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.
By a 5-3 vote last week, the Seattle City Council said it wasn't ready to plan for the decommissioning of the South Lake Union Streetcar. But unifying the city's two streetcar lines into one system seems less likely than ever before.
A third-party consultant told the Sound Transit board this week that the Fourth Avenue station option in Chinatown is "not reasonably constructible," due to lengthy construction timelines and a laundry list of risks that come with construction next to a BNSF rail line.
The area around a future light rail station in South Federal Way could see a significant amount of new housing and retail uses under the plan approved earlier this month. It is currently dominated by big box stores and industry.
A proposal to be considered this week at the Seattle City Council's budget committee asks for a plan to wind down service on the South Lake Union Streetcar, which has operated since 2007.
More than 4,000 riders jumped on a RapidRide G bus on an average weekday in October, strong performance for a brand new bus route. Trending up, the G Line has room to grow.
Despite being a longtime parking reform leader, Seattle is set to require off-street parking, even as it unlocks significant housing capacity near transit. This will make housing harder to build.
Passage of Seattle's transportation levy was all but assured Tuesday night, after initial returns showed two-thirds of voters in support.
Bainbridge Island and its picturesque downtown of Winslow is poised to see significant changes thanks to new state laws, as the Bainbridge council grapples with how to plan housing growth for the coming decades.