Yearly Archives: 2025

New legislation in Olympia could help us rethink and reclaim the street as a true public easement. If passed and its provisions delivered, we can look forward to streets that are not only more welcoming of public life, but a lot less deadly to all users. 

A rally Saturday in Lake Forest Park served to highlight the threats to the SR-522 bus rapid transit project, which will connect Shoreline to Bothell. In order to open in 2028 as planned, construction needs to start this year.

Alan Fisher of Armchair Urbanist dives into how San Francisco is ready-made for electric trolleybuses and has a robust network of them today -- just like Seattle. Fisher explains why they're better than battery-electric buses and how, with a little effort, San Francisco could widely expand electric trolleybuses with strategic investments to almost every corner of the city.

Seattle Times opinion columnist Alex Fryer gets pretty much everything wrong in his hit piece about new South Park townhomes. The project will add trees, despite dramatic photos the newspaper took before the developer finished its planned tree plantings, which is not advised in the winter. 

Workers at Baja Concrete and Newway Forming contend their bosses stole millions in wages, but Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison has been slow to press their case, Rory O'Sullivan writes. Wage theft prosecutions are down under her administration.

In 2020, Rob Saka advocated against proposed safety infrastructure along a critical greenway in West Seattle. This week, the issue resurfaced, and Saka, now a city councilmember and chair of the transportation committee, again railed against traffic diverters.

Cars and sprawl that are the true problem as the Puget Sound region seeks to boost salmon runs and protect salmon-eating orca whales. Building more homes in Seattle is the way to curb sprawl.

Governor Bob Ferguson’s reticence to approve new taxes represents a major obstacle to closing a big budget hole without deep cuts to social services. In fact, Ferguson announced Tuesday he would veto any budget that included a wealth tax, which could tie state lawmakers’ hands.