Cascadia Report

Category: Cascadia not cities

  • Urban planning overlooked in Seattle

    The booming Seattle area is struggling to define itself. That’s why it’s curious that urban design seems overlooked in the latest regional awards by the American Institute of Architects.

    For last Monday’s ceremony there were nearly 200 entries for designs, from residential to industrial. But in the category of urban planning: nothing, not a single one for built or unbuilt work. (There was also nothing for historical preservation.)

    Here’s how our tipster put it:

    In a city that’s bursting at the seams, with the number of public projects that have been proposed, shot down, restarted, re-voted on — how is there nothing in the urban design category? Scary.

    Surely the numbers partly reflect who’s commissioning the projects. That makes rewarding quality design even more important.

  • From one dark place to another — nonstop

    A day after the onslaught of standard time, it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to fly nonstop to Germany. But thanks to Lufthansa at least Seattleites (and anyone doing international business) will have the option.

    The Sea-Tac-to-Franfurt nonstop announced today is the latest increase in air service since the Port of Seattle lowered its fees to attract more routes. That’s the right sort of subsidy — a targeted incentive that mulitplies the economic benefit. Recent new flights include to Mexico City and Paris.

    There were rumors that Sea-Tac was courting a nonstop to Munich (Vancouver and Portland already have Frankfurt flights — Portland, thanks to a package of tourism incentives). Lest anyone misconstrue the addition, note that Lufthansa also announced a host of new flights from Canada today.

    When the flights begin in March, Seattle may enjoy the best connections to Europe it’s ever had. (True, Aeroflot ended its nonstop to Moscow. But Sea-Tac will have daily scheduled service to five business centers: London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.)

  • B.C. plan could actually cut gas emissions

    Seattle announced Monday that it managed to cut emissions of greenhouse gases over the last 15 years. Too bad emissions from cars are bound to continue rising.

    Meanwhile in British Columbia there’s serious talk of a policy that could really make a difference: a carbon tax. The proposal would shift taxes to give incentives for lower emissions. It seems a lot more effective than just encouraging everyone to ride bicycles.

    Washington and the Seattle area need to think along the same lines. This report includes a chart of Seattle’s pollution sources and how hard it will be to make more progress. Next steps should be replacing the viaduct with transit and better streets and then nudging the region toward a more sustainable transportation network.

  • Why I’m voting for Transit and Roads

    The tax package to fund transit and roads in the greater Seattle area, known as Prop. 1, is a compromise: there are details for everyone to hate. I may be holding my nose, but I’m voting yes.

    I-5 in Tacoma; kevinfreitas.netConsider what the measure does: it raises $10.8 billion to add light rail, HOV lanes, streetcars, park-and-rides and other transit infrastructure. It also generates $7 billion to fix some road choke points and complete several missing links in the region’s network, for example connecting 509 and 167 to I-5. It’s far from the sole solution, but it’s a start.

    For more info, take a look at this map.

    What would be better? Funding much more transit, completing the projects much faster and explicitly including congestion pricing in the financing mix. In fact, the most persuasive argument against the measure is that any investment in roads lessens incentives for transit and worsens global warming.

    But politics is reality. There’s a huge backlog of infrastructure projects in the region and chipping away at it takes regional buy-in — a process that in this case took five years. The dense areas of the region can’t afford to pay for all the transit this area needs (remember the monorail?). To build support, there needs to be something for people who help pay but wouldn’t directly benefit. Even with this package, congestion will still create a growing incentive to use transit; as alternatives start becoming available policies can be shifted to encourage even more use.

    Assuming the measure passes, the next step should be reorganizing the governments that oversee the region’s transportation to execute more efficiently. There will still be chances during the planning process to modifiy specific projects. These are all big challenges, not deal breakers.

  • Writing that captures the city

    There’s a nice elegy in the Seattle P-I today marking the 25th anniversary of the death of the poet Richard Hugo.

    The author of “The Real West Marginal Way” captured the city in a way that may not be possible now that the area is more grown up. That makes his contribution more worth remembering than ever.

    One place that builds on his example is the Hugo House literary center (where I serve on the board). From the P-I piece:

    Most of all, Hugo, our hometown poet, tells us that writing matters: “It’s a way of saying you and the world have a chance.” In these past 25 years, multitudes of writers working in all sorts of genres have gathered in Seattle. We’re now not only a bookish city, we’re a city where the raw ore of language is formed into literature. All along the ridges and valleys, writers are working away, word by word, creating the drafts that we’ll see later caught between the smooth, glimmering covers of books. It’s the kind of industry that would have impressed Richard Hugo.

  • Making a city for residents, not tourists

    I just noticed this article in Vancouver magazine, pointing out the need to make the city serve its residents rather than just tourists, planners and the people who create “most-livable city” lists.

    The writer finds fault with Vancouver’s regional government system (exactly what Seattle lacks):

    One of the biggest obstacles is political: planners are king here because our politicians allow them to be. Our at-large municipal system—unlike the ward system, with defined constituencies, which you find in most major cities—gives a free pass to city councillors. We select our council from a list of 100-plus candidates every three years, and they thank us by answering to “the city at large”—not to the widower in Strathcona trying to save the local seniors’ centre from destruction, not to the South Main sculptor trying to find a spot for his public art, not to the young couple in Yaletown trying to get a playground built near their condo. Such quotidian concerns become the domain of bureaucrats and enforcers, while politicians turn their attention to the “big picture” stuff like EcoDensity, Civil City and the Olympics.

    By contrast, the Seattle area has the worst of both worlds. The Seattle city council is elected city wide (so they’re not accountable to neighborhoods) yet there’s no effective regional government.

  • Cost of driving makes ferry feasible

    A boat owner wants to start ferrying commuters between Seattle and Gig Harbor for $800 a month.

    The reason the idea isn’t totally laughable is that new tolls, increasing road congestion and higher gas prices are beginning to reflect the actual cost of driving:

    Dividing $800 by 20 workdays a month comes out to $40 a day. He said with the price of gas, the tolls on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and parking in downtown Seattle, the ferry wouldn’t be much more expensive than driving — and a lot less stressful.

  • A transit system that makes a profit

    The Seattle area needs a variety of measures to fix its transportation woes (light rail, buses, streetcars, etc). Never mind that many people are waiting for a perfect, inexpensive, painless solution.

    Instead, consider what works in Amsterdam:

    Within the center of Amsterdam, trams are the kings of the roads; there are very few bus lines that travel strictly within the center, and parking is a hassle, discouraging driving. Taking the tram is easy because of the multitude of lines, speed, comfort, frequency, and affordable price.

    Providing a practical alternative to driving alone (and lessening the incentives for driving) has led to increasing ridership, fewer accidents and — get this — a transit system that’s even profitable. Of course, they had to start somewhere.

  • Ending homeless in Vancouver, Seattle

    Seattle doesn’t have anything like the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver’s slum of addicts and homeless. But judging from the line outside a shelter on Belltown’s 3rd Avenue Sunday, there’s a serious poverty problem.

    So what to do about it?

    We could lament the disconnect between the poor on the streets and the rich inhabitants of new condo towers.

    Prefer solutions? The Tyee ran a list of five ideas suggested recently in British Columbia. The ideas in the comment string seemed more promising (Evo Morales aside).

    Consider instead King County’s plan, which recognizes that money is only part of the solution and chances of upending modern capitalism are slim.

  • Loonie = greenback: Who wins and loses

    Longing for the happy days of bargain meals, rooms and ski slopes in British Columbia? Get over it.

    common loon; netstate.comToday the U.S. and Canadian dollars reached parity for the first time since 1976. The greenback has slid more than 60 percent against the loonie in the last five years and there’s every reason to think the trend will continue.

    It’s already clear that the situation is tricky for anyone who is easily confused by U.S. and Canadian coins. I remember using Queen Elizabeth quarters and bills at Safeway in south Seattle as late as the early ’80s. Those days may be back.

    So who wins? Businesses in the U.S. that cater to Canadian customers. With their increased buying power, more Canadians will be traveling around Cascadia. The Victoria Clipper says traffic from Canada is up 25 percent this year. Things are surely looking up for discount shops and Costco stores just south of the U.S. border.

    Potential losers come to mind more easily:

    — Anyone in Canada who depends on U.S. tourists. On Wednesday organizers of the 2010 Olympics unpersuasively insisted they won’t be hurt because they’ve hedged their budget against currency changes. Too bad U.S. tourists haven’t.

    — Anyone who depends on sales of Canadian lumber — a huge slice of the B.C. economy, in other words. The current slump in demand from U.S. housing combined with the strong loonie will do what years of softwood tariffs couldn’t: protect uncompetitive U.S. lumber producers.