Cascadia Report

Cutting Amtrak at exactly the wrong time

It looks like the Canadian national bureaucracy is STILL dragging its feet on adding needed rail service between Vancouver and Seattle. Meanwhile in Washington, legislators are planning to cut improvements that would make Amtrak faster and more reliable, while allowing more trains in the future.

Every dollar is important in tough budgetary times like these. So why are improvements to I-5 going ahead -- even without tolling mechanisms to lower the implicit subsidy for roads and private automobiles? We should be adding tolls in areas with "freeway" improvements while investing to make rail travel more competitive.

Instead travel options are limited. Canada wants U.S. taxpayers to cover the cost of a Canadian customs agent, despite the expected financial windfall a second daily train would bring to B.C.  For now it looks like a second train will cross the border each day during the winter Olympics -- but not after.

Extend the streetcar line now

I stopped by a forum on the proposed extensions of Seattle's streetcar yesterday afternoon -- and heard more objections to the idea of a citywide network than vision to make such a system work.

At question is the idea of extending Seattle's stunted 1.3-mile line to actually go somewhere. It could be a viable transportation system that would encourage development and make owning and driving a car in the city less essential.

Sure, financing and design are legitimate obstacles. The city should solve those obstacles and then start building. Public support will follow -- just as in Toronto and countless other cities where streetcars are commonplace.

What we shouldn't do is talk this issue to death at endless public forums. I didn't hear one concern that couldn't be met. Losing parking on local streets? More people will take streetcars and walk. Cannibalizing bus service? We need to invest in more, better bus service too. One man talked about efficient express bus service in Vancouver as an example of what we should do. Fine, but that and streetcars aren't mutually exclusive.

By all means, get citizen input on the route and design. Then let's build it.

The best way to get more, faster Web access

Just after paying my $145 monthly telecom bill, I noticed this Wall Street Journal story about how cities nationwide are trying to promote faster broadband Internet service.

The problem is that much of the U.S. is falling behind other industrialized economies in terms of Web access speed and cost, which potentially hinders innovation -- not to mention convenience. How is it that high-speed Internet is just a quarter as costly in Japan and even Canada has faster service?

Washington in particular lags behind. See this post. Tacoma has a municipal network and this year Gov. Gregoire signed a law to begin planning broader system. But those seem like very small steps.

Several U.S. cities are investing in their own networks, against the wishes of telecom firms that nearly have a stranglehold. According to the article, telecoms seem to have two main arguments. The local projects are an unfair competitive threat, they say, and the projects will be more costly than local governments project. (Here's the latest from Qwest.)

Should local governments here be doing more to help?

Which buildings should we save

It's easy to argue that one of Seattle's darkest days was when the Music Hall theater was destroyed downtown to make way for a parking lot.

But it's usually harder to define what buildings deserve protection. There are a few ideas in this article in the Seattle P-I.

One point in the comment thread made sense to me:

Rather our approach to "preservation", why not adopt a simple "ancient light" law. If a window has had sunlight for 50 (let's say) or more years then that sunlight can not be taken away. Period, it works in other cities.

Giving praise where it's due

If you're curious about what kind of development will shape Seattle's future, increasingly the one place to turn for free, timely information is The Stranger's blog.

At a time when metropolitan dailies like The Seattle Times are almost giving up on coverage of neighborhoods, the blog is a huge help to anyone who cares about Cascadia's biggest city but can't be a full-time gadfly.

Here a few random recent posts:

Today's examines plans for major growth along the new light rail line.

Coverage of in-fill in single-family neighborhoods.

A glimpse of an iconic tower that may alter the skyline.

Coverage of the design for one of the city's first "subway" stations.

Dubious plans for Amazon's new headquarters the booming South Lake Union neighborhood.

B.C. may boost exports of trash

Vancouver wants to dramatically boost its Washington-bound exports of one product it has too much of: trash.

And why not? Canadians would pay more to cover the cost of sending trash trains to a landfill on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge, helping the economy of rural Klickitat County, according to the Seattle P-I. At the landfill the trash would be turned into sellable energy.

The shipments would begin just ahead of the supposedly eco-friendly Olympics and, predictably, the idea is already riling residents who live along the prospective route of trash trains. Whistler and Seattle already export their trash elsewhere in the region and other reports suggest there may, in fact, be other B.C. alternatives.

But the richest part of the P-I article is the appeal to regional sympathy by one of the proponents:

Marvin Hunt, a councilor in Surrey, B.C., and chairman of the Metro Vancouver Waste Management Committee, said the garbage shipment is just temporary until a new facility is ready in the province.

"This is the Northwest. We feel like this is all family here in Cascadia," Hunt said.

"We have a little problem right now, and when you have a problem, you ask your brothers and sisters to help you out."

It's time to charge for road use

I published an op-ed in the Seattle Times today advocating variable pricing for roads as a method to lessen congestion.

The idea of charging more during crowded times and less when fewer cars are on the road is nothing new to me (see this and this). But it's a big deal that the Municipal League, a venerable nonpartisan good-government group, is now on board. Here's from the piece:

In the past, tolls have been imposed to support construction of major projects. We at the Municipal League of King County support a broader use of tolling to increase traffic flow through congested corridors, while at the same time recovering costs from those using the roads. This is how we price other goods and services when there is limited supply.

As I mention, there are plenty of details to be worked out. The key, as I wrote, is providing alternatives so that additional fees are fair and that everyone benefits. That means adding enough buses, making them faster and more frequent so that transit is a viable alternative.

The key is balancing the market so that transit is a realistic option. Right now we're massively subsidizing travel in single-occupant vehicles. A smart pricing system would make better use of infrastructure and have the positive benefits I mention in the article.

Hooray for the carbon tax

This week British Columbia passed North America's first carbon tax, a big step toward tying sustainability, transportation and market forces. Why can't the rest of Cascadia build on the example?

The tax has been in the works for a while but I missed the passage until I arrived in Vancouver Friday night and noticed it was all over the papers and TV. Looking back, I can't find a single reference in mainstream Seattle-area media.

This policy is huge news because it stands to begin discouraging emissions while making taxation more progressive. Here are some interesting first takes:

-- There are some links to more details and praise for the potential environmental impact here.

-- The business community is glad that there's finally a law, according to yesterday's Globe and Mail.

-- The Tyee looks at whether the tax is fair, here.

-- Progressive Economics points out some flaws yet ends up praising the idea here.

Coming soon: Seattle-Northern B.C. connection

Seattle is about to get its first nonstop flights to northern British Columbia -- another step toward integrating Cascadia.

Alaska Airlines will fly to Prince George, a city 500 miles north of Vancouver at the heart of B.C. timber and mining industry. Unless you like looong drives, the only way to get there now is on the three daily Air Canada flights from YVR.

The convenience almost makes me pine for the days when I was a reporter covering Weyerhaueser and the cross-border timber industry.

More importantly, it suggests that there's demand for this sort of regional travel. The news slipped by while I was dizzy about new nonstops to China, Germany, Mexico and France.

No news south of the Canadian border today

Americans hear almost nothing about politics in Canada. Maybe it's mutual.

I found just one story in B.C. media about today's caucuses in Washington. There's some explanation of the arcane process but little about what the race means for the region:

University of Victoria graduate student Jeremy Wood, wearing a "Canadians For Obama" T-shirt, said "my friends and I came here to see if our support for Obama was based on rock star adulation or if there was something more to it. We arrived at 6:30 in the morning and talked to people lined up. One 17-year-old kid told me he had never been interested in politics until he heard about Obama.

"I've never seen a lineup like this for a political event. It's a social movement. We Canadians had Trudeaumania. But this is something else," said the 36-year-old masters of public administration student.