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Category: washington

  • Chudders the Great

    Chudders the Great

    According to page 354 of the first volume of my transcribed journals, I met Chris “Chud” Lundgreen on Wednesday, August 27, 1997, in the men’s locker room ahead of Mrs. Swenson’s cross-training class, on the first day of freshman year at Kamiakin High School.

    At the time he was just “Chris”, from Colorado—as far as my journal tells and as far as I remember, he hadn’t yet announced his full adoption of the nickname Chud.

    Chud Lundgreen has been diagnosed with fatal brain cancer, and is quickly succumbing to the effects. It has been devastating to face the loss of our wonderful friend.

    I spent a week scanning a suitcase full of photos from high school, and here I give every photo I found with Chris-Chud (as I’ve sometimes called him) in it. I also give selections from my journals which relate to my lifelong friend.

    This followed directly after the week I spent in tears.

    In my Utah life and particularly in my extended wrestle with (and difficulty being open about) doubts about Mormonism, I grew distant from a lot of my friends. I didn’t have enough trust that people could handle my lack of full belief. (Unfortunate in retrospect, but that’s where I was.) I regret not staying closer to Chud, yet was happy to see more of him in recent years, to be more real with him about things than I was growing up. The last time I saw him, maybe a month before his diagnosis, I went with him and his kids to the Museum of Flight in Seattle. We had a good time together, talking about Linux like the old days, just being nerds together, same as it always was. I’m not sure but perhaps he spoke some Klingon as he was wont to do. My eyes fill with tears as I write this. Chris “Chud” Lundgreen was sui generis—like no one else I’ve ever known, or ever will. He will be deeply missed.

    Regarding “Chud”

    I have felt for some time that it is somehow legendary for Chud to go by the name Chud. I’ve tended to call him Chris-Chud lately to highlight that. I’m not sure why it highlights that; it just feels like it does. I guess it feels like he was too much person to have just one first name.

    But what even is a chud, anyhow?

    Chris Lundgreen is the only person I’ve ever known to go by the name Chud. And yet, in 2025, I hear the word “chud” regularly, a seeming riff on “Chad“. But Chris’s “Chud” has a different origin, though in same ways similar to contemporary usage. That is a story for others to tell: the Lundgreen family are the proper experts on the topic, and his earlier friends who gave him the name, and Chud himself were he somehow, miraculously, to pull through. (As I write, he’s not doing well.)

    My contribution then is simply to highlight that the Wikipedia article about certain Balto-Finnic peoples called Chud is a good read:

    Folk etymology derives the word [chud] from Old East Slavic language (chuzhoi, ‘foreign’; or chudnoi ‘odd’; or chud ‘weird’), or alternatively from chudnyi, wonderful, miraculous, excellent, attractive….

    In the mytho-poetical tradition of the Komi, the word chud can also designate Komi heroes and heathens; Old Believers; another people different from the Komi; or robbers—the latter two are the typical legends in Sámi folklore. In fact, the legends about Chuds (Čuđit) cover a large area in northern Europe from Scandinavia to the Urals, bounded by Lake Ladoga in the south, the northern and eastern districts of the Vologda province, and passing by the Kirov region, further into Komi-Permyak Okrug. It has from this area spread to Trans-Ural region through mediation of migrants from European North.

    Chud has become a swear word in the Arkhangelsk region. As late as 1920, people of that region used legends of the Chuds to scare small naughty children.

    Journal entries

    These are selections from the first volume of my journals which mention Chris-Chud. Not what I would have hoped for but it brings the time and place of adolescence to life.

    Wednesday, August 27, 1997—First day of School

    Today was my first day of high school. It’s not as much of an adjustment as I thought (so far) and it’s not nearly as scary as it seemed after the incoming freshmen orientation. I started out by going to zero-hour Jazz Band. We basically talked and then listened to “Turkish Bath” for about 10 minutes. Tomorrow we’ll play some music. In Cross-Training I am one of five boys in our class. The others are Brett, Randy, John, and Chris, from Colorado. Jessie, Heather, and a lot of other girls I know are in that class.

    I have World Geog. with Colin, James, David Ostler, Kevin Anderson, Claire, Shannon Rhodes.

    Michelle Gale, Brett Mower, Colin McDaniel, Colin Thorndyke, Alex, and I all have
    English together.

    Bro. Elms is my seminary teacher. Colin, Clayton, Spencer, Jeff Craig, Jason Barton, Greg Moody, and Ben Forsyth are in that class.

    In Algebra, I’m with Ben, Chris Moore, and Megan Moody. Andy Beck, Chuck Allison and tons of people from band are in there, too. Also John Pratt.

    This could work out to be a great year.

    Thursday, August 28, 1997

    Today I found out that the Chris kid in PE is going to be in 11th ward. I didn’t even know he was a church member! This means all 5 guys in our class are members. [The cross-training guys were all Mormons!]

    Tuesday, September 23, 1997

    I’m trying to think of what interesting things happened today…. The person
    named Chris in my PE class is Chris Lundgreen. I didn’t know his last name until
    today. I’m not quite sure he’s found a niche yet at Kamiakin. At dances he hangs
    around our group a lot but doesn’t do a lot of actual talking. Hmm….

    Saturday, October 25, 1997

    … After band, I came home, cleaned my room a bit and did some work, and then I got a phone call. It was Chris Lundgreen wanting to carpool to the church dance….

    Monday, October 18, 1999

    On Saturday I took Megan Moody on a date. Homecoming, to be specific. We were with Michelle, Tammy, Lies (Megan’s foreign exchange student), Ben, Brandon, and Chris Lundgreen. We played “Two Truths and a Lie” at the Wilson’s house, and then we went to Columbia Park and finger-painted portraits of our dates.

    Then we got dressed, etc.

    After forgetting the corsage at my house, I finally picked up Megan and Lies (with Brandon.) We took pictures at everyone’s houses, etc. and finally ate dinner at the Lundgreens’. Everyone looked pretty awesome!

    We went to the dance, which was the most horrible, sleezy, immoral thing I’ve
    ever seen. Just don’t ask…

    After that we attempted to T.P. Keith Walker’s house, with only partial success,
    then we took the girls home….

    Wednesday, June 14, 2000

    Well, two weekends ago on Friday night at Chris’s house, John Wolfgramm broke my collarbone while we were beginning a wrestling match on the Lundgreens’ back lawn.

    Shock, emergency room, x-rays, pain medication, a blessing by Dad and Brother
    Lundgreen. It was quite a night.

    I was equipped with a shoulder-immobilizing sling so that my fractured left clavacle [sic] can heal. Teresa brought me flowers (Daisies) and Chris and his fam visited. I was unable to work Baskin Robbins and have not yet returned….

    Thursday, July 5, 2001

    … Another weird portion of my dream was that I drove by the Wolfgramms’ house and John and Chris Lundgreen were on the lawn being goofy (although neither of them is in the Tri-Cities right now).

    Sunday, May 12, 2002

    • Things I prayed about tonight:
      Should I go ahead with getting the tooth removed? [I have an extra tooth in my nasal cavity.]
      “It will be alright.”
    • Is it thy will for me to go on a mission at this time?
      The feeling I received was a warm confirmation that the Savior Jesus Christ will call me to the place he wishes me to serve at. In other words, “Yes”.

    In my heart I feel and know that the Gospel is true, the Book of Mormon is true.
    My mind may see things differently, but I can feel the warmth of the love of God
    strongly, and submit my intellect to trust my heart.

    Also, Brother Rosewood mentioned that he had dinner with Chris Lundgreen’s
    dad….

    Photos

    I scanned around 1300 photos that had been gathering dust in an old suitcase for about 20 years. They’re basically all from high school. These are the photos which the face detection algorithm determined portray Chudders. Apparently we went to a lot of formal dances, and little else! [Where is GoldenEye??] Some of these photos align with the journal entries. Chud Lundgreen, you’re uniquest of the unique—one who doesn’t apologize for being fully himself every minute; the only, and most wonderful, Chud we know.

    A leader is judged not by the length of his reign but by the decisions he makes.

    —Klingon proverb

    Update: On the morning of June 25th, 2025, our friend passed away. He will be dearly missed.

  • Bumbershoot internship/mentorship program appears racially discriminatory

    Bumbershoot internship/mentorship program appears racially discriminatory

    36th legislative district representative Julia Reed’s recent newsletter contains this section:

    OPPORTUNITIES AT BUMBERSHOOT

    The Bumbershoot Festival is a highlight for the 36th district. It provides opportunities for local artists to showcase their work to wide audience and gives us the opportunity to see our favorite artists in our backyard.

    But the festival is also an opportunity to invest in the next generation of creative professionals. That’s why I secured $150k to provide a fully-paid, tuition-free training program with internships and mentorship for students looking to enter the creative economy. This ‘festival as a classroom’ program prioritizes BIPOC students in the Puget Sound region and removes barriers to creative industry futures.” [Emphasis is mine throughout; quotes have been reformatted for consistency.]

    Of course, prioritizing BIPOC is the same as penalizing non-BIPOC, so this wording is very concerning.

    The Bumbershoot website’s description of the “festival as a classroom” uses less blatant language:

    This is a tuition-free program designed to remove barriers of entry for underserved communities while supporting the next generation of industry professionals. We are simultaneously laying the groundwork for a more equitable and inclusive arts and music scene.

    Representative Reed’s website uses neutral, non-race-based language in an earlier announcement:

    OPENING DOORS AT BUMBERSHOOT

    Celebrating Seattle’s rich musical and artistic history makes for an amazing way to provide opportunities for our students. That’s why I was excited to see the annual Bumbershoot festival return to our district, with a renewed focus on local flavor and opportunities for local creatives to show their work and to expand their audience. It also provides space for our students to get real world experience in the creative economy thanks to the $150,000 included in this year’s budget.  

    The Bumbershoot Workforce internship program provides young people interested in creative careers with paid training in festival production and technical arts. I’m glad to be able to support Bumbershoot and the next generation of creative professionals in Washington State.

    The inconsistent manner in which the program is described makes it difficult to tell just how open the opened “doors” are, and just how many “barriers” were removed, and for whom. But it would seem that Rep. Reed at least perceived that the funds allotted to Bumbershoot for the internship/mentorship program would be given preferentially to non-white applicants, and felt that it was something to brag about in her newsletter.

    Building racially discriminatory structures into our government and the programs it funds is toxic to the functioning of a liberal democracy, and should be avoided and opposed in every form. Frankly, we’ve been there, and done that, going in every possible direction, and it has only thrown fuel on the fires of racial resentments.

    This program appears well-meaning, but seems intended to distribute its $150,000 based on race rather than relevant attributes like familial income, parents’ education, and so on. Why not target based on what we actually care about as a society, which is helping those in need? Race is a blunt instrument for achieving that goal, and very likely illegal given the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action in college admissions.

  • Mandatory Housing Affordability does not make housing affordable

    Mandatory Housing Affordability does not make housing affordable

    Seattle has MHA zones, and yet rent is what it is. Case in point.

    But if you’d like more evidence than that brute observation, a recent study goes further, finding that housing permits declined in MHA zones in Seattle, while they increased in non-MHA zones. This is effectively a non-result, or a negative result, spitting into the supply-vs-demand wind:

    While the metro area population has grown by 30 percent over the past two decades, Seattle is building fewer new units per year than when it had 1 million fewer inhabitants. As a result, since 2000, median house prices have nearly tripled; one in seven residents is severely rent burdened.

    The core cause of unaffordable housing is there not being enough housing.

    Mandatory Housing Affordability centers on a requirement that a certain percentage of units in new residential buildings be provided at below-market rates to lower-income residents. This requirement is coupled with a relaxation on restrictions to the density of developments.

    The goal is noble, but by imposing a costly requirement on developers, MHA drives developments into non-MHA zones, and possibly prevents some developments ever getting off the ground.

    The MHA zones were presumably zoned with an affordable housing requirement out of a desire to provide affordable housing in that geographical area. Now, perversely, the MHA requirement reduces the new housing actually built in the MHA zone, likely contributing to housing costs in that area.

    Whatever makes sensible housing developments illegal to construct makes housing in general less affordable, by making there be less of it.

    If there were more housing to choose from, people wouldn’t have to pay as much – as recently happened in Austin, TX after a glut of new housing construction.

    Every restriction on housing construction is also, de facto, a restriction on the so-called “wrong type of people” moving into “our” neighborhood – which explains much of their popularity. Zoning laws were the original vehicle of redlining, and still reinforce de facto segregation by preventing different sorts of housing from coexisting in the same area.

    That same concern over “preserving the character of the neighborhood”, I expect, is behind the startling fact that 98% of developments in Seattle MHA zones chose to pay into an affordable housing fund rather than actually providing affordable units.

    In a sense, affordable housing mandates like MHA are trying to artificially reintroduce interesting heterogeneous neighborhoods, made illegal by zoning’s introduction 100 years ago, replaced by the sameness of the zones.

    Without restrictions like minimum lot sizes, a wider range of plots sizes and thus housing types and levels of affordability could possibly coexist in the same neighborhood.

    Minneapolis has pioneered such reforms, with good results, and Washington is following that lead (and Oregon’s and California’s) with HB 1110 allowing duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes in most neighborhoods, and HB 1337 allowing more accessory dwelling units.

    HBs 1110 and 1337 tackle the root of the affordability problem by making less housing construction illegal – i.e. allowing a greater quantity of sensible housing to be built. Many more reforms of that sort can, and should be made soon.

    Increasing housing supply is the only path toward actually making housing affordable. A proper respect for material reality, rather than misguided mandates, will pave the way.