Stephen Fesler
Stephen is an urban planner with a passion for promoting sustainable, livable, and diverse cities. He advocates for smart policies, regulations, and implementation programs that enhance urban environments by committing to quality design, accommodating growth, providing a diversity of housing choices, and adequately providing public services. Stephen primarily writes about land use and transportation issues.
Community Transit is charting two very different paths for service growth as local transit agencies grapple with the economic fallout of Covid. In the six-year draft Transit Development Plan (TDP), Community Transit contemplates what service would look like under "slow recovery" and "rapid recovery" scenarios. The delta...
https://youtu.be/6IN4ZcZAUbA
Global climate change is brewing a crisis for growing coffee. As annual temperatures rise, coffee plants are being threatened with mass withering. The global zone for production is a narrow band, making this a recipe for disaster.
Later this month, King County Metro will implement what is supposed to be a twice yearly service change--though the pandemic has forced volatile interim service changes since March. The September service change will bring a 15% reduction in service hours over pre-pandemic levels, making it the most...
Slow start: Two years later, Minneapolis' zoning reform is slow to deliver on triplexes.
Over-talked narrative: The media is obsessed with the "death of the city" narrative.
Cafe streets: Streetsblog Chicago says that Chicago's cafe streets have been a huge success...
https://youtu.be/ZfYkd6_Kdno
Is there any credence to the skyscraper index in forecasting economic downturns? Bloomberg Citylab explores this debated theory.
https://youtu.be/isGphfMP0n0
What are ethnoburbs? And how are they becoming an influential feature in cities? Quartz looks at one growing in New York City.
On Thursday, the Sound Transit Board of Directors received a briefing on specific paused capital project actions which could become unfrozen if approved this fall. Projects that were not already at the construction phase as the pandemic hit, particularly in the Sounder commuter rail program, parking program,...
Parochial ax-grinding: Mercer Island is fighting over planned facilities supporting light rail again.
Gentle density: A bill in California would allow duplexes on most urban single-family lots ($).
CLT in Spokane: Spokane is getting a new cross-laminated timber office building.
