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When it comes to climate, we’ve been watchingCaliforniaforawhile and wondering why the climate buzz is particularly loud in Cali. Does citizen concern spur lawmakers into action or does state action spur buzz among citizens? Or both? Nowadays it’s definitely both. Californians are ahead of the curve when it comes to opinions about both threats from climate pollution and potential opportunities; they’re savvy about policy options, and regional impacts. According to...

REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” We refuse...

In a Seattle Times op-ed published today, our own Clark Williams-Derry opines on what the great Seattle Clog that Wasn’t can teach us about transportation. A couple of the money paragraphs are posted below. We’d encourage you, though (how could we not) to read the whole thing, comment below, and share with your pals. (Also see Clark’s original post “Apocalypse? Nah.”) This lesson—that traffic is more flexible than we think—should...

August 8/24 update: Seattle Times‘ blog on “the Clog” hasn’t been updated for a few days—another sign that it’s been relatively smooth sailing on I-5, thanks to Seattle-area commuters’ willingness to adapt. (See also our post from last week.) It’s been on every Seattle resident’s lips for weeks:  the horrible, terrifying prospect of losing two lanes of I-5, just south of downtown, for 19 consecutive days of major maintenance.  The...

You don’t have to go farther than Hollywood to see one reason Bicycle Neglect is so rampant in North America. Consider the 2005 film The 40-Year-Old Virgin. The middle-aged protagonist, obsessed with video games and action figures, seems stuck in early adolescence. The film spends two hours lampooning him for being emasculated, immature, not a real man. His vehicle? A bike. (You can almost hear the schoolyard snickers.) To be...

Cascadia’s major cities are gradually channeling more of their growth into compact neighborhoods.

(Listen to the KUOW story on gasoline trends.) One of the most striking findings from this year’s Cascadia Scorecard (just released today, by the way) is that northwesterners are using less gasoline. In fact, per person gas consumption on the Northwest’s roads and highways has fallen by nearly a tenth since the late 1990s. To put the recent declines in context: cutting gas consumption by nearly a tenth is equivalent...

I’ve read all sorts of reports and articles about the relationship between mental health and neighborhood design. Most of them focus on the idea that living in a sprawling, low-density area—the sort of place where you can’t walk anywhere, and you only see your neighbors as they drive into their garage—can be isolating, anonymous and…well…depressing. But for the most part, I’ve thought of this research more as suggestive than conclusive....

Let’s leave the vitriol aside for the moment. In his most recent Mossback column, condo-critic Knute Berger makes the following claim about Seattle’s gradual move towards denser housing: “We know that these green-backed policies [i.e., the ones promoting dense development in Seattle] are making the city more unaffordable.” No, in fact, we do not know that. Of course, it’s a common complaint. Apparently, lots of people view condo development as...

It’s been nearly a month since Seattle voters rejected both of the officially sanctioned options for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The final tally: 70 percent of voters opted against the tunnel; and 57 percent voted against rebuilding a new & bigger elevated freeway. As far as such things go, it was a landslide—a resounding “no” to both options. But does that end the controversy? Probably not. You see, it...