I was delighted by this modern-day take on the classic children’s book, Goodnight Moon. Goodnight, alpha parents, everywhere! (Yes, admittedly, it speaks to me on so may levels.)

Also from the New Yorker, a sturdy argument for a carbon tax replacing the payroll tax by Hendrik Hertzberg.

Finally, a friendly reminder (from pollsters themselves) that public opinion polling can never be a perfect measure of attitudes, in part because respondents don’t always know what their attitudes actually are! In this case, a new poll from Public Policy Polling included a bit of a trick. They found that an impressive 39 percent of Americans have an opinion about the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan. But at the same time fully one quarter of Americans also took a stance on the Panetta-Burns plan—a phony, non-existent plan.

Eric:

Dan Savage’s excerpt from “You Were Never In Chicago,” a memoir by columnist Neil Steinberg, was so good that I want to read the whole book:

Many more night shifts were spent at public meetings—though to be honest, the participants at zoning board hearings offer a dimmer view of human nature than murderers and whores do…

You can’t hope to jam a stick in the ground without all its potential neighbors jostling each other to be the first to explain exactly how the stick will destroy the quality of their lives; how, while playing, their children will stumble against the stick and be abraded, giving rise to fatal infections, or how the stick will eventually start to lean, undermining property values. At such hearings, the distinction between city and suburbs is effectively nil. In the suburbs, every new structure more complex than a mailbox is portrayed as the emotional equivalent of a pit lined with spikes and covered with a grass mat. In the city it’s no better…

…the addition of even one more person to their neighborhood would, it pains them to report, mark the advent of a nightmarish dystopian world of overload, gridlock, and social breakdown.

Clark:

Hulk smash your argument.

Alan:

Sightline has been promoting pay-by-the-mile auto insurance since 1995, and finally, actual by-the-mile auto insurance is hitting the market in Cascadia. So far, it’s only in Oregon, but still, it’s great news! BikePortland and the NYT have the story. We last wrote on this theme here and here.

Car-sharing is expanding fast in the Northwest, as Car2Go gets ready to launch in Seattle. It’s already big in Portland and Vancouver, BC.

Meanwhile, other transportation innovations that we’ve long promoted, including freeing up taxi licensing and real-time ride-matching (aka, high-tech hitch-hiking), are under assault from the taxi and town car businesses and their captive regulators. We expected this might be coming, but it’s infuriating. And a hotel-industry-driving crackdown on for-profit couchsurfing is also mounting, as we guessed might happen. Outdated rules enforced by cartel-like politics are a big barrier to affordable, green solutions.

On a happier note, US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is starting to act like a leader who has 51 votes to reform the filibuster, which fills my filibuster-busting heart with anticipation.

A Tory cabinet member in the United Kingdom issued his staff a scathing edict on use of the English language, which made me want to stand up and cheer.

Oh, and Spanish flashmobs are classier than Cascadia’s — or maybe that’s just my soft spot for Beethoven’s Ninth asserting itself.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Via the good folks at STB, I thought the imagery here was arresting.

One trend I’m fascinated by is the rather alarming divergence in life expectancy among Americans. It’s going up for many, but not all. For lower income people, as well as for a huge swath of the South, life expectancy has either plateaued or is actually falling. It’s interesting too that even the top income earners in the US only live about as long as the average Canadian.

On a more personal lifespan-related note, I was fascinated to read about research indicating that non-human primates also appear to experience a mid-life crisis. As Kevin Drum instructively puts it: “hairless middle-aged apes are still middle-aged apes.” (The underlying LA Times article is well worth reading too.)

Via Joe Copeland, ground-breaking research from Seattle Children’s Hospital documenting an association between reduced birth weights and the proximity of mom’s home to a highway. The study looked specifically at the Puget Sound region, but it was apparently the first of its kind in the US. This seems like something that demands further research.

In that hippie hotbed of eastern Oklahoma, a port authority is backing out of its marina lease owing to a coal dust epidemic from stockpiles at a nearby power plant plus traffic problems arising from coal trains that routinely blocked the street. Just something to chew on, Cascadians.   

In other coal news, the Washington Post takes a look at the demise of coal-fired power plants in the US.

Alex Steffen has a new book out called “Carbon Zero.” It’s a look at the strategies cities will need to deploy to reduce carbon emissions drastically in the coming years. (You can read more about it at Grist and Treehugger and you can purchase the ebook at Amazon.)

Lastly, in an excellent bit of reporting from the Seattle Times’ Mike Lindblom, a look at the performance of the new “BRT” line serving Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. To summarize, the new D Line is about 1 minute faster than the local bus that it replaced. That may not seem like much for all the investment it received, but on the plus side it also has fewer stops, fewer seats, no arrival schedule, and uncertain trip length. To accomplish this feat, Metro reduced the much faster express bus service to Ballard and also trimmed key lines like the 17 and 18 that serve residential areas.

As I have said before, I simply fail to understand why we can’t just do the boring unsexy stuff with transit that actually works. Those buses that are jam packed to and from downtown every day? Let’s add more of them and see if we can make them a bit faster and more predictable.

Alan:

This week, all my weekend reading (and viewing) suggestions are courtesy of Sightline friends. Sightline Trustee Valerie Tarico has written a moving tribute to Savita Halappanavar. Sightline Director Gordon Price shares this impressive “sounds of Vancouver” video and points out the astonishing degree to which the sounds of northern Cascadia’s great metropolis are the sounds of public transit. Former Sightline trustee Jeff Youngstrom clued me in to this inspiring photographic accomplishment: slow-motion footage of cheetahs running. Wow! He also pointed out this video from Australia promoting railway safety in an utterly unconventional way. Sightline donor Matt Leber pointed out Rain Drop, the disaster film – actually an infographic. Sightline donor Ed Mills suggests this insightful little essay about the disappearance of the repair economy. Friend Laura Hirschfield tossed me a link to this photo essay about a prophetic art project that marked a high-water mark on New York City long before Sandy struck. Finally, on a lighter note, Sightline hero (and donor) Paul Hawken shared this hilarious parody charity video, in which Africans sing a song about sharing their warmth with Norway: “frostbite kills too.”

Clark:

Sixty years of US economic history in one chart.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

This caught my eye on Facebook this week (it made the rounds a while back, maybe you saw it in April): A map that shows how many hours minimum-wage earners would have to work to afford rent on a two-bedroom apartment in all 50 states. Nowhere is a 40 hour work week enough. In fact, in most states, rent requires more than 70 hours of work—if you can find it.

Seattle’s Family Ride blogger has been “messing with the bike counter”—the machine on the Fremont Bridge that counts bike traffic. After testing it by sending a tiny little kid through (bike= 10-inch wheel) and then a bike with a kid’s trailer bike attachment AND a trailer, she concludes that the thing is magical. It passed those tests. It even counted a kid’s wooden bike. Not too shabby!

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research looks at what effect LGBT attitudes had on the 2012 elections. (Spoiler: They call it a “cultural sea change.”)

No Impact Man (one of my heroes) on “What to Do if Hurricane Sandy Scared You.”

Eric:

Like everyone else on the internet, I got some guffaws out of the harshest restaurant review ever.

Mother Jones has a superb and concise explanation of the so-called “fiscal cliff.”

If you need a few yucks while you’re at MJ, you might want to read about why Glenn Beck’s new book looks incredible.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve made some mistakes in my life. But not like this guy.

Alan:

This account of restoring New York’s subway system reads like a treatment for an action movie. The protagonists win, and their speed is “on the edge of magic.”

Vancouver super-urbanist (and Sightline Director) Gordon Price summarizes the briefing at an insiders’ gathering on BC housing. It’s obscure but fascinating stuff, for example:

Fifty-seven percent of seniors expect that health and activity limitations will only really hit when they get to their 70s — which also happens to be the age when they most want to stay in their homes and finish aging in place.  No one wants to say what a bad idea that is if we want a more efficient allocation of the existing housing stock. The housing crisis, some argue, could be solved tomorrow if we could free up all the empty bedrooms in existing and now oversized housing.

In regards to rising female membership of the US Senate, here’s the most interesting thing I’ve read about gender and group decision making in a long time. When women reach parity with men, and not before, the decisions shift dramatically.

On a lighter (or maybe darker) note, everything you need to know about the David Petraeus affair, in pictures. (Hat tip to Anirudh Sahni.)

Clark:

A detailed, county-by-county map of the 2012 presidential vote.

Pam:

Got juice? You might want to make sure that it’s not from concentrate.

It’s a match: African-Americans, Latinos, and support for gay marriage.

I never expected a book on avalanche avoidance to give tips on marriage decisions (“meet the in–laws, take a trip to a third world country, paddle a canoe together for a month”) or on the creation of a sustainable Northwest. But I’m finding Bruce Tremper’s chapter on human foibles rather applicable to Sightline’s quest. He points out that people make most decisions based on emotion, feeling, and beliefs, not facts. (That’s probably not a shocking revelation following election season.) Even when we know better, he says, we’ll live longer with established procedures, checklists, and rules that are grounded in facts. To me, this says that legislation of smart behavior can be valuable. Watch out, though; it’s not that simple. He also mentions that seatbelt regulations and crosswalks may not make us safer; they just make us take more risks.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Check out the official tumblr for the Bureau of Land Management. Beautiful photos and a peek into the lives of the “next generation of BLMers” as they share their experiences on the public lands.

Over at Colorlines, five racial justice leaders make sense of the 2012 elections.

Science communications guru Matthew Nisbet on the Nate Silver Era of election reporting (and news consumption) and how our obsession with polls and models hinders our ability to talk about substantive issues from climate change to inequality.

Alan:

Density and voting Democratic, the infographic.

A thoughtful and optimistic take on the US contraceptive future under Obamacare, courtesy of Sightline Trustee Valerie Tarico.

This New York Times opinion piece labels itself a “liberal fantasy,” but it’s not so much a fantasy as a possibility—that is, if the US Senate revises its rules in early January. Filibuster reform could create a majoritarian US Senate that can approve presidential nominees without compromises and can bargain with the House of Representatives without simultaneously bargaining with its own center-right, power-broker votes 56, 57, 58, 59, and 60. Everything depends on real filibuster reform: it matters as much as the November 6 election outcome mattered.

Majority Leader Reid says more about his filibuster reform plans. For each bill the Senate considers, Senators actually have three opportunities to filibuster. Reid wants to eliminate the first of those opportunities, called the “motion to proceed.” It would be a good step, in my view, but I’ve been hoping for more sweeping change. Senate rules provide so many opportunities for obstruction that eliminating the motion to proceed might simply move obstructionism from point A in the process to point B. In any event, the filibuster-reform effort marches on, strengthened by the election of six new US senators who are committed to reform.

Eric:

Via Charles Mudede, a fascinating article at Bloomberg on the role that Asians played in the presidential election:

Romney won among all voters making more than $100,000 a year by a margin of 54-44. Asian-Americans happen to be the highest-earning group in the US, out-earning whites, and they generally place enormous emphasis on family. A perfect fit for Republicans, no?

No. Asians voted for Obama by 73-26; they were more Democratic than Hispanics.

It’s a trend that is particularly relevant for the Northwest, where Asians are the second largest racial group behind whites in many large cities.

Speaking of the election, Boulder, Colorado produced one welcome result for climate hawks. The city’s voters approved a five-year extension of their carbon tax with an astonishing 82 percent voting in favor of it.

Public hearings on a coal export proposal near Bellingham have been drawing huge crowds of opponents. I thought this testimony by a young woman from China was particularly moving. Izzy describes the way that coal has ravaged her home province of Shanxi, and she wonders why Americans would want to contribute to the destruction.

Clark:

A nifty map: US states scaled by election spending per voter.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

A data geek’s view of Sandy – Eugene mapping firm Moonshadow intersects the hurricane’s path with data from the US Census.

Putting a human face on car crashes: a body artist paints 17 models into the form of a crashed car. A nifty YouTube video of the process—and why crashes matter—here.

Alan:

Two documentaries I’ll be watching when they come out: Chasing Ice and Midway. Watch the trailers to see just how powerful film can be in describing the damage we are doing to our planetary home.

An amazing infographic displaying the entire ideological history of the US Congress.

Pam:

November is Native American Heritage Month. Learn some history and celebrate Native voices.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Even better, the state is proposing an “opt-in” system—meaning you won’t be saddled with a white pages book unless you ask for one—which is the least wasteful, least costly, and least annoying way to handle things. It’s a rule change that would be consistent with actions taken in many other states:

With business as usual, white pages listings are a tremendous waste. Changing the rules to a statewide “opt-in” system would mark a step toward a more responsible use of resources.

But it may not happen without public support. Although virtually the entire telecom industry supports the change—as does Sightline and Seattle Public Utilities—there’s a risk that the rule will get rejected or watered down to a much less effective “opt-out” version (in which you would have to specifically tell the phone companies you don’t want a phone book).

In fact, the state attorney general’s office opposes any version of the rule change—opt-in or opt-out—arguing in favor of mandatory white pages delivery.

What can you do to support a more sustainable phone book law?
It’s easy actually. Just send a quick email to the state regulatory body that’s handling the rule change, simply and politely asking them to adopt the proposed rule. You can reach them at records@utc.wa.gov (and be sure to include “Docket UT-120451” in your comments).

Overall, Washington’s proposed opt-in system is well-designed. The proposed rules include protections for public access to telephone listings and it makes it easy for consumers who want white pages phone books to get them for free. (As Sightline has argued rather extensively, it’s straightforward to design an “opt-in” system to protect social equity, which is an important objective.)

That said, the proposed regulation could do a bit more to ensure strong public protections. If you’re interested in digging into the details, please see Sightline’s official recommendations to the state.

The proposed rule will do a lot to reduce waste in Washington, saving the resources required to print—and dispose of—an estimated 1.8 million unwanted white pages directories every 15 months. Lay them end to end, and they would stretch 301 miles—the driving distance from Seattle to the Idaho border. Stack them flat, and you would have more than 7 piles higher than Mount Rainier. That’s an awful lot of waste.

Fortunately, the state’s proposed rule change will fix the white pages problem. If you support the proposal, please let the state know you think it’s the right thing to do.

There will also be a public hearing on the proposed rule at 9:30 a.m., Thursday, October 18, 2012 in the commission’s hearing room, second floor, Richard Hemstad Building, 1300 S. Evergreen Park Drive SW, Olympia, Washington.

Notes: Our waste calculations conservatively assume that 26 percent of Washington households have no landline and hence don’t currently get directories, that 7 percent of Washington households opt in (the highest percentage of people requesting directories in the reports we encountered), that only occupied housing units receive directories, and that each household with a landline gets only one white pages directory. Businesses have been excluded from the calculation. Our calculations assumed that the average directory has the same dimensions as a sample Seattle white pages, ¾” thick and 10 ¾” long.

Thanks to Nicole Bernard for graphic design.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

cathyse97, flickr

Ending Washington’s regime of mandatory white pages delivery is common sense. Sightline, Seattle Public Utilities, Dex, CenturyLink, and many other telecom entities in the state support the idea. The state attorney general opposes it for two apparent reasons. The AG argues, first, that optional delivery of white pages would be a threat to public safety—a silly argument we have addressed previously—and, second, that optional white pages would prevent equal access to telecommunications.

Let’s take up that second argument—the equity dimension of white pages delivery. Is it fair to make delivery of the white pages optional?

Certainly, revisions to the white pages law should protect the public interest, and that probably means providing access to print directories for those on the analog side of the digital divide. It’s easy for everyday web users to forget that access to the Internet is not equal. According to the FCC, access rates are lower than average for black and Latino households. Rural residents, older people, and low-income households are also less likely to have high-quality access to the web.

Fortunately, it’s easy to ensure that anyone who wants a phone book can still get a free copy, using either an “opt-out” or “opt-in” system.

With an “opt-out” system, customers must contact the phone company in order to decline delivery of the phone book. Otherwise, the directories are automatically delivered. By contrast, with an “opt-in” system, customers are spared copies unless they request one.

An opt-in system means that only people who want printed phone directories get one, keeping hundreds of thousands of unwanted copies off our collective doorsteps. It’s the best system for reducing waste and costs, while still preserving fair access to the telecommunications system. In fact, at least 18 states plus DC already allow opt-in systems, and these states are demonstrating that providing directories to people who want them is straightforward.

Phone companies are, after all, pretty good at contacting their customers when they need to, and state regulators only need to make sure that they do so to ensure that everyone has the ability to obtain a phone book. In other states, telecoms have been required to notify customers of their opt-in rights in a variety of ways. For example, Alabama phone companies have to include a notice on the cover and as a bound insert in yellow pages or business directories, and they must publish press releases. Many of these same requirements are in force in other states such as California, which also mandates monthly notices in customers’ billing statements. Ohio ensures that emails and texts go to customers who also have wireless phone or Internet service.

Washington regulators could require several of the following steps to ensure access:

1. Phone companies should send customers a letter with a simple, clearly-worded, postage-paid postcard they can return (“Yes, please send me the new white pages!”).
2. Monthly bills should include a check box on the payment slip, or a piece of paper that gets mailed in with the monthly payment.
3. Monthly bills should also include a big, red-letter notice saying, “Dial 1-800…. for a free phone book.” (Or telecoms could even be required to robo-call some of their customers: “Press 1 if you want the new white pages”).

Anyone who can use a phone book—who can navigate the tiny print to look up a number and make a phone call—should be able to manage any of these steps, especially if the notices are published in multiple languages. Community centers, libraries, post offices, and care facilities would keep copies on hand too. In short, it’s eminently possible to preserve access to telephone directories without incurring pointless costs, waste, and annoyance.

Available statistics strongly suggest that mandatory universal phone book delivery is a relic. One industry-funded study found that 87 percent of US adults support an opt-in system. That figure was borne out by New York State regulators who cited a Verizon study of its customers showing that only 11 percent used the white pages in 2008, and that usage rates were in sharp decline. (It is worth noting, however, that a 2010 study by the Local Search Association, apparently found that 63 percent of US consumers had used the printed white pages at least once in the past year.)

In reality, it appears that very few customers are actually interested in receiving white pages directories. In the states that already allow optional delivery:

• In New York State, where Verizon has roughly 4.7 million lines in service, it reportedly received requests for white pages from customers owning fewer than 2 percent of those lines.
• In Alabama, where the state rolled out a two-year pilot program in the Mobile metro area, officials discovered that only 6 percent of residents wanted a phone book delivered the first year, and 7 percent the second year.
• In Atlanta and Austin, AT&T says that fewer than 3 percent of customers request directories.
• Nationwide, AT&T has indicated that just 1 or 2 percent of its customers want print white pages directories in places where delivery is optional.

Based on the very low level of interest shown by phone customers in other states, Washington regulators should establish an “opt-in” system for white pages deliveries.

To ensure equitable access to telephone listings, the UTC should require several methods of customer notification, including return postcards, billing statement check-boxes, “dial 1-800…” notices, and perhaps even targeted robo-calls. The result would be equal access to the telecommunications system, but with far less waste than business-as-usual, which currently results in state-mandated deliveries of big bricks of unwanted paper to everybody, year after year.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.