Cascadia Daily, April 5, 2018

Seattle adds new transit-to-trails service

The King County Metro transit agency announced expansion of its bus line to area hiking trailheads with service from two stops near Seattle light rail stations to foothills trails including Tiger Mountain and Mount Si. Meanwhile, Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan announced the city will study congestion pricing to reduce traffic  downtown. Those who want a quick trip from Vancouver to Seattle will now be able to hop on regularly scheduled seaplane flights. And in British Columbia, BC Ferries announced ticket price reductions for many of its 21 routes, funded in part by a grant from the provincial government. 

Will Portland elect the first woman of color to city council?

Portland Monthly profiles three women candidates who are aiming to be something Portland has never had in its 167-year history: a city council member who’s a woman of color. Meanwhile, Seattle announced its new school superintendent, Denise Juneau, who’s of Blackfeet descent, ran Montana’s school system, and would have been the first Native American member of Congress if she’s beaten Ryan Zinke in 2016. And in Vancouver politics, the Georgia Straight profiles environmentalist and mayoral candidate Shauna Sylvester.

Oregon may have second gun control initiative on November ballot

Oregon gun control activists are gathering signatures for another measure for the November ballot, OPB reports. The measure would require guns be locked up in homes. Another measure in OR would ban assault-style weapons. Meanwhile, writers at the Inlander in Spokane evaluate 47 different strategies to reduce gun deaths.

New funds for affordable housing in Spokane

The Spokesman-Review reports on new federal funding that could build more than 50 new units of affordable housing in Spokane next year. Meanwhile, KUOW looks at life inside Seattle’s Licton Springs Tiny House Village, a sanctioned homeless camp where residents live in 8 foot by 12 foot cottages.

Memoir maps Gitxsan history, culture and legal fights

BC BookLook reviews Gitxsan First Nation leader Neil Sterritt’s book Mapping My Way Home. It’s an important book that documents Sterrit’s time as president of the Gitxsan in the 1980s, and the legal fight that led to the Delgamuukw decision affirming the legal status First Nations’ oral history.

Remembering Rajneeshpuram

In light of the new Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country, Willamette Week is running some of its reporting on the transformation of Antelope, Oregon into Rajneeshpuram thirty years ago, including Richard Fleming’s fascinating inside account of the cult community, and a crazy jailhouse interview between the Bhagwan’s second in command, Ma Anand Sheela and the late Portland novelist Katherine Dunn.


That’s all for today from Cascadia Magazine world headquarters in Seattle, which is located on land traditionally inhabited by the Coast Salish people.  –Andrew Engelson

Photo credit:  Metro van by Atomic Taco CC BY-SA 2.0