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Collection: Weekend Reading

Weekend Reading 8/15/14

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Serena

Heads up to a great event happening next Saturday, August 23: the 9th Annual Duwamish River Fest! It’s a completely free afternoon of food, art, boat and kayak rides, kids’ activities, live music, and more. I’ll be there and volunteering (still a few more spots to fill!), so come out with the fam for some local river fun.

Wow, this is powerful. After the controversial shooting of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last weekend, this hashtag collected the commentary of black youth across the country wondering about mass media’s selective portrayal of gun victims of color: #IfTheyGunnedMeDown. Here’s a sobering “Hands up, don’t shoot” photo collection from Vox, and historically black Howard University’s own contribution to the conversation.

In more local related news, this past weekend, a guard at Seattle’s Westlake Mall pepper-sprayed a bystanding young black man, Raymond Wilford, instead of the white agitator who was heckling a pro-Gaza demonstration. From the article:

“I’ve been treated like that all my life, so it kinda brushes off,” Wilford, who has two kids, says. “I’m from the South, I’m from New Orleans. I’ve seen the worst of it.” He lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and came to Seattle a decade ago “to try to redo my life,” he says.

“People here seem to be more secretive about their not liking black people, or their racism,” he says. “I’m so used to it I don’t know what’s wrong and what’s right half the time.”

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Weekend Reading 8/8/14

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Jennifer

A few months ago, I wrote about all the things it was illegal for kids to do in Northwest parks. This Berkeley playground is the opposite of that.

Also, this piece by Seattle’s A-P Hurd does a great job of explaining how city requirements to provide expensive parking spots in new development makes building affordable, family-sized housing units in urban areas nearly impossible. It also mucks up good design. Here’s my favorite line of hers:

Why do cities require developers to build parking and bundle it with apartments? Because people in surrounding neighborhoods don’t want the residents of new apartments using up “their” street-parking spots. It’s as if we were trying to get people to eat healthy affordable meals then forcing them to bundle it with an order of French fries because we don’t want to upset the potato lobby.

Jerrell

The idea that big Hollywood films do not feature racially diverse casts is far from a secret. But new data from the University of Southern California confirms this notion.

In slightly more humorous fashion, Vox tackles the same issue, detailing in both past and upcoming films that Hollywood loves to pretend ancient Egypt was full of white people. Hollywood executives have never been particularly accurate historians, though, since they also curiously assume that ancient Romans all had British accents.

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Weekend Reading 8/1/14

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Serena Via Seattle Met‘s PubliCola, a heads-up to a story that somehow didn’t make big local news, as reported by Al Jazeera America and thoughtfully reflected upon by Lindy West in Jezebel. “Burning Man is a refutation of the argument that the state has a place in nature.” That’s part of Grover Norquist’s explanation for … Read more

Weekend Reading 7/25/14

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Alan

Oregonians will vote in November on whether to adopt open, top-two primaries like California and Washington. Here’s the pro argument, from US Senator Chuck Schumer.

“Honk if you’re horny” and other creative signs from a pro-choice couple who stand side by side with abortion clinic blockaders to leaven their messages with humor and perspective.

Did you take a big road trip in your college days? My nephew and niece just did. In a Tesla. With a GoPro. Here’s the video.

Jerrell

Construction in Seattle continues apace, and daily it seems like hulking cranes multiply, filling the skies with mechanical songs. If every projected development is finished, the Seattle skyline is set to see great expansion.

But is it truly the sort of expansion that makes Seattle a more affordable and livable environment? The Stranger cheered one recent victory for affordable housing proponents, but the victory is a costly one. The Squire Park Plaza, located in the Central District, is a 60-unit subsidized apartment complex built in 2006 with $9.7 million in public financing. Presently owned by a nonprofit group, it was to be sold to a for-profit developer that was likely to raise rents. That deal is off. What is not being discussed is the cost to the public for what is, admittedly, a very small number of housing units. At a unit cost of nearly $160,000, filling the city with similar projects would be a terribly costly venture.

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Weekend Reading 7/18/14

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Meaghan

Why readers, scientifically, are the best people to fall in love with.

Serena

The Gaza-Israel situation is beyond words. InFocus had a stunning set of photos of the conflict’s impact (warning to the weak of stomach: some are graphic) last week.

“Corrupt, f*****, and broken.” That, essentially, is what Millennials think of their political system. Alternatively (worse?), we are just completely confused. Argument #1,436 for why we need better civic education in this country.

Okay, we actually just need a better public education system and evaluation criteria in general. Here’s a fascinating story of what one Georgia school was reduced to in order to attempt to meet its test score goals.

And now for your Friday cry:

My daughter recently passed away after a long battle in the children’s hospital. Since she was in the hospital her whole life we never were able to get a photo without all her tubes. Can someone remove the tubes from this photo?

That was one Reddit user’s request—and the response was, well…

An interesting addition to the working moms conversation. Though I don’t have kids myself, I remember a number of long babysitting jobs—I know, I know, seriously not comparable to motherhood—that drove energetic, teenage me to a state of exhausted, speechless stupor:

Moms who worked full time reported significantly better physical and mental health than moms who worked part time, research involving more than 2,500 mothers found. And mothers who worked part time reported better health than moms who didn’t work at all.

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Weekend Reading 7/11/14

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Jerrell

The hashtag #GazaUnderAttack has been put to use thousands of times this week for distributing photos of the quickly escalating conflict between Israel and Palestine. Meanwhile, from their cushy London seats, editors at The Economist are taking a broader, historical look at the root cause of conflicts in the Arab world, journeying back a thousand years to when Arabia culturally and economically outpaced Europe. Pondering the expansive question of what has gone wrong in the Middle East, the editors bring back their focus on deciding who is best placed to put things right. The answer is the Arabs themselves.

Staying with news from the United Kingdom, The Guardian bites into the pressing matter of a potential collapse of all things cupcake in the U.S. Perhaps the cupcake economy explosion was always inevitable. American eating habits are fickle, and when vendors are selling tasty treats that cost upwards of $4.00, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before the sugar addicts move onto the next big thing. But the future has arrived in the form of the Cronut—a “food” that is half croissant, half donut—and incredibly patrons in New York City are waiting up to three hours to buy one. Surely, the novelty of such a concoction will never end, right?

Raise your hand if you can recall when a shy, gangly teenage Chelsea Clinton was mocked by Rush Limbaugh and Saturday Night Live…mainly because she was a shy, gangly teenager? Putting such derision in the past, Chelsea is doing very well for herself. At present, she is expecting her first child and over the years she has accumulated impressive degrees from Stanford, Columbia, and Oxford University. Now she is joining the Clinton family business. Politics, naturally. Not quite. Although unfortunately not using the apt-name of Clinton Inc., the family is spinning gold from straw in the speechmaking business. Over the past 10 years, Bill and Hillary Clinton have earned approximately $100 million for their speaking engagements across the globe. In the last year alone, former President Clinton earned the incredible sum of $17 million. Although terrific for the family coffers, one must stand to wonder if the earning of such staggering sums is helpful for future Clinton political endeavors. Outside of ex-Mayor Bloomberg, the recent political record of the ultra-wealthy has been nothing but dismal.

Anna

It seems lots of people are quite willing to pay a few bucks for nothing more than a little joyfulness on the Internet. Behold the whacked out power of social media. Last Thursday, a young man launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise ten dollars to make an unspecified amount of potato salad (enough for his lunch?). So far, he has received nearly seventy grand.

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Weekend Reading 7/3/14

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Eric

At the Daily Beast, a look at Uber’s political war machine as the ride-sharing company begins hiring top-shelf campaign operatives to help them dismantle local cab regulations. Although I’m certainly no fan of the ossified legacy taxi industry, the article touches on a few things that give me pause about the emerging “sharing economy.” The slimmed-down regulatory regimes that allow firms like Uber and Airbnb to flourish can come perilously close to a worrisome level of deregulation, and the new industries seem to have a tendency to direct income to those with incumbent capital or others who are well off at the expense of those struggling on the fringes of the economy.

At Vox, a look at one way Americans that have near-parity between blacks and whites—in drug use—and one way in which we have drastic disparity—in arrests and sentencing for drug use.

I would be a lot more upset about the US getting knocked out of the World Cup if it had actually happened. But it is a well-known fact that “Belgium” is actually a liberal conspiracy.

Serena

Erin Gloria Ryan’s article title in Jezebel on Monday pretty much summed it up on the horrendous Hobby Lobby US Supreme Court case decision: “Why Women Aren’t People (But Corporations Are).” But you should read on for gems like this:

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Weekend Reading 6/27/14

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Alan

At Seattle’s latitude, fully dark night is currently lasting only two hours. At Bellingham’s, there is no fully dark night right now. That’s what Cliff Mass says.

Initially intended as a weekend reading item, my reflection on Rebecca Solnit’s stunning Wanderlust grew into a full-blown blog article. Read it here.

Jennifer

Given my daughter’s obsession with the as-yet empty bird nest on our front porch, I was peculiarly interested in this Scientific American piece on whether parents abandon baby chicks that have been touched by humans.

Also, this infographic on what the war in Syria would look like if it were waged here.

And, finally, in whatever the opposite of slumming would be, Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer’s screed in Politico on why American zillionaires ought to read up on Marie Antoinette.

Serena

I saw the film “Obvious Child” this week and thoroughly enjoyed it. It disarms with generous doses of humor to intelligently and practically discuss the reality of a young woman choosing to have an abortion.

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Weekend Reading 6/20/14

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Nicole

I’m moving from Seattle to Phoenix at the peak of their summer heat, and in many ways it feels like a 180 degree difference. It’s not known for being the most sustainable city in America. So, I was excited by the news of Phoenix’s efforts to transform their downtown from an asphalt wasteland to a walkable core—whether it is too little, too late remains to be seen.

Jennifer

For anyone who’s been following debates on the sharing economy, I encourage you to check out this deep data dive from the San Francisco Chronicle into how Airbnb may be affecting housing availability in the city. It’s not a perfect analysis, since they had to rely on online listings rather than actual data from Airbnb (which many of the big sharing companies do not disclose). But it goes part of the way towards separating myth and reality.

If this excerpt from former Seattle Times reporter and current University of Oregon professor Alex Tizon’s memoir is an indication of how good it is—and trust me, dude can write—you should just go buy a copy right now: Big Little Man, In Search of my Asian Self.

Finally, to put in perspective the backlash against a certain football team that I will not name, check out this animated map from Vox on the theft of Native American lands since 1776.

Serena

I found this Fast Company article on the decline of Facebook among teens both hilarious (for the teens’ dialogue) and revelatory (hint: no, the decline isn’t because their parents are on it):

But was [Facebook] the first thing she looked at? I asked. What was she using now? Almonte held her phone up before her like a talisman, as did every other teen exiting Hill Top Grocery that afternoon. “Oh, no, duh. I’m just texting. Sometimes I use it, though. I guess sometimes I post updates about my life, but that’s, I don’t know…”

Is it cool? I asked.

“Is it cool” she repeated.

“Yeah, do you think Facebook is cool?” I asked.

“Haha. No. No definitely not.” Then her friend grabbed her by the hand and pulled her away. “Good luck on your article!” she shouted over her shoulder.

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