Cascadia Is Our Country - Seattle The Capital
by Dave Clark on May 12, 2011 12:23 PM PDT
in Life in the Sound
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The Land of Falling Waters. Ecotopia. State of Jefferson. The idea of Cascadia has a long history, in ways being connected to Thomas Jefferson. It is a recognition that the political boundaries separate us, but that our community is broader. It is a community that is 15 Million people strong, a region that is defined by rain, the Columbia River, by mountain ranges and volcanoes, by the Puget Sound and the Salish Sea.
With our top notch universities, science centers, museums and music there is a recognition internationally of the region being amongst the best for higher culture. In other musical strains, in beer, in wine, in coffee and on television, pop-culture also unifies us. Major international business choose this as their home either on paper, or in their center of hiring.
Major athletes in every sport have settled here after their brief stays. They choose here as home. Jeff Nelson, Bill Russel, Nick Collison and others call this home long after they need to do so for their contracts. This Cascadia is more than a place to live. It is more than a home. It is our country.
Cascadia would be one of the world's most powerful economies (22nd). It would be energy independent. It would be a land with sports in every major North American league, but oddly dominated but the least popular of these. Cascadia would be, and is, great.
But is clear that one city dominates. Seattle is the capital.
In sports it is Seattle that has the titles, and the teams. Specifically in soccer with the Seattle Sounders, but aided as well with the now absent Supersonics. The two most popular North American sports are based in Seattle, while Portland has the NBA and the Portland Timbers. The Vancouver Whitecaps are joined by the Canucks. Seattle actually has as many Stanley Cup titles as Vancouver.
Seattle has more Fortune 500 companies, the more popular brand of coffee, the more popular brand of wine and is more walkable. Seattle has a multitude of farmer's markets, and with the U-District earning top 10 in USA. Local restaurants regularly win national awards and dominate regional rankings. The Seattle metro area has more millionaires, more billionaires, more money.
Sure, there are great things about Portland, OR and Vancouver, BC. Particularly things like public transportation in both. The variety of quality beer in Portland is great. The ability to get to top notch ski resorts in Vancouver is incomparable in the world for a major metro area.
But Seattle is the capital of this fictitious country. It is the cultural hub, the economic power, the current heart of the region.
Sure it would be great to live anywhere in Cascadia from Medford up through sparsely populated Stikine BC, but there is a reason why most of us Cascadians live in the Greater Seattle Metro Area - because we are the capital of Cascadia.
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I was going to say this exact same thing
by chrisperry1983 on May 12, 2011 12:57 PM PDT up reply actions
But what about
the Shakespeare fest and that awesome Wendy’s with the Ann Geddes pictures?! How would I EVER get tired of that?!
[lol]
lol epic fail
Sorry about that – clearly I haven’t explored mid/southern Oregon enough. The Wendys and Shakespeare just dominate all three of my trips there.
Second that...
….lived there for a year. NEVER EVER AGAIN.
by Timm Higgins on May 12, 2011 3:35 PM PDT up reply actions
May have read better as "from Brookings to the Sunshine Coast"
by lemonverbena on May 12, 2011 4:02 PM PDT up reply actions
I was tempted to say Eugene to Whistler
but then I would have been ignoring so many small towns
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Now Eugene..
…wasn’t all that bad really. Worked for a great rock station down there, before I decided to cook for a living. But anything past Eugene south is a giant hole of suck.
by Timm Higgins on May 12, 2011 5:31 PM PDT up reply actions
Don't Tread on Me
One of the great characteristics of Cascadia is the fierce independent spirit of the people.
Telling someone “Seattle is our Capital” or some other lame dictum should result in a great big Uff from parts East, South, North and West.
Our Chicago blogger tweeted
Ok, bye…
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Everything awful about people from Seattle
In one easy post!!!!!!!
PDX is not the “capital” of Cascadia. Now that we’ve dispensed of formalities, Seattle is not even the capital of Washington.
Also, Nick Collison? You bust out the big names and you come up with a Boston Celtic who hated Boston, a middle reliever, and Nick Collison?
Major things that have left Seattle(lets restrict this to ten years, shall we?)
Ken Griffey Junior(To Cincinnati!)
Boeing (Chicago, no shame there)
Alex Rodriguez(to Texas!)
Fraser Crane(also to Chicago)
Well, this is getting morbid, so lets finish with the Sonics, shall we?
I assume this post was a joke (it is pretty funny), and if you can’t tell, so was this. No hard feelings, I hope. Looking forward to the match(and hopefully a first road win for the Timbers) on Sat :)
Hey, You're not dressed for an afternoon of Tchaikovsky and heavy petting!
by No Pity on May 12, 2011 12:57 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Hey little brother
pipe down in the back seat. The adults are talking.
by TheTank123 on May 12, 2011 1:00 PM PDT up reply actions 2 recs
If you had a choice
You would stay here when you come up for the match ;)
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Cool story bro
But really – six exclamation points?
Also, I assume you meant “SEA” instead of PDX in your first line, otherwise you’re even less coherent than you intended to be (in that hip, ironic way naturally).
Give credit where it’s due – Dave wrote a masterful post and gave props to VAN and PDX, while repping for our city. This is trashtalk at its best, with the intelligence and wit our region is known for.
Small story
I actually would live in a band somewhere between Eugene and Whistler about 25 miles wide.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
And looked at Univerisities in each State/Province of Cascadia
And only Cascadia
Portland State, UBC, U of WA and U Victoria all have Near Eastern Studies programs
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Actually
I was being honest
No one considers PDX the “capital of Cascadia.” See, not so hard is it? Portland is a nice city, that I prefer to Seattle. That’s really it as far as I’m concerned.
Can’t you just taste the hate?
You really aren’t doing your city any justice by talking this way. It is a pretty place, but to be honest, most of my interaction with Seattlites(sorry if I misspelled, no idea what the term is there) has been with sports fans. Sonics fans? Great(past tense, sadly). Mariners fans? Awesome. Seahawks fans? Best in the country(by far). Sounder fans? Weirdly insecure. Not mean, or anything(and certainly no worse than their counterparts anywhere else), but if anything threatens their absolute preeminence in all things, they just drunkenly shout nonsense about the best coffee in the world, or something. And when I say anything, I mean that I once complimented the Barra Brava at a bar and received a dissertation length rant about how inferior all non Seattle fans are in all ways.
This is trashtalk at its best, with the intelligence and wit our region is known for.
I take it self awareness is not a major export, though ;)
Hey, You're not dressed for an afternoon of Tchaikovsky and heavy petting!
by No Pity on May 12, 2011 2:07 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Where's the injustice, though?
I mean, he says our city is best? Is that bad? He calls it the capital of Cascadia? Is that a slight against Portland or Vancouver? Come on, you make sound like he’s flaming here, and he’s not.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on May 12, 2011 2:24 PM PDT up reply actions
Not my intention at all
I thought that he was joking. I was simply replying by joking. Light hearted trash talk was all. I’m very confused by the reaction to be honest. I simply refuted a few of his points by example. At no point did I launch into MY CITY IS TEH GREATEST SEATLET IS TEH SUXORZZZZZZZ mode(and believe me, we all have that mode. Like Marshawn Lynch, but whinier and less hilarious to people not named Tracy Porter). He is more than welcome to inform the world Seattle is the capital of Cascadia based on an arbitrary and slightly silly list of facts. I don’t understand what was so awful about responding.
For the record, I like this blog(rooting preferences aside), you guys do a good job(otherwise why would I be reading it in the first place). I figured there was nothing wrong with a little pre match trash talk, and people are acting like I what I said was the most insulting thing they’ve ever heard.
My apologies to Dave, no hard feelings. I guess I will slink away now. Here’s to an injury free match(and Portland win ;)).
Hey, You're not dressed for an afternoon of Tchaikovsky and heavy petting!
I don't mean to imply you were being awful...
You were totally in your right to respond. I felt like some of your points were fair, others not. I got no problem at all with your response or any other comment you’ve made.
We welcome the trash talk, which you’ve totally kept on the up straight and narrow. Didn’t mean to imply otherwise or suggest you were doing anything untoward. No hurt feelings here.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on May 12, 2011 2:54 PM PDT up reply actions
I appreciated the exchange
I’m pretty sure all parties were joking.
by chrisperry1983 on May 12, 2011 3:06 PM PDT up reply actions
No hate, No Pity but...
I don’t get why you would say
No one considers PDX the "capital of Cascadia."
Dave clearly stated (fairly unironically, I thought)
But is clear that one city dominates. Seattle is the capital.If he was joking, he would have thrown in lots of over-the-top stuff, instead of serious factual reasons why Seattle is better.
If he had said, “Portland often claims to be the capital, but clearly they are wrong,” then your riposte is appropriate (i.e., “We aren’t that pretentious – PDX is not the capital of Cascadia and has never claimed to be” )
I get that you misunderstood the tone of the post, and that you were trying to respond with the appropriate exaggerated bravado, but you kind of missed on both counts.
Believe it or not, most of us aren’t as insecure as you would like to believe – as someone mentioned in another comment thread, props to you guys for sending 100 people to NE, that’s an impressive number for a new MLS team. We are proud of our support but naturally we want the sport to grow – sorry you seem to have run into a particularly unpleasant drunken “ultra” who confirmed your worst opinions of SSFC supporters.
TL;DR: Glad you’re not as much of an a-hole as you initially sounded like. Trashtalking is not an exact science. Most SSFC and PTFC supporters are not as bad as the opposing fans think. GG etc.
Oh, and I don't know if this quote will make the Oregonian
But I did tell them I would be happy to live in Portland, but I would still be a Sounders fan.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
if you knew anything
you would know that those three are perfect examples:
Jeff Nelson: the Mariners (unintentionally) did him the biggest favor of his career bytrading him to the Yankees, where he won World Series… but in many ways he preferred it here…
Bill Russell: who hated Boston because of the latent racism there, but found his Home in the greater Seattle area
Nick Collison: who caused a stir in Oklahoma City by saying that he missed Seattle when the team moved.
Perhaps you should get over yourself and maybe realize that the author of this post carefully chose those three as examples.
As for Griffey, lets just rememberthat his finest years were spent here and he is most remebered for being a Mariner. As for Boeing, last time I checked they don;t build anythign in Chicago. As for Rodriguez… boy, are you naive!! No one misses him… and Fraser?! seriously…
...that's MISTER Keller to you!!!
by malcontentjake on May 12, 2011 1:14 PM PDT up reply actions
and my typing?!
let’s not even get started…
...that's MISTER Keller to you!!!
by malcontentjake on May 12, 2011 1:16 PM PDT up reply actions
Don't worry about it, I'm awful myself
He says, hoping to get off the hook for typos ;)
And Frasier(I missed the ‘i,’ whoops) was a joke ;) I simply ran out of things from Seattle, and it was that or Fox’s John Doe(underrated, by the way)
I’m still confused as to how those examples are “perfect,” in a non joke sense. I just fail to see how they represent Seattle as the capital of Cascadian sports, much less Cascadia itself. There are just as many examples of people who couldn’t get out of the city fast enough. Neither of which really strikes me as indicative of life in the city as a whole.
Hey, You're not dressed for an afternoon of Tchaikovsky and heavy petting!
Capitol vs Capital
Someone has been spending too much time at the “Capital Mall” in our state capitol.
Also, official capitols are rarely the most significant cultural or economic city in a region. Seattle or Portland aren’t capitols of their respective states mostly because politically it makes them too significant. So tweeners like Olympia & Salem get the legislatures & bureaucracies.
Definitions
1. the city or town that is the official seat of government in a country, state, etc.: Tokyo is the capital of japan.
2. a city regarded as being of special eminence in some field of activity: New York is the dance capital of the world.
Capitals are often determined at the formation of a region, and there’s a reason why Seattle was the first for WA.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Portland
Well thanks for the English lesson. I’m officially boycotting having a special word just for the building is, ridiculous. I always thought Capital was for punishment, letters, or financial assets. Thanks for the lesson.
Other than that, Portland does have Nike & Adidas headquarters now, so I suppose it gives them special significance for athletics.
With the O
It is for the BUILDING, not the place
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Maybe he meant the ancient temple of Jupiter.
Cuz I could see how that’s a part of our culture that’s lacking. I bet P*rtland has an ancient temple of Jupiter. There’s probably a rad show on Friday featuring some bands that are so cool they don’t even exist yet.
Temple of Jupiter would be a great name for a bar
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
by Dave Clark on May 12, 2011 1:23 PM PDT up reply actions 2 recs
Come on man...
If you’re going to play grammar police at least get it right.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on May 12, 2011 1:17 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Silver medal for most walkable city
Sorry I missed the intense competition between the Seattle and Wilsonville. Was it on tv?
ESPN 3
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
by Dave Clark on May 12, 2011 1:30 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
I love cascadia
And would totally suport us seceding from the union(s) to form our own country. In fact I consider myself Cascadian before American even now.
But there are a couple problems factually with this post. First, most people in cascadia do not live in the seattle metro area. It is the biggest metro area, but it does not have a majority of the people. And the state of Jefferson is a proposed state formed from northern CA and southern OR and does not really refer to cascadia.
As far as being the cultural capital, it is of course opinion but I would say all three are pretty equal. As for business, Seattle would have a slight lead but even then I think this becomes subjective fairly quickly.
Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.
Let's be honest...
It’s all subjective, isn’t it? Unless I’m missing something he never says it’s where a majority of its residents live…
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on May 12, 2011 2:07 PM PDT up reply actions
Sure it would be great to live anywhere in Cascadia from Medford up through sparsely populated Stikine BC, but there is a reason why most of us Cascadians live in the Greater Seattle Metro Area – because we are the capital of Cascadia.
Hey, You're not dressed for an afternoon of Tchaikovsky and heavy petting!
Fair enough
I didn’t read that as being literally meaning a majority, but you’re right, that is the literal interpretation. It would have been more right to say “more of us” live in seattle.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on May 12, 2011 2:26 PM PDT up reply actions
most is the word used for largest recepient of plurality
Which applies here.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
by Dave Clark on May 12, 2011 2:33 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Ah,
Misread it. Fair enough. I did have to check Wikipedia and do some basic math before posting the quote anyway. I know Seattle is big, but that seemed excessive.
Hey, You're not dressed for an afternoon of Tchaikovsky and heavy petting!
I was unclear
Seattle metro is only 3.5M or so
Vancouver in 2nd
Portland…
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
So most people
in the US live in NYC?
no, I do not think so. Most means 50%+1.
But I really did not want to get into a grammar arguement. so long as we agree that less than 50% of cascadia lives in the seattle metro area I am fine with whatever is written.
Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.
New rule
If you are going to get into a grammar argument, you need to spell argument correctly. :)
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on May 12, 2011 3:52 PM PDT up reply actions
No
Since when do you get to make up the rools?
"But who would listen to Little old me anyway?"
-by thehemogoblin
by Little old me on May 12, 2011 4:09 PM PDT up reply actions
I think this is the only sports blog
where trash-talking a rival team turns into a polite discussion of grammar, math terms, and demography. I think I just had a nerdgasm
by Philip Mueller on May 12, 2011 4:14 PM PDT up reply actions 11 recs
Well, I certainly hope so
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on May 12, 2011 4:32 PM PDT up reply actions
haha
agreed, it made my day though!
A sky of blue, a sea of green...(or claret)
by kelliott1527 on May 12, 2011 6:53 PM PDT up reply actions
What's the political reality..
.. of actually considering Cascadia as a breakaway country? Could it ever happen? I’m curious if people would swear more allegiance to a region than to their current country.
It’s not like Quebec is the next province over from BC.
It is a long term goal of mine
Unfortunately I do not have too much time to make it happen yet.
I feel little for the rest of the country compared to the region here. I would rather we break away, and throw off the burden the US empire loads on us. Get rid of the burdensome laws they impose and go back to being a free people that play soccer, ski, enjoy the water, make planes and software, and grow trees and wheat and apples for the rest of the world.
Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.
by lysander on May 12, 2011 7:49 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
That's nebulous, but the Continental Divide is often proposed as the eastern border
by Philip Mueller on May 12, 2011 8:56 PM PDT up reply actions
Or the Cascades range itself,
which would yield a much narrower but more homogenous region
by Philip Mueller on May 12, 2011 9:00 PM PDT up reply actions
homogeny
is overated. People from east of the mountains still share most all of what makes us cascadian and with it they bring important things the west lacks, like distrust of olympia and salem.
Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.
Also distrust of UFOs, communists and Mexicans
It’s ok, I’m from Iowa, I’m allowed to make fun of farmers ; )
by Philip Mueller on May 12, 2011 10:39 PM PDT up reply actions
This is the dumbest thing I have ever read
I don’t believe there’s a city so insecure that it actually needs to write an article about how it’s the pretend capital of an unofficial region. Do you think that New Yorkers sit around talking about how New York is the capitol of “Atlantia?” Answer: No. The northwest is pretty awesome, and many of the cities in it are awesome. And I’ll bet they’re mostly filled with people who think the cities they live in are awesome. But you don’t have flipping smug about it. Just be happy none of us live in Cleveland and leave it at that.
Actually New Yorkers call themselves the capital of the USA quite frequently, and certainly when it comes to sports
And I think you don’t know the definition of the word “insecure” nor of “capitol”
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Ah, the inevitable grammar/syntax correction!
The lowest common denominator of blog responses. Would you care to argue about my actual point?
Did you miss where I mentioned that you are wrong?
NYC is often referred to as a cultural capital of the USA, and certainly is the sports capital of the country.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
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