Cascadia today: Housing providers face challenges + tribes hit by floods + PDX punk show for the holidays
Good morning! As the end of the year approaches, just a reminder that Cascadia Journal is made possible by the generous support of my readers! I appreciate you, and your financial support allows me to continue to offer this roundup of news, environmental reporting, and arts coverage from across Cascadia. Plus, opinionated articles about the Pacific Northwest's pushback against Trump and fascism. Thanks!
Housing providers confront rising inequality, federal cuts
In my latest article for The Urbanist, I look at a perfect storm of challenges confronting affordable housing providers in the greater Seattle area, including vacancies, rising income inequality, and evisceration of federal housing funds.
“The HUD CoC funding threats are significant, potentially impacting between $40 million and $60 million of ongoing annual service and operating costs for permanent supportive housing,” --Nona Raybern, Seattle Office of Housing
In related news, Washington governor Bob Ferguson announced he'll ask for $244 million in housing funds in his latest state budget proposal, including for $50 million to preserve existing housing (much of which will likely go to flood restoration). Ferguson also signed an executive order starting the ball rolling on creating a state Department of Housing. Meanwhile, Willamette Week looks at rising vacancies in Portland's affordable housing, and The Tyee examines the highest vacancy rate in market-rate housing in Vancouver since 1988.
Andrew Engelson
Tribes, rural communities hit hard by flooding
The Seattle Times reported on how Washington's tribal nations are grappling with destructive flooding, including the Lummi Nation, on the banks of the Nooksack River. One member of Lummi Nation noted that 19th century colonists re-routed the Nooksack: "The river's trying to go back to its ancient route there. That's why there's so much massive flooding at Lummi." In related news, KUOW looks at how south King County farmers are working to recover from the floods, while Washington State Standard profiles how residents of Concrete, on the Skagit River, are cleaning up after the waters recede.
And, surprising no one, climatologists described this fall as one of the warmest and wettest on record – with the lowest snowpack accumulation since records have been kept since 2001, KUOW reported. And what is the Trump administration's response to Cascadia? To try to force Washington state to keep open a coal-fired plant that's the state's largest single source of climate pollution! Washington began the process of phasing out the Centralia coal plant in 2011, but the feds only care about burning as much fossil fuel as possible to support their corporate cronies.
It's time to send the feds packing and build an independent Cascadia bioregion dedicated to creating a truly sustainable energy system and becoming a global partner in solving the climate crisis. With courage and creativity we can do this.
Andrew Engelson
ICE preventing OR detainees from meeting attorneys
Oregon Capital Chronicle reports on a lawsuit by Oregon immigration attorneys, who claim that ICE is denying detainees their constitutional right to legal representation. Because Portland's ICE facility can only legally hold people for 12 hours, detainees are often shipped to the NW ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, or much further afield, and prevented access to lawyers, CLEAR Clinic contends.
OR gas tax may be delayed by ballot measure
Oregon's transportation plan may again be in limbo, even after governor Tin Kotek called a special legislative session to pass a $4.8 billion, ten-year plan. Organizers of a ballot measure to recall the tax increases that fund the plan, including a 6-cent increase in the gasoline tax, turned in more than 200,000 signatures for a ballot measure that would be put on the November 2026 ballot. In other transportation news, a op-ed at The Urbanist urges the Puget Sound-area light rail agency Sound Transit to reconsider plans for a second transit tunnel in downtown Seattle. The agency is grappling with how to deal with a $30 billion shortfall in funds for light rail expansion.
Building roads won't prevent wildfires
Columbia Insight has an op-ed opposing the Trump administration's misguided plan to increase road building in Cascadia's mountain forests. The land grab for Trump's logging industry pals is supposedly to help fight wildland fires, but evidence shows this is a bullshit argument:
"...roads are the most common ignition sites for human-caused wildfires. A scientific review of 1.5 million wildfire records covering a 20-year period discovered that people were responsible for 84% of all unplanned wildfire ignitions."
A Portland punk show for the holidays
The Portland Mercury has a review of a the second annual "Dying Wishmas" show that local metalcore band Dying Wish puts on each year as a gift to fans in the City of Roses. It sounds like it was super cathartic!
We don’t need to tell you the world is fucked-up right now, and while every metal/hardcore/punk show offers the chance to bash your body against your neighbor as a reminder that you’re a living, breathing human being, a whole day of it almost feels like therapy.
Here's a little taste of last year's show. Enjoy! – Andrew
