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.
Just like in every household during the holidays, there are many Big Media indulgences as we trash one calendar and hang a new one. The Urbanist is no different, and we will be hosting a few year enders and looks forward over the next few weeks.
Few media traditions, however,...
American malls are so ubiquitous that it is difficult to consider they were purposefully conceived, actively designed, and meticulously managed. Every facet of an atrium ceiling or food court placement was decided based on cost, profitability, and aesthetics. But malls have rarely been considered as Serious Architecture.
Meet Me by...
Given this podcast is dropping on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, there is a solid chance that you or a loved one will spend some time at a mall in the next week. Shopping at climate controlled temples of consumer capitalism is, after all, the point of the holiday. As...
The Office of the Mayor announcing legislation extending Covid-era exemptions that allow affordable rental housing projects to skip design review, the costly and time-consuming architecture critiques widely seen as a roadblock to development in Seattle. The year-long extension would allow for development of further legislation that may permanently codify...
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Testify at the Seattle Budget Meeting Monday Nov. 21
Seattle is nearing its final budget and some big...
There is a concept in television called a bottle episode. It’s where a show puts one or a few characters into a single location and films them in virtually real time for the entire episode. Think about Seinfeld waiting "5 or 10 minutes” for a table before the movie....
This week, we enjoy some election round-ups as The Urbanist Elections Committee member Jazmine Smith joins Ray Dubicki to talk about the surprises and squeakers of Election Night 2022. From the local initiatives to the state legislature races, we discuss the purpose of advisory notes (none), the problem of having...
Council actions rearrange Mayor’s budget proposal based on short term coverage from JumpStart tax.
Seattle’s budget season is moving into its final stages as Budget Committee Chair Teresa Mosqueda published the City Council’s balancing package on Monday. The package proposes to reallocate money from Mayor Bruce Harrell’s initial priorities, including...