Editor's Take: July 29, 2009
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Keeping Cool
This week's heat wave is affecting the Pacific Northwest in multiple ways: electricity use is spiking in Oregon, taco truck cooks and outdoor workers are wilting and people are noticing that Seattle's wading pools have gone dry. In longer-range news, two Washington cities - Bellingham and Tacoma - are embracing urban density with new rules.
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Portland gulps electricity at record rate
Oregonian
07/29/2009
Utility customers gulped power at record levels Monday and Tuesday as the Portland area entered the longest stretch of 100-degree days in nearly three decades. It underscores longer-term concerns about the impacts on electrical supplies of regional population growth, climate change, greenhouse gas limits and an increasing reliance on intermittent sources of power like wind.
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Heat or no, work must go on
Tacoma News Tribune
07/29/2009
Tuesday's 90-degree sun beamed on Salvador Naranjo, forcing him to find shade under the canopy normally reserved for his customers. The Tacoma taco truck owner spends hours cooking carne asada and other dishes in a cramped space, and this week's heat is making the job especially uncomfortable for workers who labor outdoors or in enclosed spaces.
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Generations X and Y in Vancouver and Victoria
Vancouver Sun
07/29/2009
When deciding where to live and work, Canada's next generation of professionals will look carefully at how much time they're going to spend in traffic commuting, if they can live near a park or hike-and-bike trail, and whether a city's downtown stays awake after five. Victoria BC topped a recent list of most desirable cities, with Vancouver ranking third.
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Bellingham approves urban 'infill toolkit'
Bellingham Herald
07/29/2009
Leaders approved a list of nine new-to-Bellingham housing types, but they won't automatically be allowed in single-family neighborhoods. The new "infill toolkit" is a collection of new home types meant to encourage development in already urban areas, ranging from small cottages to townhomes.
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Tacoma may get taller buildings
Tacoma News Tribune
07/29/2009
Tacoma has approved new development regulations, effectively increasing the density and building heights allowed in 16 of the city's commercial centers.
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WA growers await word on food safety bill
Yakima Herald-Republic
07/29/2009
Individual farmers likely will face a greater regulatory burden under a federal food safety bill that could be passed by the US House of Representatives as early as today. Though the bill poses some problems for Yakima-area fruit and vegetable growers, industry officials say, it's important to reestablish consumer confidence in the country's food supply.
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'Help Wanted' counting OR stimulus jobs
Ashland Daily Tidings
07/29/2009
In Oregon, Democrats are taking credit for a remarkable feat: creating 3,236 new jobs with federal stimulus money. But those jobs lasted on average less than one week, leaving workers unemployed again. Oregon's inventive math underscores the urgency for politicians across the country to show that spending programs designed to stimulate the economy are working.
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Wading pools go dry
KPLU
07/29/2009
With temperatures climbing into the 90s, nearly half of Seattle's neighborhood wading pools are closed. But it isn't because of city budget cuts. A new federal law on pool and spa safety is requiring that new drain covers be put in pools - including kiddie pools - so that swimmers don't get sucked into the drains.
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Stuff white people like: Light rail
Seattle Weekly
07/29/2009
One morning last week, the #42 bus, which travels on Seattle's Martin Luther King Way, was, as usual, full of brown and black faces, a strikingly different picture than the sleek new light-rail trains on the same street. During the inaugural week, the trains' passengers were mostly white - pretty surprising given that the trains service the most diverse parts of town.
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Views: Who's left holding the bag fee?
Seattle Times
07/29/2009
The story of the Seattle grocery-bag-fee campaign goes like this: if you vote against the fee, you're for Big Oil. But after trying to hand out reusable bags at its food bank, one pioneering anti-poverty group opposing the fee argues putting another pressure point on the poor isn't worth the green benefits.
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