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.
After three years of construction to upgrade a water main, rebuild Eastlake Avenue, and install new bus shelters and protected bike lanes, the J Line will open in 2027, replacing Route 70.
Plans to create room for people biking on 11 corridors across BelRed, Wilburton, and Downtown Bellevue have been paused. Staff said it's a routine step to address an ethics complaint, but opponents are hoping to make the pause permanent.
Washington continues to build new highways even as maintenance, safety, and community needs continue to grow. America Walks is pushing for a nationwide reconsideration of continued highway expansion.
With the launch of RapidRide G service later this year, a whole slate of changes to nearby routes are planned pending adoption by the King County Council. Nearby routes see frequency reductions, with the boosted Route 60 an exception.
Filed Tuesday, I-136 would create a dedicated income stream for social housing, generating around $50 million per year.
Whether allowing new detached dwelling units on most lots in the state's rural areas would undermine decades of growth planning is a question that's been put front-and-center by House Bill 2126.
A vocal critic of highway expansion, Mello's urbanist vision includes "parks and open space trails, a good transportation network, safe places to walk and bike." He's running for County Executive to seek to implement that vision.
King County is falling behind on its climate goals due to a reticence to tackle transportation emissions, the top source of climate pollution in the region.