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 first few months of the year are bringing 1 Line service disruptions that could hit unprepared riders hard. Here's everything you need to know.
East Link light rail expansions set the stage for boosting housing and transforming streets to overcome car dependence. The next year will be a pivotal, signaling whether Eastside cities are executing an urban transformation or falling back into old exclusionary patterns, ceding regional leadership back to the other side of the lake.
By the time the Seattle City Council convenes for the first meeting of the Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan on January 6, a group of residents from every single council district will have been pushing to scale back proposed zoning changes in their midst, all using similar arguments around lack of infrastructure and loss of neighborhood character.
To keep buses moving as lanes are set to be shut down on I-5 over a three-year period, the Seattle Department of Transportation is set to convert peak-hour bus lanes to all-day. But the city isn't calling the change permanent.
King County Metro is set to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming years on electrifying its fleet and converting its bus bases, but the question of whether those projects come at the expense of transit service is set to get a closer look thanks to a provision in the county's 2025 budget.
Declining state transportation revenue and increased project costs are on a collision course. Long-promised highway projects, court-ordered fish culvert removal, and badly needed investments in transit, active transportation, and traffic safety are all fighting for a shrinking pie.
In approving a unanimous update to its Comprehensive Plan, the Shoreline City Council is set to go well beyond the minimum requirements of state law in pursuit of creating additional housing options and more vibrant neighborhoods.
In a letter approved this week, the Seattle Planning Commission expressed disappointment that the draft One Seattle Comprehensive Plan doesn't go much beyond state mandates, and pushed for changes to make the housing plan bolder and more forward-thinking.