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 David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.
No one need look at a bar graph to know Pierce County families are hurting – just drive down a residential street peppered with homes in foreclosure or visit a job fair where the line snakes out the door.
Cold, hard data cannot accurately capture the pain of those losing their homes or their jobs, but it can help get them help. That's where the United Way of Pierce County's recently unveiled "community indicators" come in.
The indicators are the product of an impressive and exhaustive three-year effort to collate every scrap of reliable data to provide a comprehensive picture of the community's well-being.
United Way calls it "the global pulse of the most vulnerable among us."
The information is posted on the organization's Web site (www.indicators.uwpc.org), so it can be updated at least quarterly.
A sampling:
• Foreclosure filings were up nearly 60 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. In the first quarter of 2009, 7,320 people became unemployed compared to 690 in the first quarter of 2008.
• Since 2000, the county's market rate rents have risen approximately 40 percent, while household median incomes have increased approximately 23 percent.
• The number of active foster care homes (homes with a foster child) in Pierce County fell from 921 in 2007 to 723 in December of 2008, the lowest number since 2000 despite having more children in out-of-home care.
• The county has a higher rate of domestic violence offenses than both the state as a whole and counties like ours, which includes Spokane County and Snohomish County.
• The rate of mothers either not receiving prenatal care or receiving it late in their pregnancy has increased nearly a third since 1997.
Not a pretty picture, to be sure. But this isn't about confirming how bad we have it – it's about identifying the community's biggest problems, how they relate and possibly better solutions.
Programs that, for instance, aim to help low-income families better manage their money won't work if those families don't have any money left after paying skyrocketing rents. So perhaps the focus needs to shift, at least temporarily, to creating affordable housing.
The snapshot is part of a concerted effort to move from crisis management to prevention, from addressing the effects of societal decay to fighting the causes.
Only when we know what ails us can we find the right cures.
