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Defining Cascadia
Last month, Cascadia Magazine teamed with the UpZones Podcast to produce a panel discussion, “Defining Cascadia” at Seattle’s Horizon Books. It was a far-reaching and fascinating discussion that touched on:
- how we define the Cascadian region
- what makes Cascadia unique
- how to best connect the region through high speed rail
- what the region’s top environmental issues are
- and what current and future challenges Cascadians face
It featured Cascadia Magazine editor Andrew Engelson, Tarika Powell with Sightline Institute, Cascadia Rail board president Paige Malott, poet Nadine Maestas, and UpZones host and moderator Ian Martinez. It was a fun and informative evening, and if you missed listening in, check it out!
And thanks to Sightline Institute for giving it an extra plug on their website this week!
Fiction at Cascadia Magazine: Ninety Days
Now online at Cascadia Magazine, find Seattle-based writer Corinne Manning’s brilliant and powerful work of fiction: “Ninety Days.” It delves into breakups, the intricacies of LGBTQ and gender-fluid relationships, and the possibility of closure. We’re excited that the story will also be part of their collection We Had No Rules, available from Vancouver’s Arsenal Pulp Press in March 2020.
And we’re thrilled to pair their story with art by Seattle’s Mita Mahato. Read it online here.
Oregon GOP again flees legislature
As the Oregon legislature is poised to pass a far-reaching cap-and-trade bill to reduced carbon emissions in the state, OPB reports that Republicans again used the gimmick of not showing up and denying a quorom (which helped them defeat a bill on vaccines earlier this year). Governor Kate Brown may summon the state police to round up the scofflaws and one GOP senator threatened he would confront police “heavily armed.” The cap and trade program is similar to California’s and aims to reduce emissions to 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2035.
Debate over homeless ban in Langley, BC
CBC looks at the debate in Langley, BC over a ban on homeless camps in city parks, with local churches saying the measure merely criminalizes people for a larger societal issue. The Spokane City council denied a Catholic group’s attempt to change zoning to build low-income senior housing, Erica C. Barnett attended a Seattle Republican discussion determined to blame homelessness on the opioid addiction crisis, and Vancouver attorney Sarah Leamon, writing for the Georgia Straight, urges immediate action to decriminalize and de-stigmatize addiction.
BC businesses defy Trudeau, demand climate action
Days after Canadian premier Justin Trudeau announced he likes the idea of a new pipeline carrying 600,000 barrels of oil across BC every day, a coalition of BC businesses criticized his decision. Arc’teryx, Hootsuite, Mountain Equipment Co-op and another 37 companies urged bold action on the climate crisis. The Time Colonist looks at how BC is reviewing how its spill-protection system in the Salish Sea might deal with a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic if the pipeline is built.
Goats to help reduce wildfire risk
NW News Network reports that local fire officials in central Washington plan to use a herd of 300 goats to each up overgrown grasses in the foothills above Wenatchee to reduce the risk of wildfires to homes in the area.
A preview of what’s on at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Alexis Reid at Eugene Weekly previews a few of productions in Ashland’s world-renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival this summer. In addition to stagings of Macbeth and All’s Well That Ends Well, theater-goers can look forward to Between Two Knees, a dark comedy that delves into the Native American struggle against westward expansion.
An essay by Shazia Hafiz Ramji
Vancouver-based poet Shazi Hafiz Ramji, who was recently a finalist for the BC Book Prize, made a road trip across north-central British Columbia on her way to the award ceremony and writes about it in a lovely essay for Open Book. One thing that impressed her: trees. “I began to think of the names we’ve given them, the way they move, the way the light moves through them, their gathering and speech, their colour I can only describe as green because language is inadequate for their beauty.”
That’s today’s assortment of news, environmental reporting, arts, and culture from the Cascadia bioregion stretching from northern California to southeast Alaska, and from the Pacific to the Continental Divide. Hope you enjoyed reading it. -Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: Defining Cascadia panel selfie courtesy of UpZones podcast