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.
Sound Transit CEO Julie Timm was our guest for The Urbanist's monthly talk series in May. Timm took the reins in September after coming out on top in a national CEO search to replace Peter Rogoff. She left her post as CEO of Greater Richmond Transit Company in Virginia...
Purchasing an abandoned high school for $100,000, three developers carved out a lovely 31 unit apartment building in the Pittsburgh suburb of Homestead, Pennsylvania. The amenities abound at Bowtie High, with lofty ceilings, natural light, and modern fixtures. The preserved auditorium turned community space is amazing, and the developers...
We get a lot of news-ish emails about ranking cities in lists. Whether it's the best cities for strange hats or the metros that one can find the most left-handed plumbers, there's a list for everything.
The proliferation of lists begs the question of their quality. Who is making them,...
Next week is standardized testing at the kiddos’ school. The normal seven-class-a-day schedule will be reorganized to allow morning and afternoon blocks long enough to take the 3 to 4 hour tests. The kids have stockpiled gum and selected small stuffed animals and stress balls to keep them company....
This week, Dave Amos over at City Beautiful does an excellent job discussing the history and pitfalls of historic districts. From their early application to preserve important landmarks to their recent use as another hurdle to prevent density, the video emphasizes the differences between saving historic buildings and backdoor...
Through May and June, Seattle’s City Council will be considering a comprehensive rezoning of the city’s industrial lands. The changes are a long time coming, with many fits and starts. In following the evolution of this proposal, the legislation provides an interesting chance to say something I don't often...
While a non-trivial portion of Emerald City's economy (and, honestly, personality) is coffee based, we don't often take the time to consider what our daily cup of joy and purpose actually *IS*. Could coffee be veggie broth, seed juice, or bean tea? We'll let you come to grips with...
This is a quote from a book and a song, so I can use it as a title. Even with a questionable intensifier.
Today is my last day as interim Managing Editor of The Urbanist. You’ll be pardoned if you didn’t notice my reign. Mostly it’s that interim tag, I...