Doug Trumm
Doug Trumm is publisher of The Urbanist. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrian streets, bus lanes, and a mass-timber building spree to end our housing crisis. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2019. He lives in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and loves to explore the city by foot and by bike.
NE Seattle Greenways made fixing NE 65th Street--reducing the frequent collisions and making it more comfortable for pedestrians and bicyclists--their number one goal last year.
On their blog they wrote, "NE 65th is vital for businesses, schools, and people who live, work, and play in NE Seattle. But in just the...
Seattle should increase taxes on surface parking lots--which sit at 12.5% now--and add a moderate excise tax on vacant lots in order to encourage their owners to sell or develop them as housing, and earn money to fund affordable housing in the meantime. Taxing parking lots will hasten the conversion of...
Looking at the precinct level results for ST3, as many transit advocates have, you might agree with Publicola's Josh Feit who argued that Sound Transit should not build the park-and-rides promised to suburbs that failed to earn a majority vote in favor of the Sound Transit 3 (ST3) ballot measure. Feit made his argument...
Tonight the Northeast Design Review Board will give early design guidance on a 129-unit design for 4726 15th Ave NE. The plan calls for a mix of small efficiency dwelling units and apartments plus 3,510 square feet of street-level retail, all built to a silver LEED environmental standard.
It's an early...
Two years ago the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) Advisory Committee tried to put forward the idea of changing Seattle’s rigid single-family residential zones to something more flexible, termed Residential Small Lot (RSL), that would allow duplexes and triplexes on lots where they are currently prohibited. But somebody leaked...
Author's Note: So many big things happened in 2016, I neglected to mention the U Link extension, which brought light rail service to Capitol Hill and Husky Stadium in March. Too important of a story to miss considering how much it's improved mobility to and from those areas!
Ignoring the national political...
As predicted, the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) approved the land use permit Thursday for the King County Children and Family Justice Center, also known as the youth jail, with the hefty price tag of $210 million and an arguably sordid history.
Mayor Ed Murray issued a statement contending his hands...
On Tuesday we sardonically noted that Seattle had gotten itself a new youth jail for Christmas (real festive!) in a headline. That got us thinking what more appropriate gifts would be for our forward-thinking city.
The first step to writing a good Christmas list is understanding the budget constraints of...