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Former Gov. Booth Gardner, R.I.P.

I didn't make it to the funeral for former Gov. Booth Gardner this weekend but still I'm in awe of the man and the inspiration he caused. The old photo I dug out reminded me of what public service should be.

In the mid-80s I was a kid from suburban Seattle who was over the moon to intern at the state capital in Olympia. Though I was literally the least important of his constituents, Gov. Gardner took time to chit-chat and pose for an official photo. (Too bad I couldn't be bothered even to take off my trench coat, straight from the Burien Lamont's!).

Gov. Gardner was a class act whose two terms made the state a fairer, more sustainable place. He also helped inspire me to get involved in public policy -- there's a line from attending dud hearings of the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority as a middle school student to running for public office. A few years ago I felt his influence when I was organizing an event on the "death with dignity" initiative and called him. Though he wasn't well enough to make it, he still found energy to share some advice.

No doubt many thousands of people were touched far more than me, which is exactly the point: our state and country need more like him. May he rest in peace.

5 terms to leave back in 2012

One of the best pieces of advice I've seen this year-end season is to read more broadly. As you may know, I couldn't agree more.

If I'm asking people to read more, it follows that writers should up their game. High on my list of New Year's wishes is more precise writing, so hopefully we see less of the following terms:

Fiscal cliff. This is a masterful phrase because it gives a Washington, D.C. budget standoff the drama of a Roadrunner cartoon. Nevermind that the reality is more of a fiscal slope, with a gradual drop in spending, and that voters support more progressive taxation in general. The breathless will-they-or-won't-they news stories are a disservice because they create a false equivalency between the two sides.

Somber reminder during a wet holiday season

I recently attended a fundraiser for a cause that almost everyone ignores: homelessness.

That's where Operation Nightwatch comes in. The group provides basic services and housing for people who don't have shelter -- more than 2,500 people on an average night in Seattle.

Read that again: that's TWO-THOUSAND FIVE-HUNDRED people. The equivalent of six fully loaded 747s without shelter.

The group's annual luncheon was held in Seattle's ornate Union Station and drew some 450 people, which qualified it as a garden-variety luncheon downtown. Homemade sandwiches, cookies and Tim's chips passed around each table were a distinctive touch.

But the real impact was in the simple message that we must take care of each other.

That's a stretch in our new Gilded Age, where everyone aspires to great wealth even if their chances of achieving it are diminishing. More than 11% of Americans live in poverty, according to the OECD, though you'd never know it from the topics discussed during the recent election season.

Poutine, great bagels and smart development

Imagine a growing mid-sized city just south of the 49th parallel that has a booming technology sector, a diverse, international population and innovative approaches to transportation and land use.

My family and I recently visited this place: Montreal.

Seattle and Montreal are roughly comparable in metro population and economic size (Montreal: 3.8 million people vs Seattle: 3.5 million; Montreal GDP: $148B, Seattle: $235B). But one seems to be making strides when it comes to livability.

Last time I visited, in the early 90s, the economy was slumping as Quebec bled business, the city’s population was declining and infrastructure was uneven.

What "Cathedral" can teach about communicating

One of the dirty secrets of the PR and communications business is that many people in it can't write.

Everyone says they can, of course, but PowerPoint and "talking points" are no substitute for crafting paragraphs.

One of the best ways to get better at writing is to read. That's why it's frustrating to see the lunch table in a corporate communications department littered with US Weekly and People, with no sign of a New Yorker, Economist ... or even a Vanity Fair.

This has been on my mind recently while taking a short story reading class at Seattle's Richard Hugo House. Instead of focusing on high school English topics like symbolism, the idea is to focus on how a writer assembles a story, their word choice and approach to dialog. We've read great writers from the U.S., Germany, Argentina and elsewhere. (Disclosure: I'm on the board of Hugo House.)

Anyone who cares about writing needs to be reading and pushing their personal boundaries.

When critics lack the courage to sign their name

Anyone who sticks their neck out knows one of the downsides of modern media: anonymous online comments.

"They are ugly, they are racist," said former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels during a conversation on KUOW radio. Until recently, "you had letters to the editor where you had to sign your name and they checked whether you actually existed. I think we need to bring back some of that civility back to our civic discourse."

People don't think twice about saying something online that they would never dream of in person. So what do you do about it?

5 communications lessons from my campaign

My campaign for Seattle City Council was a fantastic professional development experience. And it offers several takeaways that can help anyone get their message out.

I learned to better articulate policy ideas, of course, by doorbelling thousands of households and speaking to community groups across the city every day. At first I was terrified to go in front of a crowd (imagine me nervously reciting my speech as I drove to introduce myself at a community center), but 10 months later speaking to 200+ people was actually fun.

After being involved in campaigns for years I had thought I knew what I needed to, but the adage that you lose 50 points of IQ when you become a candidate may well have been true with me. Don't let the same happen to you.

Here are five communications lessons to follow:

Why the death of newspapers is a good thing

Today's announcement of big changes at the venerable New Orleans Times-Picayune -- cutting 1/3 of its staff and printing just three days a week -- is the latest in a long slide for metropolitan newspapers that once tried to be all things to all people. The industry downsizing has cost thousands of jobs and left a void in news coverage.

Yet what matters is journalism, and that's no longer the same as newspapers. In fact, the demise of big newspapers will break up a broken industry, allow new entrants to thrive and, hopefully, lead to better journalism.

I practically have ink running through my veins, so this has been a big adjustment. I started my first newspaper in elementary school and eventually worked to become a foreign correspondent. When I lived in Asia I would purposely route myself through LAX so I could buy a print metro edition of the Los Angeles Times -- then America's best newspaper. I still get the Sunday New York Times in print and have paid subscriptions to many periodicals.

Yet, the downfall of the metro newspapers, which for decades held quasi-monopolies in their areas, exposes major flaws and uneven quality. When he was editor of The New York Times, Howell Raines realized that it needed to be faster (have a "higher metabolism," in his phrase) and more rigorous in order to be truly national. His missteps (e.g., Jayson Blair) caused his downfall, the pace of change slowed and the paper is still not as good as it could be.

Advice for Amazon

Amazon is discovering a truism: the more successful you become, the more you're a target.

In Seattle the company is increasingly criticized for keeping a low community profile. The hometown daily recently spent four days amplifying criticism of its philanthropy and business practices, adding to a string of controversies.

Amazon shouldn't ignore this. Remember that Microsoft focused on building its business in the 1990s, thumbing its nose at public perceptions until the Department of Justice threatened to break it up. The resulting dramatic shift in strategy arguably blunted its "hard core" edge.

Does this mean that Amazon needs to change its culture, plaster ads all over public spaces and hire legions of lobbyists and flacks? Assuming it fundatmentally doesn't want to change, here are some suggestions:

What matters more than "likes" in social media

Shell has received promient attention for its efforts on Facebook, including laudatory coverage by The Wall Street Journal. It looks like another company confusing tactics for a true strategy to engage with its stakeholders.

Since May 2011, when the oil company launched its Facebook page, it's gained 946,000 "likes." This sounds impressive but the quality of those followers is suspect. Apparently 224,000 come from Malaysia and only 1,000 from The Netherlands, where the company has 10,000 staff, not to mention families and friends. It's impossible to know who is behind the current "likes." The FB page is a smorgasboard of not particularly coherent content.

For a more holistic approach, consider McDonald's. This story in the New York Times Magazine is one of the best I've seen about social media recently because it talks about social media as part of a comprehensive strategy, not a goal on its own.