanted to build a taller building in exchange for hosting a maintenance shed for the waterfront streetcar. Since the zoning change didn’t come through the developer said he may pull out of the deal.

    Meanwhile the Seattle Weekly chimed in with an analysis of the Pioneer Square area. Basic gist: the balance of historical/funky atmosphere in the area will be tough to maintain if a couple thousand new residents move into the area as planned.

    What about examples around the region, like Vancouver’s Gaslamp?

  • Rep. Reichert challenged on law-and-order

    Mailboxrural2black70011bl600Rep. Dave Reichert (R – WA, 8th) violated Congressional rules governing taxpayer-funded mail to constituents, Democratic rival Darcy Burner charged Tuesday.

    The congressman has blanketed his suburban Seattle district with 14 mailings since October, including this week — a violation of rules banning mailings within 90 days of an election, Burner said. The primary is Sept. 19.

    “This from an ex-sheriff who plans to run on law and security,” Burner said at a county Democratic meeting Tuesday. “This just shows that he doesn’t think the rules apply to him.”

    The charge is the latest sign of the rising stakes in the 8th district, which has always sent Republicans to Congress while increasingly voting Democratic in other races.

    Burner didn’t say whether a formal complaint is planned. Reichert’s campaign couldn’t be reached for comment late Tuesday.

    Burner’s campaign is considered one of the best shots Democrats have this year. This month President Bush made one of his only presidential visits to the state to raise money for Reichert.

    There are still worries that Burner can’t pull off an upset. Democrats are 0-for-12 in the 8th district — even in years when Democrats did well statewide and nationally. Aggressive public relations and fundraising could smack of elitism and hurt Burner in the district, which includes crucial rural areas, according to this line of criticism.

    Burner says that’s not a concern. “We believe in taking events to where the people are,” she said Tuesday. “It’s helped tremendously.”

    Burner said she’s raised more than $1 million, including $920,000 from within Washington. She needs to raise another $75,000 by Friday in order to pass the national Democratic party’s targets, she said. Recent events with President Bush reportedly raised Reichert about $700,000.

  • Development costing lives in Cascadia?

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    Sprawling car-centered development is shortening the lives of people throughout Cascadia, according to a new report by a Seattle-based think tank.

    Partly because of its compact urban development, British Columbia has a car-crash fatality rate that’s one-third lower than the U.S. Northwest and an obesity rate that’s nearly one-half lower, according to the Cascadia Scorecard, published by the Sightline Institute. “If we designed our roads and neighborhoods with health in mind, we might make very different choices,” said Clark Williams-Derry, the group’s research director, in a statement.

    The conclusions aren’t especially surprising since Sightline, which was formerly known as Northwest Environment Watch, advocates sustainable development. Yet the group is one of the first to consider Cascadia as a single region.

    The data could help influence public policy. Already, a Seattle P-I editorial has used the report’s conclusions in its call for more transit-oriented development in the Seattle area.

    The report says that development of compact, walkable communities in Vancouver and Victoria has helped improved health there. Among the findings: 62 percent of Vancouver residents lived in compact communities in 2000, compared to 24 percent in the Seattle area. Twelve percent of BC residents are obese, compared to 22 percent in Washington.

    The report also tracks population growth, energy use, pollution, economic growth and wildlife populations across Cascadia.

  • Pathbreaking ex-UW dean dies in suicide

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    The pathbreaking former head of the University of Washington’s College of Engineering died Saturday in an apparent suicide in San Francisco.

    Obituaries today focus on the possible reasons behind the suicide. In Seattle she was remembered for her role in developing the region’s top engineering program.

    Denise Dee Denton, who had been the first woman to head an engineering school at a major research university, was named chancellor of the University of California’s Santa Cruz campus in 2004. She was well-known for encouraging women to study math and science and gained notoriety for challenging former Harvard president Larry Summers’ comments that women may be less suited than men for those fields.

    At the UW, she worked to improve teaching and restructure the engineering program. Professors at UW remembered her for mentoring women and minorities, improving morale and for shepherding a $70 million donation from the Gates Foundation for a new building. She was honored by the White House in 2004 for her role in promoting education, according to her UC biography.

    In California she was involved in a UC scandal that included her housing perks and the hiring of her partner for a UC management job. Sadly, many comments posted about her online focused on that scandal and her sexual orientation. It would be nice if we could keep perspective and celebrate the contributions of an influential educator.