Ryan Packer
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including Capitol Hill Seattle, BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.
Under the budget for the next two years proposed by Mayor Bruce Harrell, around half of the JumpStart funding originally earmarked for affordable housing and other investments would instead fund Harrell Administration priorities.
New housing, hotel, and research science developments in Seattle's downtown core will be exempt from the onerous design review process for three years. Only Councilmember Cathy Moore voted against the proposal.
London's Pavilion Road, fully pedestrianized in 2021, represents a strong contrast with Seattle's plans to reduce pollution by transforming streets, still stuck in the planning stage despite nearly seven years of work.
King County Metro's entire trolleybus fleet is set to get upgrades to their batteries that will allow them to remain off-wire three times longer.
In voting against the IKE digital advertising kiosks proposal, the Seattle Design Commission cited concerns about clutter and a lack of public buy-in. The Seattle City Council may ultimately approve the program even without that recommendation.
The G Line on Madison Street got off to a rocky start with significant bus bunching combined with major delays for riders. There are already signs of improvement.
Renton wants to spur development around the planned Sound Transit bus rapid transit station in South Renton. But considerable hurdles stand in the way of creating a truly multimodal neighborhood in that location.
Cost estimates on the four-station West Seattle Link light rail project have jumped from $4 billion to upwards of $5.6 billion. It will fall on the Sound Transit board to find a way forward.