Vancouver is one of North America’s most expensive cities to live in. Though the city has taken steps to reduce housing costs (see today’s news  below that the city will allow duplexes to be built across the city) a lot of people on the margins are being pushed out.

That’s the subject of Vancouver poet Chelene Knight’s essay “I’ll Never Own a Home in Vancouver,” now online atCascadia Magazine. Communities are being lost, especially communities full of people from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. “When I think about the rising rents and how many people with families are already struggling to make ends meet, I long for the past: I’ve heard stories: gorgeous rain-slicked sidewalks lined with buzzing businesses ripe with activity, and a community that stuck up for each other. ”

Knight, who wrote about the issue of gentrification in her recent book “Dear Current Occupant,” believes that the constant threat of rent increases creates unsettling anxiety, and a loss of a sense of belonging:  “I imagine that the people who struggle the most have a similar worry embedded in their mind, attached to every thought, followed by that sinking-heart feeling, that whisper: I can no longer live here. I am out.”

Take a moment to read Knight’s essay online now at Cascadia Magazine.

Cascadia Magazine original: Coring the Forest

Learn how an all-female crew works to take core samples of trees in Oregon’s Blue Mountains, helping researchers understand the cycles of fire and drought in the Umatilla National Forest — and how climate change and a fire suppression are changing those cycles. Read the full article online here.

Vancouver changes zoning to allow duplexes across city

According to the Vancouver Sun, the Vancouver city council voted to change zoning rules to allow duplexes to be built in 99 percent of the city. It’s the final big action taken by the Vision Vancouver party, which won’t hold a majority after elections in the fall. Mayor Gregor Robertson hailed the move, saying it was a first step toward  increasing housing density and reducing costs. Meanwhile, Vancouver city council candidate Derrick O’Keefe, writing for the Georgia Straight, argues that a recent move by the BC provincial government to allow higher rent increases overstates rises in wages.

Seattle University divests from fossil fuels

The Seattle Times reports that Seattle University will become the first university in Washington to completely remove all investments in fossil fuel companies from its endowment portfolio. Meanwhile, Trans Mountain pipeline crews trained for a response to a major oil spill in Burrard Inlet, BC. And a new study shows that even small amounts of diluted bitumen (the oil carried by Trans Mountain) can be fatal to sockeye salmon.

Oregon school test scores aren’t improving

Over at OPB, there’s a report on Oregon’s standardized testing, which hasn’t improved much in the past few years. One telling statistic about the achievement gap: the districts with the highest percentage of low-income students generally perform worst.

Protecting clean-up workers at Hanford

Writing for Crosscut, John Stang reports that the state of Washington and the federal government have reached a settlement in a lawsuit that claimed workers involved in processing and cleaning up radioactive wastes at the Hanford site weren’t adequately protected from toxic vapors.

Remembering a murdered Thai student

Sydney Brownstone reports for KUOW on a Buddhist ceremony in which the families of two Thai law students involved in a murder-suicide in Seattle came together to perform an act of spiritual cleansing and forgiveness.

BC author Esi Edugyan on shortlist for Booker prize

According to CBC, novelist Esi Edugyan, who lives in Victoria, has made it to the prestigious shortlist for the Booker prize, one of the literary world’s highest awards. She was honored for Washington Black, an epic historic adventure involving a slave in Barbados. The novel is also nominated for Canada’s Giller Prize.

Poetry by Maya Jewell Zeller

Over at Poetry Northwest, you can read the poem “Laozi” by Maya Jewell Zeller, who teaches writing at Central Washington University. It makes a nod to Chinese painting before getting more personal:
“Left to myself I tend toward drinking
in the stories of those gone, thinking
myself gone, too.”  Read the full poem online here.

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That’s today’s curated collection of links to news, environmental reporting, arts, culture, and poetry from across the Cascadia bioregion. Have a lovely evening, and stay dry as more rain arrives for the first day of autumn…
–Andrew Engelson

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Photo credit: Hanford clean-up workers courtesy of US Department of Energy