Cascadian Mayors

San Francisco City Hall, Courtesy of Nick Shanks

Over half of the world's population resides in cities and this number continues to increase. Many cities are known not only for their large populations, but their high densities of wealth, culture, and diversity. As anyone from a small town knows, there is no experience like going to the city where niche markets flourish; they tend to be the last strongholds for small shops not yet strangled by the ever increasing chainstores. But these places, with so many different groups of ,can certainly be a challenge to oversee. The job of mayor is usually one of constant criticism and slow progress. But important nonetheless. Sometimes, when a mayor is successful in motivating these huge bodies of people, incredible things are achieved. Today I want to take a look at some of the major Cascadian mayors, their histories, achievements, and future agendas. As we continue to fight the federal government for more regional control mayors will become increasingly significant in political spheres. So, let's get to know some of our region's big-wigs.



Sam Sullivan


City: Vancouver
Hometown: Vancouver
Occupation: Non-Profit Organizer
In Office Since: 2006

Probably the most notable thing about Mayor Sullivan is that he has been a quadrapelegic since a skiing accident at age 19. Instead of looking at the accident as a hinderance, Sullivan used it for inspiration to acquire a BA in Business and subsequently start a number of non-profits for disabled people. He was recruited by the political elites and soon won a seat in city council. He won the mayor's chair in hard fought contest in 2005 against Jim Green.

Soon after becoming mayor Sullivan introduced EcoDensity (a term pantented by Sullivan himself). The intiative was designed to increase density in Vancouver through affordable housing, better public transportation, and other methods so that suburban sprawl would not destory the density of the lower mainland. As the Olympics come upon Vancouver Sullivan developed Project Civil City intended to reduce homelessness, panhandling, and open drug use by 50% by 2010. Many of criticized this policy for its lack of substantial help, saying that it is just displacing the impoverished and troubled.

Sullivan is also known for his academic achievments and is the first Vancouver mayor to learn Cantonese as well as Punjabi. There are large Chinese and North Indian populations in the Vancouver area.

Greg Nickels




City: Seattle
Hometown: Chicago/Seattle
Occupation: Politics
In Office Since: 2002

Although born in Chicago, Nickels was raised in Seattle from a young age. He graduated from the University of Washington with a Law degree and quickly became legislative assistant to Councilmember and future mayor, Norm Rice. He was elected to City Council in 1987 where he served until his mayoral stint in 2001. He beat incumbent Paul Schell who was flailing from his mishandling of the 1999 WTO riots.

The two biggest issues for Nickels have been the environment and transportation. He is nationally known for starting the US Mayors Climate Action Agreement which asked US Mayors to adopt the Kyoto Protocol even while the federal government did not. His allegience to public transportation led to the failed monorail scheme in the early part of the century, which wasted millions of taxpayers money for nothing. But, on the flip side, he did manage to start construction on a light rail system from Sea-Tac airport to downtown Seattle, projected to be complete by 2010. He hopes to increase its area by extending through some of the North Seattle districts as well. Another of Nickels' accomplishments includes giving equal rights to Seattle public employees in same-sex relationships.

In recent years Nickels has been criticized for his relationship with Seattle Police Department. He has stood fully behind the SPD in the face of numerous scandals and accounts of police brutality and has even pledged to add over 100 officers to Seattle streets over the next few years.

Tom Potter



City: Portland
Hometown: Bend, Or
Occupation: Police Officer/Chief
In Office Since: 2005

Potter is best known for his role at Police Chief. He worked as an Officer for over 20 years and was Chief for 4. During this time he gained a national repuation for his hard work in building trust between the Police Department and citizens. He was the first Portland officer to join a Neighborhood Association and helped develop a set of trading cards so that children could better recognize their public servants. As Chief he managed to reduce crime while the city of Portland was growing quickly. In addition he took a strong stance against prejuidice and discrimination. He dissuaded a number of African-American officers from filing a lawsuit against the city by starting a "Bias Crimes" unit to investigate hate crimes. He was also the first officer to march in uniform at the gay PRIDE parade in Portland. He was elected mayor in 2004 by an overwhelming majority.

Stemming from his experience in the police department, Potter's mayoral goals have focused on reconnecting city government to its citizens. He initiated Vision PDX which aims to build a 30-year strategic plan for Portland by listening to community and neighborhood input from all areas of Portland. Potter also aims to increase diversity in Portland's public workforce and help open communication for stronger shared goals.

Last year Potter announced that he would not be running for a second term even though his apporval rating remains high. He has not said what he intends on doing in the future.

Gavin Newsom




City: San Francisco
Hometown: San Francisco
Occupation: Restauranteur
In Office Since: 2004

Newsom has had an interesting career in an interesting city. He first grew to prominence after starting a small wine shop that eventually turned into a milti-million dollar company with five restaurants, a Napa Valley winery, a hotel, and two retail stores. In 1996 he was appointed by Mayor Willie Brown to a number of small governmental comissions. He gained public attention by advocating major reform for the city's beleaguered regional rail system, MUNI. He decided to run in 2003 for mayor as a Democrat against Matt Gonzalez of the Green Party. Many people believed Newsom, as a businessman, would be too sympathetic to big business. But with a number of national endorsements he was elected and took office in 2004.

Shortly after assuming office Newsom gained national attention for allowing same-sex marriages in the city of San Francisco. It was subsequently challenged by federal courts but remains a prominent issue in the city and has bolstered the criticism of President Bush. To add to his radicalism, in 2007 Newsom took a very liberal stance on illegal immigration, stating that he would do everything he could to discourage raids in the city. In 2007 he had a sexual scandal with an aide's wife as well as going into treatment for alcoholism but nonetheless, he was reelected for second term.

The 2007 San Francisco mayoral election was one of the most unqiue races in Cascadian history. There were 12 candidates including a nudist activist, a homeless cab driver, Josh Wolf, and the eccentric artist, "Chicken John" Rinaldi.

The Weekly (almost) Alternative

Once again, a roundup from the Cascadian alternative newspapers...

[The Georgia Straight]: The Straight chastised a move by the Non-Partisan Association, with the help of the Vancouver City council, to spend public money on a private business program. The Downtown Ambassador's, who have been privately funded in the past, will now receive $872,000 annually for expanded security for downtown businesses. While the vote was close, Mayor Sam Sullivan has been called-out for casting the sixth and final vote needed for the measure to pass.

In other news, a new survey by Britain's Independent ranks Vancouver as the 27th greatest city in the world (fyi: other surveys have given Vancouver more bragging rights) (fyi2: The survey put London as numero uno, hmmm, perhaps not as independent as they claim.)

[Monday Magazine]: A new report that came out in December 2007 shows that pink salmon in Queen Charlotte Strait's Broughton Archipeligo have declined by 80% over the last four years and without any assistance, could be extinct in another four. The problem is sea lice, which can winter-over in fish farms and then be released onto small wild salmon, who don't have scales for protection. Alexandra Morton, co-author of the report says that the solution is easy: self-contained fish farms. Unfortunately, British Columbian politics could prevent this solution from becoming reality.

[Cascadia Weekly]: A dispute has erupted over the use of the "Black Forest Steak House" name as Herb Niemann running the so-named restraunt in Everson has sued his brother Jack Niemann who recently opened up an establishment in Bellingham. The court is currently deciding the legality and ownership of the title. While British Columbia, the home of "Black Forest" Restaurants, operates dozens of places by this name, apparently Whatcom County is too small for more than one.

[Boise Weekly]: This generally red state has something new this election season, a loud and proud Obama presence. Like Ron Paul supporters throughout the rest of the country, Idaho has seen a huge presence of Obama supporters throughout the state, engaging and encouraging people to pick the young black candidate. While Idaho may not be a swing state, Obamania may be a cultural shift for the potato lovers.

[The Inlander]: The Spokane City Hall reopened with the Mayor's office and the City Councillors moved to the same floor. This symbolic act will hopefully make communication better and work more efficient for the eastside city. Affordable housing is one of the major issues for 2008 and Mayor Mary Verner is trying to recruit Gov. Gregoire for the task.

[Seattle Weekly]: Bremerton and Bainbridge Island, while only seperated by a mile of water, are increasingly divided. As Bainbridge becomes a rich suburb of Seattle, with consistent and fast ferry service, Bremerton remains distinctly blue collar, with a sparse and slow ferry to the metropolitan area. A bridge between the two areas could help solve differences but the idea has been constantly rejected and looks to have no chance in sight.

[The Stranger]: Charles Mudede finds blasphemy in the new Bellevue City Hall. Built by SRG Partnership, based in Portland, the building has recieved much admiration and recognition from the American Institute of Architects. At the same time, Seattle's City Hall was a flop. Bellevue, home of shopping malls and chain stores, should never best Seattle in any cultural competition, claims Mudede. Perhaps Bellevue is starting to form its own identity apart from the Emerald City.

[Portland Mercury]: Oregonian righties are trying to prevent a new gay rights bill from becoming law in the new year. The bill, which takes effect this week, will allow gay couples to recieve the same rights as married couples for a mere $60. But a conglomeration of anti-gay activists have petitioned the state to put the bill on the November 2008 ballot with 62,000 signatures. But the Secretary of State determined that only 55,063 of those signatures were valid, 116 shy of the necessary amount.

[Willamette Weekly]: Longtime Portland City Councilmen Eric Sten will resign midterm this year after 11 years of vigilant service. Sten is best known for his accomplishments in affordable housing and decreasing homelessness in the Rose City. Of course, he also had his losses. After many years of battling PGE he failed to acquire PGE for the city, even after it fleeced ratepayers of nearly $1 billion. He did get PGE to agree to two dam demolitions. The first one took place last fall and was the first dam to be demolished in Oregon in over 40 years. Sten has not announced any future plans.

For Paul

By Tom Paulson
Seattle P-I
May 20, 2005

Listen for the creaky voice, the strong "s" and the "low-back merger."

Most language experts believe the Pacific Northwest has no distinctive voice, no particular style or dialect. But some local linguists think that's wrong -- or at least a long-standing academic prejudice that deserves a good challenge.

Jennifer Ingle, a 27-year-old Ballard native and student of language at the University of Washington, is one of them.

"Language is part of our identity," said Ingle. Just as the Scandinavian heritage of Ballard distinguishes it from the rest of Seattle, she said, the evolution of language in the Northwest has progressed to the point where it can be distinguished from the rest of the country.

The question for the experts now appears to be whether our version of the English language has evolved enough to be considered a separate dialect.

"Linguists have generally assumed that the West is one dialect region," said Alicia Beckford Wassink, a UW professor of linguistics and mentor to Ingle.

"That may have been the case in the 1800s, when the West was being settled and there was a mixing of dialects among all the immigrants," said Wassink. But there's plenty of evidence now, she said, to suggest this region could have its own distinctive dialect.

Northwest speak.

Ingle decided a year ago to study her own neighborhood for evidence of local dialect. To some extent, she said, growing up in Ballard contributed to her interest in language.

"I used to hear people in my neighborhood speaking Norwegian," said Ingle, noting that despite her family's Scottish heritage, one of her favorite foodstuffs is lefse -- a Nordic flatbread made from potatoes.

But Ingle's study of language in Ballard was not aimed at identifying any of the neighborhood's Nordic influences. Participants were not asked to say, "Yah, sure, ya betcha." Rather, Ballard was selected as representative of the region because it is one of the oldest communities in the state, with a well-established population of native speakers.

"All the participants were born in Seattle and grew up in Ballard," said Ingle. She focused just on variation in vowel sounds because that is what most determines the different pronunciations in spoken American English.

Still, it should be noted that when Ingle presented her findings this week, it happened to be on the same day Ballard was celebrating Norwegian Constitution Day, May 17. Her study of Northwest speech in Ballard was presented in Vancouver, B.C., at the annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

Among the findings: Many locals, especially women, speak in what experts call "creaky voice"; we've done away with a particular vowel used by Easterners; we really like to emphasize the "s" in words; we're not Californian and we're not Canadian.

Other determinants of dialect include differences in vocabulary and grammar, added Wassink, which are also being looked at in other linguistic studies at the UW.

"The Northwest is especially interesting because we have had almost nothing but immigration," Wassink said. "And there hasn't been as much racial or ethnic segregation as in the East. For a linguist, it's a very interesting place."

So, why do so many women talk creaky here? What's that mean anyway?

"Bill Clinton is a good example of creaky," said Ingle. Clinton's folksy speech, in which his voice sounds both scratchy and relaxed, is the opposite of "breathy" voicing, she said.

In the Northwest, Ingle's study indicates creaky voicing is popular -- especially among women. Breathy voicing, which in extreme form sounds like Marilyn Monroe's birthday song for JFK, is not big in the Northwest.

Wassink said the local popularity of creaky voicing could be how we compensate for another feature of our speech style. We've stopped using one vowel. Linguists work with 15 vowel sounds to describe spoken American English and we only use 14 of them.

Say "caught" and "cot" out loud. If you're a true Northwest speaker, the words will sound identical. Linguists call this the "low-back merger" because we've merged these two vowel sounds. On much of the East Coast, these same words will sound different. "Creaking is a way of making those distinctions that are being lost," Wassink said. Just as Bostonians tend to compensate in their speech for removing the "r" from many words, she said, we might speak creaky to compensate for refusing to use both vowels.

Another piece of evidence has to do with how Californians do something known as "fronting the vowel," Ingle said. This is considered standard to Western dialect and occurs when a speaker pronounces "rude" as "ri-ood" or "move" as "mi-oove."

"It's pretty funny sounding, actually," said Ingle, perhaps betraying a slight Northwest bias against all things Californian.

Full Article at the PIMC

From the Sightline

As profesized by yours truly, here are a few awesome tidbits from the Sightline Institute.

First this incredibly depressing map on Grizzlies.




And now, some more inspring news. Check out this graph from Eric de Place:



Basically what Eric shows us here is that getting rid of low fuel efficiency cars is far better (not to mention easier) than building new more fuel efficient vehicles. He explains that the crux to understanding this issue is to stop thinking in "miles per gallon" and think about it in terms of "Gallons per mile".

Check out all his math and explanations here.


I would like to add here that not only does this math prove that getting rid of low efficiency is actually better, but also destroying cars is much better than producing more cars. Its much easier, cheaper, and in so many ways better to get rid of cars with low MPG than it is to waste money and energy creating more fuel efficiency.

I will throw in my opinion here and state straight out that minimizing our energy use is actually the only way we are going to stop global climate change. Technology has and will never be our savior (or saviour for BCers). Sorry to burst your bubble.

God's Country

Mt. Baker is famous for three things. The largest snow accumulation ever recorded, The Legendary Banked Slalom, and the idolized Craig Kelly. Snowboarders outnumber skiiers on the mountain by at least 5 to 1 and I have a sneaking suspicion that the grooming machine is simply for show. Needless to say, Baker is a hot bed for snowboarding culture. In fact, Mt. Baker is to snowboarding culture, what ancient Greece is to Western culture. Craig Kelly and the rest of the MBHC founded a philosophy of sport and nature as one, a community that fostered the love of much more than capital gain (FYI: Baker's nearest town, Glacier, has the lowest per capita income in Washington State). That is not to say that Baker culture was an extension of the peace/love hippie era. In many respects it's a reaction to that as well. It is a much more fuck you kind of mentality that thrives on free spirit, but mocks the politically correct kind. Nonetheless while the ever popular Xtreme era continues to turn snowboarding into a show of ridiculous stunts and expensive gear, Baker retains the essence of what is and what will always be snowboarding; it is not about money, or style, or even skill, but rather the feeling of gliding over deep, pure, untouched snow.

When I was a child, growing up in Bellingham, Mt. Baker was simply where we went every Saturday between December and March. I didn't realize its place in the snowboarding world, I just went up, hung out with friends, loaded up on free breadsticks (oh man, those were the days...) and played king of the mountain with the girls before riding down 542 blasting Bohemian Rhapsody. Since moving to Seattle I only get up to Baker a couple times a year. But I have that distant perspective now. The understanding of how incredibly unique the Baker scene really is. Granted I don't ride many other ski areas very often (who the hell would when you got Baker?!?) but when you're waiting in line for Chair 7 to open its clear that the original community and spirit are alive and kickin'.

Going to Mt. Baker after a heavy snowfall is like a throwback to the days of the Gold Rush. With a report of "8 new inches with 12 new inches in the last 24 hours" most people simply leave everything (work, school, family, bong tokes) to get up here. Eyeing the crowd's gear, one finds a mish mash of hand-me-downs and dumpster finds. Mostly old, jackets that are too small, gloves with holes, boards that are delaminating. Just like the Alaskan miners, the typical rider has long unkempt hair and a full, thick beard. Anything for added warmth (and a confirmation that sex and love are far from the mind's focus). The gold in this wilderness is the white powder falling from the skies (an addiction much stronger for Baker Bums than the other type of white powder) and once the lift opens it's a mad rush to find every pocket of this white gold.

In a typical search for powder (aka: freshies, pow-pow, deep shit, good stuff) no one holds their opinions to themselves. Sitting at the top one can hear fierce debate over which routes will yield the most benefits:

"Let's hit up Gabl's."

"No way man! Gabl's will be all tracked out! Let's skirt Gunner's Ridge and drop in from there."

"Perhaps we should hike out Blueberry."

"Naw, that's too much work, lets just head over to the Pea Garden."

If you ride anything under the lift you are sure to hear calls of admiration as well as ridicule. Anyone considering a drop can count on yells of encouragement and the yells and claps are only louder if you biff the landing and tumble head over heals (sometimes called a yardsale).

Within the first few hours of the day most of the best stuff has been mined by the boards and the soggy, smelly community heads back to the lodge to smoke a few cigarettes and swap stories. They are generally a bit exaggerated. Some individuals boast about five feet of fresh snow where there was actually two. Others brag about their secret reserve that they intend to ride in the afternoon, but probably doesn't exists. Some older veterans tell stories of old to wide-eyed youngsters as they both share a few pieces of beef jerky and a 40 of OE.

On a Relativist's globe Mt. Baker's simplicity is truly refreshing. There are no fights over religion because all revere the gods of the weather. Nobody debates the methods of wealth distribution because each new storm cloud brings a fresh blanket of opportunity. While difference may exist, the community is united through the love and pleasure of their place and that perhaps is something we can all learn from.

Art Eco

This painting of Sockeye Salmon was done by Cascadian artist, Julie Thompson. Her works are done on naturally-molted peacock wingfeathers. If that's not sustainable, I don't know what is!