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What We’re Reading: Changing Scales

Stephen Fesler - July 18, 2015

100 bucks: Where you’ll get the most and least value out of your $100 in the US.

Big projects: New residential tower going up near Amazon’s HQ and new Vulcan apartments breaking ground in the University District.

Still delayed: The Washington State Department of Transportation says that Bertha is still delayed, but the tunnel could open sometime in 2018. Meanwhile, The Stranger got to tour a portion of the tunnel Bertha dug.

SnoCo’s tallest: The ten tallest buildings built and proposed in Snohomish County.

Saying ‘adieu’: Seoul throws a big party as a farewell to an urban overpass.

$100,000 question: Alan Durning at the Sightline Institute goes knee deep on Seattle’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) recommendations and his thoughts on the central issues.

Not public, but charter: Save Seattle Schools rips the HALA recommendations for their exclusive attention to charter schools instead of all schools.

Greenwood park progress: The City of Seattle has acquired another property for the new central Greenwood park.

O’Brien’s big win: The Stranger lays out how Seattle Councilmember Mike O’Brien won big with a grand bargain on affordable housing policies.

Put it to rest: Five really poor anti-bike arguments that should be retired.

Fun with data: Where and how many houses you could buy in the US for the same price as Manhattan SoHo apartment.

New convention center: Details on the new $1.4 billion convention center ($) slated for Downtown Seattle.

Unemployment down: Seattle area unemployment is at a 7-year low, now at 3.7% ($).

Chip off the old block: Old Urbanist goes really old and talks about fall and rise of the “Euro block”.

Stockholm syndrome: A design pitch for sleek elevated airport runaways across Stockholm. Why? Because #avgeek. Duh.

Communist Berlin: Berlin is making sure that Alexanderplatz’s communist-era buildings don’t end up under a bulldozer any time soon.

Get your hate right: In the wake of Vancouver’s colossal transit referendum failure, Jarrett Walker of Human Transit reminds us that hating your transit agency will not make it better.

Jetsetting: Let London’s airspace mesmerize you as planes throughout the region dance across the metropolis.

It’s for the hockey: Not only are Detroiters footing the bill for a new hockey arena, they decided to implode an iconic tower occupying land in the city center to build the stadium.

Yellow brick road: Rotterdam builds a unique series of elevated pathways for pedestrians near a railway line.

Getting free: How one Denver couple went entirely car-free.

Places for people: Milan is embarking on a major pedestrianization effort in the city’s center, or as the Deputy Mayor calls it “the creation of a vast area of pedestrian privilege.”

Changing scales: European planners recently held there continental congress of all things planning and it appears that one theme was less national planning and more local planning.