Cascadia Report

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  • New rules to channel development downtown

    courtesy of the Seattle Times
    The Seattle city council unanimously approved the first measure in 20 years to allow denser building downtown.

    Allowing taller buildings is a big step toward channeling the region’s development, creating a market for better transit, making the city more affordable and limiting sprawl. Cascadia neighbors Vancouver and Portland are models for how Seattle may develop.

    Developers can build taller if they fund affordable housing units. To help pay for amenities, developers will pay an average of $19 a square foot for higher floors. The new rules call for rain covers over sidewalks, a new park in Belltown and a new public school downtown.

    Reports say developers have been lining up to build as soon as the zoning rules were set. It remains to be seen if the fees will discourage development the city is trying to channel. At least the city took action. Details can be tweaked again later.

  • Support grows for tearing down the viaduct

    seattle viaductThe idea of tearing down the creaky Seattle waterfront viaduct and replacing it with a surface road is gaining momentum, according to this prominent Sunday newspaper story. Local politicians are calling for the surface-road option to be considered along with a tunnel and a replacement overhead structure. It’s about time. The state and advocates of a pricey replacement tunnel say the no-rebuild option would lead to traffic chaos. But state data suggest that 50,000 cars a day would need to find a new route if the viaduct disappeared. The billions of dollars saved from a tunnel could go a long way toward meeting that need.

  • More on Cantwell’s Seattle struggle

    Here’s more on Cantwell’s struggle in the People’s Republic of Seattle. This column illustrates how liberals like to eat their. And this report shows how her wobbly support by the left appeared during her visit last weekend to a city high school.

  • McCain brings tightrope to McGavick’s campaign

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    John McCain was in Seattle to support Mike McGavick’s run against Senator Maria Cantwell. The event at the Westin reportedly raised $300,000 for McGavick and was a chance for McCain to meet with supporters of his past and future presidential bids.

    But there wasn’t much red meat from McCain, who has a working relationship with Cantwell. A sample quote: “It’s not a matter of criticizing Senator Cantwell. It’s a matter of supporting Mike McGavick.”

    To upset Cantwell, McGavick needs to walk the political tightrope that McCain knows so well — being just independent enough for his maverick image but credible to the conservative base he needs to win.

  • Marking the anniversary — of Boeing’s departure

    Images_4Boeing’s decision to move its headquarters to Chicago five years ago was a huge blow to Seattle’s big-time pretensions. After the dot-com recession, an earthquake and a small downtown riot, Boeing said it had to leave because it wanted to be seen as a global business. Ouch. Mayor Paul Schell was quoted as saying, “I’m waiting for the locusts.”

    Today a package of Seattle Times stories makes a case that the move actually had a minor impact in terms of employment, Boeing’s charitable giving here and the local property market. In an interview, the executive who led the move, John Warner, gushes praise for the city and state. Another story cites a recent transplant from Portland saying that Amazon.com and other new tech employers better represent Seattle now.

    The package repeatedly mentions that Boeing moved just 150 headquarters jobs. But what about the impact of that elite group and the people who regularly came to Seattle to meet with them? These weren’t just hardworking machinists (and there are still more than 60,000 Boeing workers in the state). But their departure meant a drop in demand for nonstop flights, top-end restaurants and hotels, and other cultural assets. True, the sky didn’t fall. But every leading city needs a fully mixed economy and the loss still smarts.

  • Seattle needs a mid-income housing policy

    Downtown seattleLuxury condos are popping up around downtown and the city is trying to ensure housing for low-income residents by charging developers and funding new units. So far, so good. The problem is that the added fees, on top of rising construction costs, make building mid-priced rentals uneconomical.

    City councilmembers who enjoy challenging the mayor for his development-friendly agenda push for higher fees on developers as an expedient way to fund more infrastructure. But even they admit they didn’t see this unintended consequence on mid-income housing.

    Why not come up with a new system that looks at development wholistically instead of parcel by parcel? What if the city created a system that levied development fees based on the amenities they plan and the market they plan to serve? Either way, it’s clear that Seattle needs flexibility in its housing market if it is going to grow into a diverse community like its Cascadia neighbors Vancouver and Portland.

  • Rough homecoming for Cantwell

    Senator Maria Cantwell visited Seattle’s central Garfield High School with rising-star Senator Barack Obama on Saturday. This column skewers her for supporting the Iraq war and big business — undermining the people she met at the school. Green Party challenger Aaron Dixon (see this earlier post) grew up in the neighborhood and makes opposition to Cantwell’s support for the war and business record his centerpiece.

    With liberal friends like these, Cantwell may not need much from Republican challenger Mike McGavick.

  • Land-use initiative gets okay

    FblogoA judge gave approval this week to the wording on a “property fairness” initiative that could suspend land-use zoning throughout Washington. The title of the initiative that would appear on the ballot closely follows what the Washington Farm Bureau asked for. Here’s the text:

    “This measure would require compensation when government regulation damages the use or value of private property, would forbid regulations that prohibit existing legal uses of private property, and would provide exceptions or payments.”

    It sounds innocuous. But since cash-strapped governments would likely make zoning exceptions rather than pay landowners, the rules could be gutted.

  • burner gets break-out press

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    Darcy Burner began getting some press this week in her campaign against Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA, 8th), in the form of stenography by The Stranger.

    The piece tells the ex-Microsoft worker’s bio and makes the case that the 35-year-old can defeat Reichert by making the election about the Bush Administration. Another article needs to describe her specific plans and qualifications for the job.

  • Washington GOP loses a rep

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    A Republican legislator from the Seattle area said he’s defecting to the Democrats.

    Two-term Rep. Rodney Tom plans to challenge Republican senator Luke Esser this fall and apparently saw his party affiliation as a hindrance in his changing Bellevue district. “I realized the far right has complete control of the party and for me to be effective for my constituents I need to be a Democrat,” Tom told the Seattle Times. He faulted the GOP’s anti-tax policies, saying that as a businessman he knows the state needs to invest in its infrastructure.

    Tom’s surprise move hurts Debi Golden, a Bellevue College administrator who plans to challenge Esser with the backing of the national group Progressive Majority. Meanwhile, Washington GOP chair Diane Tebelius called on Tom to resign his seat.

    The defection is the latest setback to the local GOP. State Sen. Brian Finkbeiner (R-Kirkland) gave up his leadership post in the Republican caucus in order to focus on his district. The latest change boosts Democratic control of the Senate to 27-22. The conservative, pro-business results of the last legislative session should help bolster that share even more this November. The test will come next year with the temptation to increase spending to satisfy constituents.