Cheers: To Fourth Plain revitalization. The city of Vancouver has been awarded an $800,000 grant from the Legislature for development of a community commons along Fourth Plain Boulevard. Preliminary plans include 50 upstairs apartments and a ground-floor commons with a commercial kitchen incubator, a central workspace, a shared event and education room and an outdoor space for a satellite Vancouver Farmers Market.
Planning is in the early stages, but the innovative and ambitious program is worthy of support. Andrea Pastor, an economic development planner for the city, heralds the project as a development hub for the entire Fourth Plain corridor. City officials long have been trying to tap the area’s potential, and the grant from the state could provide an important nudge in the right direction.
Jeers: To dead whales. At least 37 gray whales have washed up along the West Coast this year, with 11 of them being found on Washington beaches. Officials say the deaths of so many underweight whales means there hasn’t been enough food in their Arctic feeding grounds, and that overpopulation could be one cause.
All of that is part of the cycle of nature, and yet it adds to our concern about the environment. A new report from the United Nations claims that 1 million species are in danger of becoming extinct because of human activity. That includes mammals, birds, amphibians, insects, plants, marine life and terrestrial life, and the report says they are disappearing at a rate “tens to hundreds times higher than the average over the last 10 million years.” Hyperbole? Maybe. But evidence continues to mount that we are not doing a very good job of caring for our planet.
Cheers: To Gov. Jay Inslee. The governor has reversed his previous support of two natural gas projects in the state — a planned $2 billion gas-to-methanol refinery at the Port of Kalama and a liquefied natural gas plant in Tacoma.
“In the early days of both projects, I said they could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions as we transition to cleaner energy sources, but I am no longer convinced that locking in these multi-decadal infrastructure projects are sufficient to accomplishing what’s necessary” to combat global climate change, Inslee said in a prepared statement.
Jeers: To misguided plans. Paul Simon once sang about “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” but we don’t think he included this one. A 48-year-old Portland man tried to bribe a public official to have his wife deported. Antonio Oswaldo Burgos has been sentenced to four months in federal custody followed by three years of supervised release.
Burgos followed a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s vehicle from an office in Portland to a parking lot in Vancouver and offered to pay to have his wife deported. He later offered $3,000 and then $4,000 for the deportation. The couple, who met in El Salvador, were in the process of getting a divorce. Maybe Burgos should have just tried to slip out the back, Jack.
Cheers: To Juno the Otter. The 5-year-old Oregon Zoo resident has become a sensation thanks to video of her dunking a small ball through a small plastic basketball hoop in a behind-the-scenes area of the zoo.
Juno follows in the footsteps of Eddie, who was taught to dunk to help exercise his arthritic elbows and shoulders. Eddie died in December, and staff began working with Juno to make her into the zoo’s next all-star. Now when Juno rises out of the water, two points are otter-matic.
