Ray Dubicki
Ray Dubicki is a stay-at-home dad and parent-on-call for taking care of general school and neighborhood tasks around Ballard. This lets him see how urbanism works (or doesn’t) during the hours most people are locked in their office. He is an attorney and urbanist by training, with soup-to-nuts planning experience from code enforcement to university development to writing zoning ordinances. He enjoys using PowerPoint, but only because it’s no longer a weekly obligation.
Floating offshore wind energy platforms are coming to California, as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has concluded its first sale of leases permitting the installation of platforms on the outer continental shelf. Five companies picked up leases, each between $130 million and $173 million, to install turbines...
This week, let's talk about the future of Seattle with neighborhood activist and The Urbanist guest contributor Ron Davis, who joins Ray Dubicki to talk about Seattle's Comprehensive Plan. It can be a big, confusing mess of technocrat speak and boring stats. Is it too geeky? Yes, but we break...
According to news reports, it is difficult to walk into Chinatown without seeing urban blight and homelessness. The city’s pre-eminent ethnic neighborhood is difficult to navigate without stumbling over drug debris and tents. Videos of people sleeping unsheltered and photos of litter in the curbs are interspersed with concern...
When asking where Seattle's Millionaire's Row went, the trite answer is "Starbucks for coffee." But the honest answer is a bit more involved. Seattle's original chic addresses hosted some of the country's earliest industrial barons, but also stood the test of time. This House takes a good look at...
In the song "Five Feet High and Rising," Johnny Cash sings "Well, the rails are washed out north of town/ We got to head for higher ground/ We can't come back till the water goes down/ Five feet high and risin'." Unfortunately, with climate change we are facing a...
New rules provide opportunities to develop employment centers north of the Ship Canal.
Now that the Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development has completed the Final Environmental Impact Statement for rezoning the city’s industrial lands, it’s time to start asking the important question: how do we get more breweries...
Welcome to December 2022 Edition
Now that the carnage of Budget Season has passed, we can move to more pressing concerns. Comprehensive plan meetings! Also, make sure you sign up for any and all of The Urbanist's upcoming events, including our talk with Futurewise, a meetup with Tiffani McCoy, and...
The holiday is a Chicago kind of event
It is Black Friday in America. For those of us avoiding the mall like it’s our racist uncle, there’s one true salve: Christmas movies.
Christmas gets DEDICATED CHANNELS of movies devoted to every facet of the holiday season. There’s the recovering girl accountant...