The Seattle Times

In the Seattle suburb of Medina, security cameras are now capturing all vehicle driving into the city, and using license plate recognition software to check cars and drivers for criminal records.

The late columnist Emmett Watson set the tone in Seattle for keeping the small bungalow, suburban character of the city. Today, New Urbanists and others are working to redefine Seattle's landscape post-Watson with denser, affordable buildings.

A new technology in use in Sacramento, CA snaps pics of cars' tires and compares them on the next sweep, increasing the number of time violators caught.

Community participation is on the rise, and many sociologists think it's related to the recession.

Foreclosures are skyrocketing in metropolitan Seattle, where some areas have seen figures triple as compared to recent years.

A transit-oriented development boom in Southeast Seattle is coming to a halt, as the economic recession sets in.

Seattle has been allowing developers to build higher buildings in exchange for contributing to a fund for affordable housing. But with few units built, officials are hoping to rewrite the legislation to remove restrictions and get more housing built.

The Seattle City Council recently approved a new affordable housing plan allowing builders to develop larger buildings if they include a certain amount of affordable units. But developers say the plan is ill-timed and they plan on ignoring it.

Planners and officials in Seattle have whittled down the list to just two ideas for replacing the city's damaged inner-city viaduct. Washington Governor Christine Gregoire reportedly wants a final decision by the end of the year.

Figures recently released by the Census Bureau offer a glimpse at the pre-existing economic situation that led to the burst of the housing bubble.

Around Puget Sound, the spreading suburban fringe is changing the types of birds that live in those areas, pushing some out and attracting others. 'It's a change in who's top,' says a local biologist.

This column deals with two Seattle issues: one political - the victory of a transit measure on Nov. 4 that will direct $18 billion to light rail; the other human - a Sierra Club activist who made the campaign for Prop 1 a full time job.

Seattle needs major revisions to its transportation infrastructure, according to local officials. Getting the public behind the expensive projects may be as simple as saying one word: jobs.

Washington, D.C. is almost out of space, and planners are now considering building upward to combat sprawl.

As foreclosures spread throughout the suburbs, subdivisions are rapidly becoming modern-day ghost towns, according to this column from The Seattle Times.

Residents in the Seattle region are calling on officials to expand the area's urban growth boundary to allow denser development in what is currently outside the border.

New census figures have been released, showing a rise in median household income and more people with health insurance. But experts warn that the figures do not account for the recent slump in the economy.

Broad redevelopment plans have been approved for Seattle Center, the public gathering place first built in 1962 for the World's Fair.

Van Nguyen and six neighbors in the NewHolly neighborhood of Seattle weren't satisfied with the city's lack of action on the cars speeding through their community- so they installed speedbumps themselves.

Sound Transit is putting a major bus and rail plan on the November ballot. The Seattle Times has the details of where the money will go.