A Curious Eye

Why President Obama’s Support of Marriage Equality Might Make the Difference in Washington State

by PAUL CONSTANT

Whenever the president of the United States comes to Seattle, there’s always a swarm of looky-loos standing around, trying to get a glimpse, to say they were in the immediate proximity of a man who has made history. Our presidential audiences have often been angry, occasionally been giddy, and frequently been packed full of people obsessed with some vague plan to forward their own personal agenda. But President Obama’s speech at the Paramount last Thursday drew a very different crowd: It was a battalion of happy people out to demonstrate their gratitude.

People carrying signs and banners thanked President Obama for his announcement the day before that he “think[s] same-sex couples should be able to get married.” There was something more to the waves of adulation than simple gratitude for his supportive statements, though. As Washington State prepares for Referendum 74, a gay-marriage vote that will likely appear on the fall ballot, many revelers believed President Obama may have handed the pro-marriage-equality, approve-R-74 forces the leverage they need to win.

Josh Friedes, the marriage equality director for Equal Rights Washington, calls President Obama’s statement “a game-changer,” because it has generated or will generate “hundreds of thousands of conversations in Washington.” He explains that because of the president’s announcement, gay marriage dominated the news cycle for 72 hours last week and is still a major topic in the national conversation. What this means, he says, is that “at the water cooler, and at Starbucks, and at barbecues, and at churches, people are going to be talking about marriage equality.” When the public talks about marriage equality, Friedes says, marriage equality wins.

The numbers back him up.

Alison Peters cites a poll of 600 Washington voters that her firm, Alison Peters Consulting, performed in June 2011. It was a watershed moment for marriage equality in Washington because it was the first poll in which a majority of voters supported gay marriage—55 percent of likely voters approved marriage equality—but a discovery that Peters made over the course of the poll was even more meaningful.

It comes down to this: Talking about gay marriage greatly increases your chances of supporting marriage equality. Only 34 percent of voters who’ve never had a conversation about gay marriage support it. But 56 percent of all voters who have talked about gay marriage with a straight person support marriage equality. And even more impressive: 69 percent of all voters who have had a conversation about marriage equality with a gay person support marriage equality. All together, two-thirds of voters who have had a conversation about marriage equality support it. They’ve been forced to think through their position. That “swing of 35 points” (from 34 to 69 percent) between people who have and haven’t had a conversation, Peters says, “is staggering from a statistical standpoint.”

Keep reading at TheStranger.com

When it is done well - with inclusion, affordability, environmental and cultural sensitivity, and attention togreat placemaking- few things are as good for our communities as reinvestment in aging neighborhoods. It’s the ultimate win-win-win:improving environmental quality and people habitat while absorbing new development without sprawl. I am pleased to report that I have found another fantastic-looking example to add to my list of favorites. 

I suppose I should no longer be surprised whengreat, environmentally sensitive community-building comes out of the Pacific Northwest, but I can still be impressed. If you’re looking for exemplary revitalization with new, first-class green infrastructure, community facilities and mixed-income housing, take a look at what’s happening inthe Sunset district of Renton, Washington, a city of about 90,000 people south of Seattle. (Renton was once home to none other than Jimi Hendrix, and is still home to a giant - 10,000 on-site employees - Boeing aircraft manufacturing facility.)

ByRACHEL LA CORTE

Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. —

Opponents of gay marriage said Wednesday they have more than half of the signatures they need to qualify a proposed referendum seeking to overturn a law legalizing gay marriage in Washington state.

Joseph Backholm, with Preserve Marriage Washington, said that the campaign has 70,000 signatures on hand. Backers of Referendum 74 need 120,577 valid voter signatures in order to qualify the referendum for the ballot. The secretary of state’s office recommends that campaigns submit about 150,000 signatures in order to provide a cushion for invalid or duplicate signatures.

“We have every expectation that this will be on the ballot,” Backholm said.

Backholm said that so far, all of the signature collection has been done by volunteers, but the campaign hasn’t ruled out employing paid signature gatherers for the final push. He said that many petitions have not been turned in.

“We’re not concerned that there’s a lack of support for the effort,” he said. “But we want people to have a sense of urgency.”

Zach Silk, a spokesman for Washington United for Marriage, a coalition that supports the gay marriage law in Washington state, said that while he thought the 70,000 signatures collected by gay marriage opponents was lower than what he expected by this point, “we’ve said all along that we expect them to get to their signature mark.”

“We thought from Day 1 it was better to plan for them getting on the ballot and prepare ourselves to protect the freedom to marry for all couples in Washington state,” he said.

Keep reading at SeattleTimes.NWSource.com

think-progress:

Ranked in order by Walk Score. Big surprises?

1. New York 
2. San Francisco 
3. Boston 
4. Washington, DC
5. Philadelphia
6.  Chicago
7. Seattle
8. Miami
9. Baltimore
10. Portland
11. Los Angeles
12. Milwaukee
13. Denver
14. Cleveland
15. San Jose
16. Dallas
17. Houston
18. San Diego
19. San Antonio
20. Kansas City
21.  Austin
22. Sacramento
23. Las Vegas
24. Columbus
25. Raleigh

Seattle is number 7! Woo!

Landlords, tenants, community stakeholders, and the city of Seattle agree that substandard housing is a critical problem impacting the health and safety of more than 27,000 Seattle residents—greater than the entire population of the City of Seatac. These properties form a second city built out of neglect that has tremendous health and safety consequences for its residents. What do we do about this city within our city?

Seattle must identify its unsafe rental housing, so it can be repaired. Anything short of that objective has dire economic and health consequences for our most vulnerable populations—senior citizens, families with young children, students, and immigrants and refugees. One national study found that the total annual cost for environmentally attributable childhood diseases relating to substandard housing to be $54.9 billion. Another national study found that 7,000,000 injuries and 28,400 deaths were caused by properties with structural defects. Senior citizens are especially at risk, since many spend more than 90 percent of their time at home.

A broad coalition supports a simple solution to this problem: Proactively inspect all rental homes over ten years to ensure they meet basic health and safety standards. Over time, every property would be on a five-year inspection cycle, a minimal burden that has a maximum impact on the health and safety of all Seattle residents. Passing program costs on to tenants would have only a nominal impact—the equivalent of a rent increase of $5 a month.

Keep reading at Publicola.com

by dan bertolet

What would happen if someone wanted to build a Space Needle in Seattle today?

One word:fahgettaboudit.

Today, a proposal with the audacity of the Space Needle would incite an citywide naysayer orgy.It will compete with views of the mountains! It’s a waste of money! It’s out of character with the neighborhood! Where’s the affordable housing? Not unless they also pay for a 3000 stall parking garage! It’s just plain silly and we need to get serious!

Our collective character has changed over the past half century. And my take on it is that the critical element is confidence. In the early 1960s, we had gobs of it. But since then, a series of setbacks from Vietnam to the recent banking implosions have steadily drained it. And that unconfident state of mind, perhaps more than any other factor, is the biggest threat to the success of our efforts to tackle the challenges of the future and create a world in which humanity’s journey continues to expand and thrive.

Curing a lack of confidence is a quandary, because the kind of dramatic successes that inspire confidence require bold action and risk taking, precisely the type of behavior that a lack of confidence inhibits. But the first step is to at least recognize this dynamic.

As an example, consider the recently proposed idea to run agondola from Capitol Hill to Seattle Center.While there were some who loved the idea (e.g. me), most of the responses I heard orreadwere not too far off from some of the objections I facetiously suggested above. It seems the serious people—the grown ups—were all too eager to dismiss the idea of a gondola as naive and out of the question.

The reality is that gondolas can beefficientandcost-effectiveurban transportation, and a gondola is a smart,outside-the-box solutionfor the unique set of obstacles associated witheast-west travelin central Seattle. Gondolas have been successfully implemented in cities worldwide, one of the most impressive examples being in Medellin, Columbia, wherea network of nine cable carsthat primarily serves the poor was completed in 2010. But when minds are stonewalled by a lack of confidence, such positives tend to be overlooked, and instead people focus on all the reasons why it could never work.

Raleigh, N.C. – The Pacific Northwest has a good reputation nationwide—the two most popular of the 21 prominent cities we asked about in our national poll last weekend are Seattle and Portland, OR. 57% of American voters see Seattle favorably and only 14% unfavorably, edging out Portland (52-12) by three points on the margin.

The most unpopular is Detroit, which only 22% see positively and 49% negatively. Americans have net-negative impressions of only two other of these cities: Oakland, CA (21-39) and Los Angeles (33-40).

Riding the bus at rush hour from downtown to Ballard—or from downtown to West Seattle—currently takes 30 minutes, even longer in heavy traffic. If your trip requires transferring from one bus to another, it’s longer still; a journey across the city can easily consume 90 minutes each direction. Metro buses stop every few blocks, they get stuck in traffic, they’re infrequent, they’re slow—andpeopleavoid using transit that’s infrequent and slow.

Seattle is clearly desperate for something better. Nevertheless, at our current rate of progress, building a complete light-rail network could take a century. In spite of the fact that light-rail measures always pass with flying colors on the ballot, even when it requires a sales-tax hike, the Northgate station, which voters approved in 2008, isn’t scheduled to open for another nine years, and the planning for light-rail tracks to Ballard and West Seattle hasn’t even begun.

We don’t have to move at this glacial pace.

Really.

A group of transit nerds, working with allies in local government, are developing a way to do it and do it fast. With lines above and below grade (more than half of the New York City subway is aboveground), the Seattle Subway would transport riders from downtown to Ballard in nine minutes, according to estimates for modern subway technology. Travel from downtown to West Seattle would take 10 minutes—no matter the traffic. Trains could arrive every five minutes.

Here’s how it would work: Seattle voters would take advantage of the City Transportation Authority, created by the state legislature in 2002, which was intended to fund the monorail. That authority still allows voters to establish a motor vehicle excise tax of up to 2.5 percent for “a transportation system that utilizes train cars running on a guideway.” An initial vote as soon as this November or next year could pay for relatively inexpensive analysis and design work for the first line—probably to Ballard and West Seattle. A subsequent vote would pay for constructing the first line. Repeat as necessary until that map you see is complete.

Keep reading at TheStranger.com

Several days a week, Jessica Hollingsworth ditches her car to use the Link light rail. She lives in Tukwila but works at CenturyLink Field, a commute that is not easy by car, especially given Seattle’s unkind parking price tags and notorious tendencies for heavy traffic jams. But Hollingsworth’s stresses are few.

“I think the city should expand the light rail everywhere,” Hollingsworth said on Saturday, as she and her boyfriend were traveling to the Seattle Sounders game. “It would be awesome in other parts of the state.” 

The Link light rail is sleek, lean and mean enough to make anyone stop and stare — whether age 5, 15 or older than 50.

However, years before the Link light rail even opened its doors in 2009, the new transit system presented an odd package of both benefits and problems to Seattle’s 600,000 residents and their businesses. 

But according to Hollingsworth and to many of the 25,000 people who hop aboard the train every weekday, Seattle’s long-lived cry for better transportation options is making solid ground.

“It’s so easy to get to work,” Hollingsworth said.

Keep Reading at CityLivingSeattle.com

The Archdiocese of Seattle is deploying parishioners and using Church funds and resources to help collect 120,000 signatures that will put Washington State’s same-sex marriage law on November’s ballot, essentially repealing it. Governor Christine Gregoire signed Washington’s marriage equality bill into law earlier this year, but opponents are waging war against the measure, and will likely force residents to vote on the law in November.

“The two bishops of the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, in a letter to the faithful, say they will deploy parishes to collect signatures for Referendum 74, a measure for the November ballot designed to roll back same-sex marriage in Washington,” the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports:

Keep reading at TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com

SEATTLE – Do people in Seattle speak with an accent? The answer seems pretty simple to most who live here.

“People here speak like, perfect American English,” said Duke Davis, who has lived all over the continent but currently calls Seattle home. 

A survey of people in Seattle finds that very few believe there is a Seattle dialect.

But if you pose that question to linguist Betsy Evans at the University of Washington, the answer is a bit surprising.

“Maybe,” she said.

Evans pointed to work by her colleague, Alicia Beckford Wassink, who recorded Seattle voices and found a few distinct pronunciations that suggest a slight accent.

Her research found that, for some people in Seattle, the word “bag” sounds like “beg.”

Another example: the word “egg.” A number of people in Seattle pronounce it with a long “A” sound.

Read More at King5.com

A synopsis of feedback from the events is available below and at the project website: waterfrontseattle.org.

Common themes included:

• Design the waterfront for pedestrians – safety, amenities and connections
  • Ensure access points for all levels of mobilityand need along the waterfront
• Make the waterfront a mix of places to gather and“be quiet,” and places to run, play and be active
  • Include destinations for play and outdoor activities in all seasons
  • Create spaces that have multiple uses and can adapt to the weather, wide range of activities throughout the year
• Show artists at work, and include art that is interactive and evolving
  • Integrate spaces for artists to work along the waterfront
  • Create opportunities for performance art
  • Capture Seattle’s history, culture and uniqueness in the design of the waterfront
• Provide opportunities to interact with and see in-water and upland habitat
  • Blend urban and natural habitat into the overall waterfront experience
  • Incorporate stormwater management , including bioswales and/or rain gardens
  • Include  educational opportunities to learn about marine life and urban ecology
• Create a shoreline edge with access to beaches, tide pools, and places to walk and sit along the water

Check out some awesome changes coming to Seattle in the not-too-distant future

When Washington’s state legislature passed the marriage equality bill in February, it marked the culmination of a 17-year effort led by Sen. Ed Murray. The gay lawmaker took office in 1995, just as the state’s Defense of Marriage Act, which outlawed same-sex marriage, was introduced. Republicans then in control of the state legislature considered the debate so offensive that they ordered the pages, including Murray’s nephew, removed from the House floor. 

Antigay rhetoric at the capitol in Olympia is one of many things Murray has worked methodically to change in a career that has taken him from the House to the Senate, where he chairs the powerful Ways and Means Committee. A lawmaker from what he calls a “very, very, very liberal Democratic” Seattle district, he pushed early for key committee assignments, like budget and transportation, recognizing that being identified with brick-and-mortar issues and crafting alliances would help him advance LGBT rights legislation in the “moderate” state. He first collaborated with Gov. Christine Gregoire, who proposed the marriage equality bill, on an antibullying bill a decade ago, when she was attorney general.

“I believed that part of the way I was going to move this forward was by being viewed as someone who could lead on other issues and could work with people on other issues and build relationships with members on other issues,” he says.

Keep Reading at Advocate.com

Seattle’s vision of an urban food oasis is going forward. A seven-acre plot of land in the city’s Beacon Hill neighborhood will be planted with hundreds of different kinds of edibles: walnut and chestnut trees; blueberry and raspberry bushes; fruit trees, including apples and pears; exotics like pineapple, yuzu citrus, guava, persimmons, honeyberries, and lingonberries; herbs; and more. All will be available for public plucking to anyone who wanders into the city’s first food forest.

“This is totally innovative, and has never been done before in a public park,” Margarett Harrison, lead landscape architect for the Beacon Food Forest project, tells TakePart. Harrison is working on construction and permit drawings now and expects to break ground this summer.

The concept of a food forest certainly pushes the envelope on urban agriculture and is grounded in the concept of permaculture, which means it will be perennial and self-sustaining, like a forest is in the wild. Not only is this forest Seattle’s first large-scale permaculture project, but it’s also believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.

“The concept means we consider the soils, companion plants, insects, bugs—everything will be mutually beneficial to each other,” says Harrison.