"Seattle is still a car town at heart," Danny Westneat writes, pointing to a number of gargantuan new parking garages like the 2,300-stall complex at Expedia's new headquarters.
Danny Westneat blasts Seattle firms and transportation planners for engaging in "doublespeak" when it comes to the city's ostensibly green, multi-modal image. "This two-step between quietly nodding to our car-focused reality while espousing the greenest dreams perfectly captures what passes for transportation planning in the Emerald City. We wish you wouldn't drive, the government announces. But we know you're gonna, the private market whispers in echo," he writes.
Take the massive new "airport-style parking complex" at Expedia's new waterfront headquarters. Despite building a garage "twice as big as what is touted as the largest garage in downtown Seattle — the six-story-deep, 1,200-spot garage beneath Pacific Place," the company has expressed the sentiment that it'll be happy if employees choose other ways to commute, despite a deficit of transit to the location.
There's a similar pattern, Westneat says, in how city officials talk about parking and traffic, which exceed supposed "saturation points" as commuters keep driving and developers keep building parking. "Sheepish wishes aside, green-talking Seattle is still a car town at heart."
FULL STORY: These mammoth new parking garages speak an inconvenient truth about green-talking Seattle
Seattle Planning Commission Urges Reimagining of the City’s Streets
In a set of recommendations submitted to the city, the commission calls for revised land use and transportation policies that reclaim public space from cars and shift focus away from vehicle throughput to more pedestrian-oriented uses.
Opinion: Housing Versus Trees Is a False Choice; Swap Pavement for Trees Instead
Seattle’s goal to cover 30 percent of the city with tree canopy by 2037 doesn’t need to be sacrificed in favor of density. There’s a better way.
Retrofitting Parking Garages to Create New Housing
Underused parking garages and lots offer an opportunity to alleviate the housing crisis by retrofitting them with temporary and permanent housing options.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
Baltimore to break ground on $50 million Transit Priority Project
The project will bring faster bus trips, safer streets and better bike connections to Baltimore.
Airbnb launches $250 million 'last-dollar financing' housing accelerator, makes first investment in Austin
The company will put $6.4 million towards affordable housing development in Texas’ capital.
Guerilla urbanists are building DIY bus stop benches in Chicago
A before-and-after of one of the bus stops with a new bench. The new benches are not officially sanctioned or permitted, but the residents who placed them hope they will be the start of a network of DIY benches across the city.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association