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Urbanist Jargon

Urbanism 101: Hostile Architecture

All urban design and architecture is implemented with a particular goal in mind — often to shape people’s behavior in a particular direction. Hostile...

The Urbanist Podcast: Your Guide to City Ranking Lists

We get a lot of news-ish emails about ranking cities in lists. Whether it's the best cities for strange hats or the metros that...

The Olympia Waltz Continues for Middle Housing and Other Vital Legislation

WALeg Wednesday on a Thursday follows the bills that got to swap chambers as the music goes on for some and others fail for...

Explainer: What’s an Environmental Impact Statement?

An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) sounds like a highly technical and complex mechanism of governance. They take years, spiral into hundreds of pages with...
Share The Cities co-hosted a tenant bootcamp with Be:Seattle in Queen Anne on December 17. (Credit: Laura Loe)

Acronyms for Action: TOPA Could Help Tenants Buy Their Homes

Seattle and Washington State want to maintain housing affordability and the other Washington (D.C.) laid the groundwork to do it via legislation providing tenants...

Acronyms for Action: ISRD

What is the International Special Review District (ISRD)?  The International Special Review District (ISRD) is where the future of the "look" of the Chinatown-International District...

What Is The PLUZ Committee?

 (....and why do all these urbanists talk in this funny shorthand that makes me feel stupid...) The abundance of acronyms in land use discussions frequently...