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Washington Tries the Carrot Approach for Statewide Zoning Reform
Pro-housing state lawmakers hoping to ease Washington’s dire housing shortage tried something new this year: the offer of a financial incentive to cities if they opt to allow more homes by loosening their zoning laws. Cities embraced the approach, in stark contrast to their typical hostility to any state bills that would mandate zoning reforms. Legislators considered three bills with variations on the incentive theme and, though there was broad stakeholder support and little opposition, failed to...Read more » -
Push-Me-Pull-You: Local And Provincial Tensions In BC Housing Policy
Mayor Lisa Helps of Victoria is hoping British Columbia’s activist new housing minister will change provincial laws to make it easier to get new homes built in her city, one that is renowned for its tourist-luring British colonial architecture, its growing homeless population, and its lengthy public process to get any kind of new housing approved. Mayor Helps knows it won’t be easy. “It’s going to take bold, courageous action...Read more » -
Yes, Other Countries Do Housing Better, Case 1: Japan
Last time, I imagined an alternative political economy of housing in the United States. This time, I begin a tour of other countries’ housing regimes. “If you can’t solve a problem, enlarge it.” This oft-repeated maxim was probably not expressed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, despite Internet claims to the contrary. (Experts at the Eisenhower Presidential Library have never found evidence he said it.) Still, it’s wise counsel: expanding the scope...Read more » -
The Problem With US Housing Policy Is That It’s Not About Housing
The Problem with US Housing Policy Is That It Is Not About Housing — It’s About Real Estate Appreciation. Far from boosting equity, affordability, and homeownership, they polarize wealth, exacerbate racial inequality, cut productivity and job creation, speed climate change, and exaggerate the ups and the downs of the business cycle.Read more » -
Two Paths Emerge for Washington to Legalize More Granny Flats
Washington State lawmakers could clear a path in neighborhoods across the state for more granny flats and basement apartments.Read more » -
Verified: More Parking Puts More Cars on the Road
Do cities create greener lifestyles? Or do they just enable them? It’s very, very, very clear that people who live closer to other people drive less. But how much of this is due to the fact that people who were already predisposed to driving less—those of us who don’t particularly enjoy driving, for example—are deliberately living where parking is scarce and buses are frequent? A forthcoming academic paper finally begins...Read more » -
What Do Georgia’s Senate Runoffs Mean for Federal Action on Housing?
Update January 6, 2021: Victories for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in yesterday’s Georgia Senate runoff election will hand over control of the US Senate to Democrats in the next Congress. It’s a critical step toward realizing President-elect Joe Biden’s exemplary housing proposals. However, Senate Republicans can obstruct federal action on housing with the filibuster. To boost funding for Section 8 vouchers or the Housing Trust Fund, Democrats can bypass...Read more » -
Oregon Just Ended Excessive Parking Mandates On Most Urban Lots
The movement to prioritize housing for people over storage for cars has reached a new high point in the Pacific Northwest. In the first action of this kind by any US state, Oregon’s state land use board voted unanimously last week to sharply downsize dozens of local parking mandates on duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, and cottages. Many cities have reduced or eliminated parking mandates in recent years, including Oregon’s largest...Read more » -
Biden-Harris Win Opens Path to Federal Action on Housing
Biden wins! Good news is the Biden-Harris ticket has a great plan for federal action on housing. Bad news is continued obstructionism in a Republican-controlled Senate will stall affordability and housing security for Americans.Read more » -
A Green Voter’s Guide to Cascadia’s 2020 Election Results
Perhaps you’ve heard that the United States held an election recently. As the dust clears and local, state, and federal ballots are counted, Sightline’s team of researchers is using this page to tell you how the results matter to sustainability issues here in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle bus service was on the ballot; it won. Housing reform in Portland got a mixed result at city council. Montana took a rightward...Read more »