The Panama Hotel in the International District.

For our monthly meetup on January 14th, we are excited to be joined by our friend Kate Brunette from Futurewise. For 30 years, Futurewise has worked to prevent exurban sprawl, to protect our State’s natural resources, and to make our urban areas livable and accessible to all.

Founded to help support implementation of Washington’s innovative Growth Management Act, Futurewise focuses on preventing the conversion of wildlife habitat, open space, farmland, and working forests to subdivisions and development, while directing most growth into our urbanized areas. Their mission also incorporates a focus on livability, housing, transportation, social justice, and environmental justice in our urbanized areas. They write a monthly installment called Wonkabout Washington in The Urbanist detailing such work across the state.

As part of its mission, Futurewise advocates in Olympia for legislation to protect our state’s rural landscape and encourage dense livable cities. During the last session they helped pass important legislation that encouraged cities to provide more housing options such as accessory dwelling units, reduced parking requirements in transit rich areas, limited abuse of State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) appeals for policies like Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA), and provided for important new tenant protections. This year they are back at and will be sharing what they hope to accomplish in Olympia as well as taking your questions.

The Urbanist’s monthly social event is free, all ages, and open to everyone. Come by if you want to meet other people who care about our city, network, or hear from an inspirational speaker at a local establishment. You can find us in the lower room, and our guest speaker starts at 6:30pm.

We will be at the Panama Hotel Coffee and Tea House in the Chinatown-International District. They have coffee, tea, beer and wine, and snacks available. They are also a cool independent cafe in a wonderful historic building in one of Seattle’s great urban neighborhoods. We hope you can join us!

Article Author

Patrick grew up across the Puget Sound from Seattle and used to skip school to come hang out in the city. He is an designer at a small architecture firm with a strong focus on urban infill housing. He is passionate about design, housing affordability, biking, and what makes cities so magical. He works to advocate for abundant and diverse housing options and for a city that is a joy for people on bikes and foot. He and his family live in the Othello neighborhood.