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.
When the three transportation agencies involved in the One Center City plan--King County Metro, Sound Transit, and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT)--presented their recommendations for near-term improvements in Downtown Seattle, one of the most hopeful items was a clear plan to connect Downtown with Capitol Hill with protected...
King County Metro may finally be putting Route 99 out to pasture. The long-beleaguered and much maligned bus line that replaced the George Benson Waterfront Streetcar line appears headed toward retirement in March. But before it does, it has one last stop to make. Metro is proposing to move...
On Monday, the King County Council voted unanimously to sell the land that is home to Convention Place Station. Convention Place will make way for a $1.7 billion addition doubling the size of the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC), as The Urbanist has covered extensively before. While few doubted...
In late January, the four organizations involved in the One Center City plan--King County Metro, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Sound Transit, and the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA)--presented a set of options intended to alleviate the pressure on Downtown travel during what they are calling a "period of...
Seattle's first citywide experiment in participatory budgeting starts tomorrow as polls open for the Your Voice, Your Choice park and street grant competition. In February, over 900 ideas were submitted for improvements that neighborhood residents would like to see in their parks and on their local streets. A big...
Seattle celebrated Bike Everywhere Day on May 19th, an inclusive alternative to Bike to Work Day that celebrates the idea that bikes are transportation and that everyone deserves a safe, accessible bike commute. Cascade Bicycle Club in conjunction with various Seattle Neighborhood Greenways neighborhood coalitions organized rides to Downtown...
After weeks of speculation, the Seattle City Council appears to be rushing to put together a framework that could allow private bikeshare operators to get their bikes onto Seattle's streets by the height of peak tourist season. Tom Fucoloro at the Seattle Bike Blog has been covering this story...
NE 65th Street is one of the most collision-prone corridors in North Seattle. There have been 231 crashes on the street between Ravenna Boulevard and 39th Ave NE, and three people have died as a result of those crashes. It's a huge street, with only two marked lanes in...