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.
More passenger restrooms are ahead in Sound Transit's ever-growing system. However, a recommended policy update would discourage them from becoming a universal and easily accessible feature at light rail stations because of stringent criteria.
Under the policy, 16 transit facilities throughout Sound Transit's network could have passenger restrooms by...
Along with a slate of proposed changes to systemwide station, line, and facility naming policies, Sound Transit is proposing to rename University Street Station to Symphony Station. The name change could come as soon as 2023 as part of the East Link light rail extension opening. Other recommended policy...
https://youtu.be/ZQ6fSHr5TJg
Vox looks at Phoenix, a very hot city, to see the challenges it faces in cooling it down from extreme heat. The city wants to green up the city with trees, but doing so poses real issues in being accomplished equitably. It’s also not the only kind of key...
Zero-emissions district: A Norwegian city is planning a district as completely zero-emissions.
Planning for all: How can less car-centric planning benefit rural areas, too?
Not recreational camping: As the housing crisis persists in the Western US, people are finding refuge in forests.
Gold standard: Bike Portland opines about Paris' prestigious public bikeshare...
https://youtu.be/Rt6RzjjsaRM
The engineering and technical experience in flood defences of Rotterdam and The Netherlands could help countries across the globe implement flood prevention strategies to fend off rising sea levels and more frequent, severe flood events brought on from climate change. Bloomberg Quicktake explains how.
https://youtu.be/GlXNVnftaNs
Not Just Bikes explores the Dutch concept of low car streets (autoluw). They’re another tool to prioritize people and make them feel welcome on foot and by bike on streets.
At 4:51am this morning, the Northgate Link extension officially opened to the public. Many riders were in attendance for the occasion rising to cheers, whistles, and claps as the 1 Line welcomed them aboard and visited its three new stations. Families, neighbors, and transit enthusiasts filled platforms, but the...
The long-awaited RapidRide G Line project is finally getting underway. The 2.1-mile line will run from 1st Avenue in Downtown Seattle to Martin Luther King Jr Way in Madison Valley, providing very frequent service along the Madison Street corridor in 2024. Along the way, the line will serve First...