Yearly Archives: 2025

The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce crafted the ballot language for Proposition 1B and pressured councilmembers to follow their plan to delay the social housing vote and put the competing measure on the ballot to siphon support, newly unearthed public records show. The centrists on Seattle City Council did as business leaders advised.

Join The Urbanist for our February social events in Seattle, Redmond, and Shoreline. Next up is our Big Time Brewery meetup on February 20.

Futurewise is challenging the validity of Mercer Island's Comprehensive Plan, alleging it's out of alignment with a number of state housing policies, including a requirement to maximize the area around its forthcoming light rail station.

Kirkland Connections is a new 24/7 mental health crisis center that could prove a model for the five crisis centers a county levy approved and funded in 2023. Such services are rare in the region.

A $5.2 million project overhauling two blocks of Bell Street adds a protected bike lane and pedestrian upgrades, but stops short of full pedestrianization.

With an eye toward adding new passenger ferry service by 2026, HB 1923 would expand the number of transit agencies able to operate foot ferries, and also set up a new state grant to fund them.

In this video, CityNerd's Ray Delahanty digs into the public health effects of freeways. Pollution impacts fall most heavily on people who live near freeways.

The Seattle City Council is set to vote Tuesday to formally re-authorize use of "less lethal" crowd control weapons, like the blast balls that seriously injured folks like me in the summer of 2020. It sends exactly the wrong message around police accountability and reform.