David Brewster In sizing up what’s happening with the Mayor and the Police Guild, and the departure of two key oversight officials, take a look at this 6/22 story from The Stranger about the contract negotiations. Mayor Murray is walking a fine line, keeping the endorsement of the SPOG while a[...]
Posts Tagged ‘Commentary by David Brewster’
June 29th, 2016 - 6:49 am § in Misc.
The Lies Behind Brexit
David Brewster This lament by Roger Cohen for the loss of the dream of a peaceful and aspirational Europe is heart-rending. And his indignation for the lies and tactics of those who brought about Brexit is bracing. “Sure, the challenges mounted,” Cohen writes about the EU. “The 30-[...]
June 27th, 2016 - 11:14 am § in Misc.
SOROS on Brexit
David Brewster George Soros weighs in, gloomily, on the Brexit vote and its impact on the European project. Now is the time when all good folks need to come to the aid of Europe, he contends. In a nutshell: “All of Europe, including Britain, would suffer from the loss of the common market and [...]
June 16th, 2016 - 10:38 am § in Misc.
Denver ..what Seattle ought to be?
David Brewster Is Denver the next hot city in the West? It’s got advantages over the Bay Area and Seattle, particularly in affordability and transit. This story tells how Denver decided on regional cooperation to avoid boom-and-bust cycles and to get a comprehensive transit system built. The k[...]
June 10th, 2016 - 10:42 am § in The Ave Scene
David Brewster: ” It’s full of techies and traffic and people I don’t understand at all who are devoted to making large, large sums of money and having fast, excellent cars. It’s a world that is not for me.””
David Brewster Turns out novelist Annie Proulx has been living near Seattle, 20 miles away. In an interview in WSJournal about why she moved here (she moves often) from Wyoming, she says this: “I was beguiled by the reputation of Seattle for misty, cloudy, damp, cool summers. And I arrived ju[...]
April 24th, 2016 - 10:57 am § in The Ave Scene, UW
Is Seattle’s Boom A Bubble?
David Brewster Be sure to read this essay by Jon Talton on the roots of Seattle’s unequal growth-spurt. One interesting point he makes is that Seattle is becoming a laggard in starting up new businesses. They are being squeezed out by high costs, monopolies, and city regulations. Key quote: &#[...]
April 19th, 2016 - 2:48 pm § in Misc.
There Is No Bernie Sanders Movement
David Brewster Here’s a long and thoughtful article on the Bernie Sanders’ insurgency. History suggests that it won’t last long unless the fairly narrow base of Sanders’ supporters turn into Sanders Democrats, working with Democratic interest groups for years to come. The a[...]
March 31st, 2016 - 3:04 pm § in The Ave Scene
David Brewster Today is 40th anniversary of Seattle Weekly, a publication I helped to create and ran for 21 years. Pleasant sensation to be writing an article for The Weekly again. My essay joins others in looking at past four decades. I focus on the era of middle-class reform in the 1970s, when the[...]
March 15th, 2016 - 12:29 pm § in The Ave Scene
Opera
David Brewster This fascinating report on changing times for opera — getting smaller, taking more risks, cheaper tickets, more contemporary fare — is illustrative of the changes going on in performing arts. Pay particular attention to Opera Philadelphia, which is in the big-budget league[...]
David Brewster: California, where high taxes and high regulation may have crippled its prosperity and its ability to fix problems like water shortages and poor assimilation of migrants is a warning for Washington state
David Brewster Here’s a glum appraisal of California politics and economy, where high taxes and high regulation may have crippled its prosperity and its ability to fix problems like water shortages and poor assimilation of migrants. The warning for Washington state is the creation of two polar[...]