Cities & Planning

As everyone must know by now, I'm not a fan of art that begins and ends with quirkiness.

This is the fourth entry in our Metropolis of the Month for November 2023, Washington, DC. By Timothy Kumfer Standing on the sidewalk with a loudspeaker, Walter Pierce addressed the crowd assembled…

Metropolitan King County has 31 separate jurisdictions orbiting Seattle. Let’s cut that down by a lot.

Can the new Tumblr-grown aesthetic break through the smog to change the Twenty-First Century conversation?

Consumer societies produce enough plastic waste to power at least 10% of motorized road traffic. Dutch artist Gijs Schalkx grabbed the opportunity and now drives his car on the plastic waste he collects.

The State has a role in defining the market for freight and charting emissions reductions with a shift to rail. When the Washington State Legislature passed the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) in 2021, it codified economic decarbonization as the government’s priority. To this end, the law created an ambitious emissions market system with two primary

An ambitious plan to electrify thousands of apartments.

Three new European policies, from laws on sustainable packaging to textiles, are being rolled out across the continent

On Thursday, the Sound Transit System Expansion Committee approved a contract to start project development work on two Seattle infill stations. The long-awaited Graham Street and Boeing Access Road stations, which are planned to open in 2031, will move into early planning next year. The history of both stations goes back a long way. Sound

These six ideas would create a brighter future for local libraries by adapting to emerging needs. Currently, both the Seattle Public Library (SPL) and the King County Library System (KCLS) are conducting surveys to inform future operations. The SPL survey is to inform SPL’s future strategic plan and the KCLS survey is more of a general

A new architectural movement is using design to aid the post-traumatic growth of the most vulnerable in society

Seattle's downtown bike network is about to take a big step forward in the coming months as work finally gets underway to create a fully separated connection between Capitol Hill and downtown via Pike and Pine Streets. When complete, riders will no longer have to choose between awkwardly riding on the sidewalk or sharing a

It's Time to Reassess a Tired Label

Seattle's massive number of zones hide a couple very weird outliers. Or they would be outliers, if there weren't so many.

Late Friday afternoon, walk-on passengers heading to and from Colman Dock on Seattle's waterfront were able to use a brand new pedestrian bridge directly connecting the terminal with First Avenue over Alaskan Way, a final element in the $489 million overhaul of the city's flagship Washington State Ferries terminal. The new facility provides a wider

A rapid mode shift from planes and lanes to trains is a healthy climate solution. Many thanks to Stephen Fesler for his reporting on the new Amtrak Cascades Plan. As he describes, it’s better than current service -- but insufficient to meet 2030 climate imperatives. Washington law has multiple climate-mitigation requirements. Most are ignored or

On November 13, the greater Miami area will see the biggest transformation in where you can go on public transit since Metrorail opened almost 40 years ago.  Not a new rail line, but a huge redesign of the bus network that will make it useful to more people for more trips, all over the […]

In the mid-1900s, people flocked to Reno, Nevada — not for frontier gold or loose slots, but to get out of bad marriages.  The city became known as the “Divorce Capital of the World.” For much of modern history, it has been relatively easy to get married, and extremely difficult to get divorced — and

On Being an Advocate for Public Transit When the Public Realm Is Disintegrating

Solar energy costs have fallen 90 per cent over the last decade, while new discoveries have seen efficiency rates rise

Hidden on the back of the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., is an engraving of Kilroy, the ubiquitous graffito that accompanied American GIs through Europe and, later, around the world. Some earlier inscriptions: Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia has stood since 537, built by Justinian I as the patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople. It wasn’t until 1964 that runic inscriptions were discovered in the southern gallery, apparently engraved by members of the Varangian Guard during the Viking Age. Their meaning isn’t certain, but one may have read “Halfdan carved these runes” and the other “Ári made the runes.” More may...

The state has a chance to oust unpopular investor-owned utilities — and set a precedent for the rest of the country.

The pandemic kicked off a "doom loop" that has gutted cities and towns across the country. Big banks are making it worse.

Here's the first section of a new paper on electrification in developing countries that I wrote for the Alliance For Responsible Citizenship

New HVAC companies are working on more climate-friendly designs to tackle the "doom loop" of air-conditioning.