Cascadia Daily, March 13, 2019

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Get Outside! Deas Island, BC

If you’re in the Vancouver area and want to get out for an easy hike, the network of trails on Deas Island in BC’s Fraser River Delta is a great place to recharge. In his latest Get Outside! column at Cascadia Magazine, hiking expert Craig Romano describes all there is to see, including historic sites, lovely forests of cottonwood and alder, and views toward the skyline of Burnaby. Find out more here.

Boeing’s new 737 MAX jets after the second crash in several months, attention shifts to the company, which has major manufacturing and design offices in the Seattle area. The Seattle Times talked to workers at Boeing’s Renton, WA plant, where the 737 MAX is manufactured and the company has ramped up production: “some said the accident has only added to the stress some workers already felt from working so much overtime.”

Debate heats up over Portland freeway expansion

OPB reports on the heated debate growing over plans by the Oregon Department of Transportation to add new lanes to the I-5 freeway running through Portland. ““Any expansion of capacity induces traffic,” says one opponent, “It invites more cars. And then you end up right back where you started.” Sightline Institute looks at decongestion pricing as an option to help reduce traffic.

“Bowl of Jello” effect in quake could be bad news for skyscrapers

Northwest News Network looks at a new report from the University of Washington that predicts skyscrapers in Seattle and elsewhere in Cascadia could be more at risk of collapse than previously thought in a magnitude 9 quake– due to the “bowl of Jello” effect in areas with lots of sediment.

How cannons can help Cascadia salmon

Amonrina Kingdon, writing for Hakai magazine, profiles the different ways “salmon cannons” are being employed in British Columbia’s Fraser River to help migrating salmon get past dams and other obstacles.

An interview with Lindy West about new TV show based on Shrill

Seattle writer Lindy West talks with Crosscut about the adaptation of her book Shrill into a fictional TV series set in Portland. Though it’s fiction, it shares much in common with her book of essays,–body positivity, the ordinariness of abortion, and tons of humor.

New fiction by Sharma Shields

At The Rumpus, read Spokane novelist Sharma Shields’ new short story, “In the Large Room Where Your Future is Kept.” As with most of Sharma’s fiction there’s a dose of surrealism, and the story deals with consumerism and the eternal anxiety of being a parent. “The smell of bottled shampoo was gentle all around her, as were the soft shuffling noises of people pushing carts to and fro, moving up and down the broad aisles like fish in a stream…” You can read Sharma’s essay “Great Grinning Things,” about living with MS, online at Cascadia Magazine.

That’s today’s assortment of news, arts & culture from across the Cascadia bioregion, written in the haze of an upper respiratory infection. Probably TMI, but if there are typos in today’s newsletter, blame it on that! ? –Andrew Engelson

Photo credits: 737 MAX courtesy of WestJet CC BY-SA 2.0