The Seattle vote: How did Seattle voters choose in the election? Crosscut has the data.
Battery reuse: What will happen with the Battery Street Tunnel? Ideas abound.
Jenny’s team: Seattle’s next mayor, Jenny Durkan, has named her full transition team and deputy mayors ($).
Tacoma-REDI: Tacoma is poised to get its first regionally-funded affordable housing project in the city’s West End under the Regional Equitable Development Initiative program.
Incentivizing infill: Spokane may use tax incentives to zap the city center’s parking craters away.
Rate hike: Utility rates are set to rise over the next six years in Seattle ($).
Disenfranchizing needy: Zurich has 132 millionaires living in public housing, but the city plans to make that harder from happening in the future.
Leave it to beaver: In Mill Creek, a neighborhood ended up flooding this week due to a smashed beaver dam.
Intimidator: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is still trying to intimidate Seattle and King County over his agency’s racist and authoritarian policies on immigration.
Trail impacts: A King County sewer project could impact the Sammamish River Trail in Redmond for a few years.
Slower income growth: Personal income growth slowed in the Puget Sound region during 2016 ($).
Flexibus: European long-haul bus juggernaut is headed to America.
Toronto speeding up streetcars: Toronto has made some big improvements that could set the standard for other streetcar systems to keep them moving.
Can’t make this up: National Republicans cleared a major hurdle this week ($) in passing their tax cut bill for the rich in the House of Representatives, which even includes big tax breaks for owning and operating private jets. Meanwhile, the Seattle Times Editorial Board made a uncharacteristically lucid argument against eliminating tax finance tools for affordable housing.
Nextgen: The next generation of ORCA is still a few years away, but we know a lot about how it is planned to function.
Ghost of McCleary: The Washington Supreme Court says that the state legislature is still failing public schools ($).
Housing meme: CityLab covered a local housing meme that went viral.
Income tax: A ruling on the Seattle income tax should come very soon.
Gloomy climate: A climate change report paints a very gloomy picture for the Pacific Northwest.
Gentrification ridership loses: Portland’s TriMet agency staff think that gentrification may be why transit ridership has declined in the region.
Map of the Week: The Soviet Union secretly mapped all of America and it’s beautiful.
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.