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Cascadia’s rich are getting richer. The rest of us? Not so much.
Gene Balk, data guru at the Seattle Times, reports that Seattle’s inequality gap took a huge leap in the past two years. The richest 20 percent of residents now hold more than half the city’s wealth. How to deal with that income gap? In addition to a higher minimum wage, Seattle’s proposed an income tax that’s now in the courts. Plus, the effort to unionize is drawing attention to which grocery stores discourage unions. British Columbia’s new NDP-Green coalition is looking at testing a universal basic income. Meanwhile the New York Times offers five lessons cities should learn from Seattle before they embrace Amazon’s second headquarters
The Salish Sea: fantastic bioregional reporting from KNKX
The phenomenal series of reports on the Salish Sea over the past three months from KNKX wrapped up today, and creator Bellamy Pailthorp reflects on some of the highlights, including an interview with Charlene Aleck of the Tsleil Waututh, the First Nation that sits near the terminus of the proposed KinderMorgan pipeline expansion. It’s worth your time exploring the entire Return to the Salish Sea multimedia project.
Hanford nuclear site: birthplace of the Anthropocene
Jonathan Hiskes of the University of Washington writes about how an inter-disciplinary group of scholars at UW is exploring the legacy of the Hanford nuclear site in Eastern WA as the start of the Anthropocene, the geologic era marked by profound human impacts on the earth. It’s a fascinating project involving literary scholars, poets, and geographers — all tracing the long-lasting and harmful impacts the site has left behind: both literal (in terms of radiation), as well as cultural.
New Vancouver gallery debuts show investigating land & landscape
The Georgia Straight reports on the debut of a new art venue in Vancouver, The Polygon Gallery. Formerly known as Presentation House, Polygon’s first exhibit, opening Nov. 18, is “N.Vancouver,” a collection of photographs and sculpture by 26 artists, including Greg Girard’s vivid color photographs of industrial sites such as the mountains of sulfur (pictured at top) near the Lion’s Gate Bridge. A group of First Nations artists are also featured, including Tracy Williams, who mixes contemporary and traditional weaving methods.
First Nations novelist Eden Robinson wins writer’s trust award
Quill and Quire reports that BC author Eden Robinson, a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations, was honored with the 2017 Writer’s Trust award, which grants $50,000 to free an author of financial burdens. Robinson’s latest novel Son of a Trickster is on the shortlist for the Giller Prize — Canada’s most prestigious fiction award — which will be announced on Nov. 20.
“You’re not from around here, are you?”
That’s the title of a gallery show at Seattle’s Northwest African American Museum featuring the work of journalist-turned-artist Lisa Myers Bulmash, whose collages and reworking of plastic Christian icons explore the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways in which images of people of color are always defined as political. In an interview with City Arts, Myers Bulmash reflects on how she incorporates found objects into her work and the necessity of mixing politics and art.
Photo credits: sulfur mountains on Vancouver waterfront by Greg Girard, courtesy of the photographer, whose show at The Polygon Gallery opens Nov. 18