Cheers: To the Vancouver waterfront. With the Columbia River receding, construction is picking up on a 30-acre development that promises to transform downtown. Steel frames have risen for two mixed-use buildings, and work is set to begin on underground parking. Construction had been delayed about two months by high water levels on the Columbia, caused by a rainy winter and greater-than-average snowmelt in the mountains.
The development, which is scheduled to include residential and retail construction along with a 7.3-acre park, will reclaim the waterfront for residents and visitors. For decades, the site was home to a Boise Cascade plant. The project, just blocks from the downtown core, is an exciting one that will help prepare Vancouver for a dynamic and prosperous future.
Jeers: To slime eels. A truck spilled 7,500 pounds of hagfish — nicknamed slime eels — on Thursday on U.S. Highway 101 in Oregon, causing a five-car pileup, leaving the highway a mess and covering cars in slimy mucus emitted by the fish when they are in distress.
Hagfish are the only known creatures to have a skull but no vertebral column, and they can “sneeze” to clear their slime-filled nostril. They are caught along the West Coast and often are transported to Korea, where they are considered a delicacy. Pictures of the crash, which limited highway traffic to one lane for several hours, show a car and a road covered in slime that looks more like a nightmare than a delicacy. Eels on wheels? It doesn’t appear appetizing.
Cheers: To Hanford Reach National Monument. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced this week that the monument, north of Richland, is no longer under review by federal officials. An executive order issued by President Trump had called for a review of 27 national monuments, leading to concerns that those areas could lose their protected status.
Hanford Reach is a 195,000-acre region that includes the last free-flowing section of the Columbia River, along with stunning vistas and wildlife. While it now is safe from development, the federal government should proceed with caution in reviewing other monuments. Once environmentally sensitive areas are spoiled, they are lost forever.
Jeers: To lax security. Washington State University officials have learned a costly lesson after having a backup hard drive stolen. The hard drive contained confidential information — such as Social Security numbers — for more than 1 million people.
As security breaches go, this one was self-inflicted. The hard drive was stored in a $159 safe inside a $126-a-month storage locker in Olympia. The breach has cost WSU $150,000 for its insurance deductible, and The Seattle Times detailed how additional costs will be hundreds of thousands of dollars. It also has driven home something a cybersecurity expert told the Times: “You use a storage locker for old mattresses and crappy furniture, not personally identifiable information.”
Cheers: To Washington summers. According to Thrillist.com, a travel and entertainment site, our state can boast the most pleasant summers in the United States. The article ranking summer in all 50 states credits Washington for sun that is gently warming, scenic coasts and forests, and “perfectly hopped beer and impossibly delicious artisanal ice cream.”
That certainly is more appealing than Mississippi, which ranked 50th because “it’s hot and there’s nothing to do.” Washingtonians typically spend roughly nine months of the year complaining about the weather. But during the respite that is the summer, we can count on weather that reminds us why we live here.
