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June 7, 1980

Nerd Becomes Jock

The educator Piaget talks about the abstract mind forming roughly during puberty. I started an alternative school at about that time, and I have very clear memories of realizing that there was more than one way to do things in society. The school I'd left was the R.M. Nixon Elementary, after finishing 5th grade, in 1974, the year of Nixon's resignation - not the end of that controversy.

But perhaps most important was the realization that one could change oneself - which I did, picking up whitewater kayaking and competing in same.

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In the spring of my Junion High School year I went east to train with a former UofO grad student employed by the Oakridge National Laboratories in Oakridge Tennessee. Attending school in Oakridge was an experience unto itself. The city has the highest per capita of PHD's in the world. The school was certainly smart as well, but also managed to be regular winners of the State Football Championship (something my Oregon school was able to do the year after I graduated under Quarterback Gary Stott and a black running back, just about the only black in the school.) The school was big into partying as well. It definitely still had racial issues - being only about ten miles away from places where black churches had been bombed.

As a result of some of the extra credit associated with AP classes at this school I was able to graduate a semester early. I do still have some gaps in my math knowledge, advanced Trig, but the guy who spent three years in an alternative school basically doing nothing but socializing still scored a 700 on his Math SAT.

The picture was taken by my father, at Nanthahala Falls, North Carolina.

October 23, 1982

Making a name from the Start

Two things made my name right from the start as a red-shirt freshman at the 1200 student liberal arts residential campus of Hampshire College. First was getting Hepatitis, contracted on a Mexico Trip, within about a week of starting. I'd had sex the first night at school, and boy, I'll tell you, she wasn't happy - and rightly so.

Second thing was a bit of artistic writing, a fake suicide note (which I thankfully photocopied) posted on my dorm room door prior to leaving for the weekend. The Dean of Students was pretty steamed, was on probation for the year, though technically I'm not sure he had cause. No big deal, or so I thought.

As I recall it was the Brandeis place on the Cape - though I'd best check on that before dropping Supreme names. John Mitchell might recall better than I.

Two more great stories from that year, one more I'll tell here. See also this one.

January 9, 1984

Oops!

Through my involvement with Hampshire College's pioneering divestiture policy I was able to attend several of the very early meetings of the trade organization, the SRI Forum. Below is a letter to John Watts, a Texas born investment banker/lawyer and a Hampshire Board member. It concerns the board's selection of an investment adviser, post their divestment decision. This letter introduces my John Watts story, below.

I don't know Mr. Watts 'business' profile, but another Hampshire Board member, Gerald Levin, ended up running Time Warner for a time. Purely speculation, but presumably this guy had a hand in it. He's perhaps best know on campus for giving a graduation speech shortly after the Reagan era fall of the Berlin wall. Quote "The wicked witch of the east, socialism, is now dead". No mention of who the wicked witch of the west was, or is, but I'd suspect he had something in mind.

I'd been warned about Mr. Watts, presumably because of actions regarding some of the first generation divestiture activists. I only recall one conversation with him. It was about a mountain area in Northern Mexico that we had both visited. (Creel, Chihuahua - a base of Pancho Villa's).

But my big mistake was suggesting Dan Evans, former president of Evergreen, to replace the outgoing College President. Mr. Evans was a Senate Colleague of Brock Adams, a parent and also a Board Member. Speculating here, but I'd guess that Evans' quick departure from the Senate was Brock's doing (in hindsight, rightly) and Evans in Adams' career ending scandal (in my opinion likely wrongly).

I've got a theory about some of this, with some additional evidence - more current. Not sure if it all would hold up, but it is something that could be investigated.

April 1, 1984

Yours Truly, Dud Stoolie

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From the 1984 April Fool's Edition of the Hampshire College paper.

May 15, 1984

Business Education and Social Responsibility

In the spring of 1984 I drafted a proposal for 'alternative' business education at my school, Hampshire College. This followed up on my earlier work in the field of Socially Responsible Investing - something documented in the Hampshire College archives.

Though some of the radical folks hated me I did establish good relationships with a few board members - I have a great story about hanging out with the IBM R&D V.P. and also met Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams. But my best working relationship was with a gentleman by the name of Yerger Johnstone, a Vietnam era colonel and managing director of Venture Capital for Morgan Stanley. (He married a woman of more left leaning persuasions, assumably for love.)

The below letter is from another Board Member, the respected NY Nuclear Activist Cora Weiss, concerning a forward of that proposal from Yerger.


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Unfortunately this is an idea I didn't follow up on - lost over the summer, and the following year. Ms. Weiss's points are accurate - including competition from the Yale School of Management not too far South. Her points about individuals managing their own work do highlite an important distinction about just what actually constitutes 'business'.

Her definition of business as exploitation is unfortunately too close to the truth. My belief though is that business in a democracy is not based on corporate units but rather individuals making decisions on how to best apply their time to their own 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'.

July 8, 1984

7 Day Transit District

Summer 1984 I was hired to coordinate the transportation for an International Conference hosted by Eugene, Oregon. I was perhaps a bit underqualified for this position, planning went fine, but the budget was tight and I ended up driving too many of the early and late airport shuttles - definitely burned out. I do remember the closing performance, Stravinsky's 'Firebird'' in the just completed Hult Center. Definitely moving.

I'm not totally sure of the Lane Transit District Planner I worked with on this, I believe it was Bergeron? FWIW my area was the only profitable one for the conference organizer.

I was one of two finalists for a similar position with the Goodwill Games in Seattle, but didn't win it. The guy who did would later go on to notoriety at the Atlanta Olympics. My qualifying experience for this event was organizing a Whitewater Slalom race on the nearby McKenzie River, in 1979.


These map graphics are a product of the LTD route booklet design team.


April 7, 1985

Design Pioneers of the Rave

I tried to post a claim on Wikipedia for inventing the Rave. It survived an initial challenge but would later be pulled down. The producing group operated under the name 'Deviant DoubleSpeak', aka the Doctors of Dental Science, DDS. Several events were attempted, only one was funded, 'SpringFire, a Bachnalian Firefest'. The general idea was 'participatory entertainment' with volunteer 'actors' mingling with the crowd with a very loose impromptu oriented 'script'.

Raves are implicitly associated with the drug Ectasy. This event didn't have that connection, however it was within a year or two of when it first started showing up on that Campus, likely one of the first. I think the claim to being the first Rave has some relevance as part of a tradition of partying that includes the Grateful Dead and Warhol type loft events. I actually have never tried that particular drug, a minor regret.

The best evidence of this connection likely comes from an even more memorable event a year later closely following the themes of this one, organized by a participant.

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FWIW, I don't think this was the proposal that was funded. I do believe this group did an event themselves, a bit more arts oriented, in the same theme. Very well done.

BTW, Phil and I would probably make a pretty good director/producer team, should anyone have the backing.

April 7, 1986

Suicide for Art

Below is the AP story about a tragic incident at my Alma Mater, Hampshire College, a protest suicide on closed circuit campus TV. I had never met Mr. Hermann, but the rest of the cast and crew were all friends, a de facto artist collaborative, if you will. The group is best known for the roots grunge band 'Supreme Dicks'. I was the 'manager' of said group - as much for fun as anything, but I did do one good event for the group (co-organized with Phil Jackson, the show's production manager). NYC marketeer John Mitchell would later make a similar effort, even booking them on a short European tour.

Though the tape of the incident was sought after by the 'Faces of Death' folks it was confiscated, under threat, by the Campus Administration. I don't know if my experience at Hampshire was listed in Mr. Hermann's speech, but it was certainly part of the general problem.

FWIW I'd guess the tape does still exist somewhere.

Here's the poster for the memorial for Andrew, modeled after that same event Phil and I co-produced. See also this story.

October 22, 1987

Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Blowhard

I moved to Seattle in January 1986, my first civic involvement was volunteering to help start the Broadway (Seattle) BIA, second was a group called KC 2000. (The end result would be the Metro/King County Merger per the Judge Zilly decision.) These folks would be perceived as the typical regional heavy hitter crowd. FWIW though the earlier, more modest endeavor, sits sweeter in my memory.

This was the end of the Reagan, fall of 1987 when George I was making his run. At that time the economy was tanking, and I used that as a theme for a promotional editorial I wrote in the UW Student Newspaper - The Daily.

Best thing about this event was the UW Students and Faculty I met - faculty included the Geographer/Demographer Richard Morrill and Transportation Engineer Scott Rutherford.

Two student footnotes: The Op-Ed was published by Sally Clark, currently a Seattle Councilmember, and perhaps the best home grown public career resume of my generation, locally.

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Second was Tom Nolan. At the time he was doing his Master's Thesis on a proposed Computerized Mapping system for King County. Tom currently runs the City of Seattle Department, funded by City Light. This is his Master's thesis abstract/outline relevant to the local history of this profession, a topic I should continue to write on.

The handwriting should be his.

June 7, 1988

20 Years Ahead of It's Time

It looks like a Union Bay expansion routing for 520 will make the final cut, perhaps this year.

The big benefit of this is that no additional lanes are needed to be built through the Montlake or Roanoke neighborhoods - not to mention reducing backups at the Montlake Cut and improved access to the UW and all of NE Seattle.

This letter concerns my first time suggesting this - correspondence from former Seattle Councilmember Jim Street from our first meeting. (Hard to believe I was once a member of the fighting 43rd - I may even have a friend or two left - in '88 I was a Dukakis Delegate.)

The letter also concerns a discussion of routing for Sound Transit, not my first mention of the UW routing/generational service planning idea. It does mark the start of a very productive discussion on the subject, not to mention a great working relationship.


(personal note, Jim's son also attended Hampshire, but only for one year - coincidentally the last for both of us.)

January 29, 1989

Innovation and Neighborhoods - Tree Planting

As I recall neighborhood matching funds were started in Seattle. I believe they were either Ford Foundation supported or the Foundation noted their success in the first year.

This was just as I was finishing off my degree and I got involved. As a side project I did a proposal for a tree planting in Squire Park, between Seattle University and 23rd. I believe this was the first of its sort. I was not involved in the implementation - as I recall the project was completed by the YMCA led by Richard Conlin, now a Seattle City Councilmember.

One of the things this project did was give me my first opportunity at trying out Geographic Information Services. The graphics here are rough, but they are functional.

March 6, 1994

Access to Public GIS Records

In 1994, under City Attorney Mark Sidran, access to GIS records was actively being debated. That's hard to believe in this day and age - thank current State Attorney General Rob McKenna and the newspapers of this State led by Michael Fancher of the Seattle Times.

At the date of this writing I was employed full time with King County and was attending graduate school in geography, as well as serving on the board of Vision Seattle. I interviewed Tom Nolan(Asterisk), head of Seattle's GIS unit for this piece, but I didn't include any quotes in this article. I don't remember the reasons why.

Besides a question of public record access I'm also 'envisioning' a future for the profession here, to some extent that does seem to be finally happening on a broad scale.

July 6, 1994

Vision Seattle Newsletter

In the summer of 1994 I was given the honor of editing the Vision Seattle Newsletter, City Watch. Here I talk a little about communications as they apply to civic and neighborhood decision making, as I take up those reins.

District Elections

This isn't so much a biographical item as an interesting story which I was a somewhat close spectator of.

District elections would play out as a major scandal. Though not conceived as an attack on the Seattle establishment, it was certainly an effort to make electability more accessible to the average citizen. Kerman Kermoade, the author of the following was a friend on the Vision board, doing this as a project for his later life Poly Sci degree. I was at the initial organizing meetings.

As you may recall this became a scandal when it was revealed that food executive (and active Republican) Tom Stewart was making illegal contributions as a way to seek revenge for previous battles with the City bureaucracy. I wasn't active in the campaign and know nothing about the details of Stewart's other battles. Stewart, with his company, has since left the State, one of several biggies in the last decade or so.

Tacoma, as you may know, has a mixed system of at-large and district seats - the particular mix I came to favor out of observing these debates.

September 6, 1994

Sound Transit Civic

Here's a pretty good looking example of my civic involvement in Sound Transit. This particular example wasn't implemented, but others were. I still think the idea was a good one- reducing tunneling costs by exiting Capitol Hill at Lakeview.

Vision Seattle Finance Survey

This is the write up of a survey I did for Vision Seattle on public finance issues. Though not a huge response the folks were quite varied and vocal - a great way of going viral. Note especially the results on the Seattle Commons.

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June 5, 1995

520 Tolls

This isn't a letter I'd write today, however I do support congestion pricing with some sort of expenditure control. In my opinion the revenue need not be limited to just autos or the specific segment of road where it is generated, but it definitely should be spent in the same corridor and general area.

How one legally defines that is tougher, especially when you've got a whole lot of people making a living off of loopholes.

At the time this was writ I was still a Sound Transit Supporter - a big booster immediately after the 1995 ballot failure. However the seeds of my conversion were well in place by this point.

November 20, 1996

Seattle Press Madrona Profile

This is a partial scan of a full spread on the Madrona neighborhood - where I served as Secretary of the Community Council for 3 years.

February 12, 1997

Leveraging the Law through the UW Law School

Before Bill Gates became a big donor at the UW he, through his Father, was involved in an effort to bully the campus in order to build a new law school building. This was at the same time they were being actively investigated for anti-trust violations by the US DOJ.

I was the first to write on the subject, below. Rick Anderson of the Seattle Weekly also wrote on the subject and did a better job than I.

Do make note of the advice of Architecture Professor Folke Nyberg, at the end of the article. The Gates would later step up to the plate and make a fair contribution, though not without a fair amount of bad blood with those departments who had been pushed to the back of the line.

(Asterisk)This **may** well also mark the start of their entire philanthropic effort, through the Gates Foundation.

April 9, 1997

Published Photo

Published photo from the Seattle Press.

Paul West, the subject, was one of the great 'tree people' employed by the City of Seattle. Other's would include Tree Steward Coordinator Liz Ellis and City Arborist Jerry Clark. All 3 are pretty darn close to my top ranked City employees.

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June 4, 1997

Published Photo - Architectural

Here's some published architectural photography from the Seattle Press, classic military housing at the Sandpoint Naval Station.

I also had the opportunity to work with Councilmember Chong's Staff, Matt Fox and Jay Sauceda, as well as Tim Baker, staffing a community forum on the future of this public asset. Good event and I do believe some positive seeds were sown in that well run (and substantive) community forum.

May 15, 2002

Renton Reporter Letter on Transportation

As a resident of Tacoma I'd make a similar argument for Pierce County. Perhaps the most important thing to think about is how Pierce and S. King coordinate their somewhat overlapping interests.

April 1, 2008

April 1, 1985

Straight%20Man%20001.jpg

This is a picture of me from early spring, 1985. Like the recent Evergreen riots in Olympia a party resulted in some anti-police action. In this case a cruiser didn't get rolled and burned, rather just 'keyed' - scratching a paint job with a set of keys.

Standing next to me is John B. Mitchell, a great friend.

In hindsight, I have to wonder if the on-campus, unarmed, security force blamed me for that. Not the case, though I was certainly known to play a prank or two.

This posting marks the start of some biographical and portfolio items - these will be filed by original date, so won't show up on the home page. They all can be accessed easily from the Biography/Portfolio Category page.

April 14, 2008

My Black Baptism

In reflecting on comments regarding the Dalai Lama I realize I made an ommission about my religious influences - and a great little story.

I worked for a year as a legal messenger - S. King and Pierce County every day - plus legal service in SE Seattle, a large minority area. The biggest thing volume wise were these small claim suits over bounced parking checks. The biggest dollar wise was probably New Hope Baptist church.

New Hope had been burned a few years earlier and the suit was regarding the construction loan to rebuild, which they had defaulted on, or some such. The reverend, Robert Jeffries, is known as an activist type - taking on Nordstrom most notably. Though he might be a bit of a Jeremiah Wright type he also worked closely with the mostly white Church Council of Greater Seattle. I didn't know him well, but we had met, and I liked him.

In order to get ahold of people for the legal service I had to show up just prior to the Sunday Church service. So imagine, if you will, the white boy entering perhaps the most radical successful black church in Washington when the most faithful have already gathered. Key the church choir warming up and the church elders gathered at the Baptism pool. This is where I needed to wait, until that morning's baptisms were completed. The one face I remember was an early teen female getting the fear of god put into her followed by a quick dunk.

I don't know if that writing captures the experience, but it was certainly quite memorable.

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Curiously my earliest memory ever is of playing with black children at one of the first Head Start programs, I believe just as that program was getting started. Mom had been a social worker in L.A. County, getting promoted to supervisor just before getting pregnant with me. She volunteered for this Head Start program - perhaps with an eye to a job.

My memory is mixed - I do think there was some sort of an incident - nothing any more significant than any other non-racial playground incident. I remember that vaguely - the two strongest memories are more emotional ones - I remember stopping going and Mom's emotional state as we left. I was sad about leaving, even in spite of the incident. The overwhelming memor was one of curiosity - of having kids to play with that were very different from me and trying to figure out what it all meant.

April 25, 2008

House for Sale

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Doug waits anxiously for the Acme Real Estate Agency to bring him a buyer....

MLS Listing of my house

The remodel work is mine. It's a bit rougher than it looks in the pictures, but not bad. It did take longer than I orginally thought, hence the sale right now.

September 15, 2008

Wandering in the President's Lemon Grove

Like a wave crashing on the Southern California shore suburban America spread inland from the western US coast starting in the 1950's.

I was born in that wave, at the crest of another wave in the history of America, call it John Kennedy's Camelot, of the early 1960's. It has been said that as goes California so goes the nation, and our family was much a part of that.

As you know, southern California was once under Spainish rule, and the last remnants of that were the citrus groves of 'Orange' County and surrounding areas, just to the south of LA. This county is the conservative balance point to weat Hollywood and it's global influence. It is where John Wayne died with 50 pounds of 'stuff' in his colon.

My elementary school, in Yorba Linda, was built on the site of Richard Nixon's family Lemon Grove. The trees were gone, but the modest family house remained, housing the school's custodian.

Continue reading "Wandering in the President's Lemon Grove" »

November 5, 2008

Yours Truly, Douglas 'Two'ley

As this blog moves into it's second year, more or less, I'm gonna shift focus just a bit.

I'm going to be attempting to focus a bit more on specific problems folks that I see and be a bit of a hound dog on such. These do include personal matters, but those you will most likely not see here. Rather I will use my personal experience to validate other problems, and vice-versa.

I do still have several more constructive projects - however pursuing those publically is not prudent - unfortunately.

...hopefully that can change by next year, perhaps even well before my Gemini birthday...

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