Cascadia today: Portland still isn't war-torn + Seattle abandons program for homeless + read banned books!
The latest from "war-torn" Portland
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived in Portland yesterday to visit an ICE facility at the heart of Donald Trump's attempts to deploy 200 troops from the the Oregon National Guard to the city, which was halted by a judge and is being appealed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In true White Christian Nationalist form, Noem led ICE agents in a prayer at the facility, asking God for a "hedge of protection" around her officers. Right-wing social media influencers such as David Medina have been allowed by ICE to enter the facility and post their nonsense.
Meanwhile, protests remained peaceful (except for ICE pepper-spraying a large frog). Additional folks in inflatable costumes showed up at the ICE facility and danced. An "emergency" naked bike ride is planned to confront the feds, though Donovan Scribes, former VP of the Portland chapter of the NAACP, writing for The Portland Mercury, says he won't be participating. He notes that while the silly Portlandia approach is effective, it distracts from the fact that Trump's crackdown is part of a long campaign against people of color, one that Portland's police have been complicit in, paying out $18 million in the last five years in police misconduct settlements. Meanwhile, an enterprising resident of Portland created a website, Is Portland Burning?, which features live video feeds from from sites across the city.
Portland is not burning.
Seattle abandons program to house homeless
KUOW and ProPublica have a detailed investigation into Seattle's ill-fated program to shelter homeless people at the Civic Hotel. The report finds that the city, under mayor Bruce Harrell, let a pandemic-era program in a downtown hotel expire while still paying millions for empty bedrooms. Meanwhile, the Urbanist reports that a report questions the viability of a billion-dollar housing bond proposed by King County Executive candidate Girmay Zahilay. And the Vancouver Sun reports that Vancouver is rezoning areas around Broadway and Cambie to increase density and speed up permit approval.
Beavers return to sw̓iw̓s (Osoyoos)
IndigiNews reports on First Nation efforts to return beavers to tributaries of sw̓iw̓s (Osoyoos Lake) in south central British Columbia. Beavers and their dams are critical to healthy estuary habitats, and restoration can help recover salmon runs as well as reduce wildfire risk.
“They are the glue that holds habitats together.” --Delaney Hall, tmixʷ (wildlife) technician with the Okanagan Nation Alliance
Read banned books!
KUOW talks with Charlie Hunts, owner of Charlie's Queer Books in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood about his efforts to get more people reading books banned during the era of Trump and the right-wing anti-trans panic. One great resource: Seattle Public Library's Books Unbanned project, which allows anyone between the ages of 13 and 26 in the US to get access to all the e-books online audio books in SPL's collection – and specifically books banned in various conservative communities.
--Andrew Engelson
