Parking To Plowshares: At the site of a surface parking lot at Melrose and Pine, SolTerra is planning a 7-story tiered mixed-use building with first-floor retail and a top level restaurant space right next to the I-5 trench (and potentially future freeway lid.)
Ongoing Housing Crisis: Kriston Capps writes that most Americans think the 2008 housing crisis never ended and one in five think the worst is yet to come according to a poll.
Roots of Homelessness: Crosscut did a feature on the roots of the homeless crisis. Full warning for easily outraged urbanists: the author calls John Fox “the city’s most tenacious housing activist for over 40 years.”
No End In Sight: David Kroman covered the more recent homelessness history including Mayor Murray’s decision to declare a homelessness emergency but then use his augmented executive powers sparingly.
Detroit’s Struggling Charters Schools: The New York Times examines Detroit’s school reform program and details the pitfalls of privatizing public schools.
Overcrowded Sidewalks in NYC: The NYT also tackled something in its own backyard: the Big Apple’s overcrowded sidewalks and what’s being done to alleviate them.
Famous Lawncare: The Stranger broke news that the cast of Real World Seattle is doing at least some of the work to re-turf the play field at Cal Anderson Park.
Kirkland Bike Lanes: The Kirkland City Council is apparently getting serious about punishing folks who park in the city’s 49 miles of bike lanes as it will consider a $45 fine on July 19.
Portland Photo Tour: Jarrett Walker has praise for Geoffrey Hiller photographic tour through some of Portland’s more unsung corners via the route 75 bus.
Construction Mitigation For Bikes and Peds: Thanks to pressure from Bike Portland, Portland is considering legislation to require bicycle and pedestrian detours at construction sites.
Doug Trumm is publisher of The Urbanist. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrianizing streets, blanketing the city in bus lanes, and unleashing a mass timber building spree to end the affordable housing shortage and avert our coming climate catastrophe. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2019. He lives in East Fremont and loves to explore the city on his bike.