Stephen Fesler
Stephen is a professional urban planner in Puget Sound with a passion for sustainable, livable, and diverse cities. He is especially interested in how policies, regulations, and programs can promote positive outcomes for communities. With stints in great cities like Bellingham and Cork, Stephen currently lives in Seattle. He primarily covers land use and transportation issues and has been with The Urbanist since 2014.
Parking craters: America just celebrated Black Friday, so how well were the seas of parking used?
Atlanta's segregationist enclave: A white enclave in Atlanta has urges to secede over zoning laws that could allow more families to live in their community.
Vancouver TOD: Vancouver is going through public engagement on a...
https://youtu.be/CaLOiGEDPJQ
Vox recounts how the international community came together to combat depletion of the ozone layer and why the ozone layer is no longer of critical environmental concern.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX2aZUav-54&t=573s
Climate Town takes on the topic of gas stoves and the natural gas industry. Is it time to bury those stoves and the industry?
Like many local governments, Snohomish County has kicked off their comprehensive planning process to meet a state-mandated deadline to update the county's 20-year growth plans. Known as the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update, the county has begun its scoping process to identify differing alternatives to support growth in the years...
Escalators and elevators are a persistent problem for Sound Transit. The agency has had constant troubles at newer facilities like Capitol Hill and University of Washington Stations, which led to opening emergency exit stairways and building out new ones for general use. Recently, routine outages have plagued the three...
https://youtu.be/vxWjtpzCIfA
Jason Slaughter of Not Just Bikes shows how Toronto's GO Transit commuter rail is primarily setup to subsidize the suburbs without providing real, regular transit benefits. The criticisms and problems he highlights are very similar to the failures of Sound Transit's Sounder commuter rail. Of course, the issues raised...
Stop sprawl: A city in Ontario turned down a massive urban growth boundary expansion and instead favored urban infill.
IBR persists: A key vote in the Portland area removed one roadblock to a major highway expansion.
Car-sized housing: CityLab explores why Hong Kong is building housing units the size of a...
Amtrak Cascades train service north of Seattle remains suspended, but bus service will be offered in early December. This will allow Amtrak passengers to reach Vancouver, British Columbia after nearly two years of no Amtrak-affliated service. Officials have also said that train service is expected to be restored in...