Daily Score Blog

Cars are boxes. They’re boxes on wheels with couches inside. They’re extensions of our living rooms, mobile privacy pods, where the driver gets to choose the music, company, temperature, and schedule.

So, for a newly car-less family like mine, one main change in shedding our box—the “car-coon”—is spending less time in private space and more time in public.

The effects include both gains and losses.

No Box means no insulation from unpleasantness: Amy saw a bus rider start screaming at the driver one day, and Gary actually had to call the police (on his car-less cellphone) when a rider got especially belligerent. My own pet peeve is the tobacco smoke I must breathe while traveling certain sidewalks—sidewalks where smokers take refuge from Washington’s workplace cigarette ban.

Even a fender bender can have a big impact on your week, and your wallet. But more serious crashes are taking their toll on the Northwest--car crashes are the leading cause of death of northwesterners under the age of 45, killing about 5 people a day in the region and injuring many more. These individuals tragedies add up to staggering proportions--2,000 deaths a year in the Northwest and an economic drain of more than $8 billion per year.

We've created a counter that shows the high personal and economic toll of our car-centered lives adding up in real time for the Northwest:

Car crashes, by the numbers

Even if your life has never been affected by an accident (and you'd be one of the few), it's a strong argument for building cities that give people other options than driving (the more you drive, the higher your risk), and provide access to transit (mile of mile, the bus is 10 times safer than driving). Here are some of the ways we can get there.

Note: This is part of a series.

Nice column today by the Seattle P-I's Joel Connelly on the astroturfing of the Washington state initiative process -- with a special look at I-933, a stealth attack designed to undermine, oh, pretty much any action taken by state or local government:

The Washington State Farm Bureau is the official sponsor of I-933. But money to pay signature gatherers, $200,000 at last count, has come from an outfit called Americans for Limited Government.

Who are Americans for Limited Government? Where does Americans for Limited Government get its money? We have no way of knowing.

Sponsors would have you believe that this is a land-use rebellion by poor widows and orphans prohibited from subdividing the wetland that is their chief asset in the world.

Bullpucky! It's a top-down initiative paid for by a powerful out-of-state interest.

Anybody out there know who Americans for Limited Government really are?  (Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)

"Density without ripping out single-family housing."  That's how one proponent described new rules that would allow some Seattle homeowners to turn detached garages or other backyard structures into apartments.

It's a great idea.  Putting an apartment in your back yard can let your neighborhood accomodate new residents without changing its character.  From the street, the neighborhood looks the same; the only change is that more people get to enjoy it.

And adding residents has a couple of nifty benefits.  First, the rules could help keep housing affordable, both by increasing the supply of rental housing (which helps hold down rents) and by giving some homeowners an additional source of income (which can help them meet their mortgage payments).

And second, denser neighborhoods -- at least as a general rule -- are able to support local stores and services. Higher residential density helps make transit cost effective, and also increases the number of local patrons for shops and restaurants.

Note: This is part of a series.

Speaking of mines, here's a new Measure 37 claim to develop a pumice mine in an inholding within a national monument:

In one of the largest Measure 37 claims to date, a Portland man is asking Deschutes County for $200 million or the right to develop his property inside Central Oregon's Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

James R. Miller wants to drill geothermal energy test wells, expand a small mining operation and build as many as 100 vacation homes on land he owns within the caldera....His 157-acre property borders East Lake, a popular fishing and camping destination inside the monument....

The greatest share of his $203 million claim comes from the value -- estimated at $179 million, according to his filing -- of the 8.5 million cubic yards of high-quality pumice at the site.

Not much to comment on here -- though that seems like pretty darn expensive pumice.  I wonder if the market would support such a high valuation.  Not likely, given that the total value of all pumice mined in the entire United States in 2003 was less than $22 million (pdf link).

But that doesn't really matter one way or the other.  I'd wager that Deschutes County couldn't pay even a fraction of what the landowner's asking for.  Heck, the county may not even have enough money to fight the claim at all.

I think we can expect even more of this kind of thing -- mines in protected areas, wildly implausible economic estimates, etc. -- as time goes on.  Seems like Measure 37 is turning into a rich vein for some pretty unsightly shenanigans -- and that what's really getting mined is the public trust.

Very worth reading: a Tyee article about the former mayor of Bogota, Columbia, who catalyzed sweeping reforms in the capital city:

Enrique Peñalosa presided over the transition of a city that the world--and many residents--had given up on. Bogota had lost itself in slums, chaos, violence, and traffic...He built more than a hundred nurseries for children. He built 50 new public schools and increased enrolment by 34 percent. He built a network of libraries. He created a highly-efficient, "bus highway" transit system. He built or reconstructed hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks, more than 300 kilometres of bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, and more than 1,200 parks.

And much the mayor's success stemmed from a decision to reclaim urban spaces from private cars, by restrictioning parking (no more cars on sidewalks!), raising gas taxes to pay for rapid transit, and reprogramming money for roads to other, more pressing concerns.

I walked into my local grocery store over the weekend, and was faced with the very dilemma -- organic or local? --  we've been wrestling with for a while. 

On one table:  fresh local strawberries, grown conventionally (ie., with pesticides and artificial fertilizers).  On an adjacent table:  organic strawberries shipped all the way from California.  I looked, but couldn't find any that were both local and organic.

The question:  which to buy?

Note: This is part of a series.

When lawyers read Initiative 933’s definition of “property,” they tend to fall out of their chairs in astonishment. That's because, according to its own definition, I-933 will apply to "all real and personal property protected by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article I, Section 16 of the Washington Constitution owned by a non-governmental entity..."

The lay person may read: "blah, blah, blah." But lawyers read: "sheer pandemonium."

If you don't specialize in reading legal-ese, the upshot of I-933's definition is that the initiative applies not only to real estate or land use, but to nearly all forms of property. Its reach encompasses stocks, bonds, minteral rights, water rights, cars, trucks, boats, factory equipment, livestock, intellectual property, software, music recordings, contracts, promissory notes, household appliances, your cat and dog, the novel you’re working on, and even the kitchen sink. No joke.

Under I-933's definition of property, almost every last item of personal property will be subject to "pay or waive." If a regulation diminishes the economic potential of your property--whether it's your city lot, your parakeet, your Camaro, or your mutual funds--you’re entitled to full taxpayer compensation for the "lost" revenue. Either that or you get a free pass from the law.

The consequences of I-933's drastic overreach are so stunning that it's practically absurd. In fact, some of the top legal minds in Washington are agape. One prominent attorney has written a memo that, in the restrained style of legal analysis, says, "The reach of I-933 into state regulations affecting the use of value of private property which is not real property is a highly unique and unpredictable feature of this initiative."

You can say that again.

Fascinating report on diminishing social ties in the US. Americans now report having only 2 close friends, on average, and 1 in 4 say they have no one to discuss important matters with.

[The study] found that men and women of every race, age and education level reported fewer intimate friends than the same survey turned up in 1985. Their remaining confidants were more likely to be members of their nuclear family than in 1985, according to the study, but intimacy within families was down, too.

Undoubtedly, the reasons behind the decline in social relations are multiform, but there's an often overlooked one that I think is worth pointing out: suburban sprawl.

In the course of researching Sightline's new book on the relationship between health and sprawl, I dove into the scientific literature on social capital, mental health, physical health, and sprawl. In my judgment, the body of evidence is not conclusive, but it is growing more robust all the time. There is increasing reason to think that low density sprawl is correlated with (and probably causes) a significant degree of social isolation and fragmentation. And that loneliness has measurable impacts not only on mental health, but on physical health too.

If you're looking for a place to start digging in to the connections between sprawl and loneliness, I suggest this book (chapter 9), this shorter article (pdf; scroll down), or this even shorter primer with citations that I wrote (pdf).

Editor's note: Jen Lamson and Kristin Hyde of Good Food Strategies contribute an occasional food-related column to the Daily Score.

Northwesterners think we already know everything about salmon. We were the first to jump on the yumminess of Copper River salmon. Efforts to save endangered runs of the iconic Northwest salmon are becoming part of our everyday life and business. So why do we know so little about a local, sustainably troll-caught wild salmon from the waters off Washington's Neah Bay?

That's about to change. Wild Washington marbled king salmon--as noted in a Seattle Weekly column last week--is beginning to make a splash around the region. This fish is blessed with high good fat content, high omega-3 levels and a genetically distinct blend of both red and white flesh.
Because the marbled flesh looks different than the traditional red filets of fresh wild salmon, some retailers have been nervous about putting it in their case. But chefs at some restaurants--including Seattle's Lark, which featured marbled king in a recent tasting--are beginning to tout its unique value and local pedigree.

“There are two key ways to reduce abortion—by making it less necessary or by making it less available,” as Jessica Arons and Shira Saperstein write for the Center for American Progress.

The former means preventing unwanted pregnancies, by reducing sexual abuse, domestic violence and rape; by enabling couples to make better choices through, for example, comprehensive sexuality education in schools (and, above all, better educational and economic opportunities in general); and by improving access to contraception.

The latter means restricting or banning abortion. In pluralistic industrial societies such as the United States and Canada, the former is a more effective strategy for lowering abortion rates. In fact, arguably the most effective anti-abortion organizations in North America—defined as the organizations that have most reduced the abortion rate—are the US and Canadian federations of Planned Parenthood. (The lowest abortion rates in the industrial world are in countries such as the Netherlands where the procedure is free, legal, and unstigmatized; sex between loving adults is considered normal and healthy; and public policies and social norms both strongly reinforce safe sex practices.)

Prevention also ought to be the main ground for cooperation among pro-choice and pro-life movements. It ought to be, but it isn’t.

The reason, as argued recently in the New York Times Magazine (and on this blog some months ago), is that the “pro-life” movement is actually held together not by opposition to abortion but by opposition to sex.

I found this report by CNN more than a little disturbing. A new study by the Nature Conservancy found that Americans are visiting national parks less often. Researchers believe that 98 percent of the decline can be attributed to an increase in electronic entertainment: TV, video games, movie rentals, and the internet.

People need nature--and national parks specifically. But national parks need people too. Without visitors and a strong constituency, our natural heritage is likely to be eroded by funding cuts, back-door administrative changes, and commercialization. (If you don't think the crown jewels of US natural places are in jeopardy, click on the links above. I dare you.)

The high water mark was 1987, when Americans averaged 1.2 visits to national parks a year. Nowadays, that figure is 0.9--less than one visit per person per year. I realize that I'm a bit of an outdoor-nut, and lucky enough to live in the national park treasure trove of the Pacific Northwest, but... yikes, that's roughly my monthly average.

However mediated by electronic phenomena modern life becomes, I can't imagine replacing the rawness of a direct encounter with nature. That's why next week, you may find me here, but you won't find me here.

Postscript: Washington Trails Association just released a list of the top 10 threatened hiking trails in the state (pdf). If you care about conserving wild places in Washington--and muscle-powered access to those places--it's worth checking out.

A couple of notable news stories BC got lost in the shuffle of a busy week. 

First up, there's this news from the Vancouver Sun:  apparently, some regional planners are taking a skeptical look at the so-called Gateway Program, which would expand the highway system in the lower mainland.  According to UBC professor William Rees, the project will foster low-density suburban development -- an increasingly dicey prospect in an era of rising gas prices:

Rees, who is among a number of prominent planners and academics attending the World Planners Congress in Vancouver this week, said urban planning is largely based on the misguided belief that cheap energy will be around forever.

The Gateway Program, which includes expanding Highway 1 and twinning the Port Mann bridge, will exacerbate land use patterns that will become unsustainable as gas prices rise sharply in coming years, he said.

Second, and on a related note, there's this Georgia Straight article by the redoubtable Patrick Condon about a possible next step for Vancouver's urban development:  bringing back the streetcar neighborhood, with low-rise (but still somewhat dense) development along the streetcar arterials first laid out in the early 20th century:

Amazingly, if only the first parcels fronting our arterials (from the street to the lane only) were built out to the originally imagined four storeys, you could almost double the population of the city while not changing the amount and nature of the commercial services on the first floor. This would affect only a small percentage of all land in the city; in most cases, the zoning is already in place for this. [Emphasis added]

Hm.  So greater Vancouver could spend billions to expand highways at the outskirts of town, facilitating low-density, auto-dependent sprawl; or it could accomodate nearly half a million new residents through low-rise development.  I've got no idea which road Vancouver will choose -- but I know which one is more energy efficient.

The Olympian reported yesterday that a local grocer with a pharmacy is refusing to stock the emergency contraceptive Plan B. He told the paper:

". . . people have to choose when they believe life begins. There are questions about this drug on that issue."

Um, actually, there aren't. Plan B prevents about five times as many abortions as it causes, even if you assume human life begins at conception.

And any pharmacist who considers it a duty to refuse to stock Plan B because in rare cases it causes a fertilized egg not to implant in the uterus is duty-bound to also banish birth control pills, which occasionally do the same thing.

That's the Vancouver Sun headline from reporter Chad Skelton's front-page story on Cascadia Scorecard 2006, Sightline's third annual progress report on the Northwest.

The Seattle P-I also covered the book, in the paper's Health & Fitness section, as did the Surrey Leader in BC; the Daily Journal of  Commerce in Portland and the DJC in Seattle (both require subscriptions to access content); Oregon's KTVZ; and a slew of radio stations.  We're expecting a couple more articles in the next couple of days.

Price Tags author Gordon Price has included the Cascadia Scorecard in his Earth Blog dispatches from the World Urban Forum.

If you've heard or read news about the new Cascadia Scorecard, please drop me a line at elisa@sightline.org.