Posted Mon, Apr 23, 3:03 p.m.

"Seattle’s transit-planning follies" - a polite way to describe this mess....

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 12:16 p.m.

One parallel here IS that many of the high-density proponents are hypocrites - suggesting that "other people" should live in high-density housing, without cars. Yet they in single family zones and own a car. This includes our Council leadership, DPD staff, and the myriad of pundits, lobbyists and development industry ...

Posted Mon, Apr 2, 9:07 a.m.

Peter Steinbrueck and others have weighed in heavily on the advantages of adaptive re-use, and Mark pleads eloquently for the virtues of this building.It seems to me that with all the "Carbon Neutrality" rhetoric thrown around in this city, that a little outside-the-box thinking couldn't be found here. With the ...

Posted Mon, Mar 12, 10:15 a.m.

It does seem somewhat irresponsible to enable more and more people to move here, into bigger and bigger buildings, with increasingly larger public works projects. If this were a flood plane would we be doing this?

Posted Fri, Jan 27, 3:42 p.m.

Another mind-blowing essay from Mr Valdez showing his excellent knack for falsely spinning an argument. His biased reporting tarnishes the otherwise generally fine reporting found here on Crosscut. First, Mr Valdez claims that "the City Council opted to up zone blocks in the center of the Roosevelt neighborhood". What in ...

Posted Sat, Nov 19, 12:54 a.m.

It's also worth noting that most often, when a law goes into effect, people in general do not know what government has done "on their behalf". Sometimes laws are written for the greater good, and, sadly, sometimes not. The question is whether this bag law is for the greater good. ...

Posted Mon, Oct 31, 11:40 a.m.

Last night's panel discussion I found to be different than what I had hoped for - and how it was billed: "Understanding Occupy Seattle". While there was some discussion of the greater issues that are underpinning the movement, the larger context and implications were not covered newly as clearly and ...

Posted Wed, Oct 12, 10:06 a.m.

With our sewer system in the state its in, the dangers of a blind acceptance by Council of the PSRC's growth allocations become more evident. SEPA has a purpose - to help identify impacts of growth and to identify necessary capital improvements to mitigate that growth. Seattle avoids this process, ...

Posted Thu, Jul 21, 5:15 p.m.

While personally I applaud the relaxing of restrictions on small businesses in residential zones and judicious use of TDR, much of the new proposal is not worth cheering about. I can see though how Mr Valdez's colleagues are hurting for work, and he is definitely an advocate for his "urbie" ...

Posted Fri, Jun 3, 1:52 p.m.

Goran - part of the issue is that michealp-206 sits on the Levy Oversight Committee who has control of $14M in funds available to Park's "revenue producing opportunities" such as Building 11. While he is glad to fund wading pool to spray park conversions (and I agree that may be ...

Posted Fri, Jun 3, 10:06 a.m.

“I’ve been told that Sail Sand Point has gotten very close to an agreement,” Bagshaw said, citing a conversation she had with the developer’s lawyer. Did Ms Bagshaw also cite the pressure she has put on Sail Sand Point to just sign with the LLC? Bagsahaw's cozy relationship with the ...

Posted Fri, May 27, 7:38 p.m.

@MichaelP - "This has come down to an all-or-nothing argument by those opposed to this deal. They would rather kill the deal, and mothball the building, then have this compromise, and save Sail Sand Point. These are the facts." you really are quite misinformed.

Posted Thu, May 26, 5:07 p.m.

@_MichaelP, sadly you are misinformed and misinforming. Sail Sand Point (SSP) is not "saved", and have not yet signed with the LLC. In fact there have been threats of lawsuits from the LLC against SSP to force them to sign, but those loving terms of endearment do not bode well ...

Posted Wed, May 25, 12:08 p.m.

"The big picture is that we are going to take a dilapidated building that is only partially occupied… At no cost to the city, we’re going to bring it up to code, and fill it with active tenants.” Vange estimated that about $2.5 million of the projected $9 million investment ...

Posted Thu, Feb 17, 1:41 p.m.

"There was also unease within other departments that the Department of Neighborhoods was more on the side of the neighborhood activists than city departments." Herein lies the crux of the problem with the City today. What we have now are those within DPD and SDOT that have taken control of ...

Posted Wed, Feb 16, 11:10 a.m.

the Deep Bore Tunnel diggings should be dumped into Elliott Bay to further extend downtown and our ongoing "earthworks" project called Seattle...

Posted Thu, Jan 20, 12:18 a.m.

I think that there is this false mythology being broadly sold related to density, transit and energy. Many have drank the Kool-Aid, and with sweeping generalizations, and despite empirical data to the contrary, make pronouncements of what our future should be. While the suburbs and large swaths of the U.S. ...

Posted Wed, Apr 14, 5:33 p.m.

a symptom of this city's failure to comply with concurrency requirements found in the growth management act?

Posted Thu, Oct 22, 10:48 p.m.

Futurewise, Sierra Club, Friends of Seattle to start. Not democratic organizations, but they do have a political agenda. GCI is part of the great urbanista army that knows it has a better way to build our city. As someone has pointed out - our mayoral choice is between someone who ...

Posted Tue, Oct 20, 12:31 a.m.

"The election should not be decided in fear of these legitimate questions, but on broader terms, in favor of the candidate with more comprehensive vision and urban-issue expertise." Robert Moses had a vision for his City too. Mallahan is open minded and wants to bring informed voices to the table ...

Posted Thu, Oct 15, 2:52 p.m.

@ Evanovich re Mallahan "support" for Mercer - he thinks the east/west mobility needs to be improved, but not with the funding plan on the table - he's wants Vulcan and property owners to pay fair share: http://www.joemallahan.com/Issues/Transportation A distinguishing characteristic between the M's Mallahan want developers to pay impact ...

Posted Wed, Oct 14, 11:24 a.m.

Douglas in Tacoma says: "Mallahan's lack of experience has allowed him to be bought by the same folks Seattle voted out with Nickels" If you are referring to Downtown interests, my suspicion is that they are backing Mallahan because they don't like McGinn. Why - because McGinn is willing to ...