Bike well: The Seattle Bike Blog offers up some suggestions for Seattle’s next pedestrian plaza. Friday morning saw a tragic cyclist death on Second Avenue, the location of a future protected cycle track. Youarehere has a map of every bicycle crash in Seattle between 2010 and 2012. The science of balancing bike share stations is a pretty big deal, and fascinating. Cities that spend the most on bike lanes reap amazing rewards. And Pittsburgh sees bikeways as an important way to add street capacity.
Building and design: The 2014 Seattle Design Festival begins next week! Don’t worry, you have two weeks to enjoy it. Starchitect Frank Lloyd Wright’s namesake school may lose accreditation. A shortlist of the UK’s worst buildings of 2014. Skinny houses can be amazing spaces. Southampton, England has an awesome pop-up outdoor theatre.
Once around the globe: Location affordability shows that San Francisco is more affordable than a lot of places, even Seattle and Phoenix. Minorities in the suburbs do not trust their police departments. Louisiana is sinking pretty quickly thanks to oil & gas infrastructure, climate change and the Mississippi River. Boston’s Assembly Station serves as a great way to add an infill train station into an existing network. 25 wonderfully vintage photos of Vancouver, BC public transit. The future of cities will be responsive. And, why hasn’t China learned from the mistakes of America?
Policy: Sightline analyzes whether a land-value tax would be legal in Washington and concludes that it probably would be. A statewide poll shows that nearly every voter wants safe routes to schools. Tim Eyman wants you to spend $1.1 million dollars before he’ll screw over low wage earners with an initiative. Irony much? Dick Falkenbury, father of the original monorail effort, thinks the new one is stupid.
City progress: Weyerhauser is planning to move into a new office building in Pioneer Square with a 2016 target date, leaving behind its suburban Federal Way location. A 12th Avenue community group voted in favor of apartments instead of a pocket park. Two new projects in Capitol Hill went before the design review board, and they look pretty good given their context. A look into Dimension, a new 26-story residential building in Belltown.
Maps this week: Vacation economies kind of suck, this map series will blow your mind on how quickly jobs are lost, Seattle included. A regional cost map that shows just how far your $1 goes; in Washington it is $0.969. The heat island effect is actually quite significant in cities, see just how much. And, a map for the tokers: every pot shop in Washington.
Stephen is a professional urban planner in Puget Sound with a passion for sustainable, livable, and diverse cities. He is especially interested in how policies, regulations, and programs can promote positive outcomes for communities. With stints in great cities like Bellingham and Cork, Stephen currently lives in Seattle. He primarily covers land use and transportation issues and has been with The Urbanist since 2014.