Cities & Planning

Today, it only represents about 1.5% of the electricity used. A report from Environment America shows how installed rooftop solar increased 1000% in the past decade, and how it has a long runway of growth ahead.

Fewer cases of childhood asthma is one possible outcome.

Yakima, Boise, Missoula, and Pocatello could see Amtrak service again under a new federal plan that adds a daily route from Seattle to Denver and another running to Chicago on a modified alignment from Amtrak's Empire Builder.

After publishing the articles Edmonds: Entering the automobile age and the Edmonds 1911 Monorail, I was asked by several people to write about the Seattle-Everett Interurban Railway regarding when it was...

Ownership matters. From the climate crisis to concentrated corporate power, ownership shapes how our economy operates and in whose interest. Only by reimagining it can we build an economy that's democratic and sustainable by design.

How public ownership of new renewable capacity can accelerate the energy transition.

A Review of the Long-Awaited Revised Edition of Public Transit's Bible When I'm working on a non-fiction book, there sometimes comes a moment when I realize that there's somebody out there who has already reached many of the conclusions that I've been fumbling, in my non-expert way, to grasp. In

White Castle has its own take on fast food hamburgers. For starters, the patties are square, with five holes in each patty. And they’re small, too –- two-and-a-half inch sliders. Just big enough to fit into the palm of your hand. And since they’re steamed on a bed of onions, everything is infused with this

Plans to create room for people biking on 11 corridors across BelRed, Wilburton, and Downtown Bellevue have been paused. Staff said it's a routine step to address an ethics complaint, but opponents are hoping to make the pause permanent.

Uytae Lee of About Here highlights Kensington Market, a very diverse district in Toronto steeped in history. It’s increasingly become a popular area of the city for redevelopment interest. Lee highlights how the community is trying to move forward while having a stronger stake in decisions around how the neighborhood changes through a community land

The new “Happy to Chat” seats in the Trade Center Plaza had an impact on me. While there are plenty of people who will ignore the nudges prompted by the seating, the seats are fun, whimsical, and fairly inexpensive pieces of civic infrastructure.

Washington continues to build new highways even as maintenance, safety, and community needs continue to grow. America Walks is pushing for a nationwide reconsideration of continued highway expansion.

Dramatic changes in energy industry and EVs reducing fossil fuel use, but shipping, aviation and industry a long way from net zero

A Grist report reveals that over the past 150 years, WSU has collected at least $1B in profit from land taken from 21 Indigenous nations.

Filed Tuesday, I-136 would create a dedicated income stream for social housing, generating around $50 million per year.

Source:  curbed.com (Janna Morton) Let’s talk about the nation’s housing affordability crisis. I recently downloaded some 2023 third qua...

Automation isn't always a bad thing.

Seen from above, Sofia, Bulgaria, looks less like a city and more like a forest. Large “interblock park” green spaces between big apartment structures are a defining characteristic of the city. They’re not so much “parks” in the formal sense, with fences and gates, just open green areas growing up in interstitial spaces left behind.

One year after California cut how much households are paid for surplus power, Puerto Rico is preserving net metering to foster clean energy.

But what would change if we added a number to the hurricane scale?

The state responded to feedback from urbanists and homebuilders by finetuning its draft model code for missing middle housing to be more generous around lot coverage, floor area ratio, setbacks, and design standards.

Our five-part docuseries on the fragilization of the electric grid is on YouTube. It’s free. And it’s terrific.

A vocal critic of highway expansion, Mello's urbanist vision includes "parks and open space trails, a good transportation network, safe places to walk and bike." He's running for County Executive to seek to implement that vision.

Sound Transit is weighing parking rate structures as it works to expand its fledgling paid parking program to a projected 21 facilities along Link and Sounder lines by 2026.

Support is dwindling for the Center City Streetcar project. Failing to connect two disconnected streetcar lines could spell a death spiral for Seattle streetcars, which are limping along without the central link.

Everett Transit's possible consolidation with Community Transit is advancing slower than anticipated, but emerging details suggest that transit riders in Everett could be better off if the city department folded into Snohomish County's larger transit service provider. Under today's paradigm, Everett Transit has just 10 city bus routes with only three of those offering all-day

Transit is woven into America's DNA. Despite car-centric policies, transit remains popular and primed for a comeback.

// A Brief History of a Dysfunctional Relationship When I was writing Straphanger, I had a conversation with a New York Times editor who expressed her skepticism that anyone would be interested in a book about trains, bicycles, and transit. "You're never going to get Americans out of their cars," was

The cost of specialized farm equipment is one of the biggest barriers for small-scale and beginning farmers. Cooperatives are springing up around the nation to help bridge the gap.

Outside of Charleston, South Carolina, in the picturesque marshes of the Kiawah River, sits more than 100 acres of working farmland. Seasonal crops rotate