crosscut.com : Victoria

The need for cruise control

Crosscut — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:00:01 PDT

An environmentalist explains why better federal regulations are needed to police polluters among the world's fleet of cruise ships: State and local authorities can only do so much. Over six months this year, Puget Sound will see 211 big ships bearing 835,000 passengers call on Seattle.

The Democrats' secret weapon: Canadians

Crosscut — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:00:01 PST

At the Barack Obama rally in Seattle on Feb. 8, there was an unexpected contingent that had infiltrated the excited crowd at Key Arena: our neighbors to the North. In the press section there was a guy from Victoria working on a radio feature for the CBC about the Obama campaign. He was sporting a "Canadians for Obama" t-shirt and I overheard him tell someone that many Canadians "don't give a damn who's running for prime minister," but they are watching the U.S. election with great interest. In fact, a recent poll indicated that one in six Canadians would give up their right to vote in the next election if they could sway the U.S. election result. Some are coming south to volunteer.

A Canadian is shaking up the Northwest newspaper business

Crosscut — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:00:01 PST

If printed papers are dying, publisher David Black of Victoria acts like the happy guy at the funeral.

The Vancouver gambit for building roads and transit in Seattle

Crosscut — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:29:01 PST

When British Columbia announced its $14 billion plans for new transit early this week, it upped the stakes for competition among West Coast cities in the transit Olympics. It also injected itself in what will be a hot debate in Washington — the use of private investment to build the next generation of transit and highways.

Famous cities don't have happy residents

Crosscut — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 14:00:01 PST

Statistics Canada has just released a fascinating study of how people feel about Canadian cities. There's a big surprise. Cities that rank high in international surveys of livability, such as Vancouver and Victoria and Toronto, score poorly with their local residents, when ranked for satisfication among residents. The top cities in Canada, as rated by those who live there, are Saint John, New Brunswick, followed by Quebec City, and such where's-that-again? places as Charlottetown and Moncton, N.B., and Kitchener, Ontario. Victoria? Dead last, tied with booming Calgary. Vancouver was 12th (of 18 cities measured) and Toronto was 15th.