Posted Wed, Jan 18, 9:02 a.m.

Three quick responses... keith, If you prefer print phone directories, then by all means keep getting them. I certainly won't stand in your way! All I'm trying to do is to make it legal for phone companies to stop delivering the white pages to my house. Right now, state law ...

Posted Mon, Jan 16, 7:54 p.m.

Eric, Thanks for covering this issue. Protecting folks on the analog side of the digital divide is a real concern, so kudos for spelling it out here. That said, there are plenty of ways for an "opt-in" program to look out for those who lack ready access to the web. ...

Posted Wed, Dec 28, 9:25 a.m.

Bob, Thanks for this informative and intelligent article. I'm fascinated by the changing age demographics in urban areas. One interesting development is that places like Seattle and the denser parts of Bellevue are bucking the state and national trend toward fewer children. (More on that here: http://daily.sightline.org/2011/05/03/children-in-the-northwest; and here: http://daily.sightline.org/2011/06/09/crosscuts-flawed-take-on-families-in-seattle.) ...

Posted Wed, Nov 16, 6:59 p.m.

Sigh. I've written about tax loopholes as a general matter so many times I've lost count. Last year I even ,ran a twitter feed as I combed through the state's long list of loopholes and I argued for closing loopholes for everything from heating chicken barns to newspaper sales and ...

Posted Wed, Nov 16, 8:48 a.m.

smacgry, Good insights. Closing the trade-ins loophole wouldn't solve the entire revenue shortfall nor the underlying structural problems with the state's tax system, but that said I also don't think it's small caliber. It's a single fix that would cover one-fifth of the shortfall and iron out an illogical part ...

Posted Thu, Jul 28, 8:35 a.m.

seattlelifer-- I think you mean Prince Rupert, not Prince George. (Prince George is far inland.) The Ridley Terminal at Prince Rupert is not easily served by rail via Bellingham, so coal trains bound for there probably won't affect B'ham in any case. As for Gateway coal getting diverted to other ...

Posted Thu, Jun 9, 5:17 p.m.

Dick, One more thing, your defense in comments doesn't add up. If you'd just done straight up reporting of the Census data, no biggie. But you added unsupportable causal intrepretations like this one: "These variables, in particular, attest to the continuing gentrification of Seattle, and its changing patterns of ethnicity ...

Posted Thu, Jun 9, 5:13 p.m.

Dick, You said nothing about growth management, eh? Then riddle me this: why do the following sentences appear in your article? I quote: "This pattern is not new. But because of growth management and the concentration of higher-density redevelopment in the core cities, the gradient is perhaps more marked than ...

Posted Thu, Jun 9, 12:45 p.m.

This is a remarkably shoddy piece of analysis, misleading at best and demonstrably false at worst. Contrary to Morrill's assertions and implications, families are flourishing in Seattle. As a matter of fact, the city added nearly 6,000 children over the last decade. It's true that Seattle is more childless than ...

Posted Wed, Feb 23, 12:23 p.m.

randydutton-- The coal proposed for export is Powder River Basin coal, which is completely unsuitable for metallurgical purposes. It's true that PRB coal contains less sulfur per ton than the majority of China's domestic coal supplies, but PRB coal is also pretty thin stuff. In fact, you need to burn ...

Posted Fri, Aug 27, 9:35 a.m.

You list some intriguing demographic statistics, but they're missing something important: historical context. We don't know if they represent ways in which Seattle has changed or if things have always been that way here. For example, we do know that Seattle has been a remarkably childless city since at least ...

Posted Mon, Aug 16, 9:36 a.m.

"Washington would move overnight from one of the nine states with no income tax to having the eighth highest rate in the country." This claim is flatly false. Under 1098 Washington would, in fact, have one of the very lowest income tax rates in the country. The WSJ writers are ...

Posted Wed, Jan 13, 12:10 p.m.

Ted-- You are distorting the argument. Let's get clear: you said that the deep-bore tunnel is necessary for public safety. It is not. Closing the Alaska Way Viaduct is necessary, however, but these are different things. Moreover, if the fiscal situation is as dire as you say, then it is ...

Posted Tue, Jan 12, 1:35 p.m.

Ted, This simply boggles the mind: "Big capital projects should be put on hold. That would mean, in Seattle, moving forward with both the deep-bore tunnel... necessary for public safety. " Closing the existing viaduct is imperative to protect public safety. Digging the deep-bore tunnel is a seperate matter, and ...

Posted Wed, Oct 21, 9:15 a.m.

David, The engineering knowledge of the geology under downtown is less well-formed than the knowledge of the Mt Baker ridge was at the time of that tunnel's construction. I don't think you can find an expert who would say otherwise. The construction climate is similar as I note in the ...

Posted Tue, Oct 20, 4:55 p.m.

Inplainair (David), You've got a very odd line of criticism. In the report, I specifically point out the very things you mention in your "critique" here. In some ways, the Mt Baker tunnel is a decent analogue; in other ways, not so much. (Not surprisingly, because it came in under ...

Posted Tue, Oct 20, 9:02 a.m.

Jan-- The study was not coordinated with the McGinn campaign. For years, Sightline has been on record as skeptical of large highway building projects. We felt this was an important opportunity to inform a public debate, such as the Seattle city council vote yesterday. mhays-- It is not true that ...

Posted Wed, May 6, 2:29 p.m.

Needless to say, that line should have read "...an average density of roughly one house per HALF acre..." I'm not sure how the error slipped into the piece, but the larger point still stands: an average density of 1 house per half acre is still an extremely energy-intensive pattern of ...

Posted Tue, Sep 2, 12:14 p.m.

if it looks like a bounce...: I'm more than a bit baffled by this piece. CBS poll calls it a bounce with an 8 point lead for the democrats, here. USA Today calls it a bounce with a 7 point lead for the democrats, here. Gallup doesn't use the word ...

Posted Fri, Feb 15, 10:59 a.m.

RE: Drive those prices up!: Uh, PJS, I "self-identify" by posting here under my real name. Just like I write for Sightline under my real name, and go on the radio under my real name. I can't help but notice that you don't do the same. Odd. I'm still astounded ...

Posted Fri, Feb 15, 9:12 a.m.

RE: Drive those prices up!: Are you joking PJS? That was one of the worst pieces of Pravda-style "journalism" I've ever seen. The reporter repeats the studies findings as fact, makes some bizarre and misleading implications, then interviews 3 people who all agree with the study's findings. Two of the ...

Posted Wed, Jan 16, 10:01 a.m.

The Liberal Party isn't liberal: David, It's worth remembering that BC's Liberal Party is actually right-of-center. In PNW terms, they'd be roughly like conservative democrats. (Curiously, they're not connected to the Canadian Liberal Party, which makes it tougher for us Yanks to understand Canadian politics.) So, the fact that Gordon ...

Posted Fri, Aug 24, 3:49 p.m.

RE: If you wonder why no one takes you seriously...: Knute, Let's be clear about my objection. To wit, I find it highly objectionable that, even in jest, you would compare urban planners and proponents of walkability to Pol Pot. It's a rhetorical flourish that has no place in decent ...

Posted Fri, Aug 24, 9:20 a.m.

If you wonder why no one takes you seriously...: "How about just putting people to work in the fields, like Pol Pot? Great for the waistline!" Perhaps it has something to do with cheap shots packed with extremely offensive language. Historic preservation (which I thought you liked) and promoting walkability ...

Posted Fri, Aug 17, 4:36 p.m.

Sightline's studies on sprawl and health: As a handy reference, here are a couple of links to Sightline Institute's research on sprawl and health. We actually wrote a (short) book on the subject in 2006: here. Somewhat easier to digest perhaps, we produced four two-page fact sheets on the main ...