Seattle: Coming back to earth
Posted Thu, Oct 9, 4 a.m.
Some good news about right-sizing the city, and saving money, too.
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Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most clicks.
- Viaduct politicians reach a big moment of truth
- The Metro Bus Blues
- Meet the Pacific albus tree, harbinger of green forestry
- Seattle school closure plan, due Tuesday, still doesn't add up
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- Seattle Times Co. still trying to close sale of Maine papers
- 2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 2
- Monorails: the idea that will not die
- If you convene citizens, listen to them
- One-upping the Choppaduct
Most Commented
Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most reader comments.
- Monorails: the idea that will not die
(18 comments) - 2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear, Essay 7
(17 comments) - 2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 2
(13 comments) - Seattle school closure plan, due Tuesday, still doesn't add up
(11 comments) - Viaduct politicians reach a big moment of truth
(9 comments) - 2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 5
(6 comments) - 2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 8
(6 comments) - Think before you cut the state auditor's budget
(6 comments) - Recession, wrecking balls, and history
(5 comments) - Seattle Times Co. still trying to close sale of Maine papers
(5 comments)
Suburbia
Crosscut most recent
The future of 'nowhere'
Posted Mon, Aug 18, 5 a.m.
Urban planners love to hate the suburbs, but what's going to become of them? Will Bellevue eventually become a post-carbon ghost town or a new urban hybrid? Some reflections on the urban/suburban debate.
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Vision 2040 for Pugetopolis
Posted Tue, Jul 29, 3 a.m.
An urban geographer uses un-rose-tinted glasses in peering into the crystal ball. He finds that we will not be able to do much about growing income segregation, congestion, gentrification in Seattle, and leapfrog development. Nor will rail transit help make things better.
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The 100-year gamble to save our quality of life
Posted Thu, Jul 3, 5 a.m.
A close look at the ambitious "Cascade Agenda," which hopes to preserve the central Puget Sound region's natural systems from a Pugetopolis that sprawls all the way to the Cascades. The mechanisms are known, but it's not clear they can work well enough or soon enough.
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Transit train wreck: The case against more light rail
Posted Sun, Jun 22, 10 p.m.
The recent former state secretary of transportation has been riding buses a lot lately and crunching numbers, and he's convinced light rail to the Eastside and more Sounder service has no place in a big new transit plan. He thinks an advanced bus rapid transit system is the best way to serve millions of people and smartly manage urban growth. Part 1 of 3
READ MORE 38 COMMENTSSocial progress in White Center
Posted Tue, Jun 10, 9 p.m.
The neighborhood is the focus of several programs designed to boost test scores, encourage early learning, improve living conditions, and provide a positive example of community pride and success that can be applied elsewhere. Part 2
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Gentrifying White Center
Posted Tue, Jun 10, midnight
White Center is an unincorporated neighborhood and cultural melting pot, sandwiched between Seattle proper and the suburb of Highline. Despite grappling with urban crime and the difficulties of providing subsidized housing for low income residents, both Seattle and Burien believe there is hope. Part 1
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Mods versus snobs
Posted Fri, May 2, 5 a.m.
Modernist architecture is for the elite, right? Not any more. The movement to preserve modern structures is finding new energy in populist appeal and as a counterbalance to today's McMansions and Viagra villas. The debate over a Ballard Denny's is just one squabble in a growing national discussion about preservation, proportion, and pedigree.
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A big, new growth management plan is already outgrown
Posted Tue, Apr 22, 10 p.m.
The Puget Sound Regional Council's Vision 2040, to be adopted tomorrow, has been outrun by seven years of population growth in the very outlying areas the plan is intended to protect, says the recent former Washington secretary of transportation. He explains what's happened and argues for a recalibration of strategy.
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The Seattle Times' suburban retreat
Posted Tue, Apr 8, noon
First of a series: Publisher Frank Blethen sought to conquer the Eastside but helped turn the suburbs into a daily newspaper desert.
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Conspicuous Seattle
Posted Wed, Apr 2, 5 a.m.
A town of modest pleasures has become a city of cringe-inducing excess, even in the little things like coffee, booze, and movie tickets.
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New figures confirm Seattle's housing affordability woes
Posted Wed, Mar 12, 5 a.m.
The pattern is very strong: In Seattle you have affluent, largely single people chasing a small supply of urban housing. The result is small household size, an exodus of families to the suburbs, and very high housing prices in the city.
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Traffic's so bad, we might actually be willing to pay a toll
Posted Tue, Mar 4, 5 a.m.
Puget Sound policy-makers have been taking the public pulse. Their surveys reveal that people are generally pessimistic about the future, frustrated with traffic, and willing to pay to cross Lake Washington in a car – as long as it's really cheap.
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When high rents squeeze arts spaces, it's time to get creative
Posted Sun, Feb 3, 10 p.m.
Seattle's real estate boom is pushing out performance spaces. A recent panel discussion on Capitol Hill showed there's lots more to do besides whining. Here are some other ideas.
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The suburbs are the new Seattle
Posted Wed, Jan 16, 11 p.m.
You've heard the rhetoric about how White Center is the new Ballard, or Burien is the new Brooklyn. Now consider how Seattleized our suburbs have become.
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A transportation layaway plan
Posted Sun, Jan 13, 5 p.m.
To replace the Highway 520 floating bridge, will the public support the idea of paying now, getting later?
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Tukwila: where metronaturals find world-class parking
Posted Sun, Jan 13, 4 p.m.
Notes on the branding of ye olde suburb's centennial celebration.
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Seattle's transportation malaise is nothing special
Posted Thu, Jan 3, 5 a.m.
Seattle perversely prides itself on its transportation stalemates, as if they're part of our brand. Alas, thinking locally, defying regional scale, and torpedoing big governmental projects is a grand American tradition, widely shared.
READ MORE 1 COMMENTSAnatomy of a one-party state
Posted Thu, Dec 27, 8 a.m.
In Washington, the Democrats are "routing" Republicans in money, recruitment, and centrist ideology, so much so that GOP defector Fred Jarrett says his former party has positioned itself outside the "governing coalition."
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Amazon joins a parade of high tech to the urban core
Posted Thu, Dec 20, 5 a.m.
The New Economy started in the suburbs, but the new trend is back to urban neighborhoods. Amazon is a good match for South Lake Union, but the danger is that it could be too big, with too few small companies clustering around.
READ MORE 13 COMMENTSOther media
Blog posts
All I want for Christmas is a suburban swinger
Posted Sat, Dec 20, 11 a.m. 2008
From Republicans to The Stranger, everyone wants to grab a piece of crab grass.
MOREWhat is it about Bellevue and Nazis?
Posted Wed, Nov 26, 9:39 p.m. 2008
Two cases link the suburban city with Hitler and the holocaust.
MOREBallard natives for Rossi, and other signs of the times
Posted Tue, Nov 4, 11:40 a.m. 2008
Change taking place in one Seattle neighborhood, as seen on election day.
MOREA suburban sucker's bet
Posted Mon, Aug 25, 2:46 p.m. 2008
An interesting follow-up to my story last week on the future of suburbia is a profile of Merced, Calif., in the Aug. 24 issue of The New York Times. Skeptical that some burbs might become the new ghost towns? Check out the picture of the Riverstone housing development that accompanies this story, of an unfinished project baking in the sun and dirty air of a boomtown gone bust.
MORETo lower housing prices, look at Chicago
Posted Tue, Jul 29, 5:31 p.m. 2008
Median condominium prices in Chicago, notes Harvard urban economist Edward Glaeser, are $232,000. That's very low, even a shade under those in Trenton, N.J. (The King County median price for condos is $285,000.) What do those smart urbanists in Chicago know about affordability?
MOREHow to be a modern mayor: the Denver model
Posted Tue, Jul 22, 11 a.m. 2008
Denver is about to have its 15 days of fame, as host to the Democratic National Convention next month. I suspect one star of the show will be Mayor John Hickenlooper, my idea of the best mayor in the nation. NewWest.net recently did a good interview with the mayor, and it's a fine introduction to his winning style. It's also an audio interview.
MOREHelpful policy tips for Dino Rossi
Posted Wed, Jul 16, 12:23 a.m. 2008
So far, not a lot of policy is coming out of the Dino Rossi campaign, but it may be very interesting when it does. That's because the Republicans are getting pretty desperate for bold new ideas to turn around their national tailspin. I'll give some examples below.
MORESausage Links, blame-game edition
Posted Thu, Jul 10, 1:05 p.m. 2008
David Goldstein at Horse's Ass says everyone has missed the boat about the latest mess surrounding the "top-two" primary. The Seattle Times blamed the parties. The parties blamed the state. Others blamed the lawyers. Goldstein, however, says the person to blame for what could be the "most monumental legal fuck up in state history — one which puts the legitimacy of our entire 2008 election in jeopardy" — is state Attorney General Rob McKenna.
MORESausage Links, "freedom to get drunk and blow stuff up" edition
Posted Mon, Jul 7, 1:23 p.m. 2008
Chris Mulick at the Tri-City Herald has today's top story, reporting this morning that Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 and the Service Employees International Union-backed Initiative 1029 would – if passed by voters in November – increase the state's budget deficit by an estimated $300 million.
MOREPolimedia lunch links, 'let's party' edition
Posted Tue, Jun 24, 12:06 p.m. 2008
Eric Earling at Sound Politics responds to Gov. Chris Gregoire's recent assertion that the Building Industry Association of Washington "is the most powerful special interest lobby" in the state, pointing to the Dem's own PACs as evidence. In case you missed the Top of The News, Gov. Christine Gregoire's donors won big-time after they helped her squeak out a victory in 2004. ...
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