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Mossback

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Oregon envy: Can a Seattleite turn green wishing to be there?

Posted Wed, Feb 3, 2 a.m.

Much as I hate to admit it, Portland and Oregonians come closer to the Northwest ideal than we do.

READ MORE 28 COMMENTS

Seattle's sister city: Pompeii?

Posted Thu, Jan 28, 2 a.m.

Nothing motivates like fear itself, but in Seattle, where potential natural catastrophes abound, the politics of safety can both be overplayed and underplayed. Knowing which is tough.

READ MORE 6 COMMENTS

Mike McGinn era: saying less, polling more, spending less

Posted Wed, Jan 27, 2 a.m.

A brown-bag lunch with the media gives a peek into some challenges that face the new mayor and the city, and how he plans on conducting himself.

READ MORE 7 COMMENTS

That was the week that sucked

Posted Fri, Jan 22, 1:22 p.m.

Seven days that liberals should never forget, much less repeat.

READ MORE 17 COMMENTS

The Great American Slowdown

Posted Wed, Jan 20, 2 a.m.

We're less mobile and more place-bound, and it's not just the recession that's slowing restless America's nomadic habits. This is good news for Seattle, the environment, and mossbacks.

READ MORE 9 COMMENTS

Blogging about your bungled bungalow

Posted Thu, Jan 14, 2 a.m.

In Seattle and Olympia, new blogs are trying to reshape public opinion about historic preservation by focusing on successes, failures, and hidden architectural influences. Who knew the prevalence of the geodesic dome?

READ MORE 5 COMMENTS

U.S. can still lose face at world's fair

Posted Tue, Jan 12, 2 a.m.

The biggest Shanghai surprise so far is how U.S. participation in China's Expo 2010, once in doubt, has been saved by Hillary Clinton's prodigious fund-raising ability. But it's not the whole story.

READ MORE 1 COMMENTS

The Fat Lady often sings for historic stadiums

Posted Thu, Jan 7, 2 a.m.

While Portland preservationists fight to save their historic Coliseum, another sports venue is destined for a cheesy end.

READ MORE 7 COMMENTS

Will the book survive?

Posted Wed, Jan 6, 2 a.m.

Jeff Bezos envisions a Kindle-only world, but ink-on-paper books still have a place, including helping to build better cities.

READ MORE 12 COMMENTS

Best of 2009: What would Jane Jacobs do about the Viaduct?

Posted Wed, Dec 30, 10:12 p.m.

The patron saint of livable, walkable cities is being invoked on both sides of the debate over Seattle's Viaduct solution. Would Jacobs be a tunnel supporter, or a surface option fan?

READ MORE 29 COMMENTS

Best of 2009: Does 'smart growth' also create more sprawl?

Posted Wed, Dec 30, 2 a.m.

Urban density, a Seattle and Portland mantra, is supposed to constrain sprawl, but a new analysis suggests that vital, dense cities produce bigger suburbs too.

READ MORE 29 COMMENTS

Heritage Turkeys of the Year

Posted Tue, Dec 29, 2 a.m.

Awards for the worst setbacks in Northwest historic preservation for 2009.

READ MORE 8 COMMENTS

Best of 2009: Six things you cannot say in Seattle

Posted Thu, Dec 24, 6 a.m.

Seattle doesn’t like to say No. (Look how many times we tried to say Yes to the monorail.) But that doesn’t mean we’re a city without no-nos.

READ MORE 57 COMMENTS

Seven steps for 'saving' Pioneer Square

Posted Mon, Dec 21, 2 a.m.

Some are easy, other seem impossible, but a "to-do" list is necessary to help rejuvenate Seattle's urban and cultural treasure.

READ MORE 26 COMMENTS

As the world once turned

Posted Fri, Dec 18, 2 a.m.

A soap opera star from Seattle has a career arc matching the rise and fall of one of TV's most durable genres.

READ MORE 1 COMMENTS

Arresting Baby Jesus

Posted Tue, Dec 15, 2 a.m.

Knute Berger says it’s time to end the silliness around the annual War on Christmas.

READ MORE 7 COMMENTS

Flight of the Concorde

Posted Wed, Dec 9, 2 a.m.

Twenty-five years ago, the supersonic future visited Seattle. It thrilled us all, especially those of us on board. But the legacy turned out to be a surprise.

READ MORE 5 COMMENTS

A storm that still carries a sting

Posted Wed, Dec 2, 2 a.m.

WTO, the media and the unfinished business of the Battle in Seattle.

READ MORE 7 COMMENTS

The birth of modern Seattle

Posted Fri, Nov 27, 2 a.m.

How the 1909 World's Fair, and the 100th anniversary of that fair, have led to a greater understanding of the best and worst of our city. Seattle was built on a foundation of progress, racism, and a carnival of wonders.

READ MORE 1 COMMENTS

Gregoire's budget crisis PowerPoint

Posted Mon, Nov 23, 6 a.m.

Washington's governor outlines the challenges of the next round of massive budget cuts. The going will get tough, but perhaps the tough should get going after those who can help with the bottom line, like tax-dodger Microsoft.

READ MORE 11 COMMENTS

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.

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.

Classical music: frozen in its format A short history of how classical music concerts went from pretty raucous to way too reverential. Alex Ross writes: "this clockwork routine–reassuringly dependable or drearily predictable, depending on whom you ask–is of recent origin, and before 1900 concerts assumed a quite different form."

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."

Blog posts

'Washington Law & Politics' magazine to fold

Posted Wed, Feb 3, 9:32 p.m.

The Minnesota owners pull the plug on a witty magazine that has become a fixture of local coverage and analysis.

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Vancouver taste treat: haggis won ton

Posted Tue, Jan 26, 4:49 p.m.

Has Northwest culinary cultural exchange jumped the shark (or the shark fin soup) with a Hong Kong-Highlands union?

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McDermott knows hope

Posted Fri, Jan 22, 10 p.m.

Congressman predicts health care reform will pass within a month, and Democrats will survive the week that was.

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Salish Sea gets more recognition

Posted Mon, Jan 11, 11:22 a.m.

This time, from scholars who study names and naming.

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Rethinking the rain

Posted Wed, Jan 6, 4 p.m.

What falls on your head is not what you think it is.

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I'm dreaming of a Great Whites Christmas

Posted Sat, Dec 12, noon 2009

New clues in Washington's weirdest worm mystery.

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Elliott Bay will move to Capitol Hill

Posted Wed, Dec 9, 9:43 p.m. 2009

Bookstore's new location will open in the spring.

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It's Canada's Northwest Passage, eh?

Posted Mon, Dec 14, 6 a.m. 2009

The renaming of the fabled sea route is an attempt to capitalize on the effects of global warming by changing the map.

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War on Christmas '09

Posted Fri, Dec 11, 6 a.m. 2009

Yes, Virginia, call the bomb squad.

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Kennewick Man, meet La Brea Woman

Posted Sat, Nov 28, 5:50 p.m. 2009

LA may soon have a new star in the war over old bones.

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