A tribute to eccentrics

Our garden writer shares why those who refuse to follow the herd can best teach us.

• READ MORE
• 2 Comments

Eat and walk your way through Northwest cities

Our Whidbey Island correspondent shares her favorite way to explore the food and atmosphere of Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle.

• READ MORE
• 6 Comments

All the rage

What's to blame for all the anger as cyclists, drivers, and citizens fight over their rights on the streets? Is it $4 gas? Young punks? Class warfare? Poor urban design? It's time to theorize.

• READ MORE
• 14 Comments

Sausage Links, transit migraine edition

Ready to pay $6.85 round-trip to drive across the 520 bridge? Me neither. That's the proposed toll that would raise money to help pay for improvements to the floating fossil. But the idea of a toll begs another question, something I've been dying to get reader input about: Do you think having a toll on local bridges like 520 will sway voters to vote for the proposed light rail measure this November? Thoughts?

• READ MORE
• 2 Comments

A building worthy of greenery

Vancouver's in-city oasis, VanDusen Botanical Garden, hopes to go green big-time with a $23 million visitor center that could be the region's first structure to meet the most rigid sustainability standards.

• READ MORE
• 1 comment

Fill it with American regular

While Fourth of July vacationers might be excited to see fireworks tonight, they won't be as enthusiastic about Washington's skyrocketing fuel prices. The Seattle Times reported on the recent 1.5-cent increase in the state's gas tax, the last of a three-year, 9.5-cent increase. So while commuters currently pay $4.35 per gallon, 55.9 cents of each gallon goes back to Uncle Sam, or George in Olympia.

• READ MORE
• 2 Comments

Sausage Links, potty-humor edition

Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner's home was "severely damaged" by a fire this morning. Horse's Ass has the coverage, while NorthWest Cable News has the video. ...

• READ MORE
• Comment Now

Sausage Links, media-bashing edition

Lefty blogger David Goldstein at Horse's Ass has been battering the local media lately. Yesterday, he unleashed on Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Chris McGann for his coverage of Gov. Chris Gregoire's now infamous state gambling compact. Today he asks Crosscut's Ted Van Dyk to apologize to Gregoire for his own coverage of Casino-gate. ...

• READ MORE
• 1 comment

Music festival alert: Vancouver, B.C., is the place for jazz

One of the world's premier music festivals is going on to the north of us, and lovers of live music ought to sit up and take notice.

• READ MORE
• Comment Now

Hurray for mass transit, but it's no silver bullet

For one thing, bus and rail ridership represents only a fraction of trips now, and that's not likely to radically change soon. A Seattle think tank believes a balanced approach is called for, accepting the fact single-occupancy vehicles will play a huge role in years to come.

• READ MORE
• 12 Comments

Seattle's Hollywood 'Head Hunter'

For Northwest history geeks, the most anticipated film event of the season is a rare chance to see a rare film, the just-restored 1914 silent, In the Land of the Head Hunters by Seattle's photographic master Edward S. Curtis. Known most for his monumental work photographing North American Indians, Curtis is mainly remembered and widely collected as a still photographer. Yet he also worked in film (including a stint for Cecil B. DeMille) during cinema's infancy. The "shadowcatcher" caught moving pictures, and his feature will be on screen again in June.

• READ MORE
• Comment Now

Vancouver, B.C., loses some ground as a sustainability leader

In recent years, Vancouver, B.C., has provided Seattleites with eco-friendly examples of sustainable, compact communities. As recently as the 1990s, Vancouver's walkable neighborhoods accounted for 67 percent of the population, enabling broad use of bicycles and public transportation. British Columbia also has ambitious goals for addressing climate change and recognizes the painful inconvenience of rising gas prices. The cities of Vancouver and North Vancouver are listed as having the highest percentages of compact communities. However, these numbers are slipping.

• READ MORE
• Comment Now

The need for cruise control

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.

• READ MORE
• Comment Now

Can eco-density be beautiful?

Vancouver, B.C. wrestles with how to make new buildings and greater density produce better, less uniform architecture. It turns out nobody has a very clear image of what that would look like.

• READ MORE
• 9 Comments

Genuflecting to the high rises

Let's not get too giddy and forget to examine these supposed architectural marvels — before they're built.

• READ MORE
• 14 Comments

A Canadian is shaking up the Northwest newspaper business

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

• READ MORE
• 7 Comments

Bill Clinton's very good friend in Vancouver

Thursday's New York Times broke a fascinating story about the connections between Bill Clinton and the dapper Vancouver mining mogul, Frank Giustra. The story, reporting how Clinton accompanied Giustra on a trip to Kazakhstan which resulted in both a uranium concession for Giustra and a $31.3 million contribution from Giustra to the William J. Clinton Foundation, capped a bad week for the ex-president, who's now drawing hostile media scrutiny once again after injecting himself into the presidential race.

• READ MORE
• Comment Now

Be careful where you allow high-rise condos

The Prince of Wales, the most notorious architecture critic of our time, has gone on the attack again, and he's worth listening to all the way out here in Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland. His new target: the "free-for-all" building of highrises in places like London. London, it turns out, is undergoing a wave of high-rise apartment towers, making lots of money for developers, driving up affordability, and offering precious little public good. Here's part of what the Prince said at a keynote speech to a London seminar on development:

• READ MORE
• 6 Comments

The Vancouver gambit for building roads and transit in Seattle

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.

• READ MORE
• 9 Comments

How to fix the Port of Seattle: Splitsville

The core reason for all the mismanagement is an antiquated structure, argues a former Port Commission candidate. A restructured port needs to serve a multi-county region. And we need to split up the fundamentally different businesses of seaport and airport.

• READ MORE
• 8 Comments