Economics

County May Require Shops to Offer Cash Payment Option to Protect Unbanked Residents

Shops in unincorporated King County may have to accept cash as payment if the King County Council moves forward with a proposal meant to...

The Puget Sound Is Adding More Than 4,800 Jobs Monthly, But Where’s The Housing?

If you thought that regional growth might be petering out, you'd be wrong. Recent data from the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) shows that...
Third Avenue near Madison Avenue with office towers, some of the historic, in the background.

Seattle Hopes to Spur Office-to-Housing Conversions with Regulatory Incentives

Facing waning demand for office spaces, landlords are weighing housing conversions, with Mayor Harrell and the Seattle City Council aiming to nudge them in that direction with a recently passed package of regulatory incentives. Financial incentives could be next, but hurdles remain.

Why Urbanists Must Support Linkage Fees and Inclusionary Zoning: A Scalable Policy For Affordable...

Over the past few years a convincing narrative emerged explaining high housing costs in cities. As the narrative goes, urban housing is expensive because...
Alex Pedersen poses in a suitcoat in a City Hall hallway

Budget Reckoning Has Pedersen Calling for Cuts, Not Corporate Taxes

Yesterday, the Seattle City Council dug into the latest budget projections and found the City is expected to be short between $210 million to...

Breaching Locks and Sen. Ericksen’s Stunt Legislation

With the start of the annual Washington State Legislature session comes the annual parade of stunt legislation. Like the return of swallows to Capistrano...

Sunday Video: Why So Many New Buildings Are Covered in Rectangles

https://youtu.be/Ml-ZP-_e_o4 Vox explores why so many new buildings seem to prominently feature rectangular panels as exterior cladding.
A triplex in Magnolia. (Photo by Doug Trumm)

Conventional Conforming: The Quiet Hurdle to Increasing Density

How Federal Subsidy of Loan Interest Rates Block Missing Middle Housing Earlier in the pandemic, I was searching around Zillow. Looking at houses was a...