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Four Ways to Improve Portland’s Housing Affordability Mandate
Small changes could fully fund the program and produce many more affordable homes in desirable areas.
From Vermont to Oklahoma, Legislatures Challenge Parking Mandates
Proposals to reduce overbuilt parking lots are popping up across the United States. -
Without Gas, What Business Models Could Gas Utilities Pursue?
Several examples exist, and Cascadian policymakers can encourage shifts while setting guardrails to protect customers.
Idaho, Montana, and Washington Could Save $30 Million by Moving Local Elections to National Election Day
A preliminary estimate of potential cost savings from municipal election consolidation. -
Parking Mandates Are Vanishing Across Oregon
Six months into the pioneering state policy, regulatory costs are falling and projects are springing to life.
What Can Portland Learn from America’s Oldest Proportional Election System?
City Councilor Burhan Azeem shares his experiences from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Boise Poised for First Step Towards More Abundant, Affordable Housing
The new zoning code legalizes more types of housing but creates new barriers to abundance. -
It’s Time for Cascadia to Start Pruning the Gas System and Electrifying Whole Neighborhoods
Early efforts in California, Colorado, and New York offer lessons to get started.
Getting Beyond the Detached House in Vancouver, BC
How a flexible “Plex” design could add lower-cost homes, green space, and walkable, vibrant neighborhoods—fast—across housing-strapped cities.
Oregon’s Untapped Gold Mine: The Homes that Don’t Yet Exist
To reduce housing shortages, small doses of cash could get many projects built. A bill introduced in Oregon this year suggests a clever place to find it. -
The Best Wildfire Solution We’re Not Using
Three ways to curb the sprawl that traps us on a wildfire treadmill.
Washington’s Refinery Communities Just Got a Transition Boost
A quarter-million-dollar budget proviso will fund a study to map opportunities beyond oil. -
A Fairer Election System in Alaska Helped More Independents Win Office
Open primaries and ranked choice voting likely led to greater political diversity in the Alaska legislature, while their effect on age, gender, and race was less apparent.
The Northwest Needs More Midsize Solar
While distributed solar can’t solve the region’s transmission woes alone, Idaho and Washington would be smart to follow Oregon’s lead in boosting it for a cleaner future.
Montana’s Big Bipartisan Housing Deal
Amid the US’s second-worst price spikes and shortage of homes, a broad coalition unified to find solutions.
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Today’s top sustainability headlines for the Pacific Northwest, curated by Sightline Institute.
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A potential cure for low turnout elections
Range Media
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Why lasers could help make the electric grid greener
Oregon Public Broadcasting
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Should OR suspend tree protections to speed housing development?
Willamette Week
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Squeezing young salmon out of places to live
CBC
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The clean energy future is arriving faster than you think
The New York Times
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Video: A follow-up on the living building challenge
The Urbanist
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How worldviews will shape the future of equitable climate action
Green Biz
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Opinion: The Hawaii wildfires prove they are getting harder to tame
The Washington Post
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Holding the real estate industry accountable for segregation
Bloomberg
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Opinion: As swings and slides get hot enough to burn, demand shade for kids
The Washington Post
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Sightline Institute’s mission is to make the Northwest a global model of sustainability— strong communities, a green economy, and a healthy environment.
We envision in the Pacific Northwest an economy and way of life that are environmentally sound, economically vibrant, and socially just. We believe that if northwesterners succeed at reconciling themselves with the natural heritage of this place—the greenest part of history’s richest civilization—we can set an example for the world.