Doug Trumm
Doug Trumm is The Urbanist's Publication Director. He moved to Seattle from Minnesota in 2014 and recently graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at UW. He lives in East Fremont/West Wallingford and loves to explore the city on his bike.
Update: At the March 1 transportation meeting, Lisa Herbold's anti-Pronto amendment was defeated in a 1-5 vote, but Mike O'Brien's amendment to buy out Pronto ended in a 3-3 tie with Debora Juarez and Tim Burgess joining Herbold in opposition. This means that the bill will go to the...
This is the second in a two-part series on cross-laminated timber; read the first here.
I've proposed creating a cross-laminated timber (CLT) bonus by adding 35 feet to allowable height and 1.0 to FAR. The goal of this bonus is to speed the adoption of CLT as a building technique and...
The Urbanist has covered how 85- and 125-foot zones are not very effective. Since 65 feet is the sweet spot for Type V construction (also known as 5-over-1) which is up to five light wood-framed floors over a one or two story concrete podium. Adding just 20 feet in height...
In a recent article, I wrote about homelessness and mentioned that the building boom of new (mostly luxury) apartments hasn't positively affected One Night Count numbers yet. Apparently, this is contentious. Urbanists are supposed to only celebrate the primal economic forces of supply and demand; critiquing the market is...
Wallingford could become a flashpoint for backlash against the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) judging by recent events. Last month, the Wallingford Community Council held a public gripe session and wouldn't allow newly elected Councilmember Rob Johnson join their panel due to his support for HALA. The Wallingford contingent...
Seattle got some bad news from the January 29th One Night Count of the homeless population. The Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness reported:
At least 4,505 men, women, and children were without shelter during the three hour street count. This number is an increase of 19% over those found without...
This article originally appeared as a special piece on Strong Towns, which is in the midst of #NoNewRoads week and dedicated Thursday to Washington state coverage.
When state legislators finally passed the Connecting Washington Communities transportation omnibus bill in July, many issued a sigh of relief. With its focus on...
Reading the tea leaves of the Sound Transit Board, serving Ballard is a clear priority for Sound Transit 3 (ST3). But the Board evidently favors a Ballard-Downtown line via Interbay (I'll just refer to this as Interbay henceforth for brevity). Ballard-University District (Ballard Spur) light rail might offer greater benefits...
