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Seattle zoning leads to cookie-cutter townhomes

New townhomes are multiplying throughout Seattle as developers put four houses on each single-family home lot. A Seattle P-I article suggests they are an answer to the unaffordability of homes in the city.

The true answer is balancing housing supply with demand, by planning for higher density in a orderly way, with walkable retail and transit options. Instead, Seattle remains predominantly zoned for single-family homes. The result: cookie-cutter houses are squeezed into lots where they are technically allowed and that don’t require design review.

January 16, 2007
What traffic could become

People who won’t go to dinner more than two miles from home or who give up on vast swaths of the city for long stretches of every week. Those are among the traffic horror stories in Steve Lopez’s latest Los Angeles Times columns.

The cause is a disconnect between urban development and transportation infrastructure. Jobs are downtown or on the Westside and workers who can’t afford to live there are forced to jam the highways. Unless Cascadia cities build housing where people work they’re likely bound to the same fate. For the latest example, consider that Vancouver-area police officers can’t afford to live in the city they serve.

January 16, 2007
Sculpture garden should be prelude to viaduct fix

Seattle’s new Olympic Sculpture Garden, which is getting rave reviews, is a home run for the city. The art park turns old industrial land into an anchor for the fast-changing neighborhood around it and provides a bridge to the waterfront.

As I toured the garden during a preview event Saturday, I couldn’t help but wonder: Why not pull off the same transformation a little further south, where the viaduct freeway now stands?

Reviews of the garden so far praise the way the architects connected the pieces of the site, which is bisected by a highway and a busy railroad. Of course the garden doesn’t take away any downtown traffic capacity, but no one seems to mind that it doesn’t add any either. It simply shows what the city could do along the waterfront with some creativity.

A chief proponent of building a new viaduct, state House Speaker Frank Chopp, apparently finally sees the value of an extensive package of transit and surface street improvements instead. Other representatives should visit the sculpture garden to see what’s possible along the central waterfront before pushing for new blight.

January 15, 2007
Why gas costs more in Vancouver

Gas costs more in Vancouver than in any other metropolitan area of Canada, thanks to robust margins at refineries and the integration of supply with Washington, according to the Vancouver Sun.

The lack of competition among Canadian refiners helps explain why Vancouver gas is more costly, despite lower taxes than elsewhere in the country, an analyst told the paper. The average amount of money per litre going to gas makers has jumped 90 percent since 2002. Prices are similar to Seattle, which shares the same gas pipeline.

January 15, 2007
Cascadia towns changing with timber industry

The town of Roslyn, Wash., is being reshaped as the timber industry sells off real estate to development. In this case, Plum Creek Timber is behind the Suncadia resort community outside the town.

The transformation is part of a nationwide trend as timber firms retool. Here’s an earlier Seattle Times story about how Weyerhaeuser has handled some of its land near Tacoma.

January 15, 2007
Portland’s mayor puts focus on long-term city plan

Portland’s popular mayor, Tom Potter, appears to be betting his term on a project to create a 20-year strategic plan for the city. Creating this kind of long-term plan for the future is exactly what top leaders should do.

Some residents question whether the vision is as important as fixing immediate problems like potholes, according to The Oregonian:

“It’s almost like we’re concentrating on the people who are moving here more than the people who are here now,” said Bonny McKnight, an East Portland neighborhood activist.

The obvious alternative is city planning by the most vocal current residents, who often have more stake in preserving the status quo. If top leaders don’t plan for future residents, who will?

January 15, 2007
Next up for storm-handling critique: Cable

Consumers have focused their outrage over storm-related power outages at local power monopolies. But what about cable?

In central Seattle Thursday, cable TV went off at noon and Internet access slowed to a crawl. In the evening a long wait on hold produced an electronic voice warning that wait times are longer than usual and that service is out in swaths from Whatcom County to Kitsap County to Seattle. Turns out, it isn’t an isolated incident.

It’s ironic that an area known for technology and the Internet is essentially make a consumer consider alternatives. Is there a lesson in the experience of Vancouver or Portland?

January 12, 2007
Seattle-area rail package going to voters

Sound Transit decided to ask voters to raise the sales tax to fund an extension of the Seattle area’s light rail system.

The projects would paired on this fall’s ballot with a package of road improvements. It’s hardly a done deal, with Snohomish County officials objecting that projects in other areas would be a higher priority and with the potential for the line to stop short of serving downtown Redmond. And another problem: Projects wouldn’t be finished until 2027.

January 12, 2007
Democrats wisely pick Denver for 2008

Democrats decided to hold their 2008 national convention in Denver, a choice that could help position the party to make gains with Hispanic and Western voters who are critical to the party’s future.

It’s a surprisingly astute move. Remember that in 2004 Republicans held their convention in New York City in order to drape the party in the memory of Sept. 11. Democrats went to uber-Democratic Boston.

This time Denver won out over New York, which is home to Sen. Hilary Clinton. New York’s benefits include media exposure and plenty of experience holding massive events. But potentially disastrous downsides include its overwhelmingly Democratic politics and deference to often-outmoded organized labor. Holding the event in New York would have gained Democrats nothing.

By contrast, Denver is the booming heart of the Rocky Mountains, where Democrats have made gains by addressing economic issues and new residents. National political conventions may be less important every four years, but the event is guaranteed to generate attention in the West and expose Democrats from around the country to some new issues. The region is already clearly in the sights of Republicans, who are holding their convention in Minneapolis.

January 12, 2007
Portland-area port improving rail access

The Port of Vancouver, Wash., authorized the first purchase of land allowing a more efficient rail connection, making the port more accessible and presumably more competitive.

Improved access to rail and highways is a major hurdle in Seattle and Vancouver, which are hemmed in with clogged roads and limited rail capacity. The most dramatic access project on the West Coast is the Alameda Corridor in Los Angeles, which also continues to snag more traffic from Cascadia rivals.

January 11, 2007

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