Next City's article "Five Extreme Models to Combat High Rent" is an interesting read simply because it lays out solutions to housing price problems that have actually been put into practice. It also illustrates (intentionally or not) why some of those methods aren't actually solutions.
Methods That Aren't Working
The first method discussed is...
One of the biggest pleasures I get out of living in a city is that I don't have to own a car. Cars can be a great convenience and a lot of people enjoy driving, but I've never been one of those people. I've always found driving stressful. Nevertheless,...
Yesterday, in Mayor Murray's first state of the city speech, he touts downtown's low single occupancy mode share (page 10) - fewer than half of downtown commuters drive alone to work, preferring instead transit, walking, biking, or carpooling. He laid out a vision I strongly agree with - reducing driving...
Seattle is in the midst of its update to the city’s comprehensive plan, dubbed “Seattle 2035“. Washington State’s Growth Management Act requires that cities and counties across the state update their comprehensive plans every 10 years to adequately plan for a 20-year horizon. The current update cycle has many...
This post is a follow-up of sorts to two writeups from last year, "(Hopefully Not) The Last Day I Drove the 358," Parts One and Two.
Her black baseball hat has some sort of lettering on it, black calligraphy on a black background. She tosses in the correct amount of...
This week, the City of Seattle's Council Transportation Committee had a briefing on a new staircase at Yesler Terrace called the 10th Avenue S Hill Climb. Tom Fucoloro over at the Seattle Bike Blog gave a great run down on the project benefits and design.
The 10th Ave S Hill Climb...
Sure, that's a pretty picture, but let's face it: Pike/Pine as a corridor sucks. Yeah, there's a lot of lovely buildings and kitschy businesses dotting the length of it, but the streetscape is desperately unbalanced as a multi-modal corridor. Travel along this stretch of the Pike/Pine corridor any Friday...
In his “Why Urbanism?” post, Ben cited research showing cities cause people to voluntarily have fewer children. From a planetary carrying capacity perspective, that may be a good thing. As Ben put it, “the more dense a city center is allowed to become, the lower each person’s emissions become.”...