Posted Tue, Apr 17, 10:17 a.m.

Good piece. I live in the 1st CD (both in its current and redistricted forms.) I have been undecided so far, but I now think Laura Ruderman is the best candidate. The Republicans nationally and in the state are captured by the far right, so Koster must be defeated. Among ...

Posted Tue, Feb 28, 4:17 p.m.

I didn't call Tacoma a suburb. I listed it, along with Bellevue, in the category "small cities and suburbs." I do think that small cities often have more in common with large suburbs than they either do with larger cities (with Seattle on the small side of large). mhays seems ...

Posted Tue, Feb 28, 11:31 a.m.

I do think that "suburb" is quickly becoming an outdated notion. But I think the adjective "suburban" is still useful to note development that is sprawling,car-centered, and inefficient. Most places that people think of as suburbs have an urban center these days, or are moving in that direction. And most ...

Posted Tue, Nov 29, 1:48 p.m.

Here's something the waterfront needs that's also needed more in the rest of the city: awnings. If you want people to go somewhere even in the rain, you give them shelter. People go to the Pike Place Market every day. It's covered, but open to the outdoors. The stuff across ...

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 3:43 p.m.

This is a much better start than I expected. I like that there are only 4 lanes, except for the southern approaches to the Ferry Terminal. I like the broad sidewalks on the east side of the street, tying in the existing buildings. I like that it's not just one ...

Posted Mon, Aug 22, 11:28 a.m.

It's really sad that 40 years after the anti-freeway movement had its biggest victories that the biggest infrastructure projects in the region are all freeway projects. People complain about Link light rail but its costs ($2.1 billion for the first 14 miles, $1.5 for the U Link expansion) are matched ...

Posted Wed, Jun 15, 11:59 a.m.

I kept waiting for the positive urban vision represented by Century 21 but nearly every one of your points seemed to back up Danny Westneat's column. I like the Seattle Center despite its flaws (several of which you enumerate here), but I think it represents a poor legacy for the ...

Posted Thu, May 19, 4:52 p.m.

I like Seattle Center and have lots of good memories of time spent there, but in retrospect it seems like a mistake. Bulldozing a whole neighborhood of hundreds of homes for a public space that's not particularly well-designed and stands apart from its surroundings is a tragedy. Unfortunately we have ...

Posted Tue, May 3, 1:28 p.m.

I was with you up until the point that you mentioned Ted Bundy. The celebration of his death was grotesque, and mostly engaged in by people who had no connection to his crimes but rather a ghoulish interest only in his death. It was a celebration of a cold-blooded state ...

Posted Wed, Apr 20, 12:31 p.m.

I disagree on most of these points, but you're absolutely right about the Pioneer Square Totem Pole. Let's get rid of it.

Posted Tue, Apr 12, 10:57 a.m.

Two of the biggest pieces of social engineering in history have been the interstate highway system and the prevalence of minimum parking requirements in zoning. We've been doing both for so long that people thing that's the natural state of affairs. If social engineering through infrastructure spending and land use ...

Posted Fri, Apr 8, 4:42 p.m.

I think the important thing is to realize that there are a lot of independent decisions here that have been muddled together in the debate. What happens to improve transit and the surface is an interesting and necessary question regardless of what happens to the viaduct. Whether the viaduct is ...

Posted Fri, Apr 8, 10:59 a.m.

Long term, we need much better transit in the viaduct corridor to absorb the growing population of the city. Whether we build a tunnel, keep the current viaduct for a while, build a new one, or put everything on surface streets, we won't have the capacity for all the new ...

Posted Wed, Mar 16, 12:25 p.m.

Tolling makes sense, but only if we toll every lane. Keep the HOV lane to encourage carpooling and transit, and toll every onramp. Use flexible tolls (from nothing when there is no congestion to multi-dollar rates at rush hour). Tolling one lane disrupts the helpfulness of normal HOV lanes and ...

Posted Fri, Nov 19, 10:42 a.m.

I thought I had voted for the Democratic candidadate for governor in the last two elections. It turns out I voted for Dino Rossi in disguise. Jay Inslee cannot become governor soon enough.

Posted Wed, Aug 4, 9:21 a.m.

I think the entire premise of this article is wrong. The city was never easily divided into two distinct camps, Forward Thrust and Lesser Seattle. Most people have a mix of support for making the city different and better, and wanting to keep some things the same. That's as true ...

Posted Fri, Sep 19, 2:43 p.m.

RE: GOOD OLD DAYS: I think this is nothing more than simple nostalgia at work. Well, and the fact that in 1970 Seattle was a denser, less suburban metropolis than it is today. Seattle's in-city population peaked some time around 1960 and only reached that level again in the last ...

Posted Tue, Jul 15, 12:26 p.m.

RE: Buses can't meet the need: Where would you put I-5 rail through downtown? The entire right-of-way is in use and there's no room to expand. Also, most of the population in the city and elsewhere isn't right on the freeway, so you lose ridership with that aligngment as well ...

Posted Tue, Jul 15, 12:18 p.m.

Thanks, Crosscut, for finally including a pro-transit writer: I really have nothing to add to Ben Schiendelmann's article, except to say that I'm appreciative to read a pro-transit, pro-rail perspective here.

Posted Tue, Jun 24, 10:40 a.m.

Lying with statistics: It's hard to see amid all the spin, but buried in this article is the apparent fact that the 550 route that is supposedly the wrong route has the most ridership of any of the routes listed. Growth of ridership is higher elsewhere, but it would make ...

Posted Wed, Aug 15, 1:13 p.m.

RE: Bold Plans, Stirred Souls, and Redeveloping Cities: Stuka, I don't agree with everything you say, but I like the scale of your vision, and your underlying priorities. We should think big, huge even. I don't care one whit about the Sonics and don't really see how they fit into ...

Posted Wed, Aug 15, 12:35 p.m.

Wow, this is really misguided: Seattle doesn't have an oversupply of jobs, it has an undersupply of housing (and that's also true of the urban centers on the Eastside to a lesser degree). The way to counteract that is to encourage dense urban development within the entire urban area. Moving ...

Posted Wed, Aug 15, 12:17 p.m.

Is this really such a big deal?: I'm getting a bit sick of the neo-Lesser Seattle crowd. While I like quirky historical buildings (and particularly like the elephant car wash sign), the bigger picture is that cities change and that these old landmarks are often no more worth saving than ...