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A little Cascadia Rendezvous…
A quick thank you to the writers, donors, & potential Cascadia Magazine board members who stopped by the Rendezvous in Seattle last evening for cocktails, nibbles, and conversation. It was a lovely time and we appreciate all that you’ve done to support us in our first year of publication! We’ll be holding similar appreciation events in Vancouver, BC and Portland in the coming months to say thanks to our supporting readers and to all the great writers and photographers who make Cascadia Magazine an online publication worth reading.
If you’d like to become a supporting reader and receive invitations to special events like this, please visit our donate page and make a contribution today.
Portland to spend part of tourism tax to aid homeless
According to Willamette Week, Multnomah County is preparing to allow part of its rising hotel & tourism tax to be spent on homeless services in the greater Portland area — although the $5 million expected to be allocated is a tiny fraction of the $640 million in housing and mental health services some observers say is needed in the next ten years. Meanwhile, to deal with sprawl, Kelowna BC passed new zoning regulations requiring houses to be built in designated dense areas, and Josh Cohen at Crosscut argues that dealing with the racist legacy of Seattle’s red-lining policies will require increasing density citywide.
100,000 Oregonians may be missing health coverage
The Portland Tribune reports that up to 100,000 Oregon residents may not realize they qualify for government assistance in paying for health coverage.
The deadline to sign up for ACA health care coverage is approaching at midnight December 15. Sign up for coverage in Oregon here. Sign up for Washington health care coverage here. In Alaska, Montana, and Idaho, visit the federal ACA site by midnight December 15.
WA budget proposes replacing aging mental health facility
Washington governor Jay Inslee’s budget proposes a substantial increase in mental health funding, including over $500 million to replace the aging and troubled Western State Hospital, which lost its accreditation earlier this year. Meanwhile WA state reached a settlement agreement in a long-running lawsuit over what courts said was wrongful detention of people with mental health issues in jails because of lack of other facilities.
Site C dam could imperil national park, UN agency finds
The Narwhal reports that Parks Canada is ignoring concerns from UNESCO that British Columbia’s proposed Site C dam, as well as Alberta tar sands extraction, could threaten Wood Buffalo National Park (Canada’s largest) and impact traditional Indigenous hunting grounds there.
Oregon’s Dark Horse Entertainment: comics, movies & more
OPB has an interview with Mike Richardson, who went from owning a few comic book shops in Oregon & Washington to becoming CEO of a multimillion dollar company that’s famous for producing edgy comics, digital media, and movies. A previous feature at OPB detailed the company’s most famous creations including Hellboy and Sin City.
An interview with poet Laura Da’
Paul Constant, at Seattle Review of Books, has a great profile of Seattle-based poet Laura Da’, in a conversation that delves into the city’s sometimes exclusive literary scene, the unique challenges of being an Indigenous writer, and why poetry appeals her introverted tendencies: “[poetry is] a meditative art that feels nicely private even though it is public. There’s an element of privacy that I really like.”
A prose poem by Chelene Knight
Over at Literary Hub, you can read a prose poem, “I Didn’t Have a Father,” excerpted from Chelene Knight’s memoir/poetry collection Dear Current Occupant, which recently won the 2018 Vancouver Book Award:
“No one asked me about school, or friends, or writing, or home. No one asked me about home. I didn’t know how I got there, to this house built not for me.”
Read the full poem here. You can also read Knight’s essay “I’ll Never Own a Home in Vancouver” online at Cascadia Magazine.
That’s your daily serving of arts, news, and culture from across the Pacific Northwest. Our condolences to Portland Timbers fans for their loss in the MLS final last weekend. But take heart: snow is falling in Oregon’s Cascades and snow is dumping in Washington’s mountains too, and that means ski season is arriving in Cascadia! Time to start reading the reports from Whistler and dreaming! ❄️❄️❄️❄️ –Andrew Engelson