Staff Biography
Owen Pickford
Founder and Former Executive DirectorOwen Pickford does servicing and consulting for a software company to pay the bills. He spends the majority of his free time learning and writing about urban policy. Owen started grassroots advocacy in 2004, organizing over 400 volunteers in three counties for a presidential campaign. Since then he’s continued volunteering for political organizations, cycling and transit groups. Owen primarily wrote about housing issues. He founded The Urbanist and served as executive director through 2019.
Recent Articles
Seattle’s Housing Construction Booms While Permitting Flashes Warning Signs
Plummeting permits could point to a housing slowdown and less affordable housing money after a banner year.
Seattle’s housing production set a new record in 2023, producing 12,853 new homes, according to data from the...
Despite Slowdown Worries, 2021 Sets A Townhouse Production Record in Seattle
Last year, The Urbanist covered a Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBAKS) report suggesting that townhouse development in Seattle might be dropping off a cliff. However, nine months later, data from...
High Speed Rail Is a Solution for Terrible Airlines
The winter holidays gifted Seattle thousands of cancelled flights, likely affecting over 100,000 travellers. Today, weeks later, people are feeling the impacts as airlines try to work through the backlog. I can relate. I’ve...
Spring 2021 Subscriber Drive Financial Update
Last year, The Urbanist started paying an Executive Director for the first time since its founding. The new director started in December 2019 and spent most of last year learning the ropes of fundraising,...
Fall 2020 Urbanist Financial Update: Overcoming a Recession
2020 marks a transition in our spending strategy at The Urbanist. At the beginning of the year we started paying one of our long-term volunteers and former publication director, Doug Trumm, to development work....