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.
There’s a spot just inside Seattle's Gilman Park where the scent of turned earth and new asphalt mingles with that of cooking grains coming out of West Woodland's Brewery Row. At this rare moment, the scent of construction is stronger. Surprisingly for the neighborhood, there are currently fewer breweries...
Having attended a number of community meetings around Seattle, I can say that there are few things worse than watching a newcomer with ideas get shut down for not having done the reading.
Oh, you didn’t know that there was prerequisite reading necessary to attend community meetings? Yes, in Seattle,...
From now until March 2nd, Seattle is taking comments on a proposal to change the zoning rules in the city's industrial zones. Based on the work of the former mayor’s Industrial and Maritime Strategy group, the changes will address evolving manufacturing and maritime industries while protecting the lands from...
The Seattle City Council is considering a bill to extend cafe street and outdoor dining permits until January 2023. The popular program arose during the pandemic to accommodate outdoor dining and shopping through the lockdowns. While Seattle has always permitted use of sidewalk and parking spaces, the high costs...
Now that the Washington (D.C.) Football Team has completed its 18 month renaming process, it is time to arrive at the next important decision. The Commanders must decide where to play. Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia - The DMV - are about to enter an arms race for constructing...
Build roads for freight, bikes, and transit, not peak cars
Streets in Seattle’s industrial neighborhoods show massive disinvestment in the basic maintenance of curbs and pavement. It’s a discrepancy that the freight industry shares with cyclists and pedestrians in the city. The immense cost to maintain the largest roads for...
An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) sounds like a highly technical and complex mechanism of governance. They take years, spiral into hundreds of pages with massive appendices, and get fought over in court. The truth is that EIS are a simple concept with plenty of spots that you can influence...
The letter District Leaders should send to follow earlier garbage.
Dear Seattle Schools families,
As Covid numbers have spiked among kids and staff in Seattle Public Schools, we here at the District have repeatedly sent out confusing and oblivious emails. They were so poorly put together, you needed to wade...