Lawmakers want an airport mulligan: Today So Far

• Some lawmakers in Olympia want officials to go back to the drawing board to find a site for a new airport in Washington.
• Three years ago, this happened...

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for February 28, 2023.

The potential to place a new major airport in Western Washington has prompted as much pushback as it has excitement. Now it seems that the whole idea could be sent back to the drawing board.

If and when it does go back to a drawing board, there are at least a couple politicians from the east side of Washington state who are wondering why a new major airport can't be built in their neck of the woods. It's a notion that may have many Washingtonians saying: "Duh!"

A bill that essentially calls for a mulligan on the airport issue just passed out of a committee with support from lawmakers in Olympia. The basic story here is that the region's travel needs will dramatically increase in the coming years, so state officials with some foresight want to place a new major airport somewhere in Western Washington. Three sites are being looked at, which are referred to as "greenfield" sites — two in Pierce County and one in Thurston County. And no surprise here, nobody wants the airport placed near them.

"People live in these quote unquote 'greenfields,'" Laura Orion from Thurston County recently said at a committee hearing.

The bill in Olympia right now proposes to start a new workgroup, different than the first workgroup that came up with the three potential sites. Maybe a fresh look can come up with different options.

"We want to be looked at," Yakima City Councilmember Patricia Byers recently said.

Another interesting point in this story by Northwest News Network is that the bill's co-sponsor is Rep. Tom Dent from Moses Lake. That might make folks wonder why this Western Washington issue has gotten the attention of a politician on the other side of the Cascades. Dent has not come out and said, "Put that airport in Eastern Washington," but he has said that the three proposed sites are "wrong" and that the new airport should be at least 90 miles away from Sea-Tac Airport. Such a distance could reach over the Cascades. Dent has also been vocal about building the "airport of the future."

My Dyer prediction: There is going to be growing interest in placing such a new airport a bit farther from the overcrowded chaos that is Western Washington. If the current bill in Olympia does make it through, expect this to be a big part of the conversation. Read more here.

Let's take some time to reflect. It was this week, three years ago, that KUOW ran its first local coverage of an emerging concern called "the coronavirus."

News of the virus had been making headlines for a few months by February 2020, but it started to make local news around this time. Back then, I was a new KUOW employee. I recall a chat with Editor Gil Aegerter, who I have to credit with calling it accurately. "This is going to be the big one," he said, indicating that Covid-19 was going to shut things down and alter our lives. He said this weeks before local headlines, working from home, toilet paper shortages, etc.

In February 2020, we got reports of a case in Snohomish County and a case in King County. The reports indicated that a person who had not traveled recently got Covid, which meant that it was spreading around the community. A Spokane hospital got a a couple cases. Local health officials started telling the public to prepare, but not to panic. After working two months in the office, I was sent to work from home, along with much of KUOW's staff.

Pandemic information began to come in so fast, from so many directions. KUOW started an ongoing thread with just quick headlines and news updates. We did that for at least a year and half. At one point, news slowed and we stopped. Then the delta variant struck, and the Covid blog was up for yet another few months.

A lot has happened since then. Good and bad. The good: Working from home and hybrid schedules; creativity spurred through isolation; people got more plants; and I was able to watch every episode of the 1990s "Highlander" TV show. The bad: Missing friends; economic hardships (unless you ran a gun store); and all of a sudden, we knew how many friends and family around us were paying way too much attention to online snake oil influencers.

When I take the time to reflect on the past three years, I have mixed feelings. What about you? Feel free to share with me at dyer@kuow.org.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Black History Month may be coming to an end, but you can enjoy the works of Black authors, poets, and novelists all year long right here in Seattle. That's because the city is home to what some may consider a hidden treasure at the Douglass-Truth Branch of the Seattle Public Library: one of the largest collections of African-American literature and history on the West Coast. (Katie Campbell / KUOW)

DID YOU KNOW?

Seattle is pretty sad. Also, Seattle is pretty happy. It depends on who you ask. The Seattle Times just pointed out that, "Seattle is still the nation’s saddest large metro area," according to a recent Census Bureau survey. Seattle reportedly has consistently ranked pretty high when it comes to depression on these surveys. The Times further breaks down some nuance in these numbers.

My favorite producer of pop assessments, WalletHub, just came out with its own list which Seattle ranked high on — the happiest cities in the USA. WalletHub does these assessments often, by tasking a few PhDs to come up with metrics and rank popular cities. In this case, WalletHub argues that some cities offer more happiness potential than others. Seattle ranks 11th on this happiness list, considering 30 key metrics, such as depression rates and income levels.

In its rankings, WalletHub did note that Spokane and Vancouver have some of the highest levels of depression in the nation. Seattle has high marks for sports participation and income growth. This inevitably will spur the debate over whether money can buy happiness — it does. I mean, come on, sushi costs money, and that makes me pretty happy. Have you ever pumped endless quarters into "Black Knight: Sword of Rage?" And Alaskan cruises or trips to Costa Rica aren't cheap.

Considering these contrasting headlines, I'd have to give a little more credit to The Seattle Times on this one. Yes, WalletHub does have PhDs on the job, but the metrics it uses are often very subjective. The Times points to survey data from actual people. In short, maybe it's a good time to reach out to a friend, let them know you're around, let them know you appreciate them, just because.

And however you add it up, Seattle can at least say it isn't Detroit, which is apparently the least-happy city in America.

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

George W. Bush's anti-HIV program is hailed as 'amazing' — and still crucial at 20

By 2003, the global HIV/AIDS situation was reaching its deadliest peak. The previous year, 4.8 million people contracted HIV and 2.75 million died, making it one of the worst years of the HIV epidemic. Then, in his January 2003 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush made an announcement: The United States would undertake a massive investment to combat HIV/AIDS around the world.

That was two decades ago. The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, soon become a greater triumph than experts dared imagine. It's the largest health commitment ever made by any country, now totaling more than $100 billion in more than 50 countries. And its work continues.

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