dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle's blog

A string of government centers — city, county and courts all have Eighth Avenue addresses — cannot make a Great Street. Unless your civic buildings are so monumental that people will walk to gawk, people won’t want to go there. They’d rather shop or eat or drink.

Voters taxed themselves (twice) to expand the park system. Voters approved the money with relatively few restrictions, trusting city officials to be inventive and opportunistic. The city has leveraged those funds with creativity and consistency.

The greatness must be inside before it can be seen outside. A very good first step came 20 years ago….

The raw number of people matters, because those people compete for our jobs or become our customers or get in line ahead of us at the grocery store. The percentage of people arriving just sits on a spreadsheet and stays there.

I grew up where summer began when the mounds of snow piled under parking lot light poles melted completely, so my standards are liberatingly low. … Breathtaking abundance has always been the hallmark of our region — fishing, then farming, and now festivals.

Trucks, trains, ships and planes — every commercial transit mode wants to better its connection with our region.