Clickbait for the mildly concerned

~ Brooks

Whether you want that oil terminal at the Port of Vancouver buried or built tomorrow, it was an exciting week.

First, we find out the companies behind the terminal are looking for some changes to their lease. Then the port’s staff comes out against it. Tuesday sees a daylong public hearing on the lease amendment (for which an editor told me I took home the Iron Ass Award). And on Friday, the port’s three commissioners could throw the three-year process to build the country’s largest oil-by-rail terminal into question.

Neat, huh?

Many readers are of course more interested in results, not the process (I’m a fan of both). So when something started happening at the port’s waterfront property, they took notice.

The old waterfront restaurant at the shuttered Red Lion hotel in Vancouver already looks miles different as a well-known local restrauteur prepares his new throwback vision for the upcoming Warehouse '23. Photo by Natalie Behring.
The old waterfront restaurant at the shuttered Red Lion hotel in Vancouver already looks miles different as a well-known local restrauteur prepares his new throwback vision for the upcoming Warehouse ’23. Photo by Natalie Behring.

I try not to write solely about the port — there is so much more to the economy of Vancouver and Clark County — but potential open meetings law violations are nothing to ignore.

Other recent stories include a look at the tepid recovery of manufacturing jobs, the 25-year-rise of Betsy Henning and how so few of Washington state’s big energy projects have escaped the permitting process alive.

And of course, don’t miss my column about malls, where I channel my childhood, Joan Didion and Taylor Swift.

Stay tuned for more, soon. The news never stops, and neither will I.