Dear City Council:

iCare.  iLove. iBelieve. iWant.  Hire I.  Or me. 

Who wouldn’t want to be in charge of $2.7 billion biennial budget and 2,400 employees?  So. much. Power.  With a population of 200,000, Tacoma’s metropolis is sagging in uncouthly ways that we wish to cover.  Perhaps Andy Warhol’s flower might pull in the I-5 eyes over that of the Port’s very omniscent presence, but there’s no way to get rid of the stench of losing so many businesses the past few years except to hustle and bustle and blow the house down, and rebuild.  Ken Miller’s proposal that we have two wild cards which might save us is thought provoking and brilliantly crafted, but is Joint Base Lewis McCord and our booming meuseums (arts and cultural tourism) enough to capitalize upon to cause growth? 

That remains to be seen when the Council hires a new City Manager. 

There is a huge litany of “To Do’s” that we all complain about: pot holes, B&O tax, paid parking downtown, lack of public transporation (Voters! Take responsibility for that one!), crazy weird zoning codes (Marty Campbell and David Boe helped me out in that weird situation), billboard blight, closing schools, gangs, Corporation Flight outta town, vacant buildings, high crime, petty crime, non-responsiveness of police, judicial system overload – I’m glad I’m not the Mayor or City Manager, except it would be nice to get $200,450. I could put up with a lot of complaining for that paycheck (you can see how much each city employee earns by checking out this TNT website). 

Our Four Finalists, who will be putting up with a lot of whinning bloggers (myself excluded, naturally), are:

Rey Arellano
Arellano is currently serving as interim city manager for the City of Tacoma and is responsible for a $2.7 billion biennial budget and 2,400 employees. Since 2006, Arellano has served as the deputy city manager and chief information officer for the city. Prior to Tacoma, Arellano worked for the City of San Diego, Calif. as the deputy city manager and chief information officer from 2002-2006, and from 1999-2002 he was a group project manager for Ryder System Inc.

T.C. Broadnax
Broadnax has worked as the assistant city manager in San Antonio, Texas since 2006.  San Antonio is a full-service city with an operating budget of $1.6 billion and 11,600 employees. Prior to this position he was the assistant city manager for the city of Pompano Beach, Fla. from 2004-2006, the deputy city manager from 2001-2004 and the assistant to the city manager/budget officer from 1997-2001.

Craig Malin
Malin has worked as the city administrator of Davenport, Iowa since 2001. As city administrator, he leads 15 department heads, 1,000 employees and oversees a $210 million annual budget. From 1999 to 2001, Malin was the chief administrative officer for Douglas County, Wis. and the assistant manager, assistant to the manager and administrative assistant in Vernon Hills, Ill.

Andrew Neiditz
Neiditz has worked as city manager of Lakewood, Wash. since 2005. Neiditz manages an $87 million budget and has oversight over a six member executive team, 15 member management team and 250 employees. Prior to this position, he was the city administrator for Sumner from 1999-2005, the deputy city manager of Lakewood from 1996-1999, and the executive director of public safety from 1993-1996.

The question remains.  Will we go Local (Arellano), Texas, Iowa, or Lakehood for our City Manager? 

Let the Council Begin.

It may be political suicide for me to say this, but when I forget to take my adderall I lose all fear of such things.  I’ve been saying it for years, as a name “Washington” is the least creative nom de guerre awarded to any state in our union.

Aside from the obvious fact that our state shares its name with the nation’s capitol (consequently leading to unnecessary confusion across the heartland) our state lacks any of the indigenous flavor that peppers our neighbors.  States christened in native tongues include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North/South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Other states were named by explorers who found something unique about the land, it’s climate, or people.  These include: Colorado (from the spanish, “ruddy” or “red”), Florida (from the spanish Pascua Florida, meaning “feast of flowers” (Easter)), Maine (used to distinguish the mainland from the offshore islands), Montana (from the spanish word meaning “mountain.”), Nevada (spanish for “Snow-Capped”), Vermont (after the french “vert mont,” meaning “green mountain”)

A few were named after similar places.  These include: New Hampshire (From the English county of Hampshire) New Jersey (from the English island of Jersey), New Mexico (you guessed it) and New York (after the English city of York), Rhode Island (after the Greek island of Rhodes)

Finally, there are states whose names were derived from the imaginations of Europe’s most popular writers, like California and Indiana; and states with names whose origins remain a complete mystery to linguists and historians alike.  These include: Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho and Oregon.

True, a few states were named to honor certain individuals – but that was usually accomplished by adding an “a” at the end of the name:  Georiga (after England’s king Georgia II), Louisiana (in honor of Louis XIV of France), Maryland (in honor of Henrietta Maria (queen of Charles I of England), North/South Carolina (in honor of Charles I of England), Pennsylvania (in honor of Adm. Sir William Penn), Virginia/West Virginia (after Queen Elizabeth).

Washington remains the only state named after a president and that president is usually ranked second to Lincoln in the public’s esteem.

So I vote we change our name to something more appropriate and fitting of this great land we call home.  I have a list of suggestions and will be accepting more as the days and weeks go by before asking you – The Melon’s loyal readership – to vote on which name you like best.  We will then draft a proposal to the state legislature asking our elected leadership to adopt legislation to formally change the name of our state (a first in United States history).  In 2010, The Melon will endorse only those candidates who agree to change the name from Washington to our newly endorsed alternative. (We would have settled for a pledge to introduce a flat income tax but that seems unrealistic.)  The following is my brief list of alternatives.

1)  North Oregon

2)  West Idaho

3)  New Canada

4)  American Columbia

5)  Cascadia

6)  Salmonia

7)  Seatacolycane (Seattle -Tacoma -Olympia-Spokane)

8)  Clevelend’s Folly

9)  Middle Earth

10)  Altruria

11)  Ecotopia

12)  Camelot

13)  Wankalupa

14)  Aquaterra (water land)

15)  Verdeterra (green land)

16)  Washingtonia

17)  Skoocoom (lummi for “supernatural”)

18)  Sasquatch

19)  Holistic

You may vote for any of these or suggest your own. The top 10 will be funneled into a poll until we reach the final name.

Tacoma is Antonio Edwards city. After 25 years, he can’t think of living anywhere else and as Poet Laureate of Tacoma is determined to helping transform the City of Destiny into the bustling arts scene foreseen by prophecies.

The Melon sat down with Antonio to discuss his art, his message and his accomplishments as Poet Laureate. Listen for a presentation of his poem “Hilltopia” at the end of our interview.

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photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/maybelline/

Grist.com has come out with a Top 20 list featuring the most environmentally friendly colleges in the nation. High on the list at #2 is the University of Washington in Seattle:

The UW holds new campus buildings to a LEED Silver standard, strives for a local, organic focus in its food services, and is currently the pilot site to test the first compostable paper soft drink cups.

At #6 is the good ol’ Evergreen State College in Olympia:

The college purchased a fleet of electric vehicles and runs a sustainably managed farm where it teaches courses in organic agriculture. With the help of students’ self-imposed clean-energy fee, Evergreen is on its way to meeting its goals of being waste-free and carbon neutral by 2020.

Absent from the list is my alma-mater the University of Puget Sound which actively promotes its sustainability.  Better luck next year UPS.

Having starved my body enough of its vital nutrients, I cracked the other day when handed a free sample of a basic staple of life: Starbucks new instant VIA coffee, named after the man who invented their own brand: Don Valencia.  This new VIA coffee has been in development for 20 years, and was finally released this year, two years after Don Valencia’s death.

Consumer ethics is hard to follow these days with so many super mega store options.  The aisles are full of canned crap, where consumers are becoming more distant from their food sources, many of which are made under slave-like conditions or are practically stolen from the host country, never paying a fair wage for a top product.  After attending Seattle’s Green Festival last weekend, I decided to never again buy chocolate that is not Fair Trade certified after watching a film of Guyana boys being beaten and forced to work without wage to support us.  The ending line that blazed in my brain was of an African boy stating, “You eat my flesh.”

Starbucks is Fair Trade certified.  Has been for years.  They are kind of a pioneer in that field.  Currently, they are one of the largest buyers of Fair Trade coffee, doubling their purchases to 40 million pounds this year alone, making them the largest purchaser of Fair Trade certified coffee in the world.  Social responsibility earns lots of points in my book.

So does buying local and from local businesses.  Which leaves me in another quandary.  Go Local Tacoma says that for every buck spent in Tacoma, approximately .68 cents stay in the community.  Is Starbucks considered local to Washington?  Just because they are a huge corporate organization dedicated to bring in the honey money for their stock holders by selling sub-par coffee (for the most part) doesn’t just fully write them out of the “local” scene.  The fight exits within our ranks of what, exactly, “local” means.  Washington?  The Pacific Northwest?  West coast?  United States?  North America?  For myself, I stick with Northwest products as much as possible.  Since Starbucks is based in Washington, my conscience can buy their coffee and feel good about supporting “my” local area.

The next question arises, is Starbucks fighting back against McDonald’s witty coffee campaign?  I think I laughed myself silly on the way to work last fall while listening to a McDonald’s radio ad, where a emotional hippy upstart was changed into a conservative business Republican after having McDonald’s latte.  The political fight of Republicans accusing liberals of being elitist is carried out in McDonald’s campaign strategy.  Huffington Post reports that Starbucks is repositioning away from their elitist $4 coffee drinks and in its place offer things like: value meal “breakfast pairings” at a cost of $3.95 to “appeal to cost-conscious customers.”  Starbucks, after all, made it cool to pay a high price for a cuppa Joe, bringing in scarf-wearing women and the metrosexual men to “hang out” in the posh Starbucky setting.

Another cost-cutting four-buck buster is the new Starbucks VIA, released this past February.  When I opened the tiny packet and watched the finely grounded beans dissolve in a cup of hot water, I was positioned over the sink, expecting to spew it out and decry the decay of coffee in America.  When young bucks and hussies are reduced to dissolving coffee beans in their water, it is just not a good sign for America’s values–what are we coming to?  Instant breakfasts, dissolved in a glass of Oprah’s Acai juice?  Instant friendships that can be consumed with a beer?  Instead of spewing, I drank.  To the dregs.  This coffee was impresive, despite being instant (my inner elitist comes out in regards to “instant” coffee).  Starbucks VIA contains the original essential oils from the finely-ground coffee beans, which seems to be the secret ingredient–traditional instant coffee lacks those essential oils which gives good coffee its rich and full-bodied flavor and aroma.

Despite the impressive taste, Starbucks VIA instant coffee is better at what, I ask?  Beating back home invaders?  Overcoming entropy?  Providing a clean, renewable source of energy?  Perhaps solving the meaning of life?  VIA gains ground on the fact that it allows me to fuel up any time, any where, and will allow yet more minerals to be leeched from my system as I become more dependent on coffee; and for a cheaper price, too.

Cheap and instant.  The way Americans like their women and now, their coffee.

image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/cafemama/

King County Executive Ron Sims, a former supporter and super delegate of Clinton, and get this, Seattle’s George Bush, according to Democraticunderground.com (pish posh, says I), recently wrote a wonderful article entitled Overdrawn. The piece discusses Bush’s vile bailout package and while his lack of some tactful sources (citing Wikipedia) might be a tad embarrassing on some level, he takes a wonderful hard-line stance on what our government is doing to screw us all over.  As he says, “We should not hand my kids or yours a debt payment that is the greatest in the history of the world.”

Read his full article here.

Yesterday, Washington State rallied behind Illinois Senator Barak Obama with so much verve and enthusiasm that New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton subsequently chose to fire her campaign manager.

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Traditionally
January in Olympia is a joyous advent when legislators return refreshed
from a long holiday season spent in their respective districts,
bringing back with them an unbridled sense of optimistic enthusiasm as
they arrive ready to do the People’s work.  For a brief few weeks,
Olympia is truly a place were literally anything seems possible, and
even hardened veterans kid themselves into believing that something as
insignificant as a floor-vote on a house resolution could actually
“change the world.”  Politicians talk about “bipartisanship” without
forcing back a smile, and starring “across the aisle” seems
significantly less far than last session.

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