Growth Battles Heating up in Seattle

Nina Shapiro begins this account of residents pushing back against development in Seattle with an obscenity-laced anecdote from the neighborhood of Ballard. The anecdote, says Shapiro, is a sign of growing unrest against the city's current growth patterns, and "others in Ballard—and in neighborhoods across the city that are being similarly transformed—are digging in and doing battle. In Capitol Hill, West Seattle, Eastlake, and elsewhere, residents are banding together, putting up websites and passing around petitions to stop what they contend is runaway, unregulated growth. More than a dozen such groups joined a confederation formed earlier this year called the Coalition for an Affordable, Livable Seattle, or CALSeattle."

On the other side of the issue, "another faction of the city is arguing that the development boom is exactly what should be happening, and if anything is being overregulated. In July, a developer-funded organization called Smart Growth Seattle launched a campaign, complete with video and petition, that rails against City Council members for “decreasing housing supply with legislation that adds more rules, process, limits, and costs... at a time when we are expecting 120,000 new residents."

The long read includes a lot more description of the market implications, politics, advocacy, and passion surrounding the "soul-searching" growth of Seattle.