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Single-family zoning is driving up Seattle housing costs
Mike Rosenberg at the Seattle Times covers a report from the city of Seattle that concludes that zoning laws in Seattle banning apartments in 70 percent of the city are contributing to escalating housing costs — and driving middle income people and ethnic minorites from the city. In related news, the Georgia Straight reports that wealthy neighborhoods in Vancouver have the highest “empty home” rates — sometimes as high as 80 percent. Housing activist Patrick Condon, writing for the Tyee, looks at how a new historical novel carries lessons about contemporary Vancouver’s wealthy “booster class.”
Will Oregon be first state to legalize psychedelic mushrooms?
A measure that would de-criminalize psychedelic mushrooms in Oregon (it would be the first state to do so) is now gathering signatures, and may be on the ballot in 2020, OPB reports. In related news, Travis Lupick at the Georgia Straight reports that some merchants in Vancouver are pressing to close a supervised drug inhalation site opened in the Downtown Eastside by activists in 2016.
Half of BC’s chinook salmon populations endangered
According to the Globe & Mail, a new federal Canadian science report finds that half of British Columbia’s chinook salmon runs are endangered, putting populations of the fish important to First Nations and endangered orcas at risk.
Assaults on the rise at WA’s largest mental health facility
The AP has a detailed investigation into allegations that violent assaults have taken an alarming rise at Western State Hospital, Washington’s largest psychiatric hospital.
A new book on Cascadia’s disappearing mountain caribou
Crosscut interviews David Moskowitz, whose book Caribou Rainforest documents the decline of the mountain caribou in Washington, north Idaho, and British Columbia — and finds that logging and habitat loss is the primary culprit in their near extinction.
Seattle Symphony plays in prison
It’s not exactly Johnny Cash at San Quentin, but the Seattle Symphony is playing concerts at the Monroe correctional facility in Washington, KUOW reports. ““That Russian composer, I sensed his anger. It was so emotional,” says Jacob Bodner. “If I wasn’t in prison I might have let a tear go.””
“Cop Out” — a play looking at the life of police in Portland
After the success of “Hands Up,” a spare, emotionally tense play about the victims of police shootings, the August Wilson Red Door Project has created a follow-up called “Cop Out,” according to a feature at Oregon Arts Watch. It’s a collection of seven monologues by seven playwrights looking at the police perspective on issues of race. The producers see it as “an opportunity for healing.”
Correction to Cascadia Magazine…
A recent feature online at Cascadia Magazine on the growing Spokane art scene, “Creating Spokane,” was corrected to include the correct name for the Spokane Arts Department, and to remove a claim that the city’s Chase Gallery prohibits nudity in the art displayed there. According to Spokane Arts, there is currently no such rule.
That’s this evening’s assortment of news, arts, culture and interesting stuff from all around the Pacific Northwest. Happy second evening of Hanukkah! ? –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: image of the hallucinogenic mushroom Psilocybe semilanceata by Wikimedia Commons user Arp CC BY-SA 3.0