Cascadia Report

Rep. Reichert challenged on law-and-order

Rep. Dave Reichert (R - WA, 8th) violated Congressional rules governing taxpayer-funded mail to constituents, Democratic rival Darcy Burner charged Tuesday.

The congressman has blanketed his suburban Seattle district with 14 mailings since October, including this week -- a violation of rules banning mailings within 90 days of an election, Burner said. The primary is Sept. 19.

"This from an ex-sheriff who plans to run on law and security," Burner said at a county Democratic meeting Tuesday. "This just shows that he doesn't think the rules apply to him."

The charge is the latest sign of the rising stakes in the 8th district, which has always sent Republicans to Congress while increasingly voting Democratic in other races.

Burner didn't say whether a formal complaint is planned. Reichert's campaign couldn't be reached for comment late Tuesday.

Burner's campaign is considered one of the best shots Democrats have this year. This month President Bush made one of his only presidential visits to the state to raise money for Reichert.

There are still worries that Burner can't pull off an upset. Democrats are 0-for-12 in the 8th district -- even in years when Democrats did well statewide and nationally. Aggressive public relations and fundraising could smack of elitism and hurt Burner in the district, which includes crucial rural areas, according to this line of criticism.

Burner says that's not a concern. "We believe in taking events to where the people are," she said Tuesday. "It's helped tremendously."

Burner said she's raised more than $1 million, including $920,000 from within Washington. She needs to raise another $75,000 by Friday in order to pass the national Democratic party's targets, she said. Recent events with President Bush reportedly raised Reichert about $700,000.

Development costing lives in Cascadia?

Sprawling car-centered development is shortening the lives of people throughout Cascadia, according to a new report by a Seattle-based think tank.

Partly because of its compact urban development, British Columbia has a car-crash fatality rate that's one-third lower than the U.S. Northwest and an obesity rate that's nearly one-half lower, according to the Cascadia Scorecard, published by the Sightline Institute. "If we designed our roads and neighborhoods with health in mind, we might make very different choices," said Clark Williams-Derry, the group's research director, in a statement.

The conclusions aren't especially surprising since Sightline, which was formerly known as Northwest Environment Watch, advocates sustainable development. Yet the group is one of the first to consider Cascadia as a single region.

The data could help influence public policy. Already, a Seattle P-I editorial has used the report's conclusions in its call for more transit-oriented development in the Seattle area.

The report says that development of compact, walkable communities in Vancouver and Victoria has helped improved health there. Among the findings: 62 percent of Vancouver residents lived in compact communities in 2000, compared to 24 percent in the Seattle area. Twelve percent of BC residents are obese, compared to 22 percent in Washington.

The report also tracks population growth, energy use, pollution, economic growth and wildlife populations across Cascadia.

Pathbreaking ex-UW dean dies in suicide

The pathbreaking former head of the University of Washington's College of Engineering died Saturday in an apparent suicide in San Francisco.

Obituaries today focus on the possible reasons behind the suicide. In Seattle she was remembered for her role in developing the region's top engineering program.

Denise Dee Denton, who had been the first woman to head an engineering school at a major research university, was named chancellor of the University of California's Santa Cruz campus in 2004. She was well-known for encouraging women to study math and science and gained notoriety for challenging former Harvard president Larry Summers' comments that women may be less suited than men for those fields.

At the UW, she worked to improve teaching and restructure the engineering program. Professors at UW remembered her for mentoring women and minorities, improving morale and for shepherding a $70 million donation from the Gates Foundation for a new building. She was honored by the White House in 2004 for her role in promoting education, according to her UC biography.

In California she was involved in a UC scandal that included her housing perks and the hiring of her partner for a UC management job. Sadly, many comments posted about her online focused on that scandal and her sexual orientation. It would be nice if we could keep perspective and celebrate the contributions of an influential educator.

Solutions wanted for Seattle housing crunch

The crop of swanky high-rise condos going up in Downtown Seattle are mostly out-of-reach for the middle class. So what can the city do about it?

Nicole Brodeur's column in today's Seattle Times provides a gee-whiz tour of one planned tower and concludes that the city isn't doing enough for the "working class." She says the recent zoning rules aren't enough and the city "doesn't have a better strategy for affordable living." But she fails to provide any new ideas.

The fact is, those new condos are expensive because lots of well-heeled people want to live in them. Build more units and the prices will come down. Two other steps would help make Seattle more affordable: 1) build a better transit system so people don't need to own a car and 2) improve the city schools so people who can't afford private school don't have to flee for the suburbs.

No, downtown condos won't make Seattle "world-class." But they could be a small part of making the city as liveable as Cascadia neighbors Portland and Vancouver.

United by a common threat

If a distant rogue country possessed weapons of mass destruction that were possibly poised to attack us, wouldn't that merit media attention?

Seattle and Vancouver are the only major population centers in North America that are reachable by North Korea's longest-range missles. This threat unites Cascadia and provides a scary reminder of how our concerns differ from those of eastern power centers like New York, Washington or Toronto.

But you'd hardly know it living here and following the local media.

North Korea said last week that it had a weapon and planned a missle test. Yet the major Puget Sound and Vancouver newspapers haven't devoted front-page real estate to the issue. It's nowhere on local TV and radio, even as media report daily on the carnage in Iraq and paranoia over terrorism continues. In Seattle, a neighborhood library was evacuated Tuesday when a librarian reported a "white substance" in the book drop. An Seattle alternative paper even pokes fun at the Korean threat on its blog.

More cross-border meetings?

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire was scheduled to meet Tuesday in British Columbia with Premier Gordon Campbell. It's a big symbolic step toward deepening Cascadia ties.

Gregoire plans to hold frequent cross-border meetings and wants to broaden links between the government agencies of the state and province, she said at a press conference Monday. The announcement was broadcast on TVW but it barely merited a sidenote in this AP story in the Seattle Times.

Meetings between the leaders of Washington and British Columbia have been rare. During the 1990s the most prominent visits by Washington's governor were for the annual Puget Sound business leaders' retreat in Vancouver.

Gregoire said she plans to focus on border security, economic development, capitalizing on the 2010 Olympics, and measures to deal with a pandemic. She said Washington and B.C. need to convince the federal government to make sensible improvements to border security. Recent talk about requiring passports to cross the border already have scared off tourism though there's no immminent change in the rules, she said.

More Cascadia train links

Train ties between Seattle and Portland will grow July 1 with the addition of a fifth daily Amtrak round-trip between the cities.

The additional train helps integrate Cascadia by making connections easier along the corridor from Bellingham to Portland. Here's the info from Amtrak.

This is a case of supply trailing demand. Highways along the Cascadia corridor are increasingly clogged. The latest train is the first new service in the corridor since 1999. Even without additional service, passenger traffic from Seattle-Portland rose 6 percent from 2004 to 2005, according to a Seattle Times report.

The new train is funded by a multi-billion-dollar transportation package approved last year by Washington, whose taxpayers fund three current round-trips using new train equipment. The trains make the trip in about 3:30. A daily Amtrak on its way to L.A. and back also serves the route more slowly.

Cascadia travelers are waiting for British Columbia's government to step up with funding to fix the weakest link in the Cascadia corridor: between the U.S. border and downtown Vancouver.