Ed cetera

How high the stack?

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:01:00 -0800

Each year at the approach of election season, we try to measure the height of the tax stack. That is the total amount of tax placed on your home, your car, a dinner out, or the simple act of living here. The tax stack is elusive because there are so many overlapping levels of government. And each year there is either a renewal of a previous tax or creation of new taxing districts.

This past tax cycle, King County created two, new taxing districts: one for a county-run ferry system and one expanding flood levy districts to include the whole county.

How high is your tax stack? You can help us by blogging here about the tax cycle -- too high, too low, just about right? Click below for a Q&A podcast about this column:

Q&A with Jim Vesely | The annual hunt for the tax stack

Tools of Learning

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:25:25 -0800

I was shocked, shocked to hear a PBS essayist celebrate the Fourth of July with a whimsical piece about Thomas Jefferson's turn of phrase: the pursuit of happiness.

He got it all wrong.

The contemporary ruminations were about how modern folks try to find happiness in a mate, shopping spree or bowl of ice cream. Cute, but TJ was not interested in that transitory kind of bliss.

Hoop dreams

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:22:30 -0800

Oklahoma City can have Clay Bennett and his team. Seattle's NBA franchise was gone even if Seattle had won in court against the possessed Bennett. The last thing I wanted to see was a lame duck team forced to stay in its KeyArena lease until 2010.

Seattle can now start plotting how it can lure the NBA back to Seattle now that Bennett's bunch is heading to the Dust Bowl league. There is a chance KeyArena will be home to an NBA team again if our elected officials and potential local owners can work together.

Click below for a podcast of me discussing my new column, which deals with the potential created by Bennett's departure.

Q&A with Ryan Blethen | Sonics may be gone but dream still alive

Seattle taxes squeeze middle class

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:01:00 -0800

Elected Seattle officials seem oblivious to the current economic realities. Energy and food prices are soaring and people are being laid off or worrying about it.

You would think that would register with Seattle's mayor and City Council, each of which is proposing new property tax increases -- the mayor for Pike Place Market improvements and the council for parks.

Editorial columnist Joni Balter discusses the city's taxing proclivities and their effect in her column today. Click below for a Q&A with Joni about the issue:

Q&A with Joni Balter | Seattle taxes squeeze middle class

Commuters unite!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:00:00 -0800

Whether you get around via Hummer or Doc Martens, a united front is needed to further long-term solutions to a problem that will be with us for the long-term: $5 bucks a gallon gas.

Some people think the response to rising gas prices is to pack up and move next door to one's office. Walk to work, grocery store and the library, urban enthusiasts say. Unrealistic however. People will continue to move where it is affordable, often outside the city. Policy must respond to these choices, not punish them. Hear more on this topic in my podcast. Please click below:

Click To Play

New voters, new considerations

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:52:21 -0800

Courtesy of Clint Gomez

New citzen and new voter Clint Gomez

During this Fourth of July week, consider the importance of one vote. It was only four years ago, that Washington's gubernatorial vote count teetered over months between Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Chris Gregoire. Gregoire ultimately was ruled the winner with a 129-vote count.

In my column today, I write about the addition of 23,000 new voters who also recently became new citizens. They registered to vote in part thanks to a program by OneAmerica, formerly Hate Free Zone Washington. I'll be curious to see if this group might affect elections at all levels of government.

For a Q&A discussion click below:

Q&A with Kate Riley | OneAmerica helps new voters find their voices

Dialing for trouble

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:35:30 -0800

Unless you are heat dazed or plugged into your tunes and oblivious at all hours of the day and night, you know Tuesday is the first day of the new Washington rule on cellphones. Drivers are no longer allowed to talk on handheld cellphones n the car. Otherwise, you must donate $124 to whatever law enforcement officer pulls you over. The new law banning talking on handheld cellphones takes effect July first..

The land of endless ideas

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:00:01 -0800

Now, with eight scenarios on the table in the public view to redo the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle, the true process of processing begins. Gone are ideas about retro-fitting or spanning the bay with a bridge. We now look inward for tunnels and freeway lids to accommodate traffic in a city that is politically moving away from the automobile. Click below for a Q&A podcast about this column:

Click To Play

Wild Sky Wilderness, next steps

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:00:01 -0800

An easy hike along the Barclay Creek Trail, within a snowball's throw of the new Wild Sky Wilderness, is a great way to view the coming attractions. After Congress created the state's first new wilderness area in 24 years, and President Bush signed it into law, the work begins on making it a reality. For a Q&A podcast of my column about what comes next, please click below:

Click To Play

Democrat and Oh, So Virtuous

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:14:39 -0800

The Wall Street Journal has the most delightful story, here, about the imperative that everything at the Democratic Party's national convention in Denver be "sustainable," "organic" and "green," as well as locally sourced and union-made. They are testing the balloons, scrutinizing the forks and plates, and will have a brigade of official nannies to police the garbage cans. God help anyone who smuggles in a hot dog, or a banana.

On Finding One's Fortune

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:00:00 -0800

June brings thoughts of graduation, leaving home and making one's way in the world. Growing up, I remember hearing stories of guys who just left home and went on their own, cold turkey. I didn't do it that way, and none of my friends did, but a few still do, and sometimes it just happens. One fellow, I discovered, had done it on purpose and made it into a book. And another--a political figure in Seattle--had once been down and out, looking for a job and sleeping in a field. Click below for a Q&A podcast about this column:

Click To Play

Doug MacDonald: Pro-bus, anti-rail

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:18:48 -0800

Doug MacDonald, former boss of the state Department of Transportation, sets out the first part of his case against rail and for buses, here. I would boil it down to this: In a spread-out urban area like the Seattle area, rail sucks up too much money for the number of people it serves. When you’ve spent the money, the trains don’t go enough places. Buses move more people per dollar invested and are more flexible.

The birth of super-campaigns

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:01:01 -0800

The price of gasoline, corn and politicians keeps going up. Sen. Barack Obama's decision not to accept public funding of $84 million says $100 million or more is required to elect a U.S. president. Both parties blame each other, yet the cost of perpetual, super-campaigns keeps rising.

For a Q&A podcast with the author, please click below:

Click To Play

The Ballard Holdout

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:55:49 -0800

I was on the radio today—KUOW-FM—with Steve Scher, D. Parvaz and Knute Berger, talking about several things including the Edith Macefield house in Ballard. That’s the little house that has been surrounded on three sides by concrete walls of a large development because th owner didn’t want to sell to the developer. Berger wrote about it in Crosscut, here, Kathy Mulady wrote about it in the P-I, here, and Danny Westneat wrote about it in the Times here.

Tech Industry, Tech Brains: WA Ranked

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:18:52 -0800

The Milken Institute, in a new report here, rates Washington 5th among the states in “Science and Technology Assets.” The only other state nearby that scored higher was California, which was 4th. Oregon was 23rd, Idaho 27th, Montana 32nd and Alaska 44th. On the national ranking, Massachusetts was at the pinncale and Mississippi in the pits.