Opinion

Expectations are high for longtime board member Dow Constantine's new job as Sound Transit CEO. Here's what The Urbanist's newsroom has at top-of-mind in the months ahead.

After the last attempt to replace the I-5 bridge between Portland and Vancouver stalled out due to Clark County Republicans’ opposition to bringing MAX light rail across the river, proponents hoped to have better luck, but a similar debate is erupting. The C-Tran board is set to vote Tuesday on funding MAX operations.

Wealthy landlords are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to mislead Washingtonians and to try to block a moderate, but protective rent stabilization bill that will finally provide renters with predictability and stability over their housing costs. 

Boeing has taken in billions in tax breaks from Washington State, but still lays off workers all the same. Nonetheless, state lawmakers are pushing to include a loophole to a new tax to shield Boeing yet again.

New legislation in Olympia could help us rethink and reclaim the street as a true public easement. If passed and its provisions delivered, we can look forward to streets that are not only more welcoming of public life, but a lot less deadly to all users. 

Seattle Times opinion columnist Alex Fryer gets pretty much everything wrong in his hit piece about new South Park townhomes. The project will add trees, despite dramatic photos the newspaper took before the developer finished its planned tree plantings, which is not advised in the winter. 

Workers at Baja Concrete and Newway Forming contend their bosses stole millions in wages, but Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison has been slow to press their case, Rory O'Sullivan writes. Wage theft prosecutions are down under her administration.

Cars and sprawl that are the true problem as the Puget Sound region seeks to boost salmon runs and protect salmon-eating orca whales. Building more homes in Seattle is the way to curb sprawl.