The cars pulled by this new train will have A/C.
The cars pulled by this new train will have A/C. WSDOT

Air Conditioners On the Rise In the Seattle Area: There are two things a true citizen of this city should never own: an air conditioner or an umbrella. But if you walk around the city as much as I do, you will notice that the number of people with umbrellas has dramatically increased in recent years. Clearly they are new to the city. They came from places where it really rains and have not yet adjusted to the plain fact that, though it rains a lot in Seattle, it rarely rains cats and dogs. These new people, I suspect, are also responsible for the current A/C craze.

Seattle Times:

Before this decade, only 6 percent of all rentals in the Seattle metro area had central air conditioning, according to census statistics — the lowest rate for any major region in the country. But 25 percent of apartments built so far this decade in Greater Seattle have central A/C — a fourfold increase over the old days.
People in the rental business attribute this increase to an “amenities arms race” fueled by the construction boom. So, the increase in supply is not causing prices to fall but for amenities (gyms, rooftop decks, dog spaces) to rise sharply—and amenities like A/C make the new developments even more expensive.

But if you are new to this city, do not be taken in by this scam. There is a need for A/C in Phoenix and other places where God doesn't hide His anger; but this city is not godforsaken. It's never that cold or that hot. Indeed, there is hardly any weather here. Because the number of scorching days is always small (ranging from one to 20), they should be experienced (and even enjoyed) as a change. (The near future, however, will be much warmer.)

Lastly, we in Seattle share places and spaces with conditioned air: the movie theater, the restaurant, the bus, the cars pulled by light and heavy trains.

Speaking of Air Conditioners: Kirby Cook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the Seattle Times that today “is probably going to be the warmest day of the year so far.” How warm? 84 degrees. So, there was no spring this year. Winter leapt into summer.

Speaking of Summer: Weather experts say there is a 50 percent chance this summer will be hotter than usual.

New Trains for Amtrak Cascade On Display This Weekend: They will begin running this summer, and WSDOT claims they will be faster and consume fuel more efficiently than the older trains. There is even talk about improved reliability. Meaning, trains to and from Portland and Vancouver, BC will run on time more often. But how fast can these trains really go? Certainly not fast enough. As King County Executive Dow Constantine pointed out not long ago, the kind of trains that would really make a difference here need to travel 200 to 250 miles per hour. Speeds of this kind would require the entire line to be upgraded (if not changed completely). If we had that kind of line, you could leave the heart of Seattle and be in the heart of Vancouver, BC in under an hour. All of the farms and cows and little towns would zip past the window of your car. This vision, which is not only supported by Constantine but also the premier of Canada and our governor, would effectively make the sister cities one city.

While Reading About How Doggone Dog Friendly Amazon Is: And learning that an average of 500 dogs come to Amazon's offices every day, and recalling how South Lake Union is now packed with people walking dogs, I also recalled a conversation I had with a scientist from Vancouver, BC and a passage in one of my favorite chapters, "Street Kids," in a little book about the kings of life, light, and time, trees. The book is by the German forester Peter Wohlleben, and is available The Elliot Bay Book Company, and includes a closing note by Suzanne Simard, the Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia. While having drinks with me at McMenamins in Queen Anne around this time last year, Simard (who was in town for a conference at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) explained that city trees are incredibly sad and lonely and hate the soil city planters put them in because it is compact. And to make matters worse, and this is what Wohlieben also says in that excellent chapter (the street kids are, of course, city trees), they hate being pissed on by dogs. From the book: "[City trees] have to deal with unsolicited extra fertilizers. Above all, from dogs, which lift their legs at every available trunk. Their urine can burn bark and kill roots."

But Will The Trees In Denny Park Be Happy With the $2 Million Upgrade? Will they be happy with the "improved" lighting? It seems the upgrade is all about humans, about their access, comforts, and bad ideas of beauty.

Japan Has Too Many Cops and Few Serious Crimes: Economist: "One woman describes how five officers crowded into her cramped apartment after she reported her knickers being swiped from a clothesline." Japan has lots of cops and very little real crime. We can easily and productively connect this fact to this other fact: CEOs in Japan are not paid anywhere near what CEOs in the U.S. are paid. According to Think Progress, the difference is dramatic. The "average Japanese CEO earns one-sixth as much as American CEOs and 16 times more than the average Japanese worker." In the U.S., the "average American CEO now earns 319 times as much as the average American." This is, of course, criminal.

UK's Bernie Sanders Surges In Election Polls: Labor under Jeremy Corbyn is surging despite all of the negative press. Under his leadership, Labor left the center and is now established firmly on the left. Many believed this would not work, that centrism was the only way to win votes. But more and more polls are making it clear that Labor actually has a chance in the current election. Gary Younge of The Guardian has an excellent analysis of the situation.


Hispanics Scared to Spend Money: Because nothing is certain anymore. You or your loved ones could get thrown into jail or deported just like that, and money would be needed to deal with this crisis. Financial Times has the story. This is Trump's America.

Which Is More Impressive: Walking out on Vice President Pence or giving him your back while he delivers his spiritually empty speech? I think the latter.


I Wish He Would Just Live There: And never come back, and take Pence, and Ryan, and Sessions, and the whole of lot of them with him...