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26 Ways to Store Your Bike
Editor’s Note 6/22/15: Happy summer, Cascadia! Have you bought a new bike in honor of the sunny season? Moved to a new place and still wondering where to stash your wheels? Here’s a hefty dose of inspiration from one of our all-time most popular Sightline articles. More ideas still welcome! Back in February, Treehugger posted a visually tantalizing slideshow of bike storage options. We featured it in Sightline Daily’s news digest, but something about it...Read more » -
Seattle Event: Children’s Environmental Health Research Matters
Sightline Executive Director Alan Durning will be giving the welcome keynote tomorrow morning at a conference on the role of research in the field of children’s health. Alan will be speaking on the way research can inform public policy, looking at cases like our recent work on toxic flame retardants in couches. Get details on the event.Read more » -
Our Year of Lent
Starting today, people across the globe will give up something for Lent. (For example, Newt Gingrich won’t have any dessert. A colleague of mine is giving up meat.) My family is fasting from consumerism. Not just for Lent, but all year long. And what better time than the day after Mardi Gras to write about how we’re faring. Maybe we’ll inspire someone to join us—if not for a whole year,...Read more » -
Clothesline Bans Void in 19 States
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The Northwest’s Black Residents
I’m a number cruncher, so one way I’m observing Black History Month is by examining census figures for the Northwest’s African-American and African-Canadian populations. (Another way is here.) Although the Northwest does not have a large black population relative to many places in the United States, the region is home to nearly 340,00 residents who self-identify as black, representing 2.1 percent of the population. Among Cascadia’s African-descended people the vast majority, 71...Read more » -
Letting Cities Lower Speed Limits on TV
Back in August, we published a post—and an op-ed in the Seattle Times—arguing that Washington cities ought to be able to lower speed limits on non-arterial streets without costly red tape. Moderate reductions in speed save lives and make streets safe—for kids, elderly, pedestrians, bikers, and drivers. In the months since, a bill has emerged in Olympia, championed by State Representative Cindy Ryu and a host of co-sponsors. On Monday,...Read more » -
Legalize Couchsurfing
Tight budgets and the internet have given rise to the hottest new thing in travel accommodations. Web-based company Airbnb has received a lot of press recently for its for-profit service that matches travelers with spare bedrooms, such as mine (pictured above). It’s already growing like moss in the Northwest winter, but the potential is much bigger than most have considered. Airbnb and other companies that create a market for guest...Read more » -
Two Wheels and High Heels
In the Seattle suburb where I grew up, the main transportation choice most residents face is what kind of car to buy. I moved to Seattle after college and, inspired by the “car-lite” lifestyles of several friends, decided to give cycling a try. I fell in love with it. Urban cycling freed me from slow buses, parking meters, and mind-numbing elliptical machines. I arrived at work with more energy. I...Read more » -
Putting the Chemical Witness on the Hot Seat
You might think adding slow-to-burn compounds to upholstered furnishings, the largest single fuel load in many homes, would be a worthy precaution, a defense against house fires, and a lifesaver for thousands of people. It’s an understandable assumption, an intuitive one. Though Dr. Heimbach never questions or even explicitly mentions this assumption, it lurks beneath the surface of what he argued in Sacramento. So I checked the science.Read more » -
Oregonians Already Have a “Right to Dry”
Editor’s Note: Sightline’s map of clothesline bans across the continent already shows 217 communities that forbid solar drying. (Email your tips about other bans to editor@sightline.org.) Legislators in Oregon and Washington and a city councilor in Seattle have expressed interest in taking action since we first published on this barrier to no-carbon laundering. But legislative interest is a far cry from legislative victory. After all, Oregon’s Senate bottled up in...Read more »
