Seattle
A proposal for the development of a mass timber high-rise in First Hill is under community review in Seattle. The project, which adjusted plans to add an additional 6 floors, proposes the tallest mass timber building in Seattle.
Capitol Hill Seattle Blog
The history of Seattle's opposition to car infrastructure is being commemorated while it's being made.
Crosscut
The temporary measures of the coronavirus pandemic are being made permanent fixtures on 20 miles of streets in Seattle.
The Seattle Times
Seatback signage and reduced capacity will allow King County Metro to begin resuming bus service. In the wake of staff illness and depleted funding, the road to Metro's recovery could be quite long.
The Urbanist
Disability rights advocates and people who rely on public transit put pressure on Mayor Jenny Durkan to develop a plan for pedestrian access to coronavirus testing centers in Seattle.
The Seattle Times
The "Red Line" didn't fly with people living in neighborhoods historically redlined by discriminatory real estate and land use practices.
The Urbanist
Disaster gentrification is a widely documented phenomenon, like in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The coronavirus and the resulting economic downturn could have similar consequences.
Crosscut
Project for Public Spaces' Market Cities Initiative seeks to understand and addresses challenges faced by the public marketplaces to improve market infrastructure and promote healthy food systems in local communities.
Project For Public Spaces
Many elements of the plan for the Ballard-Interbay were never implemented, and its relevance as a planning document is over.
The Urbanist
Emergency legislation has cleared the way for a virtual design review process to keep the wheels of the development industry moving in one of the nation's fastest growing cities.
The Urbanist
The original epicenter of coronavirus outbreak was also the first region in the nation to implement social distancing measures, serving as a national model of behaviors that lessen the spread of the deadly virus.
The New York Times
King County, home to Seattle, will wait to ask voters to approve a 0.2% sales tax for funding transit until a time both when transit use is higher, and people aren’t facing waves of sudden unemployment.
The Urbanist
Bike counts and bike share rides are increasing in two of the country's largest cities as commuters look for transportation modes that allow for physical distancing.
The New York Times
The Seattle area is ground zero for the coronavirus in the U.S., where 10 of the 11 deaths as of March 5 have occurred. King County's decision to purchase a motel in Kent for use as a quarantine facility is being met with protests by city officials.
The Seattle Times
A week after the Orange County city of Costa Mesa filed a restraining order against the federal government and the state of California over the use of a state-owned facility as an isolation site for coronavirus patients, the feds dropped the plan.
Daily Pilot (Los Angeles Times)
Before YIMBY was a household word and before Minneapolis ended single-family zoning, Seattle's Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) broke the planning status quo.
Sightline Institute
Transit commutes have borne the brunt of ongoing deconstruction work around Alaskan Viaduct in Downtown Seattle. Allowing two-way bus-only lanes on Columbia Street is supposed to improve the situation.
The Urbanist
An expansion of Interstate 405 in the Seattle region will include bus rapid transit stations that will allow vehicles to travel even faster along the new transit corridor.
The Urbanist
The Washington State Legislature is proposing a type of tax that the city of Seattle tried, and failed, to implement a few years go.
KUOW
A recently published white paper written by the Seattle Planning Commission calls on the city to follow in the footsteps of the city of Minneapolis and the state of Oregon.
The Urbanist
