Cascadia today: OR governor calls special session + Seattle votes for mayor + Elliott Smith's songwriting genius
OR governor calls special session on transportation
After the Oregon legislature failed to pass a substantive transportation budget this year, governor Tina Kotek will call a special session in August to try to address the issue, OPB reports. She's delayed 500 layoffs at ODOT, due to a budget deficit, but offered no details yet on what might be in the plan. Here's a suggestion for saving money: stop funding massive freeway expansions like the bloated Rose Quarter I-5 project, which is over budget and slated to cost nearly $2 billion. Vancouver BC is taking the right approach, revamping its roads plan to better encourage pedestrian safety. The future of Cascadia transportation should rooted in climate friendly transit and trains, not cars. Even EVs are bad, as car tires are a leading source of microplastics in water sources, a new study recently found.
Primary election in Seattle, King county
Ballots are arriving in the mail for the primary election in Seattle and King County, in which voters will pare down the candidate lists for Seattle mayor, city attorney, city council seats, and King county executive. KUOW has a rundown of the major mayoral candidate's political positions and Cascade PBS looks at the candidates vying for county executive.
Federal budget cuts threaten $8.7 billion in clean energy
Washington State Standard reports that the recently passed federal budget slashes tax credits that were helping the state develop wind and solar energy, and could result in $8.7 billion in cancelled projects. Not only would the cuts hinder the state from meeting its targets to address climate change, but it's also likely to cost ratepayers in the state $115 more per year in electricity costs.
Every year, Washington state pays $55 billion more in federal taxes than it receives back in funding and services. It's time to stop this imbalance and create an independent Cascadia focused on meeting our region's needs for clean energy, boosting a vibrant economy, and stop our contributions to wasteful military and immigration enforcement spending.
Andrew Engelson
Cancel the Blue Angels!
Speaking of wasteful military spending, the Seattle Times reports that a group, Airshow Climate Action is calling on the city of Seattle to stop the Blue Angels from performing their noisy acrobatic air show every August in Seattle. The annual propaganda show for the US Navy burns 1,500 gallons of fuel per plane each hour, and contributes to noise pollution, pet anxiety, and trauma for those who have experienced warfare. It's time to to end this display of force by the feds in a city that supposedly want to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. Sign the petition to cancel the Blue Angels performance in Seattle here.
In praise of the Pacific lamprey
Columbia Insight has a great article on the ecological importance of the Pacific lamprey – a misunderstood and scary looking critter straight out of a H.P. Lovecraft novel. The eel-like creatures are an important historic food source for Indigenous people and essential to the Columbia River (Nchi wana) ecosystem.
Elliott Smith's self-titled album thirty years later
The Quietus has a great essay by Darran Anderson on Elliott Smith's self-titled second album, which was released thirty years ago. The piece challenges looking at the Portland singer-songwriter's work through the lens of his death at the age 34 and instead focuses on the observant brilliance of Smith's work.
Smith never released a bad or even a mid major album, which is a surprisingly rare thing to say and sadly points out how foreshortened his recording career and life were. – Darran Anderson on Elliott Smith.
--Andrew Engelson
