Doug Trumm
Doug Trumm is The Urbanist's Executive Director. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrianizing streets, blanketing the city in bus lanes, and unleashing a mass timber building spree to end the affordable housing shortage and avert our coming climate catastrophe. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. He lives in East Fremont and loves to explore the city on his bike.
Mayor Jenny Durkan held another press conference on Tuesday to criticize Seattle City Council and their efforts to defund police by 50% and reallocate funding to community-led public health and safety. The Mayor, and Police Chief Carmen Best argued that any police officer layoffs whatsoever would be...
Mayor Jenny Durkan proposed $58.3 million in cuts to the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) in a "rebalancing" package designed to fill budget holes caused by the Covid recession. Ray Dubicki detailed the projects hit, including punted greenways, Bicycle Master Plan project delays, RapidRide upgrade postponements (again),...
After Mayor Jenny Durkan vetoed a Covid relief package saying it depleted the City's rainy day fund, Budget Chair Teresa Mosqueda fired back that the need was now and waiting would inflict too much suffering and damage to the economy.
As part of its...
Donald Trump is losing the suburbs, but he has a plan and wants "Suburban Housewives" to know it. The plan will be familiar to urbanists: stoking fears of single-family zoning reform and low-income housing and brazenly claiming opponents want to "abolish the suburbs." Eerie isn't it--am I reading...
Mayor Jenny Durkan did a victory lap on national media yesterday declaring Seattle free of federal agents, but local residents noted that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) continued to aggressively deploy the same weapons and tactics she decried from federal police. In fact, the City of Seattle...
Yesterday, the Seattle City Council debated the right size for the Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) and landed on a 0.15% sales tax to boost transit funding 50% over Mayor Jenny Durkan's proposal earlier this month.
Councilmember Tammy Morales' amendment to double the STBD...
The Seattle City Council is about to vote on the Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) and decide the measure that appears on the ballot in November. We've covered the issue closely from the days when a countywide proposal was still on a table to when when it...
At a Thursday press conference on the state's Covid response, Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced he was extending the eviction moratorium and presumably the rent freeze through October 15th. He also promised that at least $100 million in rent assistance was on the way via the federal...
