Search Results
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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 » -
Glossary of Methods for Electing Legislative Bodies
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How Many Voters Could Automatic Voter Registration Add to the Voter Rolls in Washington State?
UPDATE, June 2, 2017: Illinois became the first state to pass Automatic Voter Registration using agencies other than the Department of Motor Vehicles. Designated agencies in Ilinois include the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Department of Employment Security. The bill, passed with strong bipartisan support, could serve as a model for Washington to take a similar multi-agency approach. Oregon’s New Motor Voter law empowered more than a...Read more » -
Not in YOUR Backyard: Cottages, In-law Apartments, and the Predatory Delay of HALA’s ADU Rules
When it comes to urban homes, it’s hard to imagine anything less threatening than granny flats. But surprisingly, in Seattle last year instill fear they did, provoking a handful of anti-housing activists to appeal proposed rule changes intended to spark construction of in-law apartments and backyard cottages. And in an exasperating turn of events, the appeal was upheld. Of all the 65 recommendations in Seattle’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda...Read more » -
Inclusionary Zoning: The Most Promising—or Counter-productive—of All Housing Policies
Imagine two towns, both committed to helping their low-income residents but short on funding for social services. Both decide to require retailers to sell 5 or 10 percent of their wares at steeply discounted prices to families who qualify for benefits: milk, jeans, refrigerators, whatever. But they do it two different ways. The first town flat-out forces stores to do it, giving them nothing back in exchange. The place gets...Read more » -
DAPL: “The Fight Will Continue, and It Can Still Be Won”
Editor’s note: Sightline publishes guest articles only rarely. We publish this reflection by Zarina because we feel it highlights a crucial human dimension to the thin green line, the growing movement to obstruct fossil fuel infrastructure. Although the Dakota Access Pipeline is beyond the borders of Cascadia, the opposition movement is of monumental importance to the tribes and First Nations of the Northwest, as well as many others in our...Read more » -
Weekend Reading 7/1/16
Margaret Journalists have been giving a lot of press time to the role of foreign investment and absentee ownership in inflating Vancouver, British Columbia’s housing market these days. But knowing how to interpret that press is another matter. Take for instance this recent article in the Walrus which blamed wealthy investors from mainland China for city’s soaring housing prices. These investors accomplish this, so Kerry Gold, the article’s author, argues,...Read more » -
Coal Dust Threatens Cascadia’s Water and Wildlife
On the West Coast, proposed coal terminal developments would potentially threaten some of the North America’s most iconic and sensitive bodies of water, including the Fraser River, the Salish Sea, the Columbia River, and San Francisco Bay. Yet understanding the magnitude of the risk is challenging because there is little scientific research into the effect of coal and coal dust on aquatic ecosystems and the wildlife they support. What evidence...Read more » -
Weekend Reading 2/26/16
Kristin Funny-shaped districts aren’t the problem with American voting. Electing one representative per district (funny-shaped or otherwise) is the problem. We can solve it with multi-member districts that ensure minority views get represented and it doesn’t matter who draws then district lines. Yes, yes, and more yes. The Brennan Center’s Democracy agenda: Voting rights, money in politics, and redistricting. (Lots to read—all of it good stuff.) Wondering how much climate pollution...Read more »