So for my second look back at 2021, I decided to round up some articles from The Urbanist that did not generate as much buzz as they should have at their time of publication. These articles introduce big ideas, relate important news stories, and in general make for satisfying and informative reading. Keep this list handy during the snowy — and soon to be muddy — days ahead.

As Developer Stalls, Affordable Talaris Offers a Greener Vision

You have probably heard of controversy surrounding Talaris, former conference center site in Northeast Seattle, where a developer wants to skirt the city’s McMansion ban by giving each McMansion its own “private” street. Reporter Ray Dubicki called the Talaris plan an “unmitigated disaster” for the climate and housing affordability crises back in 2020. His 2021 follow-up article, however, showcases work completed by volunteer group Affordable Talaris to create different development scenarios for Talaris that prioritize housing affordability, community, and sustainability. If you want to get rankled by a truly horrible development proposal — and then learn about how Talaris could be cultivated in a much more positive and community centered manner, read this article.

How to Reduce SPD’s Budget, Improve Public Safety

Improving public safety for all people continues to be a major concern in American cities, and many difficult questions surround role of policing. In this article, Guest Contributor Bryan Kirschner, who previously worked in law enforcement research, takes a close look at the Seattle Police Department and identifies how current flaws in the department practices contribute to misuse of resources. He then offers up practical, data driven solutions that would bring down costs of policing and lead to better public safety outcomes. Read it here.

A Perspective From Across the Lake

Much of what is written about Bellevue and other Eastside cities come from a Seattle-centric perspective. In this informative piece, Eastside Reporter Christopher Randels considers the urbanism at work in Bellevue from the perspective of someone who understands the city and cares about it deeply. It’s an informative and enlightening read no matter what side of the lake you live on. Read more.

Laying Down Paint, Seattle Catches Up on Making Room for People Biking

One of the bright spots from the last year was progress made on expanding Seattle’s bicycle network. In this article, Reporter Ryan Packer takes close look at the nearly seven miles of protected bike lanes and over 11 miles of neighborhood greenways planned to be completed by the City in 2021. It’s the highest number to be added to the network since the passage of the Move Seattle Levy in 2015 — read this article and celebrate!

A Plan for Addressing Transit Equity in Tacoma

Despite being the second largest city in Puget Sound, Tacoma woefully lacks in public transportation options, in large part because Pierce County voters have voted against referendums to increase funding for transit. In this article, Guest Contributor Chris Karnes puts for the idea that Tacoma should institute a 0.1% sales tax through Tacoma’s Transportation Benefit District. Learn more about his plan to increase transit equity in Tacoma.

Book Spotlights: “Recast Your City” and “Feminist City”

There were many excellent books published on urbanism in 2021, and The Urbanist spotlighted two of the most interesting. Executive Director Doug Trumm reviewed “Feminist City” by Leslie Kerne and Reporter Ray Dubicki interviewed author Ilana Preuss of “Recast Your City.” Both articles and books are well worth checking out as we move into the new year.

Burien Paves the Way for Legacy Corner Stores in Residential Neighborhoods

Throughout the Puget Sound region it’s possible to see evidence of former corner stores and other small retail and commercial structures tucked into residential neighborhoods. Through an ordinance passed in 2021, Burien is seeking to allow corner stores to reopen in locations where they existed before being prohibited by residential zoning. Senior Reporter Stephen Fesler takes a close look at a plan that could inspire other cities to bring back more corner stores. Read more.

ST 2040: A Shovel-Ready Vision for Seattle and Sound Transit

With the opening of the Northgate Extension, 2021 represented a big year for Link light rail, and more system expansion is on the way. However, what if we were to dream bigger, much bigger? In this vision exercise, Guest Contributors Ace Houston and Conor Bronsdon present an audacious 2040 plan for Sound Transit that places every Seattle resident within a 10 minute walk of a light rail stop. Other areas of the region, from south of Tacoma to Everett, are included as well. Read more to discover an alternate vision for Puget Sound light rail. If it feels too pie-in-the sky, check out plans for the Grand Paris Express to place it in a wider transit context.

Are Historic Districts a New Variation to Restrictive Covenants?

In this article, Guest Contributor Mike Eliason analyzes how a push to make Seattle’s single family zoned neighborhoods historic districts emulates some of the trends that inspired the racist restrictive covenants of the past by promoting social and economic separation. Read more here.

How Cities Can Adapt to a Hotter Planet

As I look out at the piles of snow outside my window, the scorching heat waves of last summer’s record-breaking heat dome feel like memory that took place on a different planet. Yet, here we stand still on the same Earth — facing the same climate crisis. When I wrote this article on adapting to a hotter planet, the topic felt vitally important. Now as I stare out at record-breaking cold temperatures and snow, it still does. Read more.

District Energy is a Fit for Seattle

In an article that goes hand and hand with important energy saving updates made to Seattle City Code in 2021, Boardmember and Editor Shaun Kuo walks us through how a district energy system works and why it could be such a good fit for Seattle and other cities. (Hint – we already have at least two district energy systems running in the city and one has been open since the 1890s.) Read more.

The Secret to Seattle’s Success is Social Infrastructure Not Low Taxes

Often time low (or non-existent) business and income taxes are attributed as being key ingredients to Seattle’s success as a city. However, in this article, Trumm argues that the city’s willingness to invest in its social infrastructure has made the bigger positive impact. Learn more about the importance of investing in Seattle’s safety net here.

The Benefits of Auctioning Off Development Rights

“In an era of tight city budgets, legal limits on taxing authority, and expensive problems, it is time for Seattle to get creative. We can’t tackle issues like homelessness, crumbling infrastructure, and over reliance on cars if we stick with our current leadership’s go-small planning,” writes Guest Contributor Ron Davis, who goes on to make a case for how auctioning off “air” (i.e. development rights or land value capture) could help the Seattle’s government raise much needed funding for affordable housing and more. It’s a concept that’s taking off across the world and worth examining locally. Read more.

The post 2021 Articles from The Urbanist to Take Out for a Second Spin first appeared on The Urbanist.

While the Delta variant and resistance to vaccination have slowed down the return to normal we’d hoped for earlier during the spring, life in the “new” normal has taken on a certain rhythm. For The Urbanist, it has meant a steady drum beat of stories to cover, and we are lucky to have a talented team of volunteer reporters able to cover and share insights on diverse subjects. In the last couple months, we have achieved our highest readership numbers ever, and it has been in no small part due to the quality of our writers’ work.

We are supremely grateful for donations from readers like you who allow us to keep advancing the cause of sustainable and equitable urbanism. This success in readership also means we have a great many wonderful articles to draw attention to from the last six months. Chip in this subscriber drive to ensure the next six months is even more packed with insightful coverage.

Dreams of blanketing our city — and region — with rail

A rundown of the last six month’s greatest hits reveals how excited readers are about the growth of Link light rail in our region. Senior Reporter Stephen Fesler’s coverage of Northgate Link resulted in some big hits, notably A Transit Riders’ Guide to the Northgate Link Light Rail Extension, which offers up in Stephen’s classic style a super comprehensive, yet still accessible, overview of the nitty gritty details, from service frequency, trains, stations, wayfinding, rider outreach, changes to corresponding bus service, and more. Speaking of route restructuring, Stephen was also vigilant about sharing maps representing the Metro bus structures occurring in North Seattle in concert with the opening of the Link light rail extension, and additional Metro bus route restructures proposed for when the East Link light rail opens in 2023.

Link light rail expansion has gotten people dreaming, and an article by our Executive Director Doug Trumm on Seattle Subway’s 2021 updated map shows in full force a vision for bringing a world-class mass transit system to our region, and beyond, through connections with Cascadia Rail’s dreams of a high speed rail corridor spanning the Pacific Northwest. An article by Charles Bond on All Aboard Washington’s vision of expanding rail service across the state also proved to be very popular, demonstrating reader’s interest expanding rail across the state.

Pushing the urbanist envelope in other areas

But as exciting as mass transit can be to write about, other top articles of the last six months took on very different causes, such as Junior Editor Shaun Kuo’s call to bring regular night markets to Seattle, an article that caught fire and reached people in my life who are only vaguely aware of urbanism spoke to me about with great enthusiasm. Kuo was also a stalwart in writing about both new development coming to the new Link light rail stations, but also how to enjoy each one as a destination in its own right. Always keen to remind us of the importance of covering the Eastside, Kuo’s deep dive, Fast Growing Issaquah Plans for Density — and Sprawl, proved how this coverage captures readers’ attention. We definitely want to expand our reporting on the Eastside, South King County, Tacoma, and Everett, and we welcome story tips and pitches centered on these growing areas of our region.

Urbanism, however, is not all rainbow-colored dreams of rail and vibrant street markets. Reporter Ray Dubicki’s surprise hit article, Baltimore’s Harborplace: Elegy to a Dead Mall, reminded us of the importance of investigating planning failures — and sharing stories from outside of our mossy region of the world. My article on the Congress for New Urbanism’s declaration of Seattle’s stretch of Interstate 5 as a “freeway without a future,” also cast a critical eye on how we continue to live with the planning mistakes of the past.

In a region growing as fast as ours, it is important to keep an eye on the future — and to maintain a positive mindset as well. In The Great Seattle Housing Swap, guest contributor Ryan DiRaimo outlined in a compelling manner how policies to allow homeowners to partner with developers in exchange for housing could allow for our city to become denser. DiRaimo’s graphics were also used in articles on creating a car-free Aurora Avenue and growing a new neighborhood near the coming 130th Street light rail station by guest contributors Mike Eliason and Ron Davis, respectively.

There are so many more articles worthy of a shoutout — I’m so proud of the work our team is able to create day in and day out. As The Urbanist‘s second paid staff member, I feel extremely grateful to be able to pour more time and energy to ensuring we are putting out content that is high quality, timely, and spurs on important dialogue around urbanism. Moving forward, as Managing Editor, I would like to be able to ensure we are able to take our work even further, highlighting more issues and giving a platform to voices that have been historically underrepresented. While our publication does include ads, the majority of our financial support comes from donors like you. If you value reading and learning from our content, remember that it is the culmination of years of hard work. Please honor the efforts of our staff, writers, editors, board of directors, and technical advisers by giving today!

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The post Publication Update: Fall 2021 Subscriber Drive Edition first appeared on The Urbanist.

From a City of Seattle volunteer board opportunity to help shape the future of transit in Seattle, to the one of the largest walking, biking, and rolling summits in Washington State, there are many ways to get engaged during September 2021. Read on to learn more.

Thursday, Sept. 9th offers two online opportunities. The Seattle Planning Commission (SPC), a 16-member volunteer body appointed by the Mayor and City Council, is holding an online meeting from 3:00pm to 5:30pm in which they will be updated on the City’s Equitable Development Initiative by Ubax Gardheere, Equity Strategies Manager for the Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD). When interviewing SPC co-chairs for my recent article on the commission’s recommendations for the upcoming major Seattle Comprehensive Plan update, both emphasized that their meetings are open to the public and include public comment, which needs to be submitted in advance.

The Urbanist‘s Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS) coalition partner, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways (SNG) is hosting its annual racial equity workshop on Sept. 9th as well from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. According to SNG, the online workshop “will focus on how we as a collective can advance anti-racism in our organizing and advocacy. We will spend time learning together, working through challenges in small groups and caucusing by neighborhood group to draft action steps.” Participants are encouraged to register in advance.

Friday, Sept. 10th is the date on which applications close for the Seattle Transit Advisory Board (TAB), which advises the City on challenges and opportunities related to transit and public transportation. (TAB) is accepting applications for three new members to serve two-year terms starting in Fall 2021 and running through August 2023. Applicants can reach out to Nico Martinucci at Nico.Martinucci@seattle.gov with questions and apply online.

Sunday, Sept. 12th will be an open street festival celebrating safe walking, rolling, and biking in Downtown Redmond, which will welcome Link light rail into the neighborhood in 2024. Let’s Move Redmond is sponsored by Move Redmond an active transportation advocacy group that envisions a more accessible, walkable, and affordable Redmond.

Tuesday, Sept. 14th is The Urbanist‘s monthly meet-up, which will be featuring Seattle City Council candidate Nikkita Oliver. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about Oliver’s plans for Seattle, including during a question/answer session.

Tuesday, Sept. 21st and Thursday, Sept. 23rd the Seattle School Board will be holding meetings from 6:30pm to 7:30pm planning for the upcoming Seattle Public School (SPS) levies that will be on the ballot in Feb. 2022. Our MASS coalition partner 350Seattle is advocating for SPS to make sure that includes the necessary funding to honor a resolution approved by the School Board that commits SPS to transitioning to one hundred percent clean and renewable energy. 350Seattle is encouraging SPS to fund the installation of solar panels for every public school in Seattle to help create a clean energy micro-grid that can assist the surrounding community during blackouts. Organizers are seeking people to speak in support of this initiative during the public hearing portion of the levy meetings. You learn more about their organizing efforts here. Supporters can also sign a petition in support of bringing solar to every Seattle school.

Sept. 27th – Oct. 1st will be Cascade Bicycle’s Club’s annual Walk, Bike, Roll summit which will be held online and offers a packed agenda. Below is a summary of events. A detailed agenda with a full program description is also available.

Monday, Sept. 27th

8:30am – 9:30am – Building Community Through Open Streets

12:30pm – 1:30pm – Keynote Session with Alex Haagaard and Liz Jackson

4:00pm – 5:00pm – Investigating Mobility Justice and Safety

Tuesday, Sept. 28th

8:30am – 9:30am – Equity and the Future of our Urban Rail Transit Systems

12:30pm – 1:30pm – Lessons from Quick Build Complete Streets Projects

4:00pm – 5:00pm- Transportation Master Plans Around the State: Building Bike, Walk, and Transit Friendly Cities

Wednesday, Sept. 29th

8:30am – 9:30am – Storytelling for Agility and Resilience

12:30pm – 1:30pm – Keynote Session with Dara Baldwin

4:00pm – 5:00pm – Reimagining the Safe Routes to School System

Thursday, Sept. 30th

8:30am – 9:30am – Organizing Bicyclists for Climate Action

12:30pm – 1:30pm – Investigating Enforcement in Active Transportation

3:30pm – 5:00pm – Speed and Safety: Speed Limit Setting and Speed Management

Friday, Oct. 1st

8:30am – 9:30am – Mobilize WA: Stories from Disabled Washingtonians who Walk, Roll, Wheel, and Ride Transit

12:30pm – 1:30pm – Keynote Part 2: Envisioning an Equitable Process

3:00pm – 4:00pm – Progress Towards the Safe System

The post Events, Activities, and Advocacy for Urbanists, September 2021 first appeared on The Urbanist.

As a periodic reminder that The Urbanist runs on volunteer contributors. I took the helm as executive director in 2020 and that came with some compensation. But everyone else wrote and edited between the daily toil of some combination of a day job, studies, parenting, and the cabin fever that comes with physical distancing for much of 2020 to evade Covid-19. I’m so thankful to our writers and editors for keeping the dream of an green, antiracist urban utopia alive amidst a lot of… not that. In addition to the pandemic, another event that dominated headlines and our most-read list was what to do about the emergency closure of the West Seattle Bridge.

1) West Seattle Freeway Should Not Be Rebuilt

Love it or hate it, the idea of not rebuilding the West Seattle Freeway generated a great deal of discussion back in April. Brandon Zuo, then writing under the pseudonym Hyra Zhang, argued transit should serve as the main artery into West Seattle rather than a freeway facing emergency repairs for its cracked bridge over the Duwamish River. If we are to meet our climate goals, decreasing vehicle miles traveled has to be part of the solution since transportation is Seattle’s number one source of carbon emissions, and electric cars can only do so much. Why keep building freeways if these goals are serious?

As a high school student, Brandon gets that a grim future awaits young people if we don’t act swiftly. Instead of recognizing the wisdom in the boldness of youth, many local commentators issued scathing rebuttals roasting the idea. In a piece dripping with derision, SeattlePI‘s Joel Connelly suggested the idea of a high schooler writing about the future of this city and planet seems laughable. Connelly was right that Seattle leaders weren’t going to attempt emergency freeway removal, but we’re ultimately going to need Zuo’s boldness to save our planet and its struggling ecosystems.

2) Let’s Build a New West Seattle Bridge That Carries Light Rail

Earlier in April, I wrote a slightly different take arguing Seattle should use the bridge closure to accelerate West Seattle Link light rail construction, killing two birds with one crossing. Working on what information we had then, I argued that light rail should be integrated into the new bridge. Ultimately, the Mayor chose to go the repair route to get the bridge back open sooner and avoid larger upfront costs of a rebuild. Hopefully projections that there’s only a 5% chance the repaired bridge won’t last another 40 years are accurate, and we don’t hit the unlucky collapsing bridge side of that D20.

3) Biden’s Climate Plan Would Launch Green New Deal and High-Speed Rail Network

In August, I wrote about Joe Biden’s new and improved climate plan that would invest $2 trillion in Green New Deal style policies and include a national high speed rail network. Amtrak Joe’s love of trains is one of the brighter spots of his long and winding career. Biden went from getting an ‘F’ from the Sunrise Movement during the primary to getting praises thanks to his more aggressive climate plan.

4) The Urbanist’s 2020 Primary Endorsements

Obviously the election loomed large in 2020 and we want to thank the 7,000 of you who read our primary endorsements. With normal campaign routines interrupted by Covid, The Urbanist Election Committee switched to an online format for its candidate interviews and we were glad to get the chance to question prospective legislators and find some outstanding leaders like Kirsten Harris-Talley and T’wina Nobles, who are both headed to the state legislature.

5) Seattle Council Extends Eviction Moratorium Through December

In May, I covered eviction ban news. The Seattle City Council acted swiftly to provide renters certainty amid a lockdown order and massive layoffs that they would not be evicted in 2020. Governor Inslee extended his eviction ban order only a few months at a time, but ultimately his eviction moratorium has also extended into 2021 after several extensions. Additionally, the Governor has the power to freeze rents, which he thankfully did. The rent freeze may have given new life to efforts to repeal the state rent control ban and open the door to statewide rent stabilization like Oregon enacted in 2019.

6) Police Fleecing City with Overtime, Report Shows

The pandemic wasn’t only a time for stasis and loss. After Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were murdered by police this spring, a reeling nation had finally had enough. We saw a nationwide wave of protests that hadn’t been seen since the civil rights movement of the 60s, and the Seattle Police Department (SPD) leaned on their heavy-handed tactics as usual. Seattle “Defund SPD” protests focused attention on the bloated $409 million police budget with their call to redirect 50% of SPD funding to public health and communities of color. In September, I covered SPD’s overtime budget, which had swelled to $30 million with virtually no actions being taken to rein in this out of control spending.

Paradoxically, SPD has used frequent protests as a pretext to ask for more overtime funding to feed a crowd-control response that is often excessive. In fact, Judge Richard Jones ruled SPD had violated a court-ordered chemical weapons restrictions and held the City in contempt. Facing mounting pressure, the City Council trimmed SPD’s budget by 18% in its 2021 budget, and Mayor Jenny Durkan signed the budget–despite vetoing an earlier rebalancing package over police cuts. Another outcome of the many stumbles over police, racial justice, and protests is that Durkan announced she is not running for reelection in 2021.

7) Let’s Make Bellevue a 15-Minute City

The Urbanist gained a writer specializing in Bellevue coverage this year, and Christopher Randels struck a resonant chord with his article laying out a vision of Bellevue as a 15-minute city. Making Bellevue safe for people walking, rolling, and biking is a life and death matter, as the unrelenting onslaught of traffic deaths and injuries show. 8th Street, in particular, has been deadly and a frequent site of collisions. Randels cofounded Complete Streets Bellevue to press the City for changes necessary to make a safe 15-minute city a reality.

8) Perfecting Issaquah Light Rail

Brandon Zuo made the case for adding more light rail stations in Issaquah to support the city’s transit-oriented development (TOD) plans and better connect the urban core. Even before Covid-triggered delays, Issaquah Link wasn’t scheduled to open until 2041. If Kirkland-to-Issaquah light rail is to succeed, it will take tons of TOD–so best get on that.

9) The Case for a Permanent Center Platform at Pioneer Square Station

Drawing inspiration from a temporary platform during East Link construction, Stephen Fesler argued for a permanent center platform at Pioneer Square Station to improve transfers. Once Sound Transit is operating three light rail lines, a massive amount of transfers are likely to happen at Pioneer Square Station and Chinatown-International District Station.

10) Mayor Durkan Launches Offensive Against Sawant and CHOP After Protest Outside Her Home 

On July 1, Mayor Durkan cleared the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) and reinstalled SPD in the East Precinct building police had abandoned during protests after exhausting pepper spray canister supplies, turning to tear gas, and being politely asked by Durkan to maybe not tear gas so much. Faced with solving their problems peacefully, police appeared to decide: we’re getting out of here. Protesters took over half a dozen blocks surrounding the East Precinct, pedestrianizing the space and hosting speeches, rallies, art, gardens, and tents to house the homeless. Initially calling the CHOP a summer of love, Durkan’s patience did eventually wear thin.

11) WSDOT Prepares to Open Brand New Seven-Lane Road

The Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement project is the gift that keeps on giving to motorists. Ryan Packer broke down how a new seven-lane road will continue to keep Denny Triangle inundated with cars and hostile to pedestrians–even with a four-billion-dollar tunnel funneling some of them below ground. Seventh Avenue N will keep memories of the noisy, smelly Alaskan Way Viaduct alive–though the concrete double-decker behemoth was mercifully deconstructed over the past two years. Packer also covered how Elliott Way, a new street feeding a widened Alaskan Way Boulevard is also overbuilt despite aspirations of a waterfront park and relaxation space. The Washington State Department of Transportation and the legislators who keep infusing it with highway-building cash need an intervention.

If you counted on stories like these to make sense of 2020, please subscribe or make a one-time donation. The Urbanist runs on support from readers like you.

The post The Urbanist’s Greatest Hits of 2020 first appeared on The Urbanist.

We crashed past the 400 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric carbon threshold in 2013 and kept burning our path to climate destruction unabated. By 2019, carbon levels had spiked to 415 ppm, the highest level in human history. That’s 100 ppm higher than in 1958, when scientists began observing carbon levels at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. The trajectory we are on is a death spiral for much of humanity and countless other species, and yet our political leaders drag their feet.

Climate scientists keep telling us our carbon emissions are far too high, yet we keep fouling the atmosphere in greater and greater quantities each passing year. 3 ppm per year is an alarming rate. We’ve failed to get global emissions on a downward path, let alone on the sharp decline we need to avoid ecological meltdown. Even Seattle and Washington State, both self-styled climate leaders, have seen their emissions go up despite passing climate action plans promising to drive them down.

While Democrats have resigned themselves to lofty ambitions with little follow-through, Republican leaders refuse to even try. The year 2010 marked the ascendancy of the Tea Party movement in the Republican party, which seized control of the U.S. House of Representatives and blocked climate action at the federal level. The Republican party has fully embraced climate denial–advocating for wanton highway construction and subsidies for the coal, oil, and fracked gas industries while opposing clean fuel standards, high-speed rail, carbon taxes, and cap and trade.

Running out of time

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned we must reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 to keep average global temperatures from exceeding a rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius. An overwhelming consensus of scientists believe crossing that threshold would be incredibly dangerous and initiate catastrophic climate events, such as polar ice caps melting and submerging coastal cities, coral reef collapse decimating fisheries, deadly heat waves, and massive droughts spreading famine, particularly in the tropics.

How do we explain this failure? In a word: cars.

Transportation is our number one source of climate emissions in Washington, and the state has failed to tackle the problem. Nationwide transit ridership is shrinking–with Seattle barely bucking the trend–as Uber and Lyft proliferate and car ownership rates swell. Gas-guzzling SUVs have totally wiped out carbon savings from electric, hybrid, and fuel-efficient cars.

Due to their greater mass, high center of gravity, and blunt front-end, SUVs are also driving a pedestrian safety crisis that’s claiming more and more lives each year. This further compounds matters by discouraging people from walking, rolling, scooting, or biking–all much more climate-friendly ways to get around. We’re locked in a vicious cycle, and the incredibly seductive narrative of freedom and convenience we’re sold by car companies seeks to keep it that way: lulled into climate suicide like Icarus flying into the sun. It was fun to flap our wings while we could, I guess! Will our descendants who inherit the planet we trashed forgive our flightiness?

Who will lead us out of this climate quagmire?

Governor Jay Inslee–who ran a short-lived presidential campaign as the climate guy–has focused on electric cars rather than the fundamental transformation we need to our transportation system. In fact, Governor Inslee cut the ribbon on new SR-99 car tunnel under Seattle, never once uttering the word climate as he gushed about how great this “eighth wonder of the world” was. Meanwhile, State Senator Steve Hobbs (D-Lake Stevens), chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, is pushing a highway spending spree while crying poverty when it comes to transit.

Democrats have complete control of state government, but they have been ineffectual, declining to exercise their power. Democrats sat idly by and let Tim Eyman hijack policy direction with Initiative 976, which put transit and non-motorized transportation funding into turmoil statewide. With their legislative majorities, Democrats could have banned off-year initiatives to ensure Eyman could not take advantage of low-turnout elections to pass his regressive priorities. They could have outlawed ballot-shopping, which Eyman used to get the most preferential title on the ballot. Moreover, they could have passed progressive tax reform to lessen the tax fatigue that voters are feeling. Alas, Democrats didn’t do any of that and put themselves in a position to watch as I-976 passed with 53% of the vote.

Now, the Washington Supreme Court has already upheld an injunction and may well end up striking down I-976 since its misleading wording and multiple subjects appear to violate the state constitution. However, the damage has already been done in the form of delay, putting Democrats (especially those in suburban seats) on their back feet. Instead of going on the climate offensive, we’re playing defense and cleaning up Tim Eyman’s mess.

The decade did see two state ballot initiatives attempting to enact a carbon tax, but both failed. I-732, a carbon tax that lowered other taxes to stay revenue neutral, grabbed only 40.75% of the vote in 2016. I-1631 took the approach of investing carbon tax revenue in green infrastructure and managed 43.44% of the vote, still well short of the 50% threshold it needed to pass. A carbon tax would be an important step, but not a cure-all either, as Vox climate reporter David Roberts has warned.

A growing climate movement

While we didn’t do enough to get climate emissions on a downward trajectory in the Tottering Teens, that doesn’t mean there weren’t successes and promising developments.

Seattle voters repeatedly invested in transit service–backing the Move Seattle Levy and Seattle Transportation Benefit District–which allowed the region to lead the nation in growing transit ridership and cutting car ownership rates. In 2016, the Seattle metropolitan area passed the Sound Transit 3 ballot initiative, a major transit expansion package that will add 62 miles of light rail and 54 miles of bus rapid transit in King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties.

Moreover, the Green New Deal movement launched, pushing the conversation around climate action farther than it has ever gone in our country. Green New Deal framing has helped ensure that racially oppressed and economically downtrodden people see that action as inclusive of them–offering jobs, neighborhoods with cleaner air and water, and the agency to participate. It’s not just about saving the planet so that the comfortable can stay comfortable, but to correct past injustices and ensure a better life for all.

The Seattle Green New Deal has seen Got Green join hands with 350 Seattle to center communities of color in the climate justice movement. That broad coalition and grassroots energy has built strong support on city council, which passed a Seattle Green New Deal framework in 2019. We still need to flesh out the bones of that framework, but the progress has been remarkable.

Young people–recognizing they stand the most to lose–are embracing climate action like no generation ever has. They’re leading, too. High school students like Greta Thunberg are leading the call for action, and the youngest U.S. Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is also the most outspoken on climate change. The next decade could look a lot different than the past decade. We can learn from the lumps we’ve taken and fight back. Let’s boldly redesign our cities to turn away from our nightmare course.

The post Looking Back on Another Decade of Climate Delay first appeared on The Urbanist.

It was Mayor Jenny Durkan first full year in office. Spoiler Alert: We gave her a D and some of our 2019 recap will illuminate why.

But first some good news: Democrats seized control of the U.S. House of Representatives during midterm elections, and Washington Democrats also expanded their majorities in Olympia, but failed to pass a carbon fee to fund green infrastructure. On the bright side, the carbon fee initiative, I-1631, did garner 57.8% of the vote in King County, suggesting Washington’s most populous county is ready to do something ambitious about climate.

On the smoky side, another punishing wildfire season in 2018 demonstrated climate action is more sorely needed than ever, and to urbanists like us that means housing reform, more people walking, biking and riding transit, fewer owning cars, and bolder action than Mayor Durkan has yet proposed.

There was also some bright spots on housing advocacy. In fact, Mike Eliason broke down how it was the year of the pro-housing advocate, so read his take for a housing-focused journey through 2018.

The Year of Four SDOT Heads

Meanwhile, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) delayed and/or scaled back ambitious plans on multiple fronts–projects intended to move people by means other than the most carbon-intensive method: the single occupancy vehicle. Some observers traced the delays and miscues to a lack of permanent leadership at the agency.

While 2017 was the year of four mayors, 2018 was the year of four SDOT directors. Scott Kubly officially left the post on January 5th, and Mayor Durkan tapped Goran Sparrman to fill in as interim director, but didn’t have a permanent replacement ready when Sparrman left the post in September to take a job with engineering megafirm HNTB. Instead, Mayor Durkan lured Linea Laird away from her position as project manager on the SR-99 viaduct replacement tunnel at the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to serve as interim SDOT director. Finally, on December 19th, Mayor Durkan announced her selection of Sam Zimbabwe for permanent SDOT director. Zimbabwe was Chief Project Delivery Officer at Washington D.C. Department of Transportation and was considered a rising star, which has raised hopes he will jumpstart the stalled department.

The gap in permanent leadership came at a particularly sensitive time as Seattle readied itself for the Alaskan Way Viaduct closure and the ensuing transportation difficulties dubbed the “Seattle Squeeze.” Basically the next two to four years are likely going to be particularly heinous for commuters and we should have done more to prepare.

Streetcar Agony

No decision weighed heavier than the Center City Connector streetcar project, which will connect the South Lake Union and First Hill streetcars to make a much more useful line. Mayor Durkan halted construction on the project in March, even as utility work continued, citing budgetary concerns. In July, the mayor upped the ante by publicizing ‘will it fit the tracks’ concerns during a July 5th KUOW interview and later in her blog. Mayor Durkan still hasn’t released an answer to her own question–insisting on an outside engineering audit that is dragging on into its fifth month and flowing out like molasses from the first independent audit released after a delay of its own in September. KPMG, the City’s highly-paid consultant, confirmed SDOT’s ridership forecasts: Seattle’s streetcar system could well surpass 20,000 daily streetcar riders with the center city extension. Moreover, the streetcar farebox recovery rate is projected to exceed 52%, much higher than the county’s bus routes, which averages about half that. Through it all, the case for the center city streetcar remains strong, but the mayor still has yet to take the project out of purgatory.

Bike Network Delays

The streetcar project wasn’t the only to face extra scrutiny. 2018 saw several ready-to-go protected bike lane projects mothballed. 35th Ave NE was the most dramatic; bike lane opponents sabotaged City equipment with fireworks and the mayor’s reaction was ‘let’s hear out these reasonable people.’ The mayor hired a mediator hoping to defuse the situation or at least buy some time, but setting a dangerous appeasement precedent in the process. Unfortunately, mediation proved ineffective at getting people who hate bike lanes to stop doing so. City officials had told bike advocates to expect a decision by Christmas, but that deadline was also missed and the project remains in purgatory alongside the streetcar.

The bike and Vision Zero safety project delays spanned the whole year.

In January, SDOT shelved the important Fauntleroy Boulevard safety project (which included protected bike lanes) just months before construction was scheduled to begin. In April, we learned 35th Avenue SW safety project was not getting extended as planned, leaving a dangerous design rather than a rechannelized, slimmed-down version for this the fourth-most dangerous street in the city. Ditto for 24th Avenue where a dangerous four lane design did not get a rechannelization like 23rd Avenue previously did to the south.

We argued the time to remake 4th Avenue is now, adding protected bike lanes to fill out the basic bike network, but the Mayor’s Office nixed 4th Avenue protected bike lanes (and Pike/Pike and 9th Avenue, too) until 2021, hoping the Seattle Squeeze would be less squeezed by then and that one extra general purpose lane would somehow alleviate the congestion. This prompted the Seattle City Council to pass a resolution seeking to speed up those timelines. Finally in November, SDOT shelved another shovel-ready project in N 40th Street was shelved so SDOT could appease a few angry neighbors.

Taken for a (Rapid)Ride

But wait there’s more. 2018 was also the year we learned three of the seven RapidRide lines promised in the $930 million Move Seattle Levy passed in 2015 would not exactly be RapidRide. Due to rising costs and a shortage of partner funding, Routes 40, 44, and 48 will have to settle for lesser upgrades. The four RapidRide lines that remain will not be delivered as soon as initially pledged.

Head Tax Hijinx

The backtracking was not on transit alone. The Seattle City Council passed a bold plan to reinstate the employee hours tax (or head tax) in order to fund affordable housing and homelessness services with a steady stream of $50 million per year. Threatening a veto and saying she could pacify Amazon, Mayor Durkan had gotten the city council to add a five-year sunset clause and to shrink the package from $75 million per year it originally would have brought in.

Amazon and their chamber of commerce brethren flipped out anyway and poured hundreds of thousands in a repeal campaign run by conservative operatives. The city council and mayor backed down immediately and repealed the tax. As King County’s homeless count climbed to a new high, surpassing 12,000 in 2018, the additional revenue was desperately needed and could have been put to good use. Instead the Seattle Chamber of Commerce has been pushing budget efficiencies and upzoning as sufficient solutions to the region’s massive housing gap of approximately 30,000 homes for lower-income residents.

HQ2: Amazon Flexes Political Muscle

The whole head tax saga had the business booster crowd wringing their hands about how Seattle needs to get kissing corporate buttocks a lot more vigorously. Some pointed to the HQ2 contest in which Amazon selected a secondary headquarters through a hunger-games style contest, starting with just about every major city in America, and whittling down to twenty, and announcing in dramatic fashion that it was splitting the baby between two winners in New York City and Northern Virginia, dashing hopes that Amazon would revitalize the Rust Belt with its selection and instead opting for probably the most advantageous locations before the contest even began, but using the competition to exact billions in corporate giveaways. Not surprising given one of Amazon’s signature innovations has been avoiding taxation.

Housing Market Slowdown

Bluster of its empty threat to leave Seattle aside, Amazon did slow down its rate of hiring within the city. That slower hiring helped contribute to a respite from the nation-leading housing price increases Seattle had been seeing. In fact, for-sale homes actually saw a decrease in sell prices from the high of $751,000 attained in May by Zillow’s calculation.

Apartment Boom Continues

Another factor helping Seattle rents come down is the Seattle apartment building boom. After a banner construction year in 2017, Seattle’s apartment boom continued mostly unabated with most homes in downtown towers and large complexes in the city’s urban villages. Scant few new homes are being added in single-family neighborhoods.

Housing Reform Roadblocks

That said, efforts to broaden the boom beyond the downtown core and designated urban villages were hit with roadblocks during 2018. Legislation to liberalize backyard cottage rules is tied up in multiple appeals by Marty Kaplan arguing backyaed cottagea would ruin neighborhood character, despite the City’s environmental impact statement showing that reform would actually decrease the rate of tear downs while increasing housing options within single-family zones. Anti-housing homeowner groups also delayed for the entirety of 2018 long-planned Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) rezones for all of Seattle’s yet-to-be-rezoned urban villages.

Housing Reform Opportunities

The good news is the City scored a major victory in a November Hearing Examiner ruling, making MHA passage by mid-2019 seem within reach. For housing advocates inspired by bold citywide rezones in Minneapolis, this would also clear the way to go even further and end the apartment ban and make missing middle housing legal citywide. More good news: the City succeeded in passing parking reform in April, which will make make missing middle housing much more buildable, not to mention eco-friendly.

Lynnwood Link Avoids Federal Sabotage

Another bit of good news that came late in the year was that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) had approved a $1.17 billion in Lynnwood Link grant, ending the cloud of uncertainty surrounding the project. With the federal money ensured, light rail will extended to Lynnwood in 2024. More importantly, it showed that the FTA, even under a troll-in-chief, will still more or less function and disperse grants eventually, which should ensure Sound Transit’s other light rail projects can chug along mostly on schedule.

Move All Seattle Sustainably Campaign Launch

2018 also saw campaign launch that could have a big impact in 2019 and beyond. On a personal note, The Urbanist co-founded, along with about ten groups, the Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS) coalition dedicated to fighting for people walking, biking, and riding transit amidst the crisis of the Seattle Squeeze. MASS is building pressure on the City to add bus lanes, bike lanes, and safer traffic signals to ensure people can get around when gridlock strikes. Moreover, these efforts would help reverse the trend of increasing pedestrian fatalities on our streets.

Council Campaigns Lift Off

Dozens of candidates also jumped into Seattle City Council races before year’s ends with seven seats up for grabs. Already Councilmembers Rob Johnson and Sally Bagshaw have announced their retirement, leading to a rush of candidates entering those races. Socialist/urbanist Shaun Scott and Alex Pedersen on the opposite ‘let’s cater to wealthy homeowners spectrum’ have entered the race for Johnson’s seat. More candidates are surely on the way. Suffice to say, it’s going to be a very eventful 2019 as well.

The post 2018 in Review: The Year of the Four SDOT Heads first appeared on The Urbanist.

Taking MHA Citywide… Can We Expand It to Single Family?

The Seattle City Council plans to expand the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program taking inclusionary zoning citywide, at least in land zoned multifamily and commercial. That the MHA program wouldn’t apply to single-family zones is yet another reason to rezone them too. Single-family zones could get a bit more flexibility in 2018 if Mike O’Brien’s accessory dwelling unit (ADU) bill is enacted as planned after the delay caused by the lawsuit forcing a full Environmental Impact Statement. Many urbanists would like to go further to expand urban village boundaries, add new urban villages, and/or eliminate single-family zoning entirely.

Out-Organizing NIMBYs

Housing advocates scored a cathartic victory to start 2018 when they turned out in droves and greatly outnumbered opponents at a public meeting on Seattle Office of Housing’s plan to develop 238 affordable homes at Fort Lawton. The “Yes In My Backyard” movement picked up steam in 2017, and the Fort Lawton meeting was an exclamation point. (Of course, Fort Lawton isn’t a done deal yet.) Can housing advocates build on that success to prevent other projects from being blocked or delayed by noisy opposition? Will policymakers give advocates more opportunities by upzoning more sacrosanct million-dollar home territory? Will developers see a changing landscape and propose projects they would have thought too risky before? It’d be great to see affordable housing projects go in other wealthy enclaves that have mostly blocked them one way or another–neighborhoods like Montlake, Madison Park, Laurelhurst, Upper Queen Anne, Seward Park, and anything west of Fauntleroy Way in West Seattle, as you can see in the map below.

Olympia Wants to Slash Car Tab Fees as Transit Advocates Rally to Save ST3 Funds

We’ve been closely monitoring bills seeking to cut Sound Transit 3 (ST3) funding by reducing the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET). Thanks to your pressure, Democratic legislators are rethinking HB 2201, which would have cut approximately $2.3 billion from Sound Transit’s budget without replacing it. Now it seems like Democrats are realizing they should replace lost funds if they want to go through with cutting car tab fees. Let’s keep the pressure on and if anything move Sound Transit’s timelines up rather than backwards.

Planning ST3 Alignments

2018 will be a big year for planning ST3 light rail alignments–and possibly the last chance to get the plan switched to a Salmon Bay tunnel (or a fixed high bridge) from a movable bridge that could cause delays while it opens for tall ships. The City of Seattle and Sound Transit are hoping that quickly settling on preferred rail alignments for Ballard and West Seattle will help deliver the projects ahead of schedule, and they’re setting up advisory groups to which you can apply. This could shave a few years off West Seattle’s 2030 expected opening and Ballard’s 2035 target. To get the projects much earlier would likely require finding a new source of funding (e.g., more bonding) so that Sound Transit could bid out big ticket items sooner. Urbanists should be pushing for that, too.

Democratic Majorities in State Legislature Could Mean Climate Action

With Manka Dhingra’s resounding victory in the 45th Legislative District, Democrats claimed a one-seat majority in the state senate. Democratic control of the legislature and the executive branch has raised hopes that major action on climate change is imminent. Governor Jay Inslee proposed carbon tax legislation and, with your help, it has a pretty good chance of passing. The governor’s bill would charge $20 per ton of carbon emissions, with exceptions for the aviation industry, some agricultural uses, and others. Half of the revenue would be invested in electrification of our transportation sector, which would mean capital improvements for transit or potentially fund high speed rail. Some legislators have proposed their own climate change legislation, including HB 2338 spearheaded by Representative Joe Fitzgibbon.

Period of Maximum Constraint

Seattle Transit Blog has a good rundown of the projects slated to start in 2018, and Mike Lindblom covered the “period of maximum constraint” in the next few years with a slew of construction projects: the Alaska Way Viaduct will come down, dozens of towers will go up, and Washington State Convention Center Addition construction and Northgate Link testing will lead the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel to be closed to buses likely in September 2019. This unfortunate convergence of disruptions also comes with the opportunity to press for multimodal improvements like a Basic Bike Network and more dedicated bus lanes, which was the promise of One Center City. It will fall upon urbanists to makes sure One Center City isn’t watered down. Additionally, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) plans to repave Aurora Avenue from Roy St northward starting in the spring, which would provide further disruption. WSDOT promises to rebuild pedestrian ramps to improve pedestrian access along the SR-99 car sewer.

2017 In Review

The post 2018: Goals, Obstacles, and Resolutions first appeared on The Urbanist.

Four Mayors

Other currents events: Seattle had four mayors after former Mayor Ed Murray went from expected lock for reelection to expected sex offender in the Spring. After Murray finally resigned, Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell kept the seat warm for a few days, before his now retired colleague Tim Burgess stepped in for 71 days. Despite all the upheaval, Seattle went with the continuity candidate in November electing Mayor Jenny Durkan, who had Mayor Murray’s endorsement and establishment backing. One continuity Durkan did break was 90 straight years of male Seattle mayors dating back to Seattle’s first female mayor Bertha Knight Landes. About time!

Multimodal Transportation

Mayor Durkan prevailed over Cary Moon, who had the endorsement of The Urbanist and many other like-minded organizations, but, in a hopeful sign, she appointed Transportation Choices Coalition Executive Director Shefali Ranganathan as one of her two Deputy Mayors. We hope with Deputy Mayor Ranganathan’s guidance Seattle can build on its successes, such as leading the nation in transit ridership gains in 2016 with 4.1% growth. We also hope Seattle under new leadership can reverse a troubling trend with collisions involving pedestrians and get us on course for Vision Zero by 2030.

Reaching Vision Zero will likely involve building momentum on the protected bike network, which did see some big wins in 2017. Along the west side of Lake Union we got an improved facility, although advocates argued the Westlake Cycletrack design needs further refinements to protect safety. The Second Avenue Protected Bike Lane is being extended through Belltown. The campaign to build Basic Bike Network Downtown seems to have worked, and focus may shift to building out connections to the neighborhoods. The SR-520  bridge also finally opened to bicyclists and pedestrians in December. The very expensive floating highway bridge’s opening to people biking and walking was much later than its opening to motorists, but late is better than never.

Bertha Tunnel Update

The giant tunnel boring machine known as Bertha finally holed through in April and was disassembled and fully dismantled by August. Much work remains to lay the road surface and utilities, but the new SR-99 tunnel is on pace to open in 2019–barring setbacks from litigation with the contractor over cost overruns associated with the two-year delay when the tunnel boring machine got stuck and needed to be extracted and overhauled.

Pronto Dies, Private Bikeshare Rises from the Ashes

Another big to-do in 2017 was Mayor Murray pulling the plug on Pronto Cycle Share in January, which killed the fledgling City-run bikeshare program in March. The Seattle City Council authorized a privately-run free-floating bikeshare system that launched in July. Whereas Pronto was cash-starved, private bikeshare has benefited from copious startup cash and got off to a quick start in the first few months. The numbers have cooled down a bit in winter months but appeared strong enough to suggest the program is here to stay.

More Resources as Housing Crisis Tightens

Seattle passed rezones in several neighborhoods in 2017, which enacted the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program and guaranteed new market-rate housing developments includes a portion of affordable housing or pay in-lieu fees to a City fund. The Seattle City Council passed the University District rezone in February. Downtown and South Lake Union rezones passed in April, and an Uptown rezone passed in October. If all goes according to plan, every urban village in Seattle will get a MHA rezone in 2018.

In addition to making progress on inclusionary zoning via MHA rezones, the Seattle City Council came up with $29 million for affordable housing though bonding, which led to a record year for Seattle Housing Authority investments–more than $100 million. Another way the Seattle responded to growing needs in housing, social services, and transportation was by passing a city income tax after a concerted campaign led by the Seattle Transit Riders Union. That tax is currently tied up in the courts, but if rulings go the City’s way, Seattle’s income tax could push the Washington State Supreme Court to establish a new precedent overruling income tax prohibitions dating from the 1930’s.

Community Package Extract $83 Million in WSCC Benefits

Additional housing resources were also scrounged up by the visionary leadership of the Community Package Coalition. The coalition tirelessly advocated to push the Washington State Convention Center to quadruple the public benefits package to $83 million for its planned $1.6 billion addition. $29 million in benefits will go to affordable housing. (I should note we’re biased since Coalition leaders Alex Hudson and Scott Bonjukian are also board members with The Urbanist.)

Homeless Counts Still Rising

Even as more resources came in, homelessness continued to rise as measured by the One Night Count. This shows how much strain rising housing prices are putting on low-income residents. Affordable housing dollars don’t go as far as they would in a less heated market, and much work is still to be done.

Odds and Ends

Seattle elected labor activist Teresa Mosqueda to replace retiring Councilmember Burgess and reelected Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez in November. Washington’s 45th District was also kind enough to elect Manka Dhingra to give the Democratic Party a one-seat majority in the state senate. With Democrats controlling the governor’s seat and both legislative chambers, Washingtonians are hoping for big fixes on issues like education funding and climate change–or at the very least fewer special sessions.

HQ2: Amazon Wants To See Other Cities

Oh and finally, Seattle largest employer Amazon announced it was searching for a city to host its second headquarters in North America, responding to the reality that Seattle cannot accommodate the breakneck pace of growth the internet juggernaut hopes to maintain. Some local politicians worried Amazon was dissatisfied and rushed to console the 600-billion-dollar company, but the second headquarters could prove to be a bit of escape valve for the tremendous pressure Seattle is under to meet the housing, office, and transportation needs Amazon’s rapid growth brings.

We’ll look deeper at what to expect in 2018 in a future post.

Seattle’s 2016 News In Review

The post 2017 In Review first appeared on The Urbanist.

1) Map of the Week: Seattle Subway Vision Map

In July, Seattle Subway released an updated vision map, and we covered the details in what turned out to be our most read article of the year. See No. 6 for our suggestion to fine-tune the vision.

2) Map of the Week: Sound Transit’s System Expansion Map

In August, Sound Transit released a new map illustrating the projects funded in ST3. Judging by readership, many people are anxiously anticipating built out of more light rail in Seattle.

3) Did Seattle Just Cross The 700,000 Population Mark?

In February, we hypothesized that Seattle had just crossed the 700,000 population mark, growing at a pace exceeding 20,000 residents per year. Later estimates concurred that Seattle crossed the 700,000 mark in 2017, and it doesn’t appear the pace of growth has let up.

4) Adaptive Signal System Kicks Pedestrians to the Curb

Mark Ostrow of Queen Anne Greenways critiqued the Seattle Department of Transportation’s adaptive signal shenanigans that made walking, biking, or taking transit across Mercer Street even more miserable and time consuming. Adaptive signals save motorists a little bit of time–not that they’ve stopped complaining about the Mercer Mess–but it’s made cross traffic wait even longer, delaying Route 62, 40, and 70, and has frustrated pedestrians who find themselves waiting at the curb while drivers get the green.

5) South Lake Union Is for Cars

In April, we made the case that South Lake Union was still fundamentally an auto-oriented neighborhood despite the urbanist window dressing. We pointed to the proliferation of huge parking garages and transportation decisions that continue to put motorists before people walking, biking and riding transit. Later this year, Ryan Packer followed his article up with a manifesto arguing for a better vision: South Lake Union is for Pedestrians.

6) Building ST4: The Case for Upgrading RapidRide E to Rail

I argued that First Hill and the Aurora Avenue corridor sorely needs rail transit, despite being omitted from ST3. (The RapidRide E is Seattle’s busiest bus after all.) We followed this up with an article going into more details on funding and rail technology.

7) Preparing for Takeoff: Seatac Airport’s Big Expansion Plans

Seatac is the 13th busiest airport and the fastest growing in the nation. The Port of Seattle plans to expand in order to meet demand.

8) Downtown Seattle On-Street Parking Swapped for Pavement Park and Food Trucks

In November, SDOT converted some Pine Street parking to a pavement park with food truck space. We covered the story and it seemed Seattle was hungry for more Downtown park space, not to mention food trucks.

9) The Path to Eliminating Single-Family Zoning in Seattle

A hot topic for urbanists is converting single-family zoning to a more flexible zoning type. Our Executive Director Owen Pickford presented a political path to make it happen.

10) Broaden the Boom: How to Rezone Single-Family Seattle

Whereas Owen laid out a path for building political support, I discussed the planning mechanisms to reduce or eliminate single-family zoning. Specifically, I suggested three ways to change Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan to increase housing options and housing diversity:

1. Eliminate detached single-family zoning
2. Expand urban village boundaries
3. Add new urban villages

The Urbanist’s Greatest Hits Of 2016

The post The Urbanist’s Greatest Hits of 2017 first appeared on The Urbanist.

Why You Should Vote No on Seattle Initiative 123 by Scott Bonjukian
After two previous articles on the effort to save the Alaskan Way Viaduct, this third and final installment made a case against the disaster that was Initiative 123. The measure was an attempt to derail a decade of waterfront planning and would have jeopardized funding for new city parks and recreation resources. We were one of the few local publications to cover the issue in such detail. Seattle residents ultimately rejected I-123 with a resounding NO vote of 82 percent.

A Once In Lifetime Opportunity: Walking, Biking, And Dancing On SR-520 by Stephen Fesler
In this event notice we celebrated the opening of the new SR-520 floating bridge over Lake Washington. For a few days the Washington State Department of Transportation closed the bridge to cars and opened it to people. We suspect the post helped draw the big crowds that weekend!

The Seattle Times’ Suburban Dream Doesn’t Match Urban Realities by Scott Bonjukian
In what has become a regular feature at The Urbanist, we take an alarmist and fact-light article from our hometown newspaper and explain how they get it wrong. In this case, a technology columnist attempts to derive hidden meaning from a vague transportation policy that seems to further the “war on cars”. Of course, nothing of the sort is at hand, and we patiently explain the geographical realities of urban transport.

First Hill Streetcar: Service Starts Saturday, First Trains from Pioneer Square by Gordon Werner
We briefly announced the festivities and schedule for the opening of Seattle’s long-awaited First Hill Streetcar. Since the kickoff, the streetcar has beat ridership expectations.

Sound Transit Submits Suburb-Heavy Expansion Plan by Doug Trumm
We were a bit disappointed with the first release of the ST3 proposal, which focused heavily on suburban expansion, park-and-rides, and highway BRT. Seattle urbanists rejoiced at the grade separations proposed for Link light rail, but are worried about the drawbacks of a Salmon Bay bridge and the lack of east-west connections. We end with a call for the plan to speed up its timeline, especially for the rapidly growing Seattle neighborhoods of Ballard and West Seattle.

What’s Better Than a Lid? Remove I-5 Entirely from Central Seattle by Doug Trumm
Taking a cue from many other highway removal projects around the country, we suggest a radical alternative for Interstate 5: tear it out between I-90 and SR-520. In its place, the city could see a restored street grid, new development, and new public space. Seattle and the state may need to address I-5 soon as it ages beyond 50 years.

A New Transit Hub: Montlake Triangle by Stephen Fesler
In this post we took an early and detailed look at how the new bus-rail interface will work around University of Washington Station. We explained the new and revised bus stop locations in the area, along with passenger amenities and signage. But as always, there is room for changes and we made several suggestions for improving the transit rider’s experience in this odd corner of the city. We look forward to more efficient and comfortable transfers when U District Station opens in 2021.

Waterfront Design Predictably Disappoints Seattle by Ryan Packer
We covered the release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Waterfront Seattle, and the subsequent lawsuit against it by local interest groups. Though the waterfront design has progressed over many years, the transportation advocacy community, along with local residents and businesses, regret the width of Alaskan Way near the ferry terminal. We question the Seattle Department of Transportation’s focus on vehicle capacity and ferry loading, and it remains to be seen how the relations between walking, biking, transit, and freight might be refined.

Don’t Believe the Hype: Sound Transit Didn’t Spend All That Money on a “Party” by Alex Broner
In another instance of editorialized sensationalism, The Seattle Times stokes anti-transit hate by implying the opening of University Link wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars. The reality is that the opening day celebrations for Capitol Hill and UW Stations last March required a lot of planning, crowd control, and police overtime. It was the first light rail opening since 2009, and deserved a proper welcoming. The citizens of Seattle have affirmed their love for rail, as Link ridership has doubled since just these two stations opened.

BRT Is Not Cheaper Than Light Rail by Anton Babadjanov
In a well researched article, we explored the real costs between light rail and BRT. The verdict: BRT cannot hope to meet the capacity of light rail systems, and if it did, with the right-of-way costs required for lanes, tunnels, and bridges cities may as well build rail. We take a detailed look at the costs of Sound Transit’s light rail construction, and conclude that growing urban areas cannot afford to take shortcuts on transit capacity.

Thanks for joining us in 2016, and have a happy New Year! For the latest updates from The Urbanist, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and by email. You can also help with our reporting and educational programming by making a donation.

The post The Urbanist’s Greatest Hits Of 2016 first appeared on The Urbanist.