Cascadia Report

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  • Longview takeover would continue ownership shift

    Longview Fibre has rebuffed a $1.3 billion takeover bid by two private Oregon investment companies that would put one of Cascadia’s biggest landowners under private control.

    The offer comes from timber manager Campbell Group and Obsidian Finance Group, a private equity firm run by executives who left Willamette Industries when Weyerhaeuser acquired it.

    A deal would continue the shift in ownership of the region’s forests from integrated companies that have logging, mills and ties to local communities, to investment companies that manage timber as part of a portfolio of assets.

    Longview Fibre plans to convert to a REIT. It’s managed only a slim profit in recent years, despite trimming operations. It manages about 587,000 acres of timberland mostly in western Washington and Oregon, and has paper and box plants.

  • Tight BC economy means pre-Olympic boom

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    A building boom for the 2010 Winter Olympics may squeeze British Columbia, which already has one of Canada’s tightest labor markets. The energy boom has pushed the unemployment rate down to 5.1 percent, making it difficult to find good workers. Apparently they’re paying cashiers C$19 an hour in Northern B.C.

    Long-term growth requires broadening the economy beyond natural resources and developing a more educated workforce. Meanwhile the tight market in B.C. may mean business opportunities throughout Cascadia in the run-up to 2010.

  • Alaska Airlines calm about recent troubles

    A series of safety problems and one of the industry’s worst on-time records has fliers reconsidering their support of Cascadia’s top airline. But Chairman Bill Ayer doesn’t seem worried because traffic is still growing:Overview_739mtn

    “So I wouldn’t say from a reputation standpoint we have lost a lot, at least from the people I talk to anecdotally. And also the numbers, statistics show growing traffic, growing load factors.

    “But it doesn’t mean that we don’t need to get back to an on-time operation, a reliable operation with good baggage delivery. We need to get back to those standards, absolutely.”

  • Cost of Vancouver’s New Transit Line Grows

    The cost of Vancouver’s newest rapid transit line passed C$2 billion ($1.76 billion) for the first time. Critics seized on the announcement as proof that taxpayers aren’t getting their money’s worth. Vancouver’s third rapid-transit rail line is slated to connect downtown to the airport and Richmond by 2009.

  • 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.

  • Conservation Voters Rate Politicians on Business Votes

    Rep. Dave Reichert (R – WA, 8th) got a 28% rating by the League of Conservation Voters in its 2005 Conservation Scorecard. The rating counts votes on business issues such as renewable energy, fuel economy, gas and oil refineries, funding for logging roads and the Central American Free Trade Agreeement. Adam Smith (D – 9th) and Jay Inslee (D – 1st) got perfect scores. Eastern Washington’s Doc Hastings (R – 4th) and Cathy McMorris (R – 5th) got 0% ratings.

    Four of Oregon’s representatives got 100% ratings, but Rep. Greg Walden (R – OR, 2nd) got 11%. Logotopsub_1

  • Alaska Senator gives McGavick gift

    Mike McGavick got a gift from Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who dropped a proposal to expand oil tanker traffic in Puget Sound. The plan had been an easy target for Maria Cantwell. In a press release, McGavick takes credit for changing Stevens’ mind and says this is an example of how sending a GOP representative to the Senate would help Washington. Stevens’ announcement came within hours of McGavick’s latest campaign kick-off event.

  • 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.