Creating a 'right' life: notes from the belly of Seattle: We haven't lived in Belltown all that long. Who has? On any given Saturday you can see all sorts of people like me unpacking U-Hauls to give the inner city a try.

Becoming uninvisible: taking Seattle's bicycle plan for a ride: The challenge for cyclists in the big city is to be seen. The mayor's plan actually recognizes this.

Five local architects appraise the Olympic Sculpture Park: Crosscut asked five local experts in landscape architecture to critique the much-acclaimed new park created by the Seattle Art Museum, now that the hoopla has passed and people have had a chance to make repeat visits.

The Seattle School District is sending students to a 'white privilege' conference: The diversity gathering in Colorado will highlight "the destructive power" of whiteness and empower students to tackle "oppression."

Seattle's changing values as seen through the zoo: As the city and its world famous Woodland Park Zoo keep going green, tensions emerge between our politics and our practices.

Oregon's anti-war Republican: Sen. Gordon Smith is in the crosshairs, but he's got at least one thing going for him: He's an unapologetic critic of the Iraq war.

Let's stop and talk about Seattle's transportation insanity: The real transportation problem around here is cultural. Drivers hate bikers. Pedestrians are getting squashed. Jaywalkers proliferate. And many drivers are simply insane. But there is a solution.

His way with the tramway: With dogged reporting and advocacy, an Oregonian writer proves the pen is mightier than process-as-usual. The Portland Aerial Tram was controversial and expensive, but thanks in part to Randy Gragg, it looks great.

What were they thinking? They weren't: A broadcaster whose stupidity caught up with success, Don Imus is in bad company – lots and lots of bad company.

A comeback scenario for the Seattle Public Schools: Threatened with extinction, the School Board got its act together. Meanwhile, a coalition of moderate reformers could dramatically improve it.

The rookie Alaska governor makes progress toward a massive gas pipeline: She's trying to revive a stalled project that could touch off a new economic boom.

Hearst argues it two ways: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer owner is floating seemingly contradictory arguments about newspaper business decisions in a lawsuit here against the Seattle Times Co. and in another, unrelated action in San Francisco.