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How to Reduce Emissions and Congestion While Preparing for a Just Transition to Self-Driving Cars
Cascadia’s cities could benefit immensely from electric robo-taxi service someday if we get the public policies right but we don’t know exactly when autonomous car service will arrive. In the meantime, we need an action agenda to address our current transportation problems that also enables a just transition to self-driving cars. To kick off 2019, I propose the following slate of sensible reforms that would reduce transportation emissions and congestion...Read more » -
Modifications to Washington’s Condo Law Could Give Production a Shot in the Arm
UPDATE 1/18/19: The bill—SB 5334—dropped today. In Seattle’s post-recession boom, condominiums have mostly gone missing from the construction party. The reason? Apartments offered a better return on investment relative to the risk. And one factor that jacks up risk for condo development is Washington state’s onerous condo warranty law that encourages costly lawsuits over construction defects—real or imagined. The conventional wisdom: if you build condos, you’ll get sued. Laws to...Read more » -
2018 in Review: Progress toward Re-legalizing Multiple-Dwelling Homes
The Sightline Housing and Urbanism team’s foremost theme of 2018 was Cascadia’s slow but sure progress toward re-legalizing modest multiple-dwelling homes on land previously locked away for suburban-style houses on big grassy lots. I add the “re” to “legalize” because historically in North American cities, duplexes, triplexes, courtyard homes, rowhouses and small apartments were sprinkled in with stand-alone houses. Starting in the 1920s, cities began ratcheting down zoning restrictions on...Read more » -
British Columbia’s Proportional Representation Referendum Loses
After a long election, British Columbia’s referendum to upgrade to a proportional representation system lost, 61 percent to keep the current system to 39 percent. Although many BC voters feel the current First-Past-the-Post voting system is not working well, change from the status quo to an unfamiliar system can be a tough sell at the ballot box. In the face of fear tactics and doubt from the opposition, a majority...Read more » -
Bike-Share Programs in Cascadia: How Are They Faring?
Editor’s note: Uber announced Monday, Nov. 19, plans to launch its bike-share service after receiving its operating permit from the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) last Friday. The announcement was made after this article was originally published. Electric scooter rentals may be getting all the buzz of late, but bike-share growth is still sizzling in Cascadia as cities work to find low-carbon solutions for the proverbial “last mile” from transit...Read more » -
8 Things Proportional Representation Does for Every Voter
The United States and Canada haven’t upgraded their democratic systems in centuries, leading to some of the most unrepresentative legislative bodies and disenfranchised voters across the globe’s democracies. We can fix this by spreading the use of upgraded voting systems such as proportional representation, including multi-winner districts and ranked-choice voting. These improved systems are already in use in cities and states in the United States and in most successful democracies...Read more » -
Midterms 2018 Prove Voters are Hungry for Democracy Reform
Election Day brought ups and downs for voters of all stripes. But one consistent theme across the United States was that voters want democracy to work better and they are ready to vote for change. Florida passed a measure to restore voting rights to more than a million voters, other states approved automatic voter registration, set new standards to curb gerrymandering. The appetite for democracy reform is evident in all corners...Read more » -
Proportional Representation Gives More Voting Power to Low-Income People
Economies across North America are supposedly doing well, yet lots of people are still feeling the pinch. Many Americans and Canadians are part of a trend of widening inequality. It might not be intuitive, but updating their electoral method could help. Countries that use proportional representation (ProRep) have less inequality and more equality-enhancing policies compared with winner-take-all countries such as Canada and the United States. In the winner-take-all systems, many...Read more » -
Proportional Representation Delivers Stronger Environmental Solutions
Around the world, voters want strong environmental protections. In countries that use proportional representation (ProRep) voting systems, they get them. ProRep countries like New Zealand and Germany are faster to ratify global climate accords than winner-take-all countries like the United States and Canada. They also have twice as much renewable energy and less air pollution. No voting system can promise a particular policy outcome—like action on climate change—but some guarantee...Read more » -
Trouble in Paradise: BC’s Local Elections Shake Up Housing Policy
To paraphrase Calvin Coolidge: The chief business of British Columbia is British Columbia. Construction and real estate add up to a hugely disproportionate share of the Cascadian province’s economy, Bloomberg Businessweek noted Saturday, as BC voters went to the polls in dozens of municipal elections whose overriding issue was housing. Those elections indicated that BC’s housing policy may be brewing another big shift. There’s no mystery why the business of...Read more »