Inside the editorial page

What's on the minds of TNT editorial writers

Friday, May 9th, 2008

Posted by David Seago @ 05:07:07 pm

Tacoman Nick Briejer has a big heart and knows how to swing a hammer.

He’s pretty good with words, too, so you’ll enjoy his freelance article about poverty in Haiti on the cover of Sunday’s Insight section (online here beginning Sunday).

Briejer has previously done some opinion articles for us, but it wasn’t until I talked to him about this one (via email) that I realized how much of a humanitarian he is.

Here’s what Briejer told me when I asked to know more about his involvement with Haiti and his life in Tacoma:

It costs about $1500.00 a trip. That includes the flights (eight in total), a bed, a mosquito net, and a hot meal every night.

About that author's description. Heck, I don't know anymore. I used to own a construction company and was an employer and businessman. I did pretty good. My wife is a part-time physician.

When my youngest was born (his sixth birthday was last Friday) I closed down my business to become the "flexible" parent and went back to undergraduate school as a thirty-eight year old college freshman at Evergreen. Graduated with an MFA from Antioch in '04.

I spend about twenty hours a week writing a book about my maternal grandparent's struggle to save Jews in Nazi occupied Holland (supposed to be done in the fall). During this time I also started a home-building program in northwest Haiti.

I locate funding and coordinate the program from here. A Haitian pastor manages the program in Haiti. We have built eighteen homes in the last three years for families who suffer from a lack of adequate shelter (sounds impressive, and it is, but doesn't take much time).

I spend a lot of time raising my two of my three kids (one's away in college)--shopping for food, cooking (not much at cleaning). I spend ample time sitting and thinking and playing too much chess. I have no gainful employment, though I've heard rumors that I will be finding some in the near future. I think I want to teach. So, there it is. I seriously do not know what I am--besides happy.

Categories: What's coming

Titlow quandary: No new pool in sight

Posted by David Seago @ 03:05:43 pm

What everybody wants to know – well, me at least – is when the Metro Parks board is finally going to decide where and how to replace the aging Titlow Pool?

That's what I asked parks commissioner Victoria Woodards when I caught up with her at a community event this week. After all, it's been two years since voters approved an $84 million bond issue that included $6 million for a pool replacement. The longer the board dallies, the less that $6 million will buy due to rising construction costs.

Woodards was braced for the question. In about a month, she said, the board may approve a plan aimed at building both a family play pool and a 50-meter lap pool.

The park district will concentrate on finishing other major bond projects, including new South End Community Center, allowing to time to seek the additional funding – about $4 million to $6 million – that will be needed to build both pools, she said.

Woodard's response suggests the board doesn't want to anger the influential Tacoma Swim Club and fitness swimmers who want a pool suitable for competitive training. Given their druthers, parks administrators probably would rather build a family-style play pool like the district's popular East Side community pool.

I happen to favor the latter option: Kandle Playfield on the West Side is a good, well-located spot for it. But I'm not the one who'd feel the heat from the competitive swimmers. And nearby residents don't want the added traffic and loss of open space.

I know that Commissioner Ryan Mello, for one, doesn't want to locate a new pool complex at Titlow because environmentalists would like to restore the lagoon there for salmon habitat. New regulations might rule out the existing site anyway.

That leaves district-owned property on the hill south of Metro Parks headquarters, near Cheney Stadium, but the topography is challenging and it's probably the most expensive construction option.

If the board pursues a two-pool strategy, it will be banking on getting future appropriations from the Legislature. And next year, lawmakers will face a projected $2.4 billion shortfall.

Strikes me as a risky bet. Bottom line:Taxpayers are already paying for a new pool with an opening date nowhere in sight.

Categories: Taking notice

Decide, already!

Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 02:00:50 pm

This is the Superdelegate Moment. So why are seven of Washington's Democratic superdelegates still sitting on the fence?

Here's the AP's breakdown of which superdelegate is committed to which candidate:

For Clinton:
Sen. Patty Murray, Sen. Maria Cantwell, Rep. Norm Dicks, Rep. Jay Inslee, King County Executive Ron Sims

For Obama:
Rep. Adam Smith, Gov. Chris Gregoire, Rep. Brian Baird, Rep. Rick Larsen, Democratic National Committee member Pat Notter

You can really understand where Murray and Cantwell are coming from. They're going to have to live with Clinton in the U.S. Senate for who knows how many years to come.

Now here are the Profiles in Courage, i.e., the Still Undecided:

U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, Former House Speaker Tom Foley, State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz, Vice Chairwoman Eileen Macoll, DNC member Ed Cote, DNC member Sharon Mast, DNC member David McDonald

At this point, you've got to wonder what these Hamlets are holding out for.

More cage-fighting between Obama and Clinton?

More backlash from Hillary's "hardworking Americans, white Americans"?

A steel press to crush what remains of her grasping, steel Terminator skeleton?

A tropical cyclone to tell them which way the wind's blowing?

John McCain's inauguration?

Categories: Taking notice

Cheney Stadium village a Ladenburg family affair

Posted by Kim Bradford @ 12:03:51 pm

The possible redevelopment of the large swath of land that includes Cheney Stadium, Foss High School, Metro Parks headquarters and Heidelberg Park doesn't appear to be on the fast track that some in the community have feared.

At today's Joint Municipal Action Committee meeting, representatives from Metro Parks and the City of Tacoma asked staff to put the brakes on a plan to hold public brainstorming sessions later this month.

Councilman Jake Fey and parks Commissioner Tim Reid both said they want to wait until a title search is complete so deed restrictions can be part of the public discussion about what's possible at 19th Street and Tyler.

That search should be complete soon. The new plan is to schedule two public meetings in mid- and late June.

Among the JMAC members present, it was Tacoma City Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg who seemed to be most itching to get the project going – not surprising given her husband, Pierce County executive John Ladenburg, first suggested remaking the site. She quizzed city staff about how long it would take to change allowable density and height restrictions to permit construction of a mixed use center that includes retail and housing. (Answer: Two years, one for a comp plan amendment and one for zoning changes).

At one point, when a JMAC member said there is no reason to rush the proposal, Connie replied half-jokingly, "I would disagree because I'm running out of time." (Maybe. She's hoping to get the city to toss council term limits.)

Connie got some ribbing from fellow members for wanting to get going on "Ladenburg Square." Reid, the parks commissioner, suggested she shouldn't be in such a hurry. In Metro Parks' world, no one gets anything named after them until they're dead.

Categories: Taking notice • 2 comments

Weekend editorials: Faulty wiring is killing GIs in Iraq

Posted by David Seago @ 10:46:13 am

Saturday:

We’ve always strongly supported bans on smoking in restaurants and other public spaces. But we had no idea that one of the side benefits would be a reduction in teen smoking. All the better!

Sunday:

We expect our solidiers in Iraq to face deadly dangers in combat or on patrol. But we don’t expect them to risk death when they take a shower. Authorities should go full bore in investigating the failure of giant U.S. contractor KBR to address complaints about faulty wiring that has killed a number of Gis in base showers. Outrageous is too mild a word for this.

We’re just tickled that one of Washington’s trophy wildlife species, the rare giant Palouse earthworm, may not be so rare after all, according to scientists. This critter grows up to three feet long, but it’s almost as elusive as the Sasquatch. Who knew such wonders lurked under our state’s soil?

Monday:

The WSU football team will be penalized eight scholarships due to poor academic progress among players during the tenure of retired WSU coach Bill Doba. It’s not hard to conclude – and Doba all but admits – that the program lowered standards for the sake of winning.
Being the only Pac-10 football team thus penalized is nothing to brag about.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Categories: What's coming

Click here to pay for Darcy Burner's bottled water

Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:59:06 am

Democrat Darcy Burner's chronic campaign to unseat Rep. Dave Reichert in the Eighth Congressional District has come up with an ingenious appeal for donations.

Burner isn't asking for money to fill an all-purpose war chest to pay for generic campaign expenses. In a hypertexted e-mail, she gives you a choice of which particular expense you'd prefer to cover.

E.g.:

Click here to help us purchase 1 night of dinner for our volunteers for $27

Click here to help us purchase 1 case of recycled paper for $39

Click here to help us purchase 20 cases of bottled water for $71

Click here to help us purchase 500 stamps for $210

The inspiration here has to be those charities that advertise a winsome-but-hungry-looking Guatamalan girl named Maria, or equally winsome Malaysian girl named Nurul, or whatever, and ask if you are willing to let the waif starve when you could sustain her life for $32 a year.

Your donation, of course, goes into the charity's general operating fund, where it probably belongs.

Question for the Burner campaign: What if too many donors want to buy pizzas for the volunteers and too few want to buy boxes of mailing labels? Do the volunteers get fat and the mailers not go out?

Not that I wouldn't trust Burner to earmark my $39 strictly for that case of recycled paper. But to keep all the donations straight, she's going to have to add another donation opportunity:

Click here for a small army of accountants

Categories: Taking notice • 9 comments

Inside the editorial page

Inside the editorial page

This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher Cheryl Dell and Executive Editor David Zeeck.

Contributing bloggers

Editorial page editor David Seago joined The News Tribune in 1967. He oversees the daily editorial and letters pages and the Sunday Insight section. E-mail him at david.seago@thenewstribune.com.

Chief editorial writer Patrick O’Callahan came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. He writes the editorial board’s annual civic agenda published at the beginning of each year. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com

Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. She is responsible for day-to-day production of the editorial and op-ed pages and editing letters to the editor. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.

Editorial writer Kim Bradford joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. She manages this blog. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.