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Mossback »
by Knute BergerThe Northwest's real fairy tales
When it comes to Northwest legends, we usually think big: There's Bigfoot, D.B. Cooper's Big Heist, Paul Bunyan and his Big Blue Ox — even the Big White Worm of the Palouse. This tradition goes back. When Jonathan Swift documented Gulliver's travels in the early 1700s, he placed the land of the giants, Brobdingnag, in the Pacific Northwest — somewhere between what we know today as British Columbia and Alaska. But we have our mini-myths, as well. Yes, Northwest giants are fun to think about (remember Olaf?), but take a minute to think about our munchkins.
Seattle City Hall has cracked down on drinking and clubs, it's on the verge of banning fast food and taxing plastic grocery bags, and now even plastic-bottled water is a civic sin. Switch to tap water! says the mayor. Mossback thinks enough is enough.
Smells like ... Chanel No. 5?
In 1996, the album Grunge Lite featured Muzak-style versions of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Mudhoney classics, turning them into elevator music before anyone else did. It seemed like an attempt to inoculate the music's legacy by injecting a shot of irony before anyone else did. It didn't work. Today you can get a "Smells Like Teen Spirit" ringtone for your cellphone (just Google "Nirvana ringtones" and take your pick).
A primer of regional separatist movements, real and imagined.
Seattle's mayor waves the flag of secession. In so doing, he may have waved goodbye to a future in state politics.
The Great White hope
It may be the season for finding big white enigmas. In March, scientists spotted a long-rumored white killer whale in Alaska. Closer to home, researchers who have been pawing the sod in search of the Great White earthworm of the Palouse have come up with some surprising new clues about the elusive and possibly endangered creature. Two recent discoveries, one near Moscow, Idaho, and one near Leavenworth, Wash., suggest that the worms are not only out there, they may live farther afield than previously thought.
How the West was nuked
One of the best trends in historic commemoration is a greater willingness to honestly embrace history some would like to forget. In the bill containing Washington's new Wild Sky Wilderness that just passed Congress, there is funding for a National Park Service memorial on Bainbridge Island commemorating the shameful internment of Japanese civilians during World War II. The internment proposal was pushed hard by Rep. Jay Inslee and Sen. Maria Cantwell. Coming to terms with our nuclear past is another problematic area, but one that is also getting a more attention in the West.
Modernist architecture is for the elite, right? Not any more. The movement to preserve modern structures is finding new energy in populist appeal and as a counterbalance to today's McMansions and Viagra villas. The debate over a Ballard Denny's is just one squabble in a growing national discussion about preservation, proportion, and pedigree.
Sex, struggle, and the future of reading are fodder for famous writers at a Bainbridge conference.
How about a nuclear museum on the UW campus?
I got a very interesting e-mail from Dr. Steven Gilbert, Phd., Vice President of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR). He'd read my recent piece about the possible tear-down of More Hall Annex (the old Nuclear Reactor Building) on the University of Washington campus, and he has a great idea for the facility: Turn it into a nuclear museum. In fact, WPSR is already at work on the museum project, and it might be the perfect tenant if the UW will reconsider its destruction of this fascinating, historic modern structure.
A study says the case for road tolling is 'compelling'
The Seattle Times has an overview of the long-awaited results of the federally funded, multi-million "Traffic Choices" study conducted by the Puget Sound Region Council (PSRC) to look at the viability of widespread road tolling throughout Greater Seattle. The PSRC describes the research as "the most comprehensive study of demand response to network tolling in existence." A summary of the study can be found here (pdf).
Angry Art Thiel spares J.P. Patches
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Art Thiel has long been my favorite local columnist. What makes him a good columnist is also what makes us lucky he's not a gun-toting spree killer who's climbed a clock tower to teach us all a lesson. Thiel's latest column on the Sonics reminds me of the last scene in the movie Bataan where the movie fades out as doomed G-I Robert Taylor defiantly sprays machine gun fire as he's about to be over-run by the enemy. Thiel stands his ground like he's defending the Alamo, and he's generous in spreading blame and naming names when it comes to answering the question: Who lost our storied NBA franchise?
A group with Northwest ties is aced out of a pavilion bid for Expo 2010 in China. Instead, the U.S. State Department has given the go-ahead to a team with connections to Warner Brothers and a major D.C. law firm. Now all they have to do is raise $80 million.
Some good Googie news
In the world of news related to Northwest Googie architecture and historic preservation, there are some new and interesting developments. They range from negotiations over a controversial Ballard diner, an upcoming lecture on Googie architecture by the expert on the topic, possible landmark status for popular a burger stand in Tacoma, and the announcement of the state's 2008 awards for historic preservation. Here's a quick rundown.
When Proust met Miss Bardahl
I happened to be down near Seward Park late Thursday morning. Weekdays are usually very quiet along Lake Washington, save on Thursdays when the model plane guys fly their buzzing aircraft over Andrews Bay. But today, I heard the unmistakable roar of the past, a familiar RUH-RHU-RHU-RHU of an old-time hydro. I could see the flying spray of a rooster tail and spotted KIRO's Chopper 7 hovering overhead. As I came around the corner to Stan Sayres pits, a crowd had gathered. There in all her glory was Miss Bardahl, the Green Dragon of hydroplane racing's glory years.
Attack of the giant 'Sewer Trestle'
This one could be clipped an pasted into the annals of cautious journalism. The Seattle Times has a dramatic photo of a bus crushed under the Arboretum aqueduct--the low footbridge over Lake Washington Blvd. The roof is caved in and adjacent to the wreck is a "Low Clearance" sign. The storyaccompanying the photograph says "the private charter bus apparently was too tall for a 9-foot underpass ..." Apparently? What's the alternative explanation? The bridge is alive and decided to squat down on a hapless bus? Or a frisky bus decided to leap up at the wrong instant and bumped it's head?
Save the nukes!
Abby Martin, the University of Washington graduate student who is trying to save the fascinating old Nuclear Reactor Building (now More Hall Annex) on campus, sends us this photo showing a new addition: a sign announcing the university's intention to demolish the structure. Martin has submitted an application nominating it for a National Historic Register listing. The modern architecture group Docomomo WeWa has added it to their list of endangered historic properties.
Did I assassinate Garfield?
When it comes to pissing off rural America, I think I'm one up on Barack Obama.
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Knute "Skip" Berger is Mossback. In addition to writing and blogging for Crosscut, he is editor-at-large of Seattle magazine, political columnist for Washington Law & Politics, and a regular guest of Weekday with Steve Scher on NPR affiliate KUOW-FM (94.9). A Seattle native, Berger has long been a writer and editor for local magazines and newspapers. Most recently, he was editor-in-chief of Village Voice Media’s Seattle Weekly from 2002 to 2006, where he wrote the award-winning Mossback column. Berger has also worked for the Hope Heart Institute, Washington State Centennial Commission, and served as a member of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster reserve corps. He lives in Seattle.
How he came to live in a proverbial stump.
Mossback manifestoCrosscut's chief Northwest native explains how mossbacks came to be and why they're just a little cranky about being ridiculed by newcomers.
Duwumps
An early name for Seattle was Duwumps, which reminds us of a time before civic pretension, "world-class" ambitions, and over-priced coffee. In that spirit, this news is collected as an antidote to Seattle hype. If you see stories that aid the cause of Lesser Seattle — or more positively, Greater Duwumps — send them to Mossback.
Sundance, the USA's most influential film festival, opens Thursday
As usual, Sundance is an unstable compound of independent films and celebrity swag. Here's a list of this year's picks.
Seattle's median home price: $500,000
"A worker would have to earn $57 an hour — about $119,000 a year — to afford that Seattle home, according to the Seattle chapter of the Urban Land Institute."
The Manhattanizing of Seattle
"The uproar years back was that part of Pike Place Market was being handed over to New York investors. Now it's the whole town."
Mossbackism: It runs in the family
Joni's husband Tim Egan weighs in: "We are said to be rootless in the Pacific Northwest, transient, not tied to place, with no accent or defining characteristics. To a degree, yes. But that doesn't mean we can't follow the advice of the poet Gary Snyder. He said: Find your place. Dig in. Defend it."
A new mossback is born
Joni Balter says "The big deal is that growth and density — over the last seven years, King County added 124,000 new residents — are having impacts in ways large and small. You see it in the building cranes towering everywhere, streets blocked for construction of more buildings, roads backed up with traffic that wasn't anywhere near that bad even last year."
Bed bugs--they're back!
"Although still low in numbers, bedbugs are making a comeback to the Pacific Northwest and leaving itchy, red bites in their wake."
Insane rent hikes
"A Seattle rooming-house tenant saw his rent jacked 107 percent, from $375 to $775. I suggested such extreme sticker shock amounted to an 'economic eviction....' I have a modest but growing list of 21 buildings around the region that have hit tenants with one-time hikes of 30 percent or more this year. My personal favorite, Marina Landing in Renton, wrote Phyllis Yoshida that her bill was up 34 percent, but was cheerful about it: 'Don't forget to stop in for coffee and cookies!'"
Seattle is becoming the Kazakhstan of pro sports
"All leagues attempt, with varying success, to promote enough parity so that every team may someday find a route to the top. Seattle teams keep getting lost. This sort of mediocrity is a little more understandable in places like Kansas City, Milwaukee and Cincinnati, smaller markets that lack the Fortune 500 companies and large private wealth that can indulge franchises as objects for dilettante amusement. Despite the extraordinary explosion of cash in the Puget Sound region, starting with the 1986 public offering of stock in Microsoft, Seattle and its landed gentry often still act like it's a sawmill town short on trees."
Visitors get a shock: crime a big problem at Seattle's Steinbrueck Park
"No other place in Seattle is so popular with both tourists and criminals."
The surge: Seattle gang violence
"After what seemed to be a slowdown in gang-related violence in recent years, drive-by shootings and assaults began to surge in 2006 and continue to be a problem this year, police say."
Mossback says: Forget about living in Seattle
It's much better in:Vancouver
New book proves B.C. city is superior city
"So life for the working poor in Seattle is strikingly harder and more stressful than for their neighbours here in Vancouver. It's not because folks in Seattle are lazier or dumber than folks in Vancouver. It's because laws have created wildly different environments in the two cities and the two nations." —The Tyee
The world's most livable cities
"The Economist Intelligence Unit's livability survey report said Vancouver, Canada and Melbourne, Australia, 'with low crime, little threat from instability or terrorism and a highly developed infrastructure,' are the two most livable cities in the world, having tied for first place." —Wikipedia
California
The benefits of universal health care
"As state legislators ponder costs and other questions raised by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bid to reinvent California's health care system, experts say the plan would mean better public health and, perhaps, an improvement in sectors of society as well." —Orange County Register
Universal care: Even California business leaders love it
—San Diego Business Journal
Most energy-efficient state in the country
"[T]he state uses less energy per capita than any other state in the country, defying the international image of American energy gluttony. Since 1974, California has held its per capita energy consumption essentially constant, while energy use per person for the United States overall has jumped 50 percent." —The Washington Post
Denmark
Progressive socialist utopia in Scandinavia defies critics
"Over the last decade, the Danes have turned the conventional wisdom on its head by boasting not only one of the world's most expansive welfare states, but also one of its most robust economies." —The New Republic
Portland
Oregon city's new tram showcases a city on the cutting edge
"Portland officials also see the tram as yet another way to move people around, in a city already known for its impressive array of alternative forms of transportation, including streetcars, a light rail system and miles and miles of bike paths." —USA Today
North Dakota
Cheaper, Scandinavian, and they might pay you to live there!
"Seattle and North Dakota have enough in common that the High Plains might appeal to some of the same immigrants. That depressing climate? Think of it as an incubator for the next grunge scene." —Seattle
The Falklands
An egalitarian "Little Britain" in the making
"Deep and rapid changes have transformed what was a decaying outpost of mutton and wool into a confident community which resembles Britain more than ever. The Falklands now not only mirror the motherland, they offer an idealised reflection of affluence and inclusivity. 'This is a very egalitarian society very comfortable with itself,' says Chris Simpkins, the Falkland government's chief executive." —The Guardian
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