Taking lessons from the YIMBY movement, Robert Cruickshank charts a path forward to build out the 116 miles of light rail promised to voters in the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure, leveraging popular support to press for additional funding and lasting reforms to control costs.
After 15 years fighting for safe streets, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways is excited to become Seattle Streets Alliance to more accurately reflect the nature of our grassroots organization’s mission. Here’s what this changes means.
Cities must commit to downsizing their highway networks if they intend to meet climate and livability goals and expand housing in a healthy and equitable manner. Seattle must lead the way.
Civic leaders from Issaquah say they’re ready to deliver a light rail line that costs less, a station area that generates ridership through housing rather than garages, and a city that is ready to share the work with Sound Transit rather than just make demands.
King County is staring down a fiscal cliff that threatens to dismantle the services our communities rely on most. Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa lays out the case for passing House Bill 2442 to give counties another revenue tool to address their fiscal challenges.
Economic justice advocate John Burbank lays out the case for Washington state lawmakers to keep the estate tax, rather than capitulating to pressure to reduce Washington’s rate to avoid a feared exodus of billionaires and multimillionaires.
The Pierce Transit Board is considering a ballot measure in November 2026 that would boost funding in order to expand bus service, make routes more frequent, and create new transit connections to light rail. Two transit advocacy leaders make the case for this sorely needed measure.
Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is seeking to add a new football/soccer hybrid field for Lincoln High School in Lower Woodland Park, but has chosen a plan that prioritizes parking over accessibility and events, scrapping a recently rebuilt soccer field and historic trees to cram two fields into a footp
Amazon and Microsoft benefit handsomely from a tax loophole in the Workforce Education Investment Act. State lawmakers can end this tax giveaway to boost higher education funding. These tech giants donate millions to curry favor with the Trump administration and garner contracts in the hundreds of m
Revive I-5 is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reduce car dependency and encourage transit, walking, rolling, and biking, but the Seattle region is letting it slip between its fingers. It’s not too late to fix that, opines Kadie Bell Sata.
Building more dense housing within vibrant walkable neighborhoods is a key climate strategy, argues IPCC author Michael Gillenwater. The Seattle Comprehensive Plan could further those opportunities.
Set to build its first protected bike lane, the City of Bremerton proposed a last-minute change to its otherwise excellent 6th Street design, stripping out more than half of the flex posts protecting people biking. But it’s not too late for the City Council to intervene.
Seattle’s Summer Safety Plan and its earlier closing time for city parks is bad news for people who count on evening park access, including artistic communities. Crime data does not support the claim that most parks are trouble spots, but they are vital spaces for many communities.
Sound Transit needs a systematic strategy for closing its $35 billion funding gap. Delivering the expansions promised to voters is possible, but requires political leadership and an appetite for a sea change within the agency. A former SDOT director offers a road map.
Washington state leaders should take action to force the closure of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement penal colony in Tacoma, which is carrying out the unlawful detention of 1500 people.
Seattle renters are largely locked out of cost-saving and comfort-improving clean energy appliances, like heat pumps, induction stoves, and solar panels. Sightline’s Emily Moore argues that newly inaugurated Mayor Katie Wilson could help change that, in part because Seattle owns its own electric uti
With 46,000 workers commuting to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport every day, Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa shares the Port of Seattle’s plans to improve transportation options and encourage transit use.
Washington State is forcing Kitsap County to re-do its Comprehensive Plan for lack of low-income housing, ignoring wildfire risk, and neglecting safe streets requirements. The do-over is a chance to turn away from sprawl, writes Travis Merrigan.
Funded inclusionary zoning unlocks the benefits of inclusionary zoning while offsetting its harms. It’s a path to more market-rate housing and more subsidized affordable housing. While funded inclusionary zoning risks creating a dangerous rift in our pro-housing coalition, amending this policy to al
Cities should overhaul their approach to plazas to create places where people can really belong and linger, argues urban researcher Jae Seong Cho, who points to the shortcomings of Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Plaza and Los Angeles’ Grand Park to illustrate his point.
People experiencing homelessness face huge hurdles to owning dogs and other pets while navigating social services. But Caleb Sinéad Shapiro argues it doesn’t have to be this way.
Tabling a second light rail tunnel through Downtown Seattle and redesigning Ballard Link to use the existing tunnel could save $4.5 billion, and Sound Transit has been too quick to dismiss the idea, Scott Kubly argues. The money saved could reduce delays and fund important transit upgrades elsewhere
Rainier Avenue has too many cars traveling at dangerous speeds, but conventional planning practices make it hard to change that and design a future where Rainier Avenue thrives. Let’s stop making harmful assumptions, Anna Zivarts writes.
The Seattle Monorail should serve local residents, not just tourists. Unfortunately, the plan to end transfer credits in 2026 will gouge local riders and discourage ridership. The City should demand that monorail honor transfers between other transit services.
John Burbank looks back to a series of progressive victories that paved the way for the most significant mayoral victory in Seattle over the past 100 years, with Katie Wilson about to take office.
With three “downtown” stations and counting, Sound Transit must overhaul its station naming policy and name its stations less confusingly so that riders can easily navigate a growing system.
Seattle’s proposed police union contract once again fails to deliver even the meager reforms and accountability promised eight years ago, opines Howard Gale. With Seattle City Council set to vote on the contract this month, here’s the case for rejecting it.
A trove of documents obtained from City of Seattle through public disclosure requests shows work is proceeding gradually but steadily inside the transportation department to take advantage of Washington State’s new Shared Streets Law. Pedestrianizing a number of streets could be around the corner.
Electric trolley buses remain the premier zero-emissions bus technology. They outperform trendy, newer battery electric buses for several reasons that Nathan Vass lays out.
To fill in the gaps in the continuum of care for unhoused neighbors, the Seattle region should deploy mobile tiny house villages, argues Taiwo Adeptun. Managed mobile villages of tiny homes can rotate between eligible locations, providing a rapidly deployable option to get homeless people inside.
Seattle Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson’s transportation platform is bold and visionary, and she will need ongoing community support to achieve it. Seattle Neighborhood Greenways shares some ideas on how she can get started.
Four case studies show how Seattle’s new middle housing zoning incentives align with demographic shifts to meet housing demand.
The Trump administration is gutting health care, child care, and food stamps. John Burbank argues Governor Bob Ferguson should immediately call a special session of the Washington State Legislature to fund services that the federal government has cut by taxing the corporations and billionaires bankr
An opioid treatment nurse shares why they support Katie Wilson for Seattle Mayor and trust her to address interlinked crises around housing, homelessness, and opiate addiction.
Nathan Vass shares a vignette gleaned from driving buses for King County Metro in Seattle, talking with passengers, and absorbing street life happening around the bus route.
Seattle has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve public safety outcomes by civilianizing more tasks and focusing police on major crime. That’s what mayoral candidate Katie Wilson’s public safety platform proposes, which Bryan Kirschner argues would be anti-bad guy, pro-good cop, and taxpayer-
Public education advocate Melissa Westbrook breaks down the issues facing Seattle Public Schools as four of seven seats on the school board are up for grabs this election and a new superintendent is about to be installed.
Eddie Lin announced the endorsement of the Washington Working Families Party and shared how the group helped him hone his stance on social housing.
The Urbanist and Tech4Housing are hosting a rally and mega-canvass Sunday in Columbia City for Seattle City Council candidates Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Dionne Foster, and Eddie Lin, City Attorney candidate Erika Evans, and mayoral candidate Katie Wilson. Join us to help put the urbanist slate over the
One local builder lays out the case for passing the City’s Multifamily Tax Exemption Program 7 proposal, which would expand access to a wider pool of renters and encourage participation in the program. The Seattle City Council is set to vote today.
Today, John Feit’s Shoreline Street End series visits South Lake Union. In previous posts, he’s explored street end park spaces all over the city, often hidden gems.
The Union Bay Natual Area is 74 acres of public open space with miles of trails, but the University of Washington has rebuffed advocates pushing to remove a fence and add a trail to improve access. Here’s why they should reconsider.
Some Sound Transit boardmembers have questioned the necessity of building a second light rail tunnel in downtown Seattle, arguing that routing Ballard Link through the existing tunnel could save billions. However, that arrangement introduces huge challenges of its own. Here’s why a second tunnel is
A thriving Mount Baker Transit Center requires pedestrian upgrades, a revitalized commercial district, and plenty of housing nearby. Unfortunately, the City of Seattle is investing elsewhere, with North Rainier an afterthought.
Assuming bottomless motorist demand and no mode shift to transit made the Seattle Department of Transportation’s study of Denny Way bus lanes effectively worthless. Route 8 upgrades deserves real consideration.
Kroger blames theft for four local grocery store closures, but the real story is more complicated. Kroger seeks to squeeze out more profit by driving up food insecurity. Standing up public or nonprofit alternatives and pressuring Kroger to be a better corporate citizen offer potential solutions goin
Facing a tough election battle, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has been ramping up his pace of press events and social media posts. A former McGinn staffer shares how ethics officials warned McGinn’s office against such activity, which could constitute a misuse of public resources for campaign purposes
Kirkland Councilmember Penny Sweet makes the case for why Shilpa Prem should be her successor on Council. The Urbanist Elections Committee agreed and endorsed Prem, too.
Faced with an agency-wide budget gap approaching $30 billion for the next wave of expansion plans, Sound Transit boardmembers are retreating to their corners and doubling down on parochialism. Clearly, a more holistic approach is needed, driven by outcomes and regional cooperation.
The average $2,000 per month Social Security check isn’t enough for most to live on, especially given the high cost of living on the West Coast. Here’s the case for states instituting supplemental Social Security programs.
Runners are competing in a 36-mile “Light Rail Relay” race on September 27. It’s a low-cost, transit-friendly way to compete in a cross-country race tracking the path of 1 Line Link service.
Planned 4 Line light rail would stop well short of urban cores in Kirkland and Issaquah and not open until the 2040s. This makes bus rapid transit a better fit that can be deployed more quickly and economically, Oliver Chen argues.
Railroad giants like BNSF have often deferred maintenance on their tracks and pressured government to pay for it. This had led some officials to consider taking over ownership, like Washington State did with the Palouse River & Coulee City (PCC) Railroad. Collin Reid lays out the case for greater go
Tech workers like me don’t enjoy being a bargaining chip to protect our CEO’s bottom line. And we know better than anyone else that their claims are false: corporate giants can afford higher taxes.
Seattle is a “you are on your own” city rather than one cares for vulnerable residents, especially our youngest kids. John Burbank lays out how to change that with investments in infant and child care.
Only three of 15 high schools analyzed in King County have carpooling incentives: Issaquah, Redmond, and Interlake high schools. Expanding carpooling incentives would allow schools to encourage greener commutes while getting more utility out of limited parking spaces.
After losing three consecutive mayoral races and six of nine Council seats in two years, Seattle progressives sealed their best Primary election in over a decade. Across the board, Seattle progressives head into November as favorites.
Last week school board director Liza Rankin wrote a memo to her colleagues suggesting a major new round of austerity for the Seattle Public Schools that could revive a plan to close numerous schools. Robert Cruickshank argues that’s the wrong approach.
It is vital that Seattleites vote yes on Proposition 1 in the August 5 primary to renew the democracy voucher program for another 10 years. Here’s Jazmine Smith’s case for why.
SDOT’s latest report indicates the agency is envisioning the future of Aurora Avenue N to look nearly exactly the same as it has for the last 100 years: a dangerous, high speed, six- to seven-lane highway. Seattle needs to do better.
Two leaders lay out the case for approving King County Parks Levy, which is on the primary ballot this summer.
Landlords have used ratio utility billing systems as a backdoor to jack up rents. It’s time to ban the practice in Washington State.
The mega wealthy are gaining even greater wealth thanks to Trump tax cuts while hundreds of thousands people are set to lose health care, food stamps, child care, and K-12 educational necessities. The Washington State Legislature should pass progressive funding to maintain and rebuild public service
Washington State has big housing plans and ambitious planning tools, but it needs binding commitments across public, private, and social sectors to turn vision into reality. As it stands, housing isn’t being built fast enough to stem the affordability crisis.
A group of high school student activists make the case we don’t need more cops in schools. We need more care, as the Seattle Student Union fought for and had been promised. The research is clear on what works.
Progressive mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary is a watershed moment for New York City, and Seattle is on the cusp of its own watershed moment with the opportunity to elect Katie Wilson, a progressive who would break a long run of timid centrist leadership.
A June 15th hit-and-run crash on Lake Washington Boulevard during a Bicycle Weekend makes the case for expanding the event and improving safety features on the boulevard. The reticence of police to investigate hit-and-run collisions may also be contributing to a culture of motorist impunity.
Reviving community court isn’t a simple fix for Seattle’s criminal legal system — pre-filing diversion programs are more effective, cost less money, and avoid the harmful consequences of prosecution. Here’s one Seattle City Attorney candidate’s plan.
On Monday, June 23, the Seattle City Council is holding a public hearing on the One Seattle growth plan. Housing advocates must defend the 29 neighborhood centers in the plan and push to add more. Jazmine Smith lays out the case for these eight additions.
Sound Transit diverges from international standards by building oversized underground stations that add hundreds of millions in costs to little benefit. Overhauling the agency’s planning framework to promote more efficient designs could help keep projects on track as they face massive financial stra
We need to be absolutely clear: we will not allow Seattle to become a testing ground for authoritarianism. And resistance starts with using every legal tool at our disposal. The Seattle City Attorney’s office has a central role to play in defending our neighbors and our fundamental rights. Here’s ho
King County Council Chair Girmay Zahilay and Rian Watt make the case for a more inclusive urbanism: “To fully realize the transformative promise of urbanism, we must be willing to ask: urbanism for whom?”
Restoring transit routes to First Avenue, after they were removed in 2011 to make way for the demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, is a needed step in downtown mobility as the neighborhood enters a new era.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell called for an internal report after police took heat for disrupting a pro-LGBTQ counterprotest and shielding anti-trans protesters. Given a long-running pattern of police failures, the process must be public and rigorous to make a difference, Seattle City Attorney candida
Urban planner Markus Johnson proposes a series of building code changes that would provide more desirable and accessible multifamily housing at a more reasonable construction cost than most current multifamily development in Seattle.
The Seattle Police Officers Guild has continually sabotaged reform after reform. We can no longer allow SPOG leadership to remain an obstacle to accountable, constitutional policing. Seattle City Attorney candidate Nathan Rouse lays out what the office can do to help.
Governor Bob Ferguson blocked efforts to tax the rich, pushing Democrats to implement austerity cuts that included raising the cost of child care and cutting early learning. A weakened social safety net makes the state less prepared to weather further Trump chaos.
Seattle Councilmember Cathy Moore announced Friday that she is withdrawing her proposal weakening the City’s ethics rules, pledging to fine-tune the idea and bring it back. Collin Thrower lays out why she is on the wrong track.
Civil engineer Donna Breske argued Seattle Public Utilities misguided water hookup policies lead to unequal outcomes, effectively downzoning much of the city where fees are too high to make projects feasible.
Nathan Vass shares what inspired him to write his second book, Deciding To See, which just came out. A King County Metro bus operator and supervisor by day, the author has a release event at Elliott Bay Books on Friday night.
A 2018 traffic stop ended with a horrific Seattle police killing of Iosia Faletogo deemed “lawful and proper.” Six years later a jury saw it differently, but the inquest also highlighted the need for stronger police accountability mechanisms.
In the middle of a homelessness crisis, Seattle is still allowing employers to reject qualified job applicants simply because they don’t have a permanent address. That’s discrimination, and the Seattle City Attorney should lead the way in banning the practice.
Here are five things Seattle leaders could be doing to lower your rent, in observance of Affordable Housing Week.
School board directors Sarah Clark and Joe Mizrahi break down how flawed enrollment practices are harming students, and may ultimately lead to school closures across the city.
For more than 20 years, Paragon has stood as a striking piece of public art along the Duwamish River. But the City of Seattle is moving forward with dismantling it, citing deterioration. Artist Don Fels details how things got to this point.
A proposal set to drop this week at the Seattle City Council would loosen ethics standards for councilmembers with potential conflicts-of-interest. Mayoral candidate Katie Wilson breaks down why that’s a terrible idea.
Friends of Little Saigon is launching an effort called Phố Đẹp or Beautiful Neighborhood to break the cycle of disinvestment and neglect and create true community safety. For Seattle’s Vietnamese community, the intersection of home and hope is Little Saigon.
Last Wednesday, Rep. Shaun Scott and a group of educators sought a meeting with Ferguson to voice concerns about social service cuts, but were rebuffed by an out-of-office governor more focused on appeasing the rich. Perhaps the state would be better off if the governor vacated the office permanentl
The theory was that opportunity zone tax incentives would spur the revitalization of underserved neighborhoods. But in practice, they have often failed to produce meaningful benefits for long-time residents. In cities across America — from Baltimore to Oakland, Cleveland to Atlanta — the pattern is
Homeless encampment sweeps have tripled under Mayor Harrell, but shelter capacity has shrunk, and the number of people who are unsheltered remains stubbornly high.
Too many people are sitting in a jail cell simply because they cannot afford bail while they await trial. Seattle City Attorney candidate Nathan Rouse lays out the case to end cash ball for nonviolent misdemeanors.
Nat Henry maps out Mayor Harrell’s growth plan and finds his transit corridor plan would would upzone fewer than 1 in 10 parcels within a five-minute walk of transit stops. That forces renters onto dangerous, polluted arterial roads, where apartments would be narrowly focused.
Governor Bob Ferguson should sign HB 1232 into law and immediately make use of the enforcement mechanisms it contains to stop unconstitutional detentions at ICE’s Tacoma Processing Center. The State should also impose fines on the for-profit corporate jailer to discourage the violations.
Andrew Villeneuve offers recommendations for Redmond eats, activities, and happenings and invites urbanists to Northwest Progressive Institute’s Downtown Redmond Link opening day celebration on May 10.
Lori Markovitz shares how House Bill 1596 could have saved her son by requiring anti-speeding technology for motorists with records of reckless driving. The bill needs to pass the state Senate by Wednesday to avoid a cutoff and become law in Washington state.
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 fund
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.
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.