The Atlantic has an interview today with Seattle City Council president Richard Conlin, focusing on Conlin's efforts to "make Seattle a sustainable city." Although much of Conlin's answers skew toward standard Seattle liberal sound bites---"Food is such a great unifying concept"; "Our goal is to achieve long-term cultural, environmental, economic, and social health and vitality"---there are some interesting bits.

For example, asked what sustainability trend he would like to see "go away," Conlin responded, "The obsession with automobiles as the embodiment of unsustainability. ... [P]ersonal transport is part of what humans do, and having a narrow lens focused on the automobile issue alone avoids dealing with other issues -- and turns off potential allies when it becomes perceived as directed at them."

Asked for an example of an idea that he was once obsessed with that took him off track, Conlin said he used to read a lot of "apocalyptic literature"---environmental books featuring frightening statistics and grim predictions for the future. "But a few years ago, I realized how disheartening that kind of approach can be, and that hope is the best motivator," he said.

And asked what other field he considered going into, Conlin---a history major with a master's in political science---responded: "Astronomy. But I couldn't hack the math."

Read the whole interview here.