Green power: Rhode Island is home to the nation’s first offshore wind farm and it could be the genesis for more to come in the US.
Ranking high: Vienna does well in quality-of-life rankings because of its green spaces, and affordable housing and transportation.
Not by the people: A Pierce County Superior Court judge rules that an Olympia initiative to institute an income tax is unconstitutional.
Refined: Smith Tower owner, Unico, shows off the major remake to the landmark building.
Growing Beacon Hill: 150 apartments will be arriving in the Beacon Hill Station area.
New digs: The Danforth, future home to Whole Foods, breaks ground in First Hill.
Environmental education: The Lummi Tribe near Bellingham brought totem poles to Capitol Hill this week to bring environmental awareness.
The issue: Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has hired a Director of Homelessness and this week explained how he wants to manage the issue.
Better off the better off: The wealthy are the biggest beneficiaries of housing subsidies, according to Greater Greater Washington.
Gem of the Randstad: Chris and Melissa Bruntlett of Modacity share the beauty of Rotterdam as a modern Dutch city 75 years after complete devastation from World War II.
Portlandia: To better connect its city center, Portland will build a bridge across I-405 just for people who walk and bike.
Try again: Seattle University’s Standing Advisory Committee found that a proposed building for the campus is too austere in design and asking for further refinements.
Incompatible design: Amazon is planning to construct a drive-through grocery store in Ballard.
Holding onto affordable housing: Next City and CityLab share how cities are preserving affordable housing and why that is good.
Twisting tall: See a comparison of the world’s tallest twisting skyscrapers.
Mid-century masterpieces: The mesmerizing mid-century motels of New Jersey that will soon be gone.
Watch your step?: China opens the world’s longest glass bridge.
Reaching the sky: Another big tower tops out in Bellevue.
More house for fewer people: Single-family residence teardowns are happening at a pace of about one per day in the Seattle area and tend to be replaced with houses nearly three times the size ($).
Which rules?: The Department of Ecology is in a legal battle with the Environmental Protection Agency over clean water rules.
Urban to wild: Seattle Weekly asks, “Do urbanists have a wilderness problem?” Our Owen Pickford explains how he makes it out to the hinterlands even though he doesn’t have a car.
Map(s) of the Week: Our friends at Transit Center kicked off a week of discussion on “tortured transit” routes. Local transit hero Andrew Austin make a cameo Tweet in the piece. And one map shows how climate change will affect animal migration across the globe.
Stephen is a professional urban planner in Puget Sound with a passion for sustainable, livable, and diverse cities. He is especially interested in how policies, regulations, and programs can promote positive outcomes for communities. With stints in great cities like Bellingham and Cork, Stephen currently lives in Seattle. He primarily covers land use and transportation issues and has been with The Urbanist since 2014.