Kristin E. I just read Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream by former SEIU president Andy Stern. I highly, highly recommend. After successfully organizing Labor, Stern started to feel concerned about the future of Labor, so he spent years asking economists, labor leaders, DEOs, and … Read more
Low-income families typically cause far less greenhouse gas pollution than their better-off peers; yet because they make less money, they spend a larger share of their income on carbon-based fuels. They’ve done the least to cause climate change, but they’re the most vulnerable to its impacts. They’re also most vulnerable to the single best policy … Read more
Pam As a renter facing a $200/month increase on my one-bedroom apartment next month, and as someone with a number of friends and acquaintances who’ve moved out of the city in search of lower-priced housing, I’m more and more scared by our housing scene. Sightline’s work on the issue gives me hope, as do articles … Read more
UPDATE Oct 7: We previously said that I-732 could result in a windfall of up to $200 million to Boeing. However, Boeing’s newly-released tax data suggest that it only pays $19 million to $60 million per year in state business taxes, and therefore would benefit from I-732 in the range of tens of millions per … Read more
Kristin G. Last month I joined a work party to help clean up the McCarver Community Garden in my new neighborhood. The payoff? A meaningful connection to my neighbors, two garden plots to fill with vegetables, and enough cherries plucked from their mature fruit tree to make one of my best pies yet! With a … Read more
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by Yes! Magazine. There’s no such thing as a good place for an oil-train derailment, but this year’s June 3 spill outside Mosier, Oregon, could have been worse if the 16 oil cars had derailed and caught fire even a few hundred feet in either direction. The derailment was … Read more
Last month, Seattle mom, homeowner, and urbanist Sara Maxana gave a keynote address at the first national YIMBY conference, held in Boulder, Colorado. That’s “Yes In My Back Yard,” an invitation to build more homes—of more types and sizes and affordability levels—so that our cities can remain places of opportunity for many, rather than enclaves … Read more
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 … Read more
The next big fossil fuel fight in Cascadia may center on a proposed complex of LNG export plants and gas pipelines in northern Washington and southern British Columbia that almost no one is talking about. The plans could run afoul of tribal treaty rights, put the Salish Sea at risk of pipeline leaks, and turn … Read more
Editor’s Note December 2016: Great news! BMW ReachNow car-sharing service has expanded its fleet to Portland with 360 vehicles and added 330 vehicles to its fleet in Seattle. We’ve updated the numbers below: Last month, BMW launched its car-sharing brand ReachNow in Seattle, expanding into North America from its half-million-member stronghold in Europe, and I’ll admit that even I, … Read more