Crosscut Festival

The Pacific Northwest used to be bound by it’s shared natural resources, but now our region’s fabric is better defined by its growing cities where populations are booming, the cost of living rising, and technological and cultural innovation is thriving. Cities like Seattle, Vancouver, BC, and Portland are no longer obscure provincial capitals but are known internationally for urban dynamism driven by prosperity and social conscience. It is not enough that Cascadian cities be good, they must seek to be equitable and experimental. In a time of political division and sociological upheaval, they are challenged to live up to common ideals as green and humane sanctuaries.

Is that possible? What can make it so? What is the state of Cascadia and our cities in the face of climate change, affordability, immigration and border challenges, homelessness and the pressures of rapid and persistent growth and change? What is the future of our urban dreams? Crosscut columnist Knute Berger will talk with Cascadia’s leaders, people on the front lines or regional transformation, about these and other topics.