Yearly Archives: 2025

Alan Fisher of Armchair Urbanist dives into how San Francisco is ready-made for electric trolleybuses and has a robust network of them today -- just like Seattle. Fisher explains why they're better than battery-electric buses and how, with a little effort, San Francisco could widely expand electric trolleybuses with strategic investments to almost every corner of the city.

Seattle Times opinion columnist Alex Fryer gets pretty much everything wrong in his hit piece about new South Park townhomes. The project will add trees, despite dramatic photos the newspaper took before the developer finished its planned tree plantings, which is not advised in the winter. 

Workers at Baja Concrete and Newway Forming contend their bosses stole millions in wages, but Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison has been slow to press their case, Rory O'Sullivan writes. Wage theft prosecutions are down under her administration.

In 2020, Rob Saka advocated against proposed safety infrastructure along a critical greenway in West Seattle. This week, the issue resurfaced, and Saka, now a city councilmember and chair of the transportation committee, again railed against traffic diverters.

Cars and sprawl that are the true problem as the Puget Sound region seeks to boost salmon runs and protect salmon-eating orca whales. Building more homes in Seattle is the way to curb sprawl.

Governor Bob Ferguson’s reticence to approve new taxes represents a major obstacle to closing a big budget hole without deep cuts to social services. In fact, Ferguson announced Tuesday he would veto any budget that included a wealth tax, which could tie state lawmakers’ hands.

Despite considerable momentum behind SB 5156 coming from the state Senate, the idea of reforming Washington's strict elevator codes met resistance from firefighter groups and the powerful elevator constructor's union.

The final 4-3 vote represented a victory for the council's progressives, as a debate over addressing past discrimination and improving equity turned into a partisan issue. The reversal was a setback for Newcastle's conservative mayor, Robert Clark.