Our editors' picks from The Urbanist.
Seattle's only annual open streets festival along the South Seattle waterfront will run every single weekend this summer outside of Seafair. Wilson's changes are a bold reversal of her predecessor's scaling back of Bicycle Weekends.
Completion of the full 2 Line has brought Bellevue so much closer to the rest of the region. That's set to provide Bellevue's slate of elected leaders, transformed to match the city in recent years, with major opportunities to advance progressive citybuilding.
At a rally Monday, Seattle housing advocates pushed for broader corridor upzones within a 10-minute walk of frequent transit, enlisting a powerful supporter to their side in Mayor Katie Wilson. Wilson has already pledged a "taller, denser, faster" housing plan.
Transit advocates shared ideas to save Ballard Link light rail from being cut or severely delayed at a rally Saturday. A ballooning budget has Sound Transit considering drastic measures, but advocates see a path forward to get to Market Street.
Tens of thousands of riders came out to ride the 2 Line across Lake Washington Saturday, as Sound Transit inaugurated the light rail link between the east and west metro.
The Seattle region will take arguably its biggest leap forward in transit connectivity ever on Saturday, with Sound Transit inaugurating crosslake 2 Line service. Here's how we got here.
The second opportunity for Washington residents to snag a $300 or $1,200 rebate for a new e-bike will last an entire year, with random winners selected monthly through next spring.
At a board retreat Wednesday, Sound Transit weighed three cost-cutting approaches that all included deferring light rail stations in Ballard and Interbay to a later date when funding allows. Seattle Councilmember Dan Strauss pushed back against that approach.
The University of Washington Center for Human Rights reports a “powerful surge” in immigration enforcement in the region. Local officials are accelerating efforts to block federal detention center expansions.
Thanks to newly revealed cost-saving measures, the cost to bring rail to Alaska Junction is now just $700 million to $1.1 billion over the amount baked into Sound Transit's financial plan, a major change compared to where things stood just 18 months ago.
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Hoping to avoid simply delaying projects or shortening lines, Sound Transit has been looking high and low for potential cost savings. Those options are set to be contemplated at a March 18 board retreat that will set the stage for major decisions in the months ahead.
The proposal to empower local governments across Puget Sound to set up their own passenger ferry districts fell short in the Senate after passing the House last year. Its sponsor is pushing even harder this year, seeking to bolster the precarious state ferry system.
Anticipation is building for the 2 Line extension March 28, crossing Lake Washington and tying the Eastside into Sound Transit’s broader light rail network. But much work remains to get the next set of expansions right, and removing Claudia Balducci as System Expansion Chair launches that work on a
A pair of bills advancing this week at the state legislature would finally allow Sound Transit to rise above the local permitting fray in several key areas. The reforms could save as much as nine months on key transit projects, according to the agency.
Zoning maps for 30 new neighborhood growth centers, a handful of urban center expansions, and narrow transit corridor rezones dropped on Thursday. With the patchy current vision driven by the Harrell administration, new Mayor Katie Wilson has pledged to come back and expand the plan.
Eagerly awaited by transit riders, the full 2 Line light rail connection will finally bridge Seattle and the Eastside and bring expanded train service all the way from Redmond to Lynnwood. The expansion will bring stations at Judkins Park and Mercer Island online.
The Urbanist recently sat down with Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson to get the latest on initiatives she has cooking now that her team is in office. We touched on emergency housing, bus lanes, World Cup preparations, Sound Transit, culture change at the police department, and more.
New cost estimates on the long-planned Interstate Bridge Replacement over the Columbia River reveal a funding gap that could range from $5 billion to a staggering $13 billion, an amount that neither Washington nor Oregon is prepared to absorb.
Sound Transit’s analysis, prompted by a request from King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, looks at ways to get to Ballard without a new tunnel under Downtown Seattle. While the potential cost savings could be as much as $4.5 billion in 2025 dollars, but staff is stressing delay and risk.
In a 6-3 vote, Seattle City Council approved a police guild contract that falls short on officer accountability and continues to hinder civilian crisis responders. A parting gift from outgoing Mayor Bruce Harrell, the contract could hamstring the incoming administration of Katie Wilson.
Transit riders and elected officials alike celebrated light rail’s arrival in South King County, as Sound Transit held a grand celebration to tout its three new stations and cut the ribbon in Federal Way.
As the Sound Transit board approaches the point of grappling with how to rebalance the entire Sound Transit 3 package, transit advocates are urging them to look for new solutions outside of project delays or cancellations.
Katie Wilson will be Seattle’s next Mayor. The progressive challenger expanded her lead over current Mayor Bruce Harrell to nearly 2,000 votes in Wednesday’s count, and The Urbanist and other local outlets have called the race for Wilson.
Leaders from across the Pacific Northwest recently gathered at the Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference in Seattle and reaffirmed their commitment to building high-speed rail linking Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, B.C. But Trump has created headwinds for the project by slashing transit funds.
On the whole, there were bright spots for urbanist candidates all around the region, with major gains seen in Burien, Redmond, and Tacoma. There was also some backsliding in places like Sammamish and Bainbridge Island.
The Urbanist Elections Committee is excited to announce our 2025 general election endorsements, which span the region from Tacoma to Everett. Be sure to vote by November 4.
Since voters approved West Seattle and Ballard Link in 2016, the two projects have been caught in a perfect storm of factors that led to the eye-popping cost estimates that we have today. While the path forward looks bleak, there are signs that Sound Transit is learning from its mistakes.
Reductions in the size of proposed growth centers and new tree retention rules that could stifle homebuilding were among the dozens of Seattle growth plan amendments approved this week. Council rejected moves to make the plan bolder in a number of areas, fretting over the risk of legal appeals.