Urban Affairs

The author plays the Doubting and Believing games as she ponders an oddball kind of volunteering.

Seattle Channel's programming grows amid potential cuts

Posted Tue, Nov 10, 6 a.m.

By Feliks Banel

A new "Seattle Speaks" show begins tonight, broadcast live from Town Hall. But budget trouble could mean the elimination of at least two positions next year.

Resurrecting Seattle's book festival

Posted Sat, Nov 7, 8 a.m.

It's been a tough year for books and words, but one bright spot was the effort to bring back a Seattle book festival. Some saw the event as a great first effort, others as a fiasco.

A case of bike rage

Posted Tue, Nov 3, 6 a.m.

The dispute over an event at West Seattle's Lincoln Park unleashes a "cycle" of anger. Once again, parks make good battlefields.

Ending homelessness: How are we doing?

Posted Thu, Oct 29, 6 a.m.

Those vaunted 10-year plans to solve the problem are halfway in, or more, and yet homelessness persists. Even so, we're making progress and on the right track.

Mallahan or McGinn? That is the question.

Posted Wed, Oct 28, 6 a.m.

I have no answer yet about how to vote in the Seattle mayor's race. Like a lot of people, I'm still working it out.

McGinn's tunnel cave

Posted Wed, Oct 21, 6 a.m.

One reason not to vote early in Seattle: From here to election day is an eternity, especially with two mayoral candidates like Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn.

Is the tunnel a boondoggle?

Posted Tue, Oct 20, 6 a.m.

A new study shows Seattle-area tunnel projects are very likely to break the budget. But the nature of most mega-projects also suggests the Viaduct surface option wouldn't be exempt from cost problems either.

New chapter for Elliott Bay?

Posted Sun, Oct 18, noon

Seattle's iconic Pioneer Square bookstore might move. It could also close. Tough times bring tough choices for the bookseller, and the neighborhood it has helped to revive.

Seattle, toward a 'MetroNation'

Posted Thu, Oct 15, 6 a.m.

Brookings' Bruce Katz argues in a UW talk that this "metro" can help lead the U.S. toward a new, more prosperous economy.

Shiga's Garden: fittingly, a story of sunshine and cooperation

Posted Tue, Oct 13, 6 a.m.

Volunteers, artists, and an absentee landowner are together creating a P-Patch honoring the father of the University District Street Fair.

Welcome to 'Destroy History Month'

Posted Mon, Oct 12, 6 a.m.

September's demolition of state landmarks leaves Washington preservationists reeling.

How mimes and hillbillies could save Seattle

Posted Thu, Oct 8, 6 a.m.

Mossback's low-cost, low-impact solutions to chronic civic problems.

Learning from Detroit, the City of Ruin

Posted Thu, Oct 8, 6 a.m.

By Chuck Wolfe

A city that defines urban decline was once like Seattle, built on a dominant transportation industry. Can it become a laboratory for urban reinvention?

What would Jane Jacobs do about the Viaduct?

Posted Fri, Oct 2, 6 a.m.

The patron saint of livable, walkable cities is being invoked on both sides of the debate over Seattle's Viaduct solution. Would Jacobs be a tunnel supporter, or a surface option fan?

Where do Seattleites come from?

Posted Wed, Sep 30, 6 a.m.

Not from local hospitals, that's for sure. The city also is undergoing a remarkable surge of foreign-born and refugees.

Homes, not handcuffs

Posted Tue, Sep 29, 6 a.m.

Seattle isn't close to becoming one of the "meanest cities" listed in a national report, but may soon try its own take on the often-harmful "civility laws" sweeping the country

Why the West deserves more rail service

Posted Fri, Sep 25, 6 a.m.

By Chris Blanchard

Some East Coast experts mistake the West for a thinly populated place, a wasteful region for Obama's new rail spending. The numbers tell a different, highly urban story.

A big week for the cottage cult

Posted Mon, Sep 21, 6 a.m.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS (SEATTLEPI.COM BLOG)

Backyard cottage housing is a benefit, not a threat, to single family neighborhoods, and in keeping with the values that shaped Seattle. Let's have more.

Six key lessons from Portland's urbanism

Posted Sun, Sep 20, 5:36 p.m.

By William Fulton

An expert on cities distills the Portland DNA. Most of all, it's a city that is comfortable with being an urban place.

Other media

Peter Callaghan: Should Tacoma switch to a 'strong-mayor' system? Federal Way just made the switch, leading Tacoma to wonder about its system, like Bellevue's, where the mayor leads the council and a hired city manager runs the town.

NEWS TRIBUNE (TACOMA)

Joel Kotkin: Hip, blue-state cities like Portland and Seattle are losing their magnetic pull Perceived wisdom said tech-oriented cities on the West and East coasts, plus culture capitals like New York and Chicago, would continue to attract the educated middle-class. Perceived wisdom would be wrong. The cities doing best in the recession include Sun Belt cities such as San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Dallas, Houston and El Paso.

FORBES

Las Vegas, the city whose big bet on the future has fizzled out No American city grew faster since 1980, but now it is the king of foreclosures and hard times.

DER SPEIGEL

Roundtable on how to fix Tacoma's Brewery District It's an underused neighborhood between the Tacoma Dome and the UW campus. It's got a couple of art galleries, several old brick buildings, good transportation links and municipal government owns significant land there. What should the city do?

NEWS TRIBUNE (TACOMA)

Dow Constantine's Q&A with the Seattle P-I It's time to move beyond the old battles of Seattle vs. the suburbs, the exec candidate says, and realize King County is one big city made up of a lot of urban centers.

Blog posts

Walkable cities? So how come pedestrian malls usually fail?

Posted Thu, Sep 24, 5:32 p.m.

by Chuck Wolfe

You can't just block off vehicles and expect a public space. Here are some do's (Boulder, San Antonio) and don't's (Eugene).

Gun crack down

Posted Mon, Sep 28, 10:55 p.m.

Focus should be on imposing real penalties on juvenile offenders, not Seattle's symbolic parks ban.

Urban Cascadia goes to China

Posted Fri, Jul 31, noon

A Vancouver, BC architect will represent the USA at the Shanghai expo.

Signs of livability in Seattle and that other place

Posted Tue, Jun 30, 6 a.m.

More thoughts from the Seattle and Vancouver urban debaters on what makes their cities livable, or not.

The skinny house scourge

Posted Tue, Jun 23, 8:57 a.m.

And what it tells us about local design problems

Which US cities are growing fastest?

Posted Thu, Mar 26, 6 a.m.

by David Brewster

Kennewick area is third fastest in the nation last year, while Seattle area is 100th, well behind Portland

On the waterfront: A thought experiment

Posted Wed, Dec 10, 2:42 p.m. 2008

by Floyd McKay

Imagine Seattle's waterfront as bare land, then start planning.

Frank Chopp, urban visionary?

Posted Mon, Dec 1, 6 a.m. 2008

by David Brewster

Well, maybe not that. But his scheme for a park atop a Viaduct has an exciting counterpart in New York City that is proving a magnet for starchitects.

A rarity: an urban President

Posted Tue, Nov 25, 6 a.m. 2008

by David Brewster

Obama is a Chicago guy. And cities have figured out how to make a much better case to Congress. Mayor Greg Nickels is in the thick of this new action.

Development that's pro-density and pro-history

Posted Mon, Nov 17, 8:30 p.m. 2008