Commentary

Founder Owen Pickford reflects on a decade of The Urbanist and urges urbanists to chip in to keep this institution strong. Please make a donation during our spring member drive.

Reforms being considered by Bremerton as part of this year's major planning update include eliminating parking mandates, removing height limits in downtown, and expanding neighborhoods where additional density is allowed.

Mayor Harrell's contract would make Seattle police the highest paid in the region, but no more accountable. The long-awaited new proposed contract between the City...

With a transportation levy going to ballot this fall, advocates want at least 50% of investments to be dedicated toward pedestrian, bike, and transit upgrades. They also want the City to go big, with a levy of at least $1.7 billion, but the Mayor appears set to go smaller.

Eleven "Street Ends" along the south shore of Salmon Bay and the Fremont Cut offer great recreational opportunities. SDOT and volunteers from Friends of Street Ends work to maintain and expand these mini parks.

The current attempt to reshape how Aurora Avenue operates represents a phenomenal test for the City of Seattle. Is its pledge to end traffic deaths real or just for show?

New footage shows how police kettled protesters, trapping them in a corridor of violence in the early days of 2020 protests. Despite the historic magnitude of financial costs to the city across multiple legal settlements, in the three-plus years since the summer of 2020, the department internally has rarely found any of its conduct to be worthy of punishment beyond a handful of oral and written reprimands.

Seattle's Republican City Attorney is disqualifying a progressive Municipal Court judge in a deeply undemocratic move, given that judges are elected and meant to be a check on executive power.