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.
The Seattle Department of Transportation has wrapped up work on a new bike connection between Judkins Park and Mount Baker. Its roots can be traced back to a vision the Seattle City Council moved forward in 2019.
It had looked like the idea of reallocating street space to bike lanes was off the table in Bellevue, but a city council discussion last week restarted the debate.
Progressive urbanists appear poised to flip a Seattle City Council seat, win the Pierce County Executive race, and expand their caucus in the state legislature.
Despite backers collecting enough signatures to make the ballot, the Seattle City Council voted Tuesday to delay a decision on I-137, which would fund Seattle's Social Housing Developer.
Offering a bold vision for Downtown Seattle that could include as many as 7,800 new homes, King County has released a full strategic plan for how it might redevelop its civic campus.
Seattle Councilmember Bob Kettle has asserted that projects intended to improve traffic safety can negatively impact emergency response. The data to back it up is not there.
Shoreline has seen significant growth in housing around its two light rail stations, but this week the Shoreline Council showed clear reluctance to allow increased density throughout the rest of the city.
To prevent a 19-story apartment building long in the works, a group of Belltown residents are trying to stop code updates to Seattle's Living Building pilot program. The purported risk of bird deaths headline the group's laundry list of concerns.