Search Results
-
The Books We Love Best in 2018
-
Could State-Led Upzones Happen Here? 7 Lessons from Modern Cascadia
For housing advocates, could there be a better way? As urban housing shortages drive poor people out of job-rich cities, as middle-class families risk their life savings on exurban tract housing because it’s what they can afford, and as the planet keeps ticking toward deeper climate-driven disasters, is there some path to fair, abundant, transit-friendly housing that doesn’t require battling the forces of stasis up an endless staircase of 2...Read more » -
Duplexes Are Now Legal on 99% of Vancouver’s Low-Density Lots
Three years after Seattle became one of the first modern cities to float a proposal to re-legalize duplexes citywide, its northern neighbor Vancouver has actually implemented that change. On Wednesday night, Vancouver’s council voted 7-4 to allow buildings that include two full-size homes instead of just one in virtually all of its single-family neighborhoods. As reported by the Vancouver Sun, this change to the low-density lots that cover half the...Read more » -
Vancouver’s New Plan to Allow More Homes of All Shapes and Sizes
Cascadia’s three biggest cities—Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC—have all flirted in recent years with loosening the stranglehold of single-family zoning, rules that ban anything but detached houses on large lots from vast swaths of city land, creating virtual walls that exclude anyone who can’t afford inherently pricey homes. As the lack of affordable housing reaches crisis levels in all three cities, officials recognize the need to allow more options in...Read more » -
Old Voting Systems Run the Risk of Electing a Hitler
As proportional representation attracts more interest—like in British Columbia, where voters will soon decide by referendum whether to adopt proportional representation (PR) for provincial elections—commentators like David Brooks trot out the false belief that proportional representation “allowed an extremist named Adolf Hitler to rise to power with the initial support of a tiny fraction of Germany’s voters.” But contrary to Brooks’ claim, Germany’s PR system actually kept Hitler out of...Read more » -
Seattle’s New Environmental Study on Accessory Dwellings Obliterates Obstructionists’ Claims
UPDATE: Here’s Sightline’s comment letter on the ADU EIS describing our recommended options for the final policy proposal. In the summer of 2016, anti-housing activists from a wealthy Seattle neighborhood appealed proposed liberalization of rules governing accessory dwellings—commonly known as mother-in-law apartments and backyard cottages. Six months later a city hearing examiner upheld the appeal, forcing Seattle planners to spend the next year and a half slogging through a voluminous...Read more » -
A Word About Our Facebook Page
Facebook announced earlier in January that it would overhaul users’ feeds, placing more of an emphasis on posts from family and friends and less on posts from businesses, brands, and media. An organization like ours falls squarely in the latter group by Facebook’s definition. And with nearly 12,500 of you following us on this platform (thank you!), we’d like to make sure you don’t miss any of the research our...Read more » -
FAQ About I-5 Rose Quarter Expansion and Congestion Pricing in Portland
-
Washington’s State Environmental Policy Act Has Become A Bane To Sustainable Urban Development
Designed to meet the rigorous Living Building Challenge, Seattle’s Bullitt Center is one of the greenest office buildings on the planet. But that didn’t stop antagonists from hijacking Washington’s State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) to stall its construction. Why? Because they didn’t like that it would provide no off-street parking and that its rooftop solar panels would block views and cast shadows. Washington enacted SEPA—a sweeping package of environmental rules—in...Read more » -
7 Key Questions About How to Change Portland City Government
In my previous article, I illustrated how Portland’s city council does not represent the city’s people in terms of geography, race and ethnicity, gender, wealth, and life experience. Only two people of color have ever served on the council. In 2016, the city elected Chloe Eudaly, the eighth woman ever and possibly the first renter to hold a seat on the council. Most councilors come from central North-East or Westside...Read more »
