crosscut.com : Neighborhoods / Communities

More fun than Deliverance!

Crosscut — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

Spend your summer vacation in Eastern Washington, an exotic locale where lakes are slippery, the Scablands surprising, and wheat farmers are smashing stuff for fun.

Fishing for a family's food

Crosscut — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

An Alaskan whose family holds a subsistence fishing permit chronicles their annual trip to the Kasilof River, where they fish for sockeye salmon using set-nets.

Sausage Links, cougar-hunting edition

Crosscut — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:28:01 PDT

Praise the Lord and release the hounds — because our good state Legislature has enacted a law which makes it legal once again to use dogs to hunt cougars. Now, I didn't even know cougar hunting was legal in Washington — minus Cougars wearing crimson — but apparently, it is. While the bill was actually passed by the Legislature in February, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold a public meeting on Friday to discuss whether the pilot program should continue for another three years.

Meanwhile, Micheal Reitz of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation has compiled a list of some other curious laws enacted by the Washington Legislature this year. My personal favorite: Violators may face up to $1,000 or up to a year in jail for selling raw or unprocessed huckleberries without a permit.

Nick Licata reprises his role as City Council menace

Crosscut — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

Being council president cramped his activist style. Now he's relishing a return to "Licata non grata." He's energized enough to be thinking about running again, maybe for mayor.

Sausage Links, tree-cutting edition

Crosscut — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:09:01 PDT

Timber! The Seattle Times has a series of special reports about the lack of oversight in the logging industry and the cost to state taxpayers. According to the report, no one checked when Weyerhaeuser started clear-cutting unstable slopes, some of which eventually slid and cost millions of dollars to clean up. Naturally, David Goldstein at Horse's Ass blames Republican-led deregulation. ...

Our cultural amnesia

Crosscut — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:00:01 PDT

In the midst of exponential growth, Seattle can't remember how to be Seattle. It's time we went back to school and learned how.

Sausage Links, gas cards for bad guys edition

Crosscut — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:20:01 PDT

Alright everybody. Let's head to Tacoma. If we hurry, we can help Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers catch sexual predators, gangsters, domestic violence abusers, and violent criminals. Why? Because they're giving away $250 gas cards and up to $1,000 in exchange for information that would lead to arrests. Here's the list of criminals. Start hunting. After all, what better incentive is there to dodge outrageous gas prices than to catch perverts? Don't answer that.

Googie resurrected in Ballard?

Crosscut — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:00:01 PDT

The group Sustainable Ballard is sponsoring a bike rack design contest. The winners will have their racks made and installed at key neighborhood locations. Sustainable Ballard says there is a "dearth" of bike racks in Square Head City. Winners of the competition will be announced at the Ballard SeafoodFest July 26-27.

Little boxes, crammed together

Crosscut — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

Like the skinny houses of two decades ago, dense townhouse projects seem to be everywhere, and they look terrible. An architect and former Seattle City Council member says Seattle can do better.

A design-savvy city defined

Crosscut — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

A report lays out a road map, backed by polling that revealed surprising attitudes of Seattleites and Portlanders about their hometown architecture.

Sausage Links, top-two headache edition

Crosscut — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:23:01 PDT

David Postman had a busy morning. First, The Seattle Times chief political writer reported the proper way to describe the ~~death with dignity~~ "assisted suicide" initiative. Then he dropped a political firebomb, reporting the state's political parties haven't yet given up trying to ax the "top-two" primary, with both Republicans and Democrats claiming the entire '08 election won't count. I thought that headache was over. Turns out it's just getting started. ...

Sausage Links, "freedom to get drunk and blow stuff up" edition

Crosscut — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:23:01 PDT

Chris Mulick at the Tri-City Herald has today's top story, reporting this morning that Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 and the Service Employees International Union-backed Initiative 1029 would — if passed by voters in November — increase the state's budget deficit by an estimated $300 million.

The Rose City blooms while the Emerald City fades

Crosscut — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

Portland and Seattle are among the top 10 "best-designed" urban areas, but Seattle ranks lower in part because of its record on historic preservation.

The 100-year gamble to save our quality of life

Crosscut — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

A close look at the ambitious "Cascade Agenda," which hopes to preserve the central Puget Sound region's natural systems from a Pugetopolis that sprawls all the way to the Cascades. The mechanisms are known, but it's not clear they can work well enough or soon enough.

Sausage links, Seattle SuuuuuuperSonics edition

Crosscut — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:00:01 PDT

Today's the day of reckoning for the city of Seattle and the SuperSonics. Judge Marsha Pechman will rule at 4 p.m., and we'll know who wins this OK Corrall shootout. Mayor Greg Nickels will hold a press conference at 5 p.m. to discuss the decision (live on the Seattle Channel). Here are the pre-announcement perspectives: state Rep. Bob Hasegawa, Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat, Stranger writer Josh Feit, Crosscut writers Ross Anderson and Sue Frause. ...

Where else but Seattle?

Crosscut — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:15:01 PDT

On a cloudy Sunday in early June, I spent the morning with poetry bookshop proprietors Christine Deavel and John Marshall. The results of our conversation were an article on the poetry bookselling biz for Crosscut and a Q&A for Poets & Writers about Marshall's first book, a poetry collection published by Oberlin College Press called Meaning a Cloud. The middle section of his book is called "Where Else," which takes on the subject of Seattle directly, for example:

Sausage Links, gun-ban edition

Crosscut — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:00:01 PDT

It's too soon to tell if gun enthusiasts will henceforth consider June 26 "Possess a Pistol Day," but here's the immediate reactions to the Supreme Court ruling rejecting the D.C. gun ban, from both sides of the aisle: Goldstein, Earling, Obama, McCain. ...

Ballard landmark lawsuit will be dismissed

Crosscut — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:00:01 PDT

Now that the Ballard Manning's/Denny's has been thoroughly demolished — I took a look at the site last evening and believe me, the landmark structure is hamburger — owner Benaroya will be ending its legal action against the city's Landmarks Board.

Sausage Links, media-bashing edition

Crosscut — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:00:01 PDT

Lefty blogger David Goldstein at Horse's Ass has been battering the local media lately. Yesterday, he unleashed on Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Chris McGann for his coverage of Gov. Chris Gregoire's now infamous state gambling compact. Today he asks Crosscut's Ted Van Dyk to apologize to Gregoire for his own coverage of Casino-gate. ...

Transit train wreck: Here's how to do buses right

Crosscut — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:01 PDT

They aren't the only solution, but they are the most flexible and potentially most attractive solution if they are used well. Bus lines are flexible, scalable, and can touch more people than rail, and they don't have to be a pain to use. Part 3 of 3