Cities & Planning

Mayor Bruce Harrell and Amazon have pushed to add a last-minute alternative for Ballard Link that would drop a station in South Lake Union in order to shift Denny Station west off Westlake Avenue. Transit advocates have condemned the idea for worsening transit connections and adding further delays to an already delayed study. The agency

Riismandel, Kyle. Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture 1975-2001. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020. Reviewed by Davy Knittle In July of 1981, six-year-old Ad…

After World War I, in Frankfurt, Germany, the city government was taking on a big project. A lot of residents were in dire straits, and in the second half of the 1920s, the city built over 10,000 public housing units. It was some of the earliest modern architecture — simple, clean, and uniform. The massive

Sound Transit plans continue to avoid taking car lanes to site light rail. Greater displacement, less space for transit-oriented housing, and more dangerous crossings for pedestrians would be the result. The Sound Transit board is poised to vote on alternatives to be studied in the Everett Link Extension’s first round of environmental review. But the

Seattle’s Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) has announced that release of the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan will be delayed until September. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the plan had been expected to be released this month - itself a delay from the City's previous April 2023 target. The delay of this crucial

Street improvements are often long and drawn-out affairs. Pop-up projects can show otherwise. Urban projects can take a significant amount of time and financing to implement. However, due to increasing pressures such as climate change, population influxes, and a widespread desire to create walkable, bicycle-friendly neighborhoods, more rapid approaches are often needed. Tactical urbanism is

How many new homes could be created if cities in the Puget Sound region legalized denser housing near transit stations and where would they cluster on a map? A recently released tool from the Urban Institute demonstrates the impact of zoning on housing affordability and accessibility in Puget Sound cities by examining four potential zoning

One of my oldest friends from my youth moved to Mexico City after she finished university. I would visit her and we’d have adventures together. On one trip her mom was also visiting from Spain and we explored all the amazing spots in the region. The Zocolo at the center of the city, Frida Kahlo’s ho

From expertise to equity, companies can optimize their supply chains to do good.

A group civics blog covering town council, education, transportation, and recreation in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, NC.

Amid the noisy bustle of Mexico City, there is one iconic sound echoing on repeat in the background. A recording that blares from trucks looking to buy old household items and appliances, either to fix and resell or to sell for scrap. The crews inside these trucks are essentially scrap metal haulers and the recording

Fifty years ago this September, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson sat poolside at the Watergate with a young Pat Buchanan, who, according to Thompson, was “one of the few people in the Nixon admi…

Editor’s note: Due to the sheer amount of interesting material here we decided to break this into a two-part article. All across Japan, one sight remains ubiquitous – the convenience store. A far, far cry from their American cousins, convenience stores in Japan are without exception, spotless, well-stocked, open 24x7,

To cut heat-trapping emissions, we also need to reduce car use.

Officials say they're embracing housing growth, but have some caveats. As Washington's middle housing bill, HB 1110, advanced through the legislature during the first few months of 2023, few city governments were pushing back as ardently at every stage of the process more than Woodinville. The city of 13,000 people on the northern edge of

Today, the city buses in Madison, Wisconsin began doing something new, thanks to a network redesign project that our firm developed with our friends at Madison Metro.  Core parts of the network will run frequently all day for the first time.  More important, many travel times across the city will be much faster, because the […]

The current system makes it hard to build the long-distance power lines needed to transport wind and solar nationwide.

Filmmaker Guillaume Lion visited Low-tech Magazine in Barcelona and turned his experience into a comic for the Belgian magazine Médor.

General Manager Michelle Allison said King County Metro is charting a path to growth, but recovery will take time. Last month King County Metro took the unusual step of announcing its fall service change in the spring. The reason: The agency is cutting service by 4% due to a labor shortage and wanted to soften

The governor was honored with an award from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. A shared enthusiasm for trail networks and the unique recreational opportunities the Olympic Peninsula offers set the tone for this year’s in-person board convening of the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) in Sequim. RTC is based in the other Washington, Washington DC, and the 135-mile

No country loves fried dough more than the United States. But is America split by a hidden doughnut divide? We investigate.

A new Washington state law allows 4-6 unit buildings across the city. Here's what that might look like.