SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE NEWSLETTER
Jenny Durkan sworn in as Seattle’s first female mayor in 91 years
Former US Attorney Jenny Durkan, in a ceremony in the Rainier Beach Ethiopian Center, was sworn in as Seattle’s first woman mayor since 1926. She’s also the city’s first out lesbian mayor. She faces a full docket of challenges, according to the South Seattle Emerald: housing affordability, increasing homelessness, call for reform over police use of force, a controversial safe-injection site, as well as a campaign promise to provide free community college tuition. At Crosscut, Knute Berger writes about what Durkan has in common with Seattle’s previous woman mayor, Bertha Landes–in particular, both faced challenges in their police departments (corruption in the 1920s, use of force on people of color in 2017).
Commission unanimously rejects plan for oil terminal on Columbia
A Washington state energy commission voted unanimously yesterday to recommend rejecting a proposed oil terminal in Vancouver, WA. The $250 million project was also opposed by newly elected port commissioner Don Orange, and has attracted opposition from environmental groups. WA governor Jay Inslee will make a final decision within 60 days.
Vancouver city council votes on sweeping housing plan today
The Vancouver city council votes today on mayor Robertson’s ambitious plan to build 72,000 housing units in 10 years by changing zoning regulation to allow increased density in single-family zones. The Financial Post reports on how the plan would also ban foreign investors from buying in the local real estate market, and what effect this might have on the average price of a home in greater Vancouver, now topping $1 million.
It’s difficult to get an abortion in Idaho. One nonprofit is helping.
In a superb feature at the Portland Mercury, Megan Burbank reports on the Northwest Abortion Access Fund, a nonprofit helping poor women get abortions. Most of their clients are from Idaho, where there are only 3 clinics statewide and the state Medicaid program refuses to fund abortion. “It’s death by a thousand cuts,” an organizer says, “in the form of disingenuous, medically unsound restrictions that include mandatory waiting periods, parental notification laws, and targeted regulation of abortion provider (TRAP) laws.”
A tribute to Oregon writer Brian Doyle
Brian Doyle, who for many epitomized writing in Oregon, passed away this past May. Oregon Public Broadcasting recently posted the full audio from a tribute this fall to the four-time Oregon Book Award nominee who wrote exuberant essays, helped foster writers in the Northwest, and was the author of the highly-regarded novel Mink River. The tribute features an impressive list of authors, including Kim Stafford, Robin Cody, Robert Michael Pyle, Ana Maria Spagna, and David James Duncan. If you don’t have time for the hour-long podcast, check out this brief video profile of Doyle.
Seattle’s Crab Creek Review’s fall issue now out
The Seattle-based literary magazine Crab Creek Review has a new issue of poetry and fiction out, and at $8 it’s a bargain you should pick up at your local indie bookstore today. Included is the work of Hannah Craig, who’s the winner of Crab Creek’s annual poetry prize and Carolee Bennett, whose “Benign, and Other Words for this Kind of Reprieve” includes these lines:
Translucent means close your eyes.
Tenuous means you will be breathing on your own.
Write this down so you won’t be afraid:
the paralysis is temporary, the impalpable
alter-world nearby the whole time.
This is how it works.
That’s all for today from Cascadia Daily world headquarters. –Andrew Engelson
Photo credits: Jenny Durkan at a Seattle campaign event by Joe Mabel CC BY-SA 4.0.