Shapeshifter Seattle: You call this eco-friendly?
It’s a gorgeous spring day and riding the ferry Puyallup from Bainbridge to Seattle is a bit like being trapped in a pretty postcard. I’m chatting with a couple visiting from Auckland, New Zealand....
View ArticleSeattle quake: Waiting on big one
The earthquake in Nepal is a jolting reminder of our own vulnerabilities. Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the 6.5 earthquake that rocked Seattle at 8:29 on the morning of April 29, 1965. There...
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Landmark mansion is demolished, quietly
A Seattle landmark has been quietly razed, taking preservationists by surprise. The so-called George Carmack House at 16th and E. Jefferson in the Central District neighborhood of Squire Park was...
View ArticleTreasurer’s funding idea: Something there?
It’s not often you see folks who hold statewide elective office embrace the third rail of Washington politics, but state Treasurer Jim McIntire, a Democrat, has done that by unveiling a new tax reform...
View ArticleWhy everywhere is “The next South Lake Union”
South Lake Union is an urbanist bright spot, a soulless scourge and a popular meme. Seattleites have mixed feeling about what has been wrought there. On the plus side, SLU is ground zero for Seattle’s...
View ArticleWhy Seattle should root for Tukwila’s arena
The plan to build a privately funded hockey and basketball arena in Tukwila is welcome and could be a big win for the region, especially Seattle. First, Tukwila is a better spot than the...
View ArticleSurvival of the richest: priced out of Seattle
An old colleague and friend recently sent out an appeal for help. Due to health and financial problems, he and his partner were struggling to make ends meet, and just before Christmas, they became...
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Mossback does Milan’s Expo 2015
The “selfie” makes a perfect metaphor for a world’s fair: an event where the nations of Earth gather to show off what they know, and who they’re with — all with the idea of promoting a new self-image....
View ArticleShould Washington’s death penalty be dropped?
Is it time to kill the death penalty in Washington? That question has been brought to the fore in the last year. Gov. Jay Inslee has let it be known that no prisoner will be executed on his watch. The...
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Smoking in parks and motorcycles on sidewalks: Lessons from Italy
Seattle is banning all smoking in city parks. You already can’t drink in city parks, either. These are essentially civility laws designed to curb the behavior of certain populations. The smoking ban is...
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The little white house. And the medical visionary who made a difference.
It sat on 18th Avenue in Squire Park, across from the backside of Providence Hospital. It was a little, white turn-of-the-century house — it could have been a Midwestern farmhouse — set back from the...
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Does Seattle understand how to nurture its own creativity?
Just how creative is Seattle? We’re known as a city that has a burgeoning “creative class,” defined largely by people in the business research sector who innovate selling spoons and diapers at Amazon...
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Mystery of the 8,500-year-old Washington bones solved?
Native American tribes and Western scientists often have had a contentious relationship, but a new article in the journal Nature has brought tribal members and science in line on the ancestry of...
View ArticleMy own ethnic identity ‘fraud’
Before the scandal in Spokane over the racial identity of the now former head of the local NAACP, I was preparing to make my own confession. It turns out my claim to a little ethnic cred is not...
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Confederate symbols also blight the Northwest
We might seem removed from controversies like the one over the Confederate flag, but we’re not. The Pacific Northwest was very much involved in the politics of the Civil War. Early leadership in the...
View ArticleEndangered species: Parking in Seattle
In a sense, I’m lucky that my morning commute is usually the distance between my laptop and my lap. My wife walks to work most days, and we’re down to one car. We live in an apartment complex right...
View ArticleHate-Filled Zone: The racist roots of a Northwest secession movement
For much of our history, the Pacific Northwest has been remote physically and psychologically. We’re a place people come to when they want to escape, improve their lot in life and build their idea of...
View ArticleSeattle growth: How to stand up to developers, City Hall
Last week, the U.S. weather service issued a warning that the dry summer was replicating the conditions seen when the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 tore through Seattle’s business district. That event...
View ArticleHousing and growth may fire up primary voters
The mayor’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda just might be a gift to the new city council district elections. It has highlighted splits in Seattle’s broad-consensus, liberal ideology and...
View ArticleThe many forms of rage beneath “Seattle nice”
The Seattle Times recently did a story saying “pedestrian rage is on the rise.” The sidewalks are crowded, the intersections are dangerous, Amazonians are walking five abreast as if they own the...
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