Ryan Packer
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.
The 1.2-mile bike lane restores a connection along the central waterfront that hasn't existed in years, and is sure to turn into one of the city's most highly-used bike facilities.
In choosing how to fill a $1 billion budget hole over the next two years, Washington State lawmakers are being forced to take a hard look at deferring or even cancelling some long-planned highway capacity projects.
County Executive Dow Constantine says Metro has made the right choices when it comes to balancing service expansion needs with transitioning the fleet toward climate-friendly electric alternatives, even as the agency faces significant financial headwinds in the years to come.
The 3-2 vote in committee sets up a final decision later this month, but the Port of Seattle is suggesting they may take legal action against the move.
The 30 to 60 days of additional review isn't unique to Sound Transit's light rail project, CEO Goran Sparrman said, but will nonetheless likely alarm many transit advocates and threaten the project's schedule.
Newcastle Mayor Robert Clark pushed to remove references to promoting racial and social equity as "vague," "subjective," and "irrelevant," and called climate change "subjective." Many of his recommendations were adopted by the Newcastle Planning Commission.
Dow Constantine pointed to past Sound Transit board members who have unsuccessfully tried to become the agency's CEO, and defended the process that has taken place so far to get to five finalists, including himself.
Praised for delivering Seattle's massive waterfront revamp, the Office of the Waterfront has faced criticism for being shadowy and unaccountable. Now it will become a one-stop-shop for Sound Transit permitting.