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Cascadia Magazine poetry:In the Little Wenatchee Drainage
If you haven’t already, read Seattle poet Martha Silano’s “In the Little Wenatchee Drainage,” a reflection on regrowth and reverence in Washington’s central Cascades, now online at Cascadia Magazine. Read the full poem here.
Winter storms hammer Cascadia’s mountains
Winter snows are dumping in the mountains of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, resulting in a fatal crash that closed down Snoqualmie Pass and much of I-90 in Washington’s central Cascades. CBC reports that a backcountry skier died in an avalanche in Pemberton, BC. Yesterday, at Cascadia Magazine, we posted a snowshoe route description at Artist Point, in Washington’s north Cascades. It’s a fabulous route, but give it a miss this weekend and always check current avalanche conditions at the Northwest Avalanche Center.
The myths surrounding BC drug busts
Over at the Tyee, Paul Willcocks writes a blistering critique of the RCMP’s drug-busting policy in British Columbia, and its extremely expensive failure to stop opioid overdose deaths in the province. Meanwhile, WA governor Jay Inslee announced pardons for thousands of people convicted of marijuana misdemeanors.
How can Portland learn from Minneapolis on zoning reform?
The Portland Mercury interviews Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey about his city’s efforts to reform single-family zoning in order to build more apartments and reduce housing costs– a measure that both Portland and the state of Oregon are considering. In related news, after a burst of construction, apartment vacancies are up in Seattle and rents are finally dropping, the Seattle Times reports.
Encouraging burrowing owl recovery in eastern Oregon
Okay first of all: BURROWING OWLS ARE EXTREMELY ADORABLE! And over at OPB, you can read all about an effort to restore burrowing owl habitat on the Umatilla Chemical Depot, a former US military facility that once housed most of the country’s lethal chemical weapons.
Breaking down Seattle’s passive-aggressive culture
Whether you know it at “the Seattle freeze” or the stereotypical Cascadia introvert attitude, the culture of being passive aggressive is firmly rooted in the Pacific Northwest. Over at the South Seattle Emerald, Julie Pham has a brutally honest and very detailed takedown of bad social habits people in Seattle engage in, including non-response, the “yes-no,” and ghosting. I guess you can read it if you really want to. 🙂
Poetry by John Sibley Williams
Portland-based poet John Sibley Williams has a poem online at Bellingham Review, “Untitled {Homescape}”:
“I remember the land less brutal, less crowned in shotgun shells, so much less hemmed-in, shadowed, broken by birdlessness.” Read the full poem here.
That’s tonight’s assortment of links to news, arts, environmental reporting, and poetry from all over the Pacific Northwest. Have a safe and restful weekend! –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: burrowing owl by Becky Matsubara via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0