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Cascadia Magazine original: When home is a parking spot
Seattle, with some of the highest housing costs in North America, is facing a crisis of homelessness. In doorways, vacant lots, city parks, and on the margins of the city, those who can’t afford housing struggle to find shelter. For many, a home is a vehicle–a car, van or RV. In fact, more people sleep in vehicles than camp in tents in Seattle each night.
Reporting for Cascadia Magazine, Will Sweger takes an inside look at the life of campers like Scott Owens– a construction worker originally from Denver who can’t afford an apartment and lives in his van in the city’s Sodo industrial district. It’s a difficult and dangerous life, where finding a bathroom or shower is difficult, crime always a risk, and where eviction by police a looming possibility.
The feature includes fantastic photography by Seattle-based photographer, editor, and writer Nia Martin.
As Seattle debates how to fund solutions to the persistent problem of homelessness, it’s important to keep in mind the real, human stories of people affected by the crisis. Head over to Cascadia Magazine and take some time to read this in-depth feature.
Seattle city council moves $75 million “head tax” forward
According to The Stranger, a committee in the Seattle council moved forward a $75 million “head tax” on employers grossing more than $20 million of revenue. That means a looming battle with mayor Jenny Durkan, who supported a less-expensive compromise measure. Amazon has entered the fray by threatening to stop construction of some buildings in its new headquarters if the tax passes. The debate comes as a new study claims Seattle and surrounding King County will require 14,000 units of affordable housing at a cost of $400 million to successfully solve the homeless crisis.
Portland delays action on earthquake retrofits
According the the Portland Mercury, the Portland city council decided to put off a vote on requiring retrofits of buildings at risk of collapse in a major Cascadia earthquake. Studies have identified more than 1,600 brick buildings at risk of collapse–at issue is who will pay, and whether historic structures will be demolished if costs can’t be met. The Mercury has more background here.
Vancouver’s overdose death rate among highest in North America
Travis Lupick, writing for the Georgia Straight, notes a new study that finds rates of opioid overdose deaths linked to fentanyl are some of the highest in North America. Meanwhile Washington’s state supreme court is hearing a case that will determine if a ballot initiative banning safe injection sites in Seattle-area King County will happen in November. A previous court ruling said the initiative interfered with public health officials’ ability to promote health.
Taking the Sounders-Timbers rivalry to a new level
OPB reports on how the Portland Timbers soccer team is fueling the cross-Cascadia rivalry with the Seattle Sounders by creating a humorous faux-documentary (complete with a Ken Burns-style soundtrack and interviews with “scholars”) throwing some serious shade on Seattle, poking fun at its traffic and departed SuperSonics basketball team. But please, the facts: Seattle dominates all match ups 50-34-14. Stuff that in your Nikes!
How moss can help prisoners
Writing for Yes! magazine, Nalini Nadkarni describes an innovative research project she created at a prison in Littlerock, Washington in which inmates grew and harvested decorative mosses. The project helped protect endangered species in Cascadia’s old growth forests, and the exposure to nature significantly increased prisoners’ sense of well-being. Another project in Oregon involving nature videos found that those who watched them “committed twenty-six percent fewer violent infractions than those who did not view them.”
“Residents of the Air,” new fiction by Sharma Shields
ICYMI, Spokane writer Sharma Shields has a new story, “Residents of the Air,” up at Catapult and it’s definitely worth your time. It’s a surreal account of a near-future world where the sky is darkened by fires and economic collapse, while a few select homes float up into the blue above the dystopian chaos:
“Those poor people, they thought. What’s wrong with them that their houses don’t rise, too?”
Get Outside! to Campbell Valley Regional Park
If you’re in the Vancouver area or Bellingham, and want to get out for a hike this weekend, check out Craig Romano’s write-up of Campbell Valley Regional Park in Langley, British Columbia at Cascadia Magazine. It’s a great place for running, kid-friendly wandering and visiting historic farmsteads that are some of the oldest buildings in Langley Township.
That’s all the news and arts from across Cascadia that’s fit to print today. Enjoy your weekend! –Andrew Engelson
Photo credits: camper vans in Seattle by Nia Martin