Go Fish, But Not Just Anywhere
Oregon is wrestling with whether to establish marine reserves, where fishing and other extractive industries would be prohibited. Fishing management has been especially contentious since 2000, when the state's once-lucrative groundfish industry collapsed and was declared a "national disaster." Conservationists believe that protected ocean waters will allow fish stocks to rebound. Fishermen, especially sport fishermen, aren't so keen on the idea.
As one old-timer in a Salem Statesman-Journal article puts the issue: "Years and years ago, we could go out and fish all of the bottom fish we wanted to."
It seems like that was exactly the problem.
Seattle Considers Lower Car Subsidies
The City of Seattle is proposing another positive step: lowering requirements for off-street parking that drive up the cost of housing in close-in neighborhoods. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has the story.
Unfortunately, reporter Vanessa Ho seems intent on fomenting controversy. She writes:
As bad as it is now, parking on Capitol Hill -- Seattle's densest neighborhood -- may get even worse under a proposal by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. The mayor wants to reduce the number of required minimum parking spaces for new multifamily housing on much of Capitol Hill and in two other neighborhoods: First Hill and the University District.
Growth
Good news, Washington's economy is getting stronger, at least as it's measured by GDP. From 2002 to 2003 the state's economy expanded by a rousing 5.1 percent. But is that really an accurate way to evaluate the health of the economy?
Unfortunately, in tandem with economic growth, reported releases of toxic chemicals from major industries also increased by 3 percent (an additional 600,000 pounds of toxics distributed around the state's land, air, and water). The Olympian reports.
There's a lesson here, I think. Despite its omnipresence, GDP is a lousy way to measure our society, and even our economy. To quote the inimitable Alan Durning:
GDP doesn't track how people are, but only how much they spend. GDP fails to distinguish between losses and gains, because it only adds and doesn't subtract. Gutting ecosystems for commodities--and leaving fisheries depleted, forests cleared, or rivers dammed--shows up as a plus in the accounts. So do expensive misfortunes: whether money is spent on vacations or hospital stays, playground equipment or car wrecks, births or funerals, it's all the same in the GDP ledger.
