1. Cascade Bicycle Club, the local pro-bikes group that’s been struggling over its political identity lately, is merging with the smaller, but more stable Washington Bikes, a more pragmatic, pro-bikes advocacy group with a statewide focus—one that encompasses both transportation and recreation.

Earlier this year, Cascade flirted with the idea of downgrading its political advocacy work by dropping its c4 status (non-profit status that allows it to endorse candidates and do heftier lobbying than C3 groups.) They tabled the idea and retreated into re-org mode.

Meanwhile, Washington Bikes is a C3, which allows lesser full-on advocacy work, though, the group's focused advocacy work has been successful: The played a lead role in talking the governor down from sacrificing bike/ped money in the budget in order to enact his low-carbon fuel standards. (Enacting low-carbon fuel standards may sound like a worthy cause, but the GOP added a so-called poison pill during budget negotiations that could have turned all non-roads spending into roads spending. And frankly, money dedicated for alternative transportation such as bike money, is a clearer long term environmental win than Prius money; inducing more driving is flawed as green policy.)

Washington Bikes also helped add historic levels of bike/ped money, $235 million, into the budget for things like safe-routes-to-schools.

Watch for the combined group—Cascade has a much bigger membership—to resolve the C3/C4 issue by creating a unified, full-fledged bike advocacy group that does both.

2. It's been quiet on the city council campaign trail except for this exclamation mark: District Five (North Seattle) candidate Sandy Brown put $10,000 of his own money into his campaign according to his most recent campaign finance report.

Brown, who finished second to Debora Juarez in the August 4 primary, raised more money than her—$86,000 to $65,000. However, Juarez got an extra $31,000 in independent expenditure money from the Washington Tribes. Juarez is a member of the Blackfeet Nation.

Juarez got 39.25 to Brown's 19.88 in their eight-person primary.

3. Closing Pike and Pine to cars on the blocks east of Broadway on Capitol Hill on Saturday nights—a pro-pedestrian project brought to you by Capitol Hill Housing's increasingly relevant Capitol Hill EcoDistrict—added a drag show and yoga lessons to the mix this weekend.

The EcoDistrict, CHH's plan to transform the heart of Capitol Hill into a low-carbon, ped paradise— recently pitched a shared parking pilot project to city council.



