Bruce Ramsey

Bruce Ramsey was a business reporter and columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the 1980s and 1990s and from 2000 to his retirement in 2013 was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle Times. He is the author of The Panic of 1893: The Untold Story of Washington State’s first Depression, and is at work on a history of Seattle in the 1930s. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Anne.

West Coast Cities Ask for Authority on Homeless

A Danny Westneat column declared that the homelessness problem cannot be solved unless cities, including Seattle, have the authority to sweep away homeless encampments.

Second GOP Debate: Running Against China

Inequality, the big issue four years ago, is not what bothers Republicans. What boiled the political juices of the seven on stage Wednesday night was China.

Counterpoint: Doubting Climate Scientists Should be Treated with Respect

I’m getting real tired of Seattle progressives who assert that anyone who disagrees with them on this topic is a “denier.”

Elon Musk: Change Doesn’t Happen by Itself

Walter Isaacson tells a good story in this biography, and he strikes the right tone, respectful but honest. And Musk respected him enough to let him write his book and not demand to read it.

The Aberdeen Banker Who Shot His Stockholder

Cozy financial dealings with a powerful banker, a state treasurer, and angry stockholders. Trials were held, but all went free.

Seattle was a Streetcar City. Then it Wasn’t. Here’s What Happened

Seattle people love streetcars — at least, the idea of them. In recent times, they’ve allowed their leaders to spend millions of dollars on two short streetcar lines that hardly go anywhere and aren’t connected. Yet the city once had a system that had lines to West Seattle and the Rainier Valley, to the U District and Ballard, and a web of lines covering Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, and the Central District.

Housing Versus Trees — Can We Have Both?

On the question of trees versus housing in Seattle, there are many voices, most of them favoring the trees. The dominant thought is that housing versus trees is a false choice, and that Seattle can have more housing and save the big trees.

Why Your Electricity Bills will be Going Up (A Lot!)

For Seattle City Light the pursuit of carbon neutrality means electric rates will be going up over the next few decades, and probably not by a small amount.

Hollywood’s Red Scare: Not just about “Oppenheimer”

To Hollywood, the “Red Scare” was a witch hunt — a term that implies that it was the pursuit of an imaginary danger. But in some big, important cases, it was not imaginary at all, though the persecution of Oppenheimer was shameful.

Misjudgments All Around: Seattle Times fires Columnist after First Column.

The editors gave him an entire section front in the July 9 paper. That’s an indication of what they thought of him and what he wrote. Then Volodzko made his mistake: “I posted the column on Twitter and compared Lenin and Hitler.” He added, “It’s the kind of topic that you can debate among trusted friends over drinks or dinner.” Not with anonymous nitwits on Twitter.

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