Neighborhoods / Communities

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Seattle Process demystified: an introduction to neighborhood planning

Posted Fri, Apr 18, 5 a.m.

Chapter 1: It's been almost a decade since 38 neighborhood plans were adopted by the City Council. The process is about to begin anew. Today Crosscut begins a series of articles looking at the bureaucracy and the process. Consider it a primer for you and your neighbors — and a call to action.

Crosscut most recent

Recession, wrecking balls, and history

Posted Wed, Jan 7, 6 a.m.

The new year will be challenging for historic preservation in Seattle, but there are great opportunities and new initiatives ahead, too. Here's a breakdown of six front-burner issues for 2009. First of 2 parts

Seattle school closure plan, due Tuesday, still doesn't add up

Posted Mon, Jan 5, 6 a.m.

The savings are small, and the closures seem arbitrary, but still the sense of panic over a budget gap is driving the plan.

2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 12

Posted Sun, Jan 4, 1:20 p.m.

By Ben Rankin

Yes, we can. Will we?

If you convene citizens, listen to them

Posted Fri, Jan 2, 6 a.m.

By Sally Bagshaw

Too often, convening them is mostly to appease or garner support. The Viaduct stakeholders, told to go away, instead have pushed for a hybrid solution with a tunnel. Fortunately the politicians are now listening.

Can Seattle be a Slow City?

Posted Wed, Dec 24, 6 a.m.

An international movement to change the ethic of growing cities seems right for the Northwest. But we'd have to check the boom-town impulses embedded both in our growth economy and our frontier DNA.

School closures: let's get more cards on the table

Posted Thu, Dec 18, 12:36 p.m.

It's become a trade off between cutting staff positions and building closures. The teachers' union quietly comes out for closures, but we still don't know enough about the options to judge well.

Battle on the Bellingham waterfront

Posted Thu, Dec 18, 6 a.m.

By Bob Simmons

Seattle's not the only city tied in knots over its waterfront planning. Intramural squabbles beset Bellingham's waterfront vision, too. It could be a new seaside community. Or not.

Closing schools: blaming the victims

Posted Thu, Dec 11, 6 a.m.

A lot of the rationales for closing Seattle school buildings don't hold up. Often the reason for closing the school is the choice of the district to neglect that very school.

Seattle neighborhoods need more, not fewer, schools

Posted Fri, Dec 5, 10 a.m.

Parents love Seattle's K-8 schools, so here's how to have fewer closures and create new neighborhood elementary schools.

Seattle's school closure proposal is a really dumb way to make policy

Posted Wed, Nov 26, 10:17 a.m.

It puts school closures ahead of much more important policy decisions, and it is a poor way to solve budget problems.

Seattle's misguided gun ban

Posted Mon, Nov 17, 6 a.m.

Mayor Greg Nickels plans to defy state law with a gun ban that is worse than an empty gesture: It puts law-abiding citizens at greater risk.

Seattle, it's lonely at the top of the real estate market

Posted Wed, Oct 29, midnight

Does rating higher than the rest of the country really make Seattle the top real estate market?

The politics of the parks levy

Posted Fri, Oct 24, midnight

By David Brewster

Why didn't the Seattle mayor and the City Council get together on Proposition 2? Welcome to the politics of special levies and the artful shaping of each year's big ask.

Pike Place 'Shopping Center'

Posted Wed, Oct 22, midnight

Critics of Seattle's Pike Place Market ballot measure think the Market should be ruled by the market.

'Zero net energy' homes: an experiment in Issaquah

Posted Wed, Oct 8, 2 a.m.

By Francesca Lyman

A Seattle-area developer and local governments have teamed up to build townhouses that, in theory, will give back more energy than they use. Will that work? It will depend in part on who lives in them.

How light rail drives Seattle neighborhood planning

Posted Thu, Oct 2, 4 a.m.

Chapter 6: After a year of discussion on updating neighborhood plans, the City of Seattle saw the light. That would be the approaching beam of light rail in the first three neighborhoods.

A city of memory

Posted Fri, Sep 26, 4 a.m.

Seattle has undergone stunning changes. But what is sometimes more remarkable is what hasn't changed.

Spokane: what Seattle used to be

Posted Fri, Sep 19, 4 a.m.

Mossback becomes enamored with a city he once regarded with disdain and considers what it would be like to move there. It reminds him of pre-1970s Seattle, before the yuppies ruined it.

Creating 'people places'

Posted Thu, Sep 11, 3 a.m.

By Peter Steinbrueck

An architect and former City Council member argues for compact urban design, but not at the expense of livability. Density doesn't have to be a dirty word.

Chop, chop

Posted Tue, Sep 9, 11 p.m.