The Cascadia Center
That collective shudder across Puget Sound this month had nothing to do with terrorism or tectonics. It was big-league sticker shock. Mired in traffic, our region learned from state transportation planners that expanding the 405, 167, 520 and 509 corridors and undergrounding the Alaskan Way Viaduct could cost taxpayers as much as $30 billion. That’s $30 billion with a “B,” Read More ›
OLYMPIA — Increasingly popular passenger trains rumble between Portland and Seattle four times a day as the upgraded Amtrak Cascades service continues to attract business travelers, sightseers and Mariners fans seeking an alternative to airports and Interstate 5. Ridership has risen sixfold in the past eight years, turning the 466-mile Eugene-to-Vancouver, B.C., corridor into one of Amtrak’s fastest-growing services. Rider Read More ›
President Bush’s tax-cut proposal is commendable. But at the threat of finding a cloud in its silver lining, it misses one key ingredient: reform aimed at spurring growth where it is most lacking ? in small business, particularly technology business. This sector of our economy, so well represented in the Northwest, has proven critically important in spearheading past economic recoveries. Read More ›
Farmers on the lower Skykomish River were trying to keep farming in the face of tougher regulations and urban development. Foresters on the Olympic Peninsula were worried about the number of mushroom pickers entering the woodlands, so they developed a certification program for migrant workers that validated their harvest and ensured both the work and the crop. Other examples follow, Read More ›
This section came from a larger summary of opinion from San Juan (Wash.) leaders in housing, growth, technology, education and volunteerism, in addition to transportation. For the complete article, click here. Transportation Since 1997, community leaders have gathered regularly at the Farmhouse Inn in La Conner to explore better ways to connect communities in North Snohomish, Skagit, Island, Whatcom and Read More ›
Seattle has a new mayor. King County has a newly re-elected executive. And the governor has a legislative majority of his own party. All this adds up to politically stable leadership and a chance for rail transit to get back on the positive side of the public’s mind. Yet, big questions remain. Among them: Will Sound Transit’s current light Read More ›
Paul Heyne, senior lecturer in economics at the University of Washington, asks: When the population of an area grows, why is it that the roads get congested but the movie theaters don’t? His answer: Because you have to pay to see a movie. If people could walk in free, Heyne writes, “I would predict a growing problem of theater congestion.” Read More ›
“Let’s be ready to join the 21st century.” That’s what Democratic lawmakers here are emphasizing in bipartisan legislation aimed at bringing high-tech business development to hard-hit timber, fishing and other rural communities. “We need to attract the same kind of new-technology businesses to our rural and small-town areas that have helped spark the economic boom around Puget Sound,” state Rep. Read More ›