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How Parking Ratios Kill Homes
A string of mistakes in one city shows how easily local rules can turn arbitrary and destructive.
Sightliners’ 2023 Giving Tuesday Recommendations
Empower strong communities today with your support.
Is the Permitting Process for Transmission Lines Really Broken?
Analyzing three common claims of malfunction, plus proposing a new, faster way forward for the Northwest. -
Micro-housing: It’s Not about the Size but How You Use It
And the National Healthy Housing Standard agrees.
Recent Reforms Could Make a Real Neighborhood of Downtown Anchorage
A vibrant downtown needs residents. And residents need housing. Convenience stores wouldn’t hurt either. -
Learning from the Least Housed
A case for agile, self-build, and bottom-up options to unlock housing choice… by many means necessary.
Who Will Pay for Cascadia’s Transmission Lines?
The multibillion-dollar question that Senator Maria Cantwell, Governor Jay Inslee, and other Northwest leaders can help answer.
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.
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Today’s top sustainability headlines for the Pacific Northwest, curated by Sightline Institute.
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WA proposes ban on ‘forever chemicals’ in clothes, other products
Seattle Times
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CA’s orphan wells still pose health risks
LAist
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Rattlesnake Mountain soon to be co-managed between Feds and Tribes
Northwest Public Broadcasting
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Can LNG reduce pollution? Canada digs (unsuccessfully) for proof
The Narwhal
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WA residents ask: What is our wildlife agency for?
High Country News
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Gov. Inslee touts encampment clearing efforts, proposes more money for housing
Seattle Times
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Why are there so many fossil fuel lobbyists at COP28?
Grist
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Private timberland on the west coast lost billions in value due to wildfires
Seattle Times
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Car noise pollution is worse in redlined neighborhoods. And not just for humans
Streetsblog
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No-brainer of the year: Wolverines get protections
Columbia Insight
Our Mission
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.